Ezra Levant exposes Quebec’s weaponized charges against Rebel News’ reporter Yankee Pollock—15 counts, $15K fines—for documenting pandemic curfews despite journalistic exemptions, with police calling the outlet "Jew media." He warns Bill C-11 could force platforms to suppress dissenting news like Rebel News. Guest Salman Seema reveals IRGC torture and Flight PS752’s intentional downing, criticizing Trudeau for ignoring IRGC terrorism while targeting truckers’ protest donors. Levant contrasts Danielle Smith’s Alberta-first stance with Kenney’s federal alignment, praising her potential for civil liberties. The episode frames 2023 as a year where governments and media collude to silence independent voices, risking democratic erosion. [Automatically generated summary]
Great to be back in the saddle here at our world headquarters.
Today, I talk to you about a prosecution of our Montreal reporter, Yankee Pollock.
15 charges and tickets against him for reporting during the lockdown.
I'll tell you more about that.
But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus.
That's the video version of this show.
We put a lot of effort into the video side.
I think it really helps sell the story.
I'm going to show you some documents today.
Just go to RebelNewsPlus.com, click subscribe.
It's $8 a month.
Not only do you get the video content, but that $8 a month, it adds up.
That is how we pay the bills around here, people.
I'd be so grateful if you would help.
Thanks for letting me ask.
Here's today's show.
Tonight, the province of Quebec prosecutes our journalist Yankee Pollack for daring to report on their brutal curfews.
It's January 9th, and this is the Ezra Levant show.
Shame on you, you censorious thug.
2022 was the year of the lockdown and the year of martial law, but it was also the year that Canadians fought back.
God bless the truckers and their courage, who helped set us free.
Over Christmas, I told you that I predict 2023 will be the year of censorship, in part because it was social media, not the mainstream corporate media, that finally spoke truth to power and helped free us from the lockdowns.
It was social media, citizen journalists, who told the true story about the truckers, not Trudeau's official smears.
And remember when Trudeau invoked martial law and deployed police on riot horses and started seizing bank accounts of his political opponents, the mainstream corporate media called for him to go harder and made up the most insane propaganda for him, like this bizarre claim.
I do ask that because, you know, given Canada's support of Ukraine in this current crisis with Russia, I don't know if it's far-fetched to ask, but there is concern that Russian actors could be continuing to fuel things as this protest grows, but perhaps even instigating it from the outset.
By the way, that weird government journalist wasn't fired.
If you can believe it, she actually got a promotion.
Of course she did.
So 2023 will be the year of censorship.
There are a lot of ways that will happen.
Some of it's happening already.
I mean, it's nuts.
They're coming for Dr. Jordan Peterson now.
They're threatening to take away his psychology license, not for anything he's done to patients, but because some people don't like his political comments or his tweets.
I don't know if they'll succeed, but the point is they're showing they can silence anyone, even Canada's best-selling author and most prominent public intellectual.
If they can go after Jordan Peterson, they can surely go after you.
That's their message.
I don't know if they'll beat Jordan Peterson.
Even psychologists are allowed to have political opinions, but the censors are changing the rules in other ways so that they rig the game in advance so that freedom of speech faces an uphill battle in the future.
I don't know if you saw my video that I published over Christmas where I showed you an obscure section of Bill C-11, Trudeau's Online Streaming Act, as it's called, that's making its way through Parliament right now.
It's section 9.11E of that law.
It will give Trudeau the power to order internet companies like YouTube, Google, Instagram, Facebook to either boost or hide whatever news sources Trudeau likes.
And so here's the exact wording of the law.
Trudeau can, quote, make orders respecting the presentation of programs and programming services for selection by the public, including the showcasing and the discoverability of Canadian programs and programming services.
By the way, the internet companies already do this to an extent.
YouTube shadow bans conservative sites and they demonetized our channel years ago.
But if Trudeau gets his way, YouTube will be ordered by the Canadian government to promote every corporate mainstream media channel over hours to push our site down in the rankings so you can't even find us.
I mean, when you do a Google search or a YouTube search, how often do you click past the first page or two of results?
Have you ever clicked past, say, the first 10 pages of results?
I bet you very seldom have.
But that's exactly what Section 9.11E will do.
That's what discoverability means.
Even if you type in rebel news, you'll get 10 pages of CBC, CTB, Global News, and the Toronto Star.
That's coming.
Night's Shame00:10:03
That's written right there in the law.
So it's just barely the new year.
It's still first couple weeks of January, and they're going after Jordan Peterson already.
But let me tell you what happened today in a courtroom in Montreal and will continue for several more days.
Our friend, our journalist, Yankee Pollock, is on trial in Quebec right now for reporting on their lockdowns and especially on their curfew.
It's hard to even believe, but for months, Quebecers were literally banned from leaving their homes.
Whether you were sick or healthy, whether you were vaccinated or unvaccinated, everyone was sentenced to a form of house arrest.
For a while there, they even banned people from leaving their homes to walk their dogs, which if you have a dog, you know is code for letting the dog go outside to go to the bathroom.
Imagine if in the name of public health you ordered people to have their dogs do their business in your house.
So gross, and yet the corporate mainstream media in Quebec was completely supportive.
I mean, 100% supportive, just absolutely obedient, except for Yankee Pollock.
You know, we hired Yankee a few years ago to help us with our social media, not to be an on-camera reporter.
He just happened to be based in Montreal.
So when he was done, his real job with us, he would go out at night, take his cell phone, and just step outside his house and document what the curfew was doing to people in Montreal.
And it was actually riveting, and no one else was doing it.
You'd think it would be a worldwide story that every journalist would want to do.
Indeed, it was a worldwide story.
But the Quebec media was not only submissive, they were supportive.
They loved the lockdowns.
They cheered for them, just like they cheered Trudeau's invocation of martial law later.
And the police kept harassing and ticketing Yankee and being, sorry to say it, being assholes about it, to be frank.
I mean, here's a clip.
Yeah.
What's going on here?
Oh, come on.
The light is bright.
What's going on here?
Sure, what are you doing here?
I'm filming.
Okay, sir.
We have a piece of ID with you?
Yes?
Yeah, I'm in media.
Yeah, we'll take a piece of ID with you, sir.
Sure.
Yeah, okay.
Yeah, yeah.
You cannot be on the street.
Yeah, I'm in the middle of moving.
You're talking to me.
Can you not shine it?
I don't know who you are.
I also don't know who you are.
I'm Constable Robert 6473.
Okay.
And who are you?
I'm giving you my papers.
No problem, just...
What?
Who are you, sir?
I'm with Rebel News.
Zama Media Jewish.
Who are you?
What's your name?
And badge number.
Can you give me your name and badge number?
Can you give me your name and badge number?
You're supposed to give it to me.
Media Jouif?
You know that means Jew media, right?
I mean, Yankee happens to be a Jew, and I'm a Jew too, by the way.
But I don't think any other Rebel News reporters in Canada are Jewish.
I'm trying to think.
We're of different races and religions.
What we have in common is a belief in freedom.
Yankee wasn't Jew media.
Rebel News isn't Jew media.
We talk about things that we all have in common, like our civil rights.
It was a bizarre thing for police to say, though, wasn't it?
And to say repeatedly, by the way, what a weird, gross thing to say, completely irrelevant, while harassing Yankee, who's Jewish.
I'm slow to accuse people of being anti-Semitic, by the way.
I'm not woke.
I'm not always accusing people of racism for nothing.
But really, what is up with that?
And again and again, by the way, of course, the religious slur was just words.
What truly bothered me was that they kept arresting him or at least detaining him while ticketing him.
And yet he did absolutely nothing wrong.
I talked to Yankee just this morning.
He faces 15 different tickets and charges totaling $15,000 in fines and penalties if he's convicted.
Now, there's no way he could possibly afford that.
No one could afford that.
There's no way he could even afford the lawyers to fight that.
Obviously, we're going to cover the cost for him.
But here's my point.
Yankee didn't break the law because the curfew had specific exemptions.
Obviously, police and firemen and ambulance drivers could go out at night.
And obviously, people who had a night shift at the factory or whatever had night jobs.
I mean, you could think of obvious exemptions.
There were exemptions in the law.
And one of the exemptions, believe it or not, was for the news media, for journalists.
I say, believe it or not, because no journalists did.
None that I saw at least.
They stayed at home.
They loved the lockdowns.
They supported them.
They didn't want to go expose them.
But it was absolutely illegal, official exemption to be a journalist.
Now, I know this because we asked.
Yankee himself asked.
He asked the police.
And they wrote back to him explaining the process.
You just have to have your ID, have a letter from your publisher, that's me, and fill out a form that you could find online from the government there.
And we did all those things.
We also had our lawyers write to the police chief in Montreal in advance, letting him know what we were up to, so that the police would not be surprised that we were actually going to be doing journalism.
And we wrote several times.
We complied with the law 100%.
In fact, more than 100%.
The rules didn't require you to literally write to the police chief, telling him who you were sending to report in the streets and asking them to respect your rights.
We did that just out of an abundance of caution.
Like I say, 100% legal, 100% buy the book, 100% in compliance with the police instructions to us.
And yet, not only did the cops on the street harass and detain Yankee and call him Jew media, but they charged him and ticketed him 15 times with $15,000 in punishments on the line.
It's outrageous, but maybe that's just the police, right, in the moment, right?
Not having all the info at their fingertips, right?
Just using their discretion, but using it poorly.
Now, I don't buy that.
They knew who Yankee was after the first few times.
They called him by name.
They called him Jew Media.
They knew who he was.
But even so, police are police.
They have that one tool, charge you with an offense.
So that's what they did.
But as you know, it's not up to police to, I mean, it's up to police to lay charges, but it's not up to police to prosecute.
That's a different person.
And that's the province's crown attorneys, the prosecutors.
They decide whether or not it's in the public interest to actually follow through on a charge and go to court.
If there's a reasonable likelihood of conviction, if it's in the public interest.
And that's the gross part here.
The police bullying Yankee and our other reporters who went to Quebec.
That was atrocious, of course.
Here's a reminder of some of the other bullying.
Here are the bugs!
Here are the thugs!
Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame!
They died.
Why are you getting such a tough time?
We've been through this so many times with you guys.
Okay, but that's the cops.
And Montreal has a notoriously corrupt bullying police force.
We know that.
It's one of the worst in the country.
Everyone knows that.
But who is prosecuting Yankee in court today and this week and next week?
Not the cops.
Prosecutors from the Attorney General, who have calmly reviewed the files for nearly two years now, who have decided that this is a justice priority for Quebec.
But again, Yankee was not breaking the law.
He was following the law.
He was clearly in an exempt class.
The police told him so in writing.
So they're prosecuting him not for anything he did, obviously.
They're prosecuting him for who he is, an independent journalist who dared to shine a light of public scrutiny on their abusive curfew and the brutal enforcement of it.
This isn't like a normal charge against someone who didn't wear a mask or who didn't keep six feet away from someone.
Those are absurd and mean-spirited.
You bet they are.
They're awful.
But that's not what's happening to Yankee.
Those are just the outward appearances of what they're doing to him.
What they're really doing to him is censoring him.
They're punishing him for being the one journalist in Montreal who went out at night to document the bullying of his fellow citizens night after night.
They want to punish Yankee by putting him on these show trials, 15 charges spread out over days and days, 15,000 in fines.
It's lose-lose.
If the prosecutors win, that's a huge fine.
But even if we win, we have days and days of trial to pay for.
That'll surely be a $15,000 legal bill, too.
Like I say, 2023 is the year of censorship.
Of course, the government of Quebec is coming for rebel news, or as they call us, Jew media.
It's only the second week of January.
Expect a lot more of this to come.
P.S., if you want to see Yankee's updates from court and our reporter Alexa Lavois' coverage of this story, you can go to lockdownreports.com.
Yankee's got a video of his own up there.
And if you want to chip in to help us pay for Yankee's lawyers, you can do that online too.
Same website, lockdownreports.com.
Thanks.
Iran's Bullet-Ready Response00:04:49
Well, this weekend was the third anniversary of an atrocity, a massacre.
Iran's IRGC, that is a terrorist group formerly known as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, shot down a civilian airliner from Ukraine, killing all those aboard.
And of course, the repercussions against Iran have been slim to none.
In fact, had that been another country, there would have been massive sanctions and the IRGC would have been declared a terrorist entity and had sanctions put against it.
But alas with Iran, that is not the case.
But there are freedom fighters, especially in the larger centers of North America, where there are many Persians, such as Los Angeles, Vancouver, and here in Toronto, that have not forgotten the atrocity of three years ago.
And one of those freedom fighters is our friend Salman Seema, who is a freedom fighter who was at this protest and has been at many others.
He himself has been tortured by the IRGC.
They broke his ribs and knocked out a tooth and broke his legs.
But that has only made him more resolved.
Joining us now via Skype is Salman Seema.
Salman, nice to see you again.
Did I properly recall the atrocity committed by the IRGC against that Ukrainian civilian airliner three years ago?
Yes, thank you, Ezra, for having me in your show.
And yes, the IRGC shoot down intentionally two missiles to the civilian airplane.
And it shows that how bullet-thurthy they are.
Now, what could possibly be the motivation of Iran shooting down a commercial civilian airline?
I mean, I could understand them shooting down a military aircraft that was doing an incursion, but what was their strategy or what was the payoff?
Why were they doing it in your mind?
So, first of all, you should know the root of the Islamic regime in Iran.
So, they don't need any reason or any excuse to show their brutality.
They are bullet-thurthy, they are cruel, they are brutal, and they have a root on the blood.
And second, you should see what happened at that time between the U.S. and Iran.
And in Iraq, the neighbor country, militia backed by IRGC militia backed by Ayatollah in Iran, they attacked the U.S. embassy, and President Donald Trump removed Qasem Soleimani, number one terrorist on the earth.
So, thank you, Trump, for killing Qadsam Soleimani.
And so, after that, Qasem Soleimani was the second man of the country after the leader, and he was involved in lots of crime in Syria, in Yemen, and he has killed many Iranians as well.
And he was responsible for the death of many American soldiers in Iraq.
So, after that, Islamic regime started to threaten U.S. interest.
And President Trump said that if you're going to attack the U.S. interest in the region, you're going to pay a huge cost.
And they were some tension between Iran and U.S. at that time.
And they think that they can shoot down to the airplane and blame it on the President Trump.
But the fact comes out that this attack was intentional.
It was a missile which was shot by IRGC.
And just if they couldn't do Anything against the US and they couldn't blame it on the US.
It was because US satellites show that there's a fact that IRGC shoots those missiles and they couldn't blame it on Trump.
Well, like I say, it was the anniversary of that.
And so the Persian community and its local allies had protests against that.
Now, Salman, you are a freedom fighter, and we know that not just from Iran issues, but also during the lockdowns, you love freedom in all its forms.
Justin Trudeau's Sanctions Controversy00:14:53
You brought with you two videos, and I think they're both very interesting.
The first is this large Persian crowd.
These are Iranian Canadians.
And one of the MPs from the Liberal government who went to this rally is a Persian Canadian himself, Majid Johari.
Our friend David Menzies has reported on him a lot in the past.
You would think that Persian Canadians, Iranian Canadians, who would be visited by a Persian Canadian MP would be happy to see him.
But actually, he was roundly booed and driven away.
Let's play the clip and then I'll ask you to explain to our viewers why that happened.
Here is Majid Johari being booed.
Take a look.
I am joined today by many colleagues who many of you have gotten to know well over the past three years.
My friend and yours, High Commissioner Ralph Goodale, Ministers Jolie, Al-Khabra, Ian, and others.
Many members of caucus are here as well.
I want to make special mention of Ali Asassi, who is a strong voice in Parliament for the Iranian-Canadian community and whose riding we are currently in.
And Majid Jahari, who is also a strong advocate for the community.
We are all working together at this federal level to hold the Iranian regime accountable.
Well, Salman, you can hear the difference between Ali Assassi being generally welcomed and the booing when Justin Trudeau, who was at the rally, and give him credit for attending the rally, but other than speaking in his hushed tones, which he does when he's being very, very serious, has Justin Trudeau done anything within his power, for example, declaring the IRGC a terrorist entity?
I don't think he has put it on the list of, you know, the Public Safety Ministry has a list of terrorist entities.
They put the Proud Boys on there.
I don't think the Proud Boys have done anything in Canada ever, but they're on the terrorist list.
But is the IRGC on the Canadian list of terrorist entities?
Unfortunately, Justin Trudeau refused to designate IRGC as an FTO under Criminal Code of Canada.
Ezra, we should just come back a bit more in his story.
In June 2018, Garnet Genius, the Conservative MP, he introduced a motion to designate IRGC under Criminal Code of Canada immediately.
Even Justin Trudeau voted in favor of that motion in June 2018.
Two years later, the Revolutionary Guard called Islamic Revolutionary Guard shoot unintentionally the civilian airplanes.
Okay, as still we are in 2020-30, almost four years and a half passed, and even Justin Trudeau couldn't keep his promise, his word.
And shamelessly, he failed to answer the question of Pierre Polygar in the parliament.
Pierre four times asked that, is the IRGC a terrorist group?
Yes or no?
And what was the answer of Justin Trudeau just playing with the world and refusing to say yes or no?
And now just they are playing games with the community.
And each two weeks, each week, they sanction two, three individuals who are involved in human rights violation in Iran, which is good, but it's not the really biggest step.
And it's so funny that Justin Trudeau can go after $20 that a single hardworking Canadian can donate to the truckers, but they cannot stop the huge money laundering by the IRGC in Canada and especially in Toronto.
Wow, that's a great contrast.
That's a great point.
I just want to play a short clip of Pierre Polyev going back and forth with Justin Trudeau over whether or not the IRGC is a terrorist group.
Here's a clip of that.
Stay simple.
Yes or no question.
The Prime Minister has, as his primary job, to protect our citizens, 55 of them were murdered by this terrorist group, which shot their plane out of the sky, a civilian aircraft.
Does the Prime Minister believe that the group that fired that missile and killed our people is a terrorist group?
Yes or no?
The Right Honorable Prime Minister.
Mr. Speaker, we have listed the we have recognized that Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism.
We have seen listed the IRGC Quds force.
We have just recently moved forward with strengthened sanctions against IRGC leadership to ensure that they cannot find safe haven in Canada.
But I will also say, having sat with families of the PS-752 victims, it was not just 55 Canadian citizens.
There was close to 150 or more people on their way to Canada, permanent residents, students, who we also grieve for every single day and who we stand with as we hold this Iranian government to account and will continue to.
The honorable leader of the opposition.
Well, that's you know what?
That clip we played of Trudeau sounding very concerned, as he always does.
I mean, you know, when he starts talking like that, that he's fibbing.
And the fact that five years later he hasn't declared them a terrorist group is telling.
Now, there was another Persian Canadian MP from the Liberal Party there who got applause.
We heard it.
Ali Assassi is his name.
He's an MP from the Toronto area riding of Willowdale.
Now, I understand that you had a back and forth with him about this subject.
Let's play that tape and then you can tell us a little bit more about what we just saw.
Let's take a look now.
And Chair of Foreign Affairs Committee, absolutely.
How many people, Khamenei issued order to kill that you put Khamenei's name under the sheriff?
Can I film him?
Yes.
No. It's a free rules name.
Okay.
Oh, I'm out of here.
As a chair of Foreign Affairs Committee in the Canadian Parliament, designate Khamenei under the magnitude sanctioned.
How many young political prisoners should be executed that you put the name of George Tarawati under that?
Yes.
Every member of parliament and in every country in the world.
Do you know of any country?
No, no, no.
Answer my question.
How long I am not yelling at you.
I'm respectful.
How do you ask yourself whether right or wrong?
And I'm not saying you're wrong.
I'm not saying that.
But as you know, that has not regrettably been the case in any parliament, in any country in the world.
I am not talking about the other countries.
I am not sure what I'm saying.
I am talking about Canadian Parliament, which is situated in the Wellington Street in Ottawa.
As a chair of the Committee, answer the question.
Why do you not put Khanate?
I'm just one member of 330.
Why you don't introduce the personal bill?
That's the first thing, if I may, I'd like to say it.
Okay.
Why you don't introduce me to the state?
Excuse me, can I finish what I'm about to say?
Are you going to keep interrupting me?
Because this is really not productive.
You asked me a question.
Allow me to answer it.
Answer it, please.
No, seriously.
Seriously.
I'm sorry, I have to ask you to allow me to answer your goddamn question.
I wish you had this anger against the leader of the year.
He certainly lost his temper and started shouting at you.
The Magnitsky sanctions are named after a style of sanction, if I'm not mistaken, against some Russian oligarchs.
And that's basically personally targeting political and commercial leaders of a country.
Is that an accurate description of Magnitsky sanctions?
Yes, Magnitsky sanctioned targeted human rights violators all over the world.
And it passed anonymously in Canadian parliament by James Bezan in October 2017.
It's incredible that they're willing to talk a good game at these rallies, but when you press them on when they will actually put sanctions or declare groups terrorists, they won't have an answer.
In fact, he lost his temper pretty quick and flipped out on you.
Well, listen, Solomon, it's great to see you again.
Of course, we follow you closely on Twitter.
You were a stalwart and a regular at the freedom marches in the Toronto area during the lockdowns.
It's no surprise to me.
You fight for freedom in Canada and you fight for freedom back in your home country, your original country of Iran.
And I'm glad you're doing both.
And thanks for joining us today.
Thank you, Ezra.
And as always, I said that in the fight for freedom, we are all together.
Right on.
Well, and we are with you.
There you have it.
Solomon Seema, a freedom fighter taking on the Iranian terrorists.
Stay with us.
More ahead.
Hey, welcome back.
It is great to be back.
You know, I was away for a bit, took the family on a vacation.
First time we went on a vacation outside Canada in three years.
And, you know, we're still banned from the United States.
I'm not allowed to fly there because they still ban unjammed people.
But it's great to be back in the office and to see everybody.
And all the best to you in 2023.
I'll read some letters.
Phil Dick says, Hi, Ezra.
In vain, I've been scouring the Rebel News website, specifically your show, all the way back to June 2022 to understand your position on Canada's support for Ukraine.
You have studiously avoided the issue.
Why?
I agree with Tucker Carlson and Stephen Bannon's position that the Russia-Ukraine war is a European war.
It's not our fight.
How do we justify supporting an oligarchy that is regarded as one of the most corrupt nations on earth?
Because we like that oligarchy more than the Russian oligarchy.
Why are Europeans largely staying out of the fray in particular?
And money with money and supplies?
Why are Canadian taxpayers footing a massive bill for aid and supplies to Ukraine?
Why is this not being debated in parliament?
You may think that sending Jeremy Lafredo to Russia is covering the issue.
It's not.
You're a principled outspoken guy, but not on this issue.
has the salt losses flavor.
Regards.
I love that phrase, the salt that loses its saltiness.
It's from the Bible.
You say you've gone back to June.
Of course, the invasion, if I recall, was February or March.
And I did talk about it, talked about it on several shows.
And, yeah, I tweet about it too.
And I know that's not the same as doing it on a show.
And I'll tell you my view on it.
I don't believe in countries invading each other.
I think that's a failure of diplomacy.
And obviously, it's violent and it violates the territorial integrity of other countries.
And I also know that Vladimir Putin is an authoritarian ruler, a former KGB agent.
As you noted, Russia is run by oligarchs, as is Ukraine.
But that said, I do not believe that Russia should have invaded.
And I don't know my history in that part of the world that well, but I think that Russia, I'm trying to remember the date, I think it would be in the 1990s, ceded those territories in the Donbass in the eastern part of Ukraine to Ukraine.
So to invade, to take back what they granted in a treaty, I think is unprincipled, let alone violent and violating of territorial integrity.
That said, I believe that the president of Ukraine is not only corrupt like Russian leaders are corrupt, but I think that he has shown a shocking illiberalism.
He has banned opposition political parties, banned opposition media, and has even brought censorship and regulation to churches in Ukraine that don't share his views.
So I'm deeply uneasy with that.
The one thing I would disagree with you on is I don't think that Canada has been as extreme in its financial funding of Ukraine as the United States has.
They're coming up on $100 billion.
I don't think Canada is anywhere near that.
And I think that some of Canada's talk is just for show.
You'll recall that Trudeau specifically amended our Canadian sanctions on Russia so turbines from their gas pipeline could be moved from Russia to Montreal to undergo maintenance.
Trudeau literally modified our sanctions so we Canadians could work on their natural gas pipeline, which is the whole hostage situation.
That's why the West is a hostage to Putin, because Europe depends on Russian energy.
So I think I've summed up my position.
I am extremely skeptical of Vladimir Putin.
I think he's an authoritarian ruler, and I know he's a former KGB.
I'm skeptical of Volodymyr Zelensky.
I don't believe in invasions.
I think there should be a diplomatic solution.
And frankly, Henry Kissinger and other senior diplomats say this must end diplomatically.
It would be dangerous to have an escalation of war against a country that still has a large nuclear arsenal.
I mean, Russia's conventional military forces may be beatable by Western military equipment, although there's a lot of Ukrainians dying in the battlefield.
But I don't think you want to corner Russia.
They still have nukes, and they occasionally talk about using them.
I think it's a very dangerous situation that should have a diplomatic ending.
I don't always agree with Henry Kissinger, but I'm with him on this one.
Diplomatic Endings Needed00:02:49
So there you go.
I think one of the reasons I don't talk about this as often as the mainstream media does is because they're obsessed with it.
And I sort of agree with your point that it is not a high-priority issue for Canada.
So I think that's my take.
I'm against the war.
I'm against corrupt oligarchs in both countries.
I think it's a dangerous war that should have a diplomatic ending.
I'm glad that Canada has not sluiced tens of billions of dollars to that country because we can't afford it and it's not our business.
That's my take.
Karina Bloom says, I am so glad to have a humble premier to replace Kenny, who once was just like Danielle Smith at one time.
I agree with her agenda of self-reliance like the Quebec Premier and wish more would follow in listening to their people's concerns to keep independent from federal influences instead of the people who know what they want from their government and not the other way around.
Out influences are not needed to lead province's economy.
Thanks for asking the right questions for people to know this premier's agenda and platform is for we the people first and foremost to invoke unity.
Got to tell you, I don't understand everything you put in your letter, but you sound positive about my interview with Danielle Smith.
And although you do note that Jason Kenney had some similar sounds.
You know, Danielle Smith's motto, it's on her staff's business card, is Alberta First.
And I see that as sort of the nameplate on her podium.
And I don't think Jason Kenney ever used that phraseology.
And I think it's telling.
Because Jason Kenney, I believe, always had an eye on the main chance, which is going back to Ottawa as the future leader of the Conservative Party of Canada in his mind.
And so he didn't want to say anything that could be interpreted as small or provincial or too pro-Alberta or too niche.
I think he was always thinking, well, how will this sound when I run for Parliament as the leader of the Conservatives in five or ten years?
So he was always pulling his punches and he would never go to bat for Alberta against Ottawa, which is essential if you're the Premier of Alberta.
If you're the Premier of, I don't know, Prince Edward Island, you depend on freebies from Ottawa.
It's a major source of revenue for you.
So you never really fight with Ottawa and you're too small anyways.
If you're the Premier of Ontario, you're so big, you sort of are the federal government.
You've got more than 100 seats in Parliament.
But if you're the Premier of Alberta, sort of like the Premier of Quebec, you must be at war with the Prime Minister of Canada to properly defend your province's interests.
Jason Kenney did not do that.
And he was also brutal on the lockdowns.
I'm hoping that Danielle Smith will, first of all, have a lighter touch with civil liberties.
And second of all, we'll have a tougher touch with Trudeau.