Sheila Gunn Reid argues Scotiabank’s debanking of Gary for opposing Pride app imagery mirrors Mussolini’s fascist state control, enforcing ideological conformity without government orders. She warns Trudeau may grant federal bureaucrats 30–50% wage hikes—like the UTE’s 30% demand—to silence strikes during tax season, while ordinary Canadians struggle with inflation. At Davos, Reid highlights WEF oligarchs (Fink, Gates) and unionized "cogs," then praises Rebel News for exposing climate/dietary agendas via figures like "Naz" Daly and Pfizer’s Bourla, framing it as a fight against elite-driven narratives. [Automatically generated summary]
Today we look back at another victim, a man who complained about the bank's pride rainbow and then was subsequently canceled from his account.
It's January 24th, 2023.
I'm Sheila Gunread, and you're watching the Ezra Levant show.
Shame on you, you censorious bug.
Everything in the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.
That is Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's explanation of fascism.
It remains one of the most enduring definitions of modern totalitarianism ever.
Now, fascism was originally, well, enforced by force, and frankly, as you know, there comes a time where force is no longer necessary.
Because eventually the people become compliant, the beating stops from the morale improves, and businesses, although independent, become the enforcement arm of that mantra, nothing against the state.
The government really doesn't have to enforce anything anymore because, well, if you stray from the narrative of the state, you get punished by businesses.
And in turn, the businesses are looked upon favorably by the all-powerful totalitarianism state.
Sound familiar?
That's what happened earlier this week to controversial Canadian veteran Jeremy McKenzie, who was completely debanked from Scotiabank.
And the point I made in the video that I did on the topic was that even though Jeremy McKenzie is facing charges in multiple jurisdictions and was part of a rape joke about Pierre Polyev's wife, I still think he should be allowed to bank in the same manner that serial killers like Carla Homalka and convicted terrorists like Omar Cotter are still allowed to bank here in Canada.
Now, I don't know Jeremy McKenzie personally, and I don't take his criticisms of me personally either, and I find some of the things he says objectionable.
But that doesn't matter.
His rights don't hinge on anyone's feelings about him.
His rights are his rights.
I don't have to like you or agree with you to think that you have human rights here in Canada or to think that you have the same rights as a murderer or terrorist or rapist.
And my friends know I don't have to like all of their friends to continue to be friends with them still.
That actually sounds like a very terrible way to live your life otherwise.
That shouldn't be a controversial thought, but it is here in Canada.
And it comes from both ends of the political spectrum.
What I can say about both sides is that they believe in complete ideological conformity with their own worldview, and there will be no independent thought outside of that.
We saw this as much with conservatives who supported Jason Kenny despite his anti-conservative crackdown on churches and pastors, as much as we see it still with progressive liberals who continue to support Justin Trudeau even after his many, many, many times doing the very unprogressive thing of donning blackface.
But that's really been the story of the last two years, hasn't it?
Or three years, I guess, now.
We see this most evidently with the coronavirus, but it's a symptom of society at this point.
Everybody loves their echo chamber, and they quickly become the intolerant people they claim to fight.
Both sides claim they care about diversity of thought and people being able to make up their own minds and express their own views.
But when you do, both sides get mad at you.
The hard left and the hard right, well, they really aren't all that different sometimes.
And this goes for businesses too.
The woke ones like the aforementioned Scotiabank.
You can be a lifelong customer, a good credit risk, pay your bills on time, be so polite to the tellers, and frankly, you can be making your bank a lot of money while they lend out your money to other people for their profit.
But don't you dare disagree with them on social issues.
I know you're asking, why does a bank even have an opinion on social issues?
They're a financial institution.
Well, it's because they know what their job is.
And it's not really to provide unbiased financial services to a diverse range of Canadians.
Because before they were deplatforming pesky people they don't like for being vocal critics of Justin Trudeau, like again, the aforementioned Jeremy McKenzie, the good people of Scotiabank canceled their own customer for not being quite woke enough.
This one Scotiabank customer, interviewed by my friend David Menzies, simply sent his bank a message saying, hey, I thought we were kind of done with Pride season, so can you stop forcing the Pride Rainbow into my phone via your app?
Look at this.
Gary, what pray tell did you do that made your local Scotia bank determine that they no longer want to do business with you any longer?
Well, I just tried to get online with an app to do some banking online.
And basically there is a rainbow app.
So I said, is there any way to get this rainbow app off my phone?
And he responded in quite a shocking way that kind of surprised me.
And when you say he, are we speaking now of we talked off air, you had dealings with Mitchell Toft.
He's the assistant manager at the branch.
Right.
Yeah.
So it was through an email discussion that I asked him, like, if there's any way to get the app off.
And he, yeah, he responded.
He did not respond for a couple of days.
And then when he did, he basically hunted me from my bank.
Okay, so, and I mean, I don't know, I don't know whatever happened to can we agree to disagree, but you sent along the text that Mr. Toft sent to you.
I'm going to read it verbatim.
Gary, Scotiabank strives to provide an inclusive environment for all members of the LGBTQ plus community.
And during Pride Month, like every other financial institution, we have chosen to show our support in a variety of ways, including visual signs such as rainbows on our app.
Your request/slash complaint will not be entertained as it does not align with our principles.
Your comments are not appreciated, nor will they be tolerated, which is why we have chosen to terminate our relationship with you.
You may gather the funds from your account and a termination notice will be mailed to you advising the date you have until to retrieve any funds.
Any funds in the account upon the date of closure will be put into a bank draft and mailed to the address we have on file.
Well, holy smokes, Gary.
I mean, right away he went to the nuclear option just because you complained about a rainbow illustration on the app.
So if you dared to wonder if there was ever a proposed end date to the forcible injection of pride symbols onto the screen of your phone by your bank for some reason, you were then deemed incompatible with accessing the Scotia banking system.
Embrace the Agenda or Face Consequences00:02:21
Because it's not enough for normal people to not care or concern themselves with how other people live their lives in a free society.
It's not enough for you to leave others alone and hope that it would be mutually reciprocated.
You now have to embrace the worldview, embrace the liberal party agenda, embrace the bank's sycophancy, or be canceled from polite society and denied access to essential services that allow you to fully participate in society.
You don't have to be convicted of anything dangerous.
You really don't even have to be accused of doing anything dangerous.
You just, well, have to disagree with the liberals.
And it's not going to stop here.
In fact, it's been happening for a while in ways that you might not know about.
It's just only now happening to citizens instead of businesses that resist the woke agenda.
That's what ESG goals are.
Environmental, sustainability, and governance goals.
Big banks have been denying energy companies financing, and insurance companies have been doing the same, denying energy companies insurance for developing resources that financiers and insurers say are incompatible with their climate goals.
And there it is again, enforcement of government policy using the financial system without the government ever having to lift a finger.
Everything in the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
In Doctrine of Fascism, Mussolini wrote, the fascist conception of life accepts the individual only insofar as his interests coincide with the state.
Fascism reasserts the rights of the state.
If classical liberalism spells individualism, fascism spells government.
The right to bank, a right to own property, a right to speak freely in the public square, a right to protest, only if those rights do not conflict with the rights of the state, which is supreme.
And that's all evidenced in Justin Trudeau's support for BLM and their right to protest and his horrific totalitarianism treatment of the Freedom Convoy for trying to do the same.
I'm not sure if we can change the woke banksters, the very ones who eagerly enforce Justin Trudeau's seizure of Convoy for Freedom bank accounts as though those bank accounts were the proceeds of terror.
But you know what?
Union Demands Out of Touch00:15:19
We can probably stop doing business with them on our own, and we can learn a little lesson for ourselves here.
Don't be like the big banksters.
Agree to disagree and move on like actual freedom-minded people.
Exert your individualism to think and draw your own conclusions while it's all still legal to do so.
Stay with us.
Ezra pops in for a great interview with Franco Terrazano, the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
Up next, after the break.
Well, I just got back from the World Economic Forum in Davos, and I have to say that it was a real hierarchy.
You had your trillionaire oligarchs at the top, guys like Larry Fink, guys like Al Gore, Bill Gates, Klaus Schwab, and then you had a real pecking order.
Like I say, you could see that in people's name tags.
Different color coding told you just how important or slightly less important they were.
It's a kind of place where they use words like V V I P, very, very important persons.
It's quite something, but I have to say, in terms of bulk and sheer numbers, most of the people at the World Economic Forum gathering in Davos felt, to be candid, like the people who work in capital cities around the world.
I have lived for a few years in Ottawa.
I spent a summer in Washington, D.C.
And there are some titans in those cities, but most of the people are bureaucrats.
They're the worker bees.
Now, they may be lawyers.
They may be quite skilled and quite smart, but they're cogs in the machine run by others.
That's how it felt in the main at the World Economic Forum.
Like I was surrounded by people who were not particularly ideological.
Of course, they did buy into the agenda, but they were bureaucrats.
They were a kind of civil servant working for Klaus Schwab as opposed to working for the government.
Well, we have that same species.
Obviously, in Canada, the federal government is by far the largest employer in the world.
And there was something out of sync, out of joint with Davos, in that the world is going through inflation right now.
We have energy poverty.
We now have food poverty.
In some places, it's hard to find eggs.
There's photos circulating on the internet of pieces of meat for sale at Costco for more than $100.
It's just incredible how hard it is to keep up with the cost of living, with inflation.
There's a lot of reasons for that, ranging from printing money to the incredible spending spree governments have been on during the pandemic.
And that's one of the things that you may recall.
I asked Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia, could he tonally reconcile his state of Georgia and the poverty, the food and energy poverty they're going through with his five-star luxury trip to Davos?
And I want to talk about that same mentality here in Canada, because while it is difficult for ordinary people in Canada to pay the bills, the government unions, those worker bees of the big state, are demanding double-digit pay raises at your expense.
And I know this because I read about it in the latest release by our friends at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
The headline is: federal government union demands out of touch with reality.
I'll just read the first paragraph.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on members of parliament to speak out against the Union of Taxation Employees and the Public Service Alliance of Canada's pay demands.
Joining us now to talk about this and to give us the incredible details is our friend Franco Terrazano with the Taxpayers Federation.
Franco, great to see you again.
I feel like I am with that same entitled government class that I just hung out with in Davos.
I feel like they're making the same demands here in Canada.
Is there a similarity there?
Well, it sure seems like it, doesn't it?
I mean, these government union bosses in Ottawa, it seems like they're trying to fleece taxpayers without us noticing.
Now, let me talk about some of the crazy union negotiators' demands as they negotiate with the federal government.
You have one union representing the tax collectors at the Canada Revenue Agency that are pushing for 30% wage increases over three years.
Yeah, I said 30% wage increases.
You have another group of union negotiators representing the PSAC that are pushing for up to 14% annual compensation.
Annual.
So in one year, Ezra, 14% compensation hikes.
Now, who would have to pay for that?
You, me, and the rest of the Canadian taxpayers who have been struggling for what, two years of the pandemic and government lockdowns?
Now, high inflation.
So we already have less in our bank accounts and savings accounts.
And there's a possible recession right around the corner as economists are warning.
So these union negotiator demands are completely out of touch.
And that's why I'm so thankful that you have us on your program to sound the alarm to the rest of Canada.
Well, I tell you, we're grateful to you, Franco, for sounding the alarm because, frankly, you're the first place I heard about this.
Now, granted, I've been out of the country for the past week.
You know, I can understand a worker wanting a pay hike to keep up with inflation.
Everyone wants a pay hike to keep up with inflation.
But in the real world, you just can't wish that into happening.
You have to, if you want 30% more money, you've got to either work 30% harder or come up with a new idea or invention, or frankly, you just can't get it just because you want it.
In this case, they have monopoly power, right?
I mean, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, Peace Act, the UTE, that's the Union of Taxation Employees, they've got the run of the place.
I mean, I don't know if they have the right to strike in some of these organizations, but they've got the government over a barrel and the government has a monopoly too.
They're both haggling over taxpayers' money.
That's the thing.
You've got these union negotiators, and I agree that it's exorbitant demands, but you've got Trudeau on the other side.
So it's not like he's really sticking up for taxpayers.
Both sides are negotiating someone else's dough.
Let me throw this question to you, Franco.
I think Trudeau is going to give them what they want.
Maybe not 100% of it, but why wouldn't Trudeau use your and my money to assuage a huge group of people who tend to vote liberal anyways?
I'm afraid he's going to do it.
You know, the spending has gotten just so out of control here in Ottawa that these union negotiators don't feel silly pushing for 30% wage increases over three years or 14% compensation hike in one year.
Just think about how ridiculous the overspending is in Ottawa by the Trudeau government that union negotiators feel like they can even put this forward without being laughed out of the room.
Now, you mentioned strikes.
I'm glad you did because look at the timing here.
Okay.
Make no mistake about it.
The union negotiators representing those tax collectors are threatening strike votes between January 31st and April 7th.
Now, that is important.
Why?
Because they're essentially saying if the government doesn't fork over a ton of extra taxpayers' money, then they're going to have these strike votes right around the time when Canadians are filing their income tax returns and are relying on getting their money back from the government.
That is a clear threat that these union negotiators are trying to make on Canadian taxpayers.
You know, the 30% pay hike is crazy, but that one Peace Act demand, I'm just going to read from your press release here.
The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat said the Peace Act is also demanding, quote, average increases, including pay and other provisions, of up to 14% annually over three years.
Well, 14% plus 14% plus 14%, that is almost a 50%.
Is my math wrong?
Like, that's 28, that's 42%.
No, you're right.
No, no, no.
The math is correct.
The math is correct.
It's going to be close to that because you also have to remember the compounding.
And not only should we look ahead at this and just really ask what planet these union negotiators are living on, because it's not this one, right?
But let's also look backwards for a quick second here, because it's not like government bureaucrats weren't getting pay raises all along here.
No, no, no, no.
Remember, we dug up the documents that show that 312,000 federal government bureaucrats received at least one raise during the pandemic and lockdowns while their neighbors in the private sector lost jobs, took cuts, maybe even lost their business.
So anywhere between 93% and 98% of federal bureaucrats already received a pay raise during lockdowns.
And now their union negotiators are pushing for 30% over three years.
And in some cases, up to 14% a year.
Yeah.
I tell you, it's starting to feel like a kind of a failed state.
I mean, I see job losses at major companies around the world.
I see predictions of a recession, as you say.
And what an island of unreality these folks are in.
I just am terrified that Trudeau is going to say, oh, well, throw a few more bales of thousand-dollar bills on the fire.
Why not?
These are my people.
And who's going to oppose it?
The Taxpayers Federation and those trucker types, you know, the deplorables.
I'm actually really worried about this.
This is just such a staggering thing.
Franco, how can folks support you guys?
And the reason I ask that is because I know that you are one of the few NGOs out there that does not take money from the federal government.
So you survive on the goodwill of viewers and taxpayers.
What's the best way for people to help out the important work that you're doing?
Because you're a whistleblower, my friend.
How do people help?
Well, I just want to say we will never take a penny from government, never have, never will.
So please head over to taxpayer.com, check our stuff up.
But while you're there, please send a message to your member of parliament to stop this.
Even if they're not just in the Trudeau liberals, if they're with the conservatives, if they're with the NDP, you still got to contact them and let them know that this is outrageous.
Because, hey, maybe I missed something, but I haven't heard a single member of parliament, no matter what party they're in, speak out against this.
Yeah, and that's very troubling.
Well, there you heard it: taxpayer.com, Franco Terrazano, one of the good guys, that's for sure.
Franco, great to see you.
Thank you for ringing the alarm on this and keep up the good fight.
Thanks for having me on.
All right, our pleasure.
Stay with us.
More ahead.
You're emotionally out of control.
Not in you.
You're emotionally out of control.
You're bad for the world.
You are too.
And you're just making personal insults.
You make people trust the science.
And people like you are bad for the world.
Calm down, mate.
I know you're earning your money because you're a pay-to-play spokesman.
Everybody should know about how bad you are.
You should have the logos on you.
You should have deck else on you for all your sponsors.
You go around the world pretending to be real news.
Calm down.
You have no news.
No fact.
You're not news.
Why does your name say news?
We're news.
You are.
You're a paid advertiser.
You're a paid advertiser.
So now that you know how it feels like you treat people.
Stop touching me, mate.
Do not spread conspiracy theories on the internet.
Tell me one conspiracy theory.
You are dangerous to the fucking world.
Don't swear.
Control your emotions.
You've got to control your emotions.
He's a little bit out of control.
Well, friends, we've come to the portion of the show where we welcome our viewer feedback.
We want to hear from you.
And you had a lot of opinions on Ezra's intense interaction with, I guess you'd call him a social media influencer who's on the far left.
His name is Nas Daly, or that's the name that he goes by.
And Ezra and the team bumped into him in Davos at the World Economic Forum meetings.
And Avi Yamini has had interactions with him before.
And frankly, I don't think those interactions went well with Nas in the past.
And I don't think they're going any better for him these days.
Anyway, sunshine over sham, right?
I knew it.
Thank you, Ezra, for exposing Naz for the fraudster and con artist that he truly is.
The moment when he got all emotional and all up in your face, that told me right there, Ezra took the wind out of his sails.
And the moment he dropped the F-bomb at you, right there, you got him.
You know, that's the thing about a lot of these Online who are really boastful and really aggressive, and they'll tell you off online.
It's been my experience that when I see these people in real life, they run the other way from me.
I've experienced this firsthand with some mainstream media journalists at the Public Order Emergency Commission, what we call the Trucker Commission, in the media room.
I didn't stay with the journalists because that's not where the story was.
I was in the commission room with the audience where I could see how the lawyers were reacting, where I could see the witnesses and sort of feel the tension in the room.
I thought that was more important than sitting there with a bunch of mainstream media journalists that I don't like.
I'm kidding.
It's not that I don't like them.
I don't even know them.
But in a cloistered room with a bunch of people on Justin Trudeau's payroll, one way or another who were just too consumed with their own interactions with each other to actually pay attention to the real news that was happening that you had to be there for.
And it was literally right across the hallway, but that was a little bit too much like work.
And maybe they thought the people who were testifying, particularly the truckers and their supporters, maybe they were a little icky.
But what I do know is when some of my loudest, most obnoxious critics, and I'm not going to say who, but I don't know if you know me, you might be able to guess, in the mainstream media saw me in person, they weren't so brave.
They ran the other way.
I think they were a little bit worried that I might tell them off in front of everybody, but I'm not crazy.
I'm not rude.
And just the fact that I know they're scared of me, that heartens me.
I don't have to tell them off.
Rebel News Effect00:03:12
They have to live with the shame that they're scared of me every single day.
Anyway, Vu Du Pat1, sorry, it took me a little bit of time to get that one out.
Also writes, Nas Daly and his associates have created NAS Academy, an online teaching service that has rendered training services to Google and Bayer, oh, big pharma, amongst other companies, that tells you a lot about his motivations.
It also tells you why he's at the World Economic Forum, right?
Like it's just big tech and big pharma there and probably the big military industrial complex.
Also, follow the money, find the puppet.
And lastly, we've got another one from Mark, and he's also talking about NAS Daily and says, and this, Mark, it's beautiful.
I agree with it perfectly.
This is what happens to men when they have really low testosterone and a higher than normal estrogen.
I'm going to stop right here.
This is, I think, why they want men to eat less meat and go vegan, replace their reliable, bioavailable animal proteins that men need, but also women need with less bioavailable estrogen mimicking soy so that you are weak,
feeble-minded, and, well, definitely not able to fight your way out of a situation, but also not even able to think your way out of a situation because your brain isn't functioning properly because they've advised you to enjoy a climate change diet, which renders you less than optimal, I'll say.
It also makes them emotional and causes them to react without thinking.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Exercise, lift weights, eat meat and eggs regularly.
You better believe it.
Speak to your doctor and do blood tests.
Yes.
And don't be scared of cholesterol.
And regardless of what Justin Trudeau tries to label your ground beef as.
Well, guys, that's the show for tonight.
Thank you for joining me as I filled in in some portions of the show for the big boss, Ezra Levant.
Thanks to everybody behind the scenes at Rebel News, who works very hard to put the show together.
And to see the rest of Ezra's reports from the World Economic Forum and to support the journey of the team there, please go to weafreports.com.
Our team, I'm so proud of the work that they did.
That little international unit of rebels exposed the World Economic Forum for what it really is, but I think importantly too, exposed the international media for the suck-ups that they are.
Because that is a town teeming with journalists and the very rich and important people like Albert Burla and Greta Tunberg.
They thought they could just walk the streets of Davos, just wander around and never be asked a single tough question.
Well, that changed this year, didn't it?
I think probably the security protocols are going to change next year.
Let's call it the Rebel News Effect.
Anyway, that's Wefreports.com for all of their coverage and to support their very important independent journalism.