Ezra Levant exposes David Johnston’s conflicted role in whitewashing Trudeau’s China ties—ignoring CESIS warnings, dismissing leaks as "unreliable," and rubber-stamping a prewritten foreign interference report despite calls for a public inquiry. With 390,000 Chinese students in U.S. institutions (13% linked to espionage) and Canada hosting 2.5 times more per capita, Levant argues Beijing’s CISA-controlled networks enable coercion, violating democratic principles. Taiwan’s 2022 military drills hint at escalating threats, mirroring pre-Ukraine invasion tactics, as the West’s post-Cold War tolerance now empowers authoritarianism, demanding action to protect freedom without racializing the issue. [Automatically generated summary]
Today we're going to talk about David Johnson whitewashing Justin Trudeau's collusion with Communist China.
And David Johnson himself is so compromised.
It's really quite shocking.
Plus, we're going to talk to Gordon G. Chang about how the Chinese government really has this influence operation around the world.
But first, let me invite you to go to the RebelNewsPlus.com website.
That's where you get the video version of this podcast.
We put a lot of effort into the video side of things.
And today we're going to show you a bunch of clips from different press conferences about David Johnson's reports.
So I'd encourage you to get the video version.
And by the way, it's only $8 a month, RebelNewsPlus.com.
And that $8 goes a long way for us because we do not take any government money, as you know.
We rely on viewers like you.
All right.
Here's today's podcast.
The Trudeau Foundation's David Johnson does what we knew he would and covers up for the Trudeau Foundation and its Chinese benefactors.
It's May 23rd, and this is the Ezra Levant show.
Shame on you, you censorious bug.
David Johnson Covers Up00:11:57
Hey, welcome back.
It's great to see you.
I hope you had a good long weekend.
You'll notice I am not in my usual place because we've got some very exciting news about a decision we've made to refresh and refurbish our studio.
You know, we've been in our current offices for about six years.
And listen, I loved them and everything was fine.
But, you know, some of our technology was eight years old, which doesn't sound very old, but it's sort of like dog ears.
Eight years old in computer video time is like a century.
So I'll tell you about a project that we're about to launch.
I'll tell you in another video, but we are rebuilding our dream and we're going to make this studio even better.
And I'll share those details with you later.
But for now, I'm in our boardroom.
And in fact, what you see behind me are some plaques throughout our office.
I mean, we don't have a lot of public tours or people coming by our office.
It's sort of in a low-key setting.
And actually, for privacy reasons, we don't really want the world to know where we are because we have some, you know, there's some people who have malice towards us.
But our office has really two kinds of decorations.
One are inspirational images of contrarianism and freedom fighters through the ages.
And the other is plaques and bricks on the wall with the names of people who have gone above the Call of Duty and have supported us.
And that plaque behind me is one example.
You can also see the YouTube plaques when we got 100,000 followers and a million followers.
They don't monetize us, but they do acknowledge how successful we've been.
So I'm in the boardroom and I hope to be back in the studio in a few days.
But check my other video coming soon about the studio.
I hope you'll be excited like I am.
Anyways, that's why I am sitting where I am.
But today was a remarkable day about Chinese influence in Canada.
And it's sort of funny.
It's like that old movie phrase, the call is coming from inside the house.
There's something strange about Justin Trudeau, whose brother Alexandra wrote a book published by Communist China about David Johnson, who went to China, who opened up a Chinese Communist Party Confucius Institute at his university, who had dealings with China, who sent his own children to China.
There's something bizarre about Justin Trudeau and Alexandra Trudeau and David Johnson looking for the Chinese influence.
They are the Chinese influence.
It's like when O.J. Simpson said he was going to look for the real killer.
Yeah, mate, you did it.
And the thing about David Johnson is he looks exactly like you would want a governor general to look.
It's almost like they said Donald Trump chose Mike Pence as vice president because he just looks so vice presidential.
Handsome, gray hair, very moderate, nothing too wild, central casting vice president.
And I think he lived up to it.
The look in that case, the book was like its cover.
I think David Johnson is like that.
He looks good.
He looks old, but not out of, mentally out of it, like, say, Joe Biden.
But the trouble is, he is as corrupt as they say he is.
Let me give you an example from personal experience.
Because he looks so officious, David Johnson accepted an appointment by his old friend, Justin Trudeau, to serve as the chair of the newly founded Debates Commission.
For some reason, after 100 years of having, 150 years of Canadian politicians having debates without government involvement, Justin Trudeau nationalized us.
Well, for some reason, was so he could control it.
And he put his pal David Johnson in charge, and he told David Johnson to keep out rebel news.
And David Johnson did.
And we went to court in 2019, and we won.
But David Johnson did it again.
And we went to court in 2021 and we won.
But the fact that David Johnson, who's supposed to be above the partisan fray and supposed to believe in freedom of speech and a diversity of opinion because he was a university president, would carry out Trudeau's partisan errand so brutally and even in the face of a court ruling would do it again shows do not be fooled by the central casting bureaucrat.
He is a hardcore Trudeau partisan.
And of course he did exactly what Justin Trudeau hired him to do.
It was a laugh.
You know, there's two ways to get your information about David Johnson and Justin Trudeau and Communist Party influence.
One is to follow the CBC.
They're in massive damage control mode.
And I remember the panel they had the other day where they had Chantal Hebert defending Trudeau.
She is the Trudeau Foundation alumna.
It was just incredible.
Well, that's incredible as a pundit, but imagine David Johnson as a Trudeau Foundation elder.
In fact, he didn't even mention the Trudeau Foundation in his presentation today.
It was rather incredible.
So you can get your news from the CBC or from alternative media.
And I just want to give a shout out to a rebel news supporter named Andy Lee, who I think she speaks Chinese because she certainly does excellent research.
And the Chinese language press is full of hundreds of images of Justin Trudeau, his family, his senior cabinet, and David Johnson going to Chinese Communist Party events.
So he's deeply involved with the Chinese Communist Party.
I'm not talking about ethnic Chinese or cultural Chinese.
I'm talking about the Chinese Communist Party.
Imagine putting David Johnson in charge.
It's like O.J. Simpson looking for the real killer.
All right, enough preamble from me, but I want to show you a half dozen clips that I think sum up what happened today.
Here's David Johnson ruling out a public independent inquiry.
No, no, no.
That's the wrong idea.
There should be further inquiries, David Johnson recommended.
And surprise, he recommends that he do it.
Imagine that.
Take a look at this.
Another central piece of my mandate and a requirement of this first report was to determine if a separate public inquiry or public process is required to investigate foreign interference in our democracy.
There have been widespread calls for a public inquiry from media, opposition parties, and parliament through a motion passed in the House of Commons.
When I began this process, I thought I would come to the same conclusion, that I would recommend a public inquiry.
Well, it would have been an easy choice.
It would not be the correct one.
Yeah, you have to understand that out of 38 million Canadians, the best person he recommends to look into this is himself.
Frankly, that's a move that they probably gave him advice to do from the Chinese embassy.
Now, by the way, a lot of this reporting came from the Globe and Mail, and I got to give them credit.
They have been strong on this, like they were about their reporting about Jodi Wilson-Raybold and how she stood up to Trudeau's corruption.
You'll remember that the first thing Justin Trudeau said when he was faced with the Globe and Mail, revealing that Jodi Wilson-Raybold was fired as justice minister because she wouldn't go along with Trudeau's corruption, Trudeau looked the camera in the eye and said, the Globe and Mail reporting is not true.
I just want to show you that, just to see what a cold-blooded, bold-faced, sociopathic liar Justin Trudeau is when it suits him.
Remember this flashback?
Did you or anyone in your office pressure the former Attorney General to abandon the prosecution of SNC Lavlin?
The allegations in the Globe story this morning are false.
Neither the current nor the previous Attorney General was ever directed by me or by anyone in my office to take a decision in this matter.
Well, it was actually the same reporters that broke the story on Chinese involvement, and that's exactly the same response that Trudeau and his team have had.
And so the reason the story progressed was because CESAS agents, who were so appalled by the obvious compromising of Canadian leadership, the Manchurian prime minister, if you will, that CESIS started leaking facts to the Globe and Mail, including the fact that CESIS had warned about Chinese involvement for years and given reports to Trudeau in his office, and they had ignored them.
Here's David Johnson saying, no, pay no attention to the CESIS memos.
Trust me, I can't show you any of the intelligence, but I've looked at it and it's all fine.
Take a look.
Foreign interference is not usually embodied in discrete, one-off pieces of intelligence.
It cannot be dealt with on a one-off look-what-I found basis.
The limited leaked intelligence and subsequent reporting have led to misapprehensions relating to incidents that are alleged to have occurred in the 2019 and 2021 elections.
Moreover, I have found no examples of ministers, the prime minister, or their offices knowingly or negligently failing to act on intelligence, advice, or recommendations on the issues I have investigated related to the 2019 and 2021 elections.
However, I did find that there are significant and unacceptable gaps in the machinery of government.
Don't believe your lying eyes.
Don't believe the memos.
Don't believe the CESIS agents.
Believe me, Justin Trudeau's lifelong family friend and a man who sent his own daughters to school in China and invited the Confucius Institute to his university.
Trust him.
It's all okay.
He can't show it to you because it's a secret, but you'll trust him because he looks the part.
It was absurd to choose David Johnson as the interrogator here.
There's a saying in law, justice must not just be done, it must be seen to be done.
And of course, when a judge is compromised in some way, the judge must recuse himself from the role I'm talking about in a court.
A judge wouldn't just recuse himself from a case where there's a real conflict, but where there's the appearance of a conflict.
There's a phrase in law that justice has to be done in a way that does not bring the administration of justice into disrepute.
That's an old phrase, bring the administration of justice into disrepute.
So it's like the saying about Caesar's wife.
She must not just be pure, she must appear to be.
David Johnson, even if he wasn't in a conflict of interest, looks like he is.
And so the fact that he did not have the dignity to recuse himself from the role shows that he is not fit for the role.
But anyone who says so, well, how dare they take a look at him saying, he's above reproach.
I've been fortunate in my public life to have served as chair of or member of advisory committee or task forces on probably two to three dozen different occasions over those years with appointments by prime ministers, several, premiers, several ministers.
Aaron Toole Defends Jagmeet Singh00:15:27
And on none of those previous occasions has my impartiality or integrity ever been questioned.
This is the first time it has happened.
And let me simply say that's very troubling for me because this kind of baseless set of accusations diminishes trust in our public institutions.
And the terrorist people who are publicly minded, who are quite prepared to take on public service responsibility, task force, and so on, there's a chill on that.
And that's very troubling.
Don't you see, if you ask questions, you're keeping good people out of public life.
Yeah.
Boy, he hates the media.
Half of his report was criticizing the media.
It's sort of a theme with Justin Trudeau, isn't it?
Well, Pierre Polyev just scorched back.
And, you know, he's been saying so for weeks, that this was basically Trudeau tapping his old friend to exonerate him.
And it exactly came true.
People were critical of Pierre Polyev for not meeting with David Johnson, but why give the thing credit?
I want to point out one quick thing before I show you the Pierre Polyev clip.
Aaron O'Toole, I think, was one of the weakest leaders the Conservative Party has had.
Well, frankly, since Joe Clark.
He was afraid of his own shadow.
He was afraid of the media.
He stood up for nothing.
He stood for nothing and he fell for everything.
But Aaron O'Toole was interviewed briefly by David Johnston for his report.
But look at this revelation.
And Aaron O'Toole, who is so gentle, he handed the wind to Justin Trudeau in the last election.
He says boldly for Aaron O'Toole that, first of all, David Johnson only talked to Aaron O'Toole at the last minute after the report was written.
In fact, Johnson told him it was written and already at the translators to be translated into French.
That he asked, he didn't ask any questions.
He just sort of talked to O'Toole.
And that he gave the impression that he had done research into corruption by the Chinese government, but that it was all just for show.
Box checking is what Aaron O'Toole called it.
So even Aaron O'Toole, who is such a pushover, said it was just an absolute exercise in whitewashing.
Well, here's what Pierre Polyev, who's got a little bit higher octane than Aaron O'Toole, here's what he said today.
But unfortunately, there's no common sense in Justin Trudeau's Ottawa.
We see today that his ski buddy, cottage neighbor, family friend, and member of the Beijing-financed Trudeau Foundation came out and did exactly what I predicted, helped Trudeau cover up the influence by Beijing in our democracy.
We know that Beijing interfered in two elections to help Trudeau win.
We know that Beijing gave $140,000 to the Trudeau Foundation with the express purpose of buying the love and the loyalty of Justin Trudeau.
And we know that Trudeau has been briefed on these matters for years and done absolutely nothing about it except try to keep it quiet and call names anyone, name call anyone who spoke out about it.
And then in order to further sweep the matter under the rug, he put his friend, his ski buddy, his cottage neighbor and Trudeau Foundation member, David Johnston, in charge of today's whitewash attempt.
Conservatives are not buying it.
We need a full public inquiry to get to the bottom of Beijing's interference in our democracy.
And that's what I will deliver when I am prime minister.
There will be a full public inquiry into this mess.
And in the meantime, we will continue to push for a real foreign influence registry that exposes anyone who does paid work on behalf of a foreign dictatorship to manipulate our politics.
It's just common sense.
Let's bring it home.
Let's bring home control of our democracy back into the hands of the Canadian.
Well, of course, the media party knows which side of the bread is buttered, and they stuck with their boss, Justin Trudeau.
But I like one of the things I like most about Pierre Polyev is that he's not afraid to call out journalists when they are acting like the Liberal war room.
Take a look at this.
I presume you watched Mr. Johnson's presentation earlier today.
And he said that when he started the process, he thought that he would conclude there should be a public inquiry.
He didn't come to that conclusion because he says there's a lot of confidential information.
Now, one thing he proposes, he's going to have public hearings about things that he can talk about in public, but he also invited the three opposition leaders, which includes you, to join ENSICOP.
Would you join ENSICOP?
David Johnson is Trudeau's ski buddy.
You're not answering the question.
I'll answer it how I choose.
You get to ask the question, I get to answer it.
I'll choose how I answer it.
And the answer is that David Johnson is a ski buddy, chalet neighbor, family friend, and member of the Trudeau Foundation.
He has no business in this job because it is a fake job that he is incapable of doing impartially.
None of his recommendations can be taken seriously because he's in a conflict of interest.
And frankly, it's incredible that he didn't even mention the Trudeau Foundation in his report, even though publicly available intelligence showed that the dictatorship in Beijing had given money to the Trudeau Foundation for the express purpose of buying the love and loyalty of Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada.
Now, Johnson's part of the Trudeau Foundation, so of course he wouldn't want to investigate himself.
But frankly, that's why he should have recused himself.
As for any proposals he might have to silence me, the answer is no, I will not be silenced.
Thank you.
Will you be joining ENSICOP?
No.
By the way, ENSICOP stands for National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians.
And that's a trick and a trap that Polyev saw.
Trudeau and his friends in the Trudeau Foundation and David Johnson want to keep things quiet.
They want to keep things secret.
And they say, if Pierre Polyev really cared about this, he would take an oath of secrecy and look at things in secret.
But that's not really how we do democracy.
I understand that there's certain things when it involves spycraft that you have to keep confidential.
But this is much more than about spycraft.
It's about the bizarre fact that Canada has more Chinese diplomats than almost any country in the world, despite our small size.
But like I say, the problem isn't even in the embassies.
The problem is in the Prime Minister's office and his cabinet.
Well, here's Justin Trudeau.
And Justin Trudeau has this remarkable skill.
I see it every time.
And once you know it to look for it, you can't help but see it all the time.
When Justin Trudeau does something terrible and gets caught, he has this move where he sort of takes himself out of the role as a player, as an actor, as the chief political and legal actor in the country, and becomes an observer, a pundit, a commentator.
Oh, we've all learned a lot.
We plural.
So he's with you.
He and you are the same now.
He's commenting and observing, and he's often clucking his tongue in disappointment.
No, we really have to do better.
And he puts himself outside as an actor so that he's not the one to blame.
He shares your disappointment.
Here's Trudeau today.
Given the reaction from opposition leaders, are you concerned at all about the political risk of not holding a public inquiry?
Like I said, I look forward to party leaders choosing to actually get the security briefings, security clearances necessary to see the facts that underpin this report, so that going forward we can continue to have robust, informed debates on the best way to keep Canadians safe in a world in which foreign interference is increasingly a challenge for us,
for all of our allies as well.
I don't think Canadians would want or expect any of their leaders to choose ignorance when they can choose to have the facts laid out for them.
And I can assure you, in our democracy, there are always going to be plenty of things to criticize a government on and to challenge us to do better.
But let us please ground it in an understanding of the true facts and not choose to risk weakening Canadians' confidence in our institutions by building partisan attacks on things that are patently untrue.
Foreign interference is a challenge for us.
You see, he's the victim here.
He's not the instrument of foreign interference.
His brother didn't collect a $140,000 check from China, plus publish a book from China.
Trudeau didn't roll over for China for 900 days when they seized and kidnapped the two Michaels.
No, Foreign interference is a challenge for us.
He's not the instrument of it.
And who's standing with him?
Mendocino, the public safety minister, who, like Trudeau, lied and disputed the Global Mail's report when it first came out.
And Bill Blair, who we also learned, waited for months before authorizing any investigation into Chinese bullying of Conservative MP Michael Chong.
I think perhaps the most frustrating reaction today was from Jagmeet Singh.
I almost forget about him.
I think everyone forgets about him.
I don't think he's, you know, it's like Churchill's old saying, an empty taxi pulled up at Parliament Hill and Jagmeet Singh got out.
When was the last thing Jagmeet Singh said or did anything of consequence?
I truly, honestly can't think of anything.
But here's what he had to say on this disgraceful day in a tweet.
He said, Nothing short of an independent and public inquiry on foreign interference is good enough.
I'm deeply disappointed in the rapporteur's report.
We'll be taking these concerns directly to the PM and use all our tools in parliament to get answers for Canadians.
No, you won't, mate.
Justin Trudeau does not have a majority government.
Justin Trudeau only acts like he has a majority government because he can count on Jagmeet Singh's votes every single time.
In fact, there's sort of a rule of thumb.
The tougher Jagmeet Singh talks, the more you know he's going to sell out.
That's why he's talking so tough to try to distract you.
Jagmeet Singh said he will use all the tools in parliament to get answers for Canadians.
But we know that's not true because the only tool that would work is a vote of non-confidence.
Jagmeet Singh could bring down Justin Trudeau today, but he doesn't want to.
He could say to Trudeau, have a public inquiry led by a judge, let's say.
And Trudeau, you can't pick the judge this time like you did with the Trucker Commission.
He could say that and say, or else, or else we leave your coalition.
But he didn't say that.
And he won't say that because he's a sellout.
In his own way, he's just as compromised as David Johnson.
Stay with us.
We have more on this subject with our friend Gordon Chang.
Well, what's happening in Canada with the influence of Communist China is not unique.
We see similar influence operations around the world, including in Australia and New Zealand, in the United Kingdom and the United States, indeed every country in the world, in Europe, in Africa, in Asia, Oceania.
But Canada seems to have it worse than most.
I was startled to see that Canada has more Chinese diplomats here doing who knows what than countries many times the size of Canada.
Why would China have many more operatives in this country than in the United Kingdom, which has nearly double our population, and far more than in Australia, even more than the United States?
That tells me that they're making progress here that they feel needs more hands-on deck.
Joining us now to put David Johnson's report in a larger context is our friend Gordon G. Chang.
He is our go-to expert on China.
And if you're not following him on Twitter right now, you're doing it wrong.
Go to Gordon G. Chang in Twitter.
He joins us today from St. Louis.
What a pleasure to have you back on the program.
I know that you track the communist Chinese influence around the world.
How would you place Canada in terms of its resilience and resistance to Chinese influence?
Or have we, frankly, succumbed to it?
Canada has succumbed to China.
And we can see this in any number of ways, especially over the last decade.
And I think the reason why China had more quote-unquote diplomats in Canada than other places is because Canada simply allowed that to occur.
have a family, the Trudeau family, extremely influential in Canadian politics, also very close to communist China and other communist states.
So I think that Beijing just saw this as an opportunity.
And what we're seeing in Canada right now is something, a healthy development, a pushback.
The Chinese, because they could do all these things, they did them.
They've overstepped as they overstepped in Australia, as they've overstepped in the United States and elsewhere.
And so it's really critical right now for the Canadian political establishment, as well as the Canadian people, to make it clear that this is completely unacceptable and that they will impose costs on Canadian politicians who are in China's pocket.
You know, one of the things that's so interesting and so difficult is that there are Chinese Canadian politicians of every political stripe.
Those who were critical of Beijing, like Michael Chong, the conservative MP, they were targeted and their families were targeted.
And some others weren't just targeted for harassment, but they were targeted for in their primaries or their nominations, as we call it.
So Chinese Canadian MPs who wanted to stand up for freedom and democracy and to resist, they were often, well, targeted and in some cases removed.
How do we help Chinese Canadians break free of the long arm of Beijing?
Chinese Canadians and Freedom00:09:21
And I know it's a tough one.
I mean, I can imagine, for example, Rudy Giuliani taking on the Italian mafia.
He did it because he didn't want Italian-ness to be synonymous with crime.
And sometimes I see a Jewish politicians, I think, yikes, in a way, he's representing me too.
And so it's a sensitive issue.
How do we strengthen Chinese Canadians who love Canadian values like peace and freedom and independence?
And how do we make sure that we do that and empower them and not paint all Chinese Canadians?
I mean, obviously we don't, but I think some Chinese activists in Canada, like there's a senator, a liberal senator who's saying this is just anti-China racism.
How do we push back?
And maybe you have a particular opinion on that.
Well, a couple of things.
First of all, it's a very difficult thing to do because you got to take China out of the Canadian political establishment, which means you got to start at the top.
And we got to see, you know, from David Johnston's report, we can see that China's allies are fighting back tooth and nail.
Now, you know, with regard to ethnic Chinese in Canada, and this is the same issue in the United States, we have many Chinese who appear more loyal to Beijing than to the United States.
And so, you know, we have a First Amendment, and that First Amendment gives you a right to be silent as well as to speak.
But Chinese Americans are putting themselves in a very difficult position because I think other Americans legitimately can ask, why are we having as in our country, people who are more loyal to an enemy than they are to our country?
And that means that Chinese Americans have got to start talking among themselves on these issues.
These are the same things, of course, in Canada, because other Canadians, I believe, have a legitimate question.
Why are Chinese Canadians so loyal to Beijing?
You know, it's so tough.
And we never want to imply, you know, a disloyalty.
And that's what I want to fight against.
That's why I love courageous Chinese Canadians.
And I'll put Michael Chong in that category.
And, you know, the Epoch Times, which publishes in Canada, and then there's the NTD-TV, which is a related TV station.
These are Democrats.
And when I've spoken to them, and many of them are in the Falun Gong faith, that might motivate them.
But so what?
Love the fact that they have a freedom orientation.
And they tell me, Joe Wong, the head of NTDTV in Canada, tells me that he gets phone calls from mainland China, from his family, saying the police are there.
And Joe, will you stop doing what you're doing?
Like, I think one of the reasons that they're silent is because of the threats.
And it's sort of like that Italian mafia example.
Why didn't more Italians speak up to the mafia?
Well, because maybe they'd get killed if they did.
I don't know.
I think that we have a crisis and we owe it to our Chinese-Canadian brothers to help them resist this influence from Beijing.
I don't know.
I want to be so careful because I hate it that the communist Chinese spokesmen are trying to say any question about Chinese influence is a racist thing.
I know that's not true, but they sort of want it to become true.
Yes, and you had a previous Chinese ambassador to Ottawa who actually was trying to divide Canadians along racial lines.
Liu Xiaoyi, who is in France, has also made some very controversial comments recently.
But when he was in Canada, he tried to do that.
And the problem here for Chinese Canadians is that other Canadians have allowed this to occur.
So, for instance, if Justin Jordeau had started expelling Chinese diplomats en masse, closing their consulates, I think Beijing would have gotten the message, and therefore Zhou Wang would not have gotten calls from his relatives in China.
So, Justin Jordeau opened the door.
And that's the same as in my country as well.
But it is a problem.
Because, you know, just to put this in the context of where I look at this in the United States, Lydia and I, my wife, were in San Francisco recently.
You look at Chinatown and you see the flags of the People's Republic, not American flags flying over Chinatown.
And so, as I said, I think that we have legitimate questions about the loyalty and the presence of Chinese in our country.
And, you know, this is going to be the same issue elsewhere.
I mean, that's such a tough thing to hear.
And I think you have a license to say that because you yourself are ethnically Chinese.
It's a very difficult thing to talk about.
I mean, I would be shocked to see the People's Republic of China flag flying in Canada in an area like that, but I'm sure it happens.
Let me ask you this: if you had, one of the things that's interesting about Canada is that there's about 100,000 Chinese nationals who go to school in Canada, especially the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
And these are often, by the way, outstanding students.
But I know a lot of them are the sons and daughters of Communist Party officials because it's not just a random application who gets to go to Canada to school.
I think it's largely controlled on the Chinese government side.
And like, I think of the various benefits and perks and friendships that Canada shows China, that, like you say, expelling diplomats.
I think that's a good one for starters.
You know, we are, I like the idea of training Chinese Canadians in thoughts about freedom and showing them our ways.
But if these are just giving perks and privileges to the sons and daughters of the Communist Party, I don't think we're achieving that.
Can you help me come up with maybe a list of two or three things that the Canadian government can do besides expelling diplomats, maybe limiting Chinese Communist Party children going to our universities, maybe stopping some certain exchanges?
What are the things we can do to let China know that we don't like this path, short of economic sanctions, which I don't know would be feasible?
What can we do to signal our disapproval of Communist China?
If I could just sort of put this in the context of what's happening in the United States, where we have somewhere between 350 to 390,000 Chinese students in our colleges and universities.
And many of them, perhaps as many as 13%, commit acts of espionage against the United States.
And so we have this issue of the theft of U.S. intellectual property by Chinese students.
The issue here, though, is, I believe, one of American tolerance, because we have known for decades that Chinese consular officials in the United States, also Ministry of State Security agents, have surveilled Chinese students on our campuses.
And they do that through a number of different ways, including the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, CISA, which are often run by Chinese consulates.
And so we've allowed this to occur.
And of course, Chinese students feel compelled and coerced to do things, even which are crimes on our soil.
But we have created the conditions where they, as a practical matter, don't have a choice.
So it's up to us, for instance, to make sure that Chinese consular officials, Ministry of State Security agents are not in a position to do that.
And we should be disbanding CISA chapters across the country.
You know, Chinese students can come here and we have to give them, it's our obligation to give them an environment where they can make a choice, where they can choose democracy.
We haven't done that.
So that's our fault.
I imagine the same is also true in Canada as well, Ezra, because this is an issue, I think, primarily not of the students' behavior, but of coercion and intimidation.
Yeah.
You know, it's interesting you gave the number of just under 400,000.
That shows, I mean, Canada is about one-tenth the size of the U.S.
So the fact that we have the proportionate of two and a half times the number of Chinese students and that we have more diplomats shows you the proportion of the problem here in Canada is even greater than in the U.S.
Well, listen, Gordon, you said some very powerful things, and it breaks my heart in a way, because I know that the spirit of freedom and yearning for freedom is in every person in the world.
And so I'm with you that we have to strengthen the opportunities to choose freedom for Chinese Canadians and Chinese Americans and students.
And I take your point.
I mean, we at Rebel News are very critical of communist China, but we want to take very great care that in no way do we cast aspersions against people based on ethnicity and race.
And you've said some very bold things, and I think you're in a position to do so.
It sort of breaks my heart to hear some of the things you're saying, but that's the reason why we've got to fight this.
Beijing's Response Tested00:02:35
We've got to make, we've got to remove any doubt.
We've got to strengthen freedom-loving, democratic-loving Chinese Canadians.
I don't know, maybe I sound like I'm gushing here, but I find this a little bit stressful to hear the things you're telling me.
Well, they are.
And it's because of an indulgent attitude that America, for instance, has had for, you know, especially since the Cold War, where we thought that we could integrate China into the international system, that their communist form of government really didn't matter, and that there was the end of history, as Francis Fukuyama, the American political scientist, said.
Now you have to understand that that's not the case.
History is continuing, and the bad actors seem to be winning right now.
Before we go, let me just ask you for a word on Taiwan, because I know you speak with great expertise and information on that.
What's the status on Taiwan?
know that Beijing recently conducted exercises that looked like they were swarming the island.
It really looked like a dress rehearsal for an invasion.
How did that shake down?
Did that result in any change on the U.S. posture?
What's the status of Joe Biden and his commitment to the island?
What's up with Taiwan?
Things have been very quiet recently.
They were the exercises you pointed out.
Beijing has done that before, especially when U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went to the island in August of last year, where they basically China, after she left, China was practicing what looked like a blockade, which probably would be something that Beijing would do either before or after invading the island.
So they've been continuing to do that.
Things are fairly quiet, though.
And the reason is that the presidential election in Taiwan is coming up in next year, early next year.
And that is, I think people are sort of getting ready for that.
You know, the political parties are in the process.
One has chosen its candidate.
The other is in the process of doing so.
So I think Beijing is sort of being a little bit in the backgrounds until that heats up.
But when it heats up, Ezra, as it will towards the end of this year, then we are going to see a lot of fireworks.
And then we are going to see, I think, the international system tested, just like it was tested in the months leading up to the invasion of Ukraine.
Incredible.
Taiwan Election Heat-Up00:01:21
Well, listen, thank you for this.
And I just want to tell you how much personal affection I have for you and Lydia and how you fight for freedom and how you embrace the values that are, I think, are in the hearts of all mankind and that you speak up so bravely and I'm sure at great cost.
So you have my support and I know the support of our many viewers and fans.
And I wish you much strength and success.
Thank you for fighting for freedom for all people.
And Ezra, thank you for your voice, because your voice gives inspiration, not just to Canadians, but to others as well.
So we really appreciate it.
And we are energized and we are inspired by you.
Well, you're very kind.
All the best to you, my friend.
And folks, once again, if you're not doing it, if you're not following Gordon, please do.
He's at Gordon G. Chang on Twitter.
Take care and stay with us.
more ahead.
Well, that's the show for today.
I'm sorry it was a little herky jerky in an indifferent place because we got all sorts of construction going on.
I'll show you that in another video.
Thanks so much for your support.
As always, I'll be back here tomorrow.
And listen, we keep fighting for freedom every day.