Sheila Gunn Reid exposes the Trudeau Liberals’ $1.6M+ spending on Chinese-made government swag—flags, masks, socks, and even COP26 delegation costs (276 attendees for 1.5% of global emissions)—while rural Canadians face soaring gas prices from a second carbon tax hitting families by up to $1,100/year by 2030. The Church Under Fire documentary reveals COVID-19 crackdowns like Pastor Phil Hutchins’ solitary confinement, sparking debate over faith vs. state overreach. These examples underscore a pattern of wasteful spending and civil liberties erosion amid economic strain, raising questions about priorities and accountability. [Automatically generated summary]
Money on government-branded swag, much of it produced in China.
Today I'll show you the outrageous expenditures and the documents to prove it.
Then Franco Terrazano of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation joins me to discuss other depressing ways the liberals tax you and then waste your money on themselves.
Shame on you, you censorious bug.
A response to an order paper question posed by conservative MP John Broussard shows us just how much taxpayer money the liberal government blew on government-branded swag for themselves and their friends or to give away during the pandemic.
You know, while you were struggling to make ends meet because the government was closing your business or at least limiting your business capacity or telling you you could not have your friends or family over for Christmas or special occasions or to go to church or to have a funeral or anything like that, they were printing swag to give away.
The government was celebrating itself by giving themselves completely unnecessary government-branded stuff or just printing this government-branded stuff to give away to total strangers while telling you that you couldn't sing in church because that was some sort of disease vector.
But also here's this pen with a government logo on it.
Take it home.
Follow the science.
You have to wonder why, though, some government agencies even need promotional items whatsoever.
Like Corrections Canada on page 382 of these documents.
What are they doing here?
Are they worried that prisoners might pick a different prison system if they don't offer stickers, mugs, and tote bags and bracelets for Pink Shirt Day?
And of course, as we go through these documents, you'll see a ton of the stuff is made in China, including stuff that was manufactured for immigration, for Canadian heritage, and Canadian natural resources.
They were all getting their Canada flags, those little maple leaf flags, made in China.
And these people, as you'll see in these documents, sure had a love on for branded face masks.
So that's not even something that you would use anymore.
Like you might use a pen, you might use a notepad, you might even use a tote bag.
Although I just don't want one, a tote bag emblazoned with a government logo on it.
But maybe you're somebody who puts up with that sort of stuff and you do.
The face masks are in the garbage right now.
Let's go through these documents together.
On page 11, Farm Credit Canada has so many promotional items made.
Hats, tote bags, and even children's puzzles.
Now, remember, this is the agency that denied Canadian farmers financing if the farmers supported the Freedom Convoy.
Maybe they needed the swag to repair their reputation.
On page 35, Fisheries and Oceans know that they spent nearly a million dollars, $900,000 on promotional items, but they have no clue what those items were or anything else about them.
We can actually see there are 17 pages of swag listing out these mystery expenditures with NA for every detail, so not applicable or not available.
On page 78, Indigenous Services spent $9,000 on promotional items to mark World Tuberculosis Day because who doesn't like to have branded merch to celebrate tuberculosis.
On page 97, the Canadian Spy Agency lists their promotional items and of course their promotional items include branded socks, some spy agency, and then a sleeve for the branded socks on page 98.
Page 206, Export Development Canada spent $4,000 on a climate change trivia card game.
So this isn't Environment and Climate Change Canada with a trivia card game.
Not that I would want to pay for it if they did it either, but at least it would make a little bit of sense.
This is Export Development Canada.
These are the people who need to help me get my canola to foreign markets and they're developing a climate change trivia card game.
I wonder if the trivia card game is about, I don't know how many times Greta Tunberg has been wrong since she started her little climate scolding campaign.
On page 229, for some reason, the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority is buying branded candy and kids' construction hats and activity sheets.
On page 238, Immigration and Citizenship Canada is buying Canadian flags from China, which is something the Liberals promised to stop way back in 2005 if we would just let them be in power.
But here we are.
On page 288 and 290, Natural Resources Canada.
Well, they are also getting those Canada flag pins made in China.
On page 313 and 314, Canadian Heritage also getting Canadian flag pins made in China.
On 328, one might wonder why a human rights museum is getting its promotional items made in China.
Now the Human Rights Museum also refuses to say how much they spend on these Chinese-made pins.
I wonder what the problem is.
Was the slave labor price embarrassing for a human rights museum to admit to?
On page 332, the National Gallery bought specifically branded masks for Environment Minister Stephen Gilbo to visit the gallery.
And then presumably those masks now are in the garbage can.
Very environmentalist.
Page 335, the Canada Race Relations Foundation sure needs a lot of branded merch as well.
And a lot of it, of course, is made in China.
On page 379, Public Safety Canada had, get this, branded fortune cookies made.
Maybe they should have put those warnings about China and serial killer Paul Bernardo being moved to medium security in some fortune cookies.
So the minister in charge, Marco Mendochino, could have read the warnings.
On page 380, the CBSA has promotional trading cards as well.
I wonder what the trading cards are of the worst airports in Canada.
Friends, there's genuinely nothing the Liberals won't waste your money on.
Stay with us.
Franco Terrazano from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation joins me up after the break to talk about, well, frankly, other ways the Liberals are wasting your money on themselves.
Hang tight.
Favorite things to talk about here at Rebel News is just how out of touch the liberals are, because there is no lack of proof text for just how out of touch they are and how entitled they truly are.
One of my largest stories here at Rebel News over the course of eight years was uncovering the hundreds of thousands of dollars in in-flight catering that the Trudeau Liberals spent on, I think it was five or six international flights.
I mean, it was just enormous while Canadian families are struggling to make ends meet because of carbon taxes and government-precipitated inflation.
It just shows that the liberals are living in a completely different world, disconnected from the average Canadian citizen.
And one of the other people, I think, in Canada who really enjoys, although that probably might be the wrong word, enjoys going through just the countless, endless ways the government continues to blow our money on themselves is Franco Terrazano from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
Franco, thanks so much for coming on the show.
You have a very recent news release about your opinion, and I think the majority of Canadians paying attention share it, that Justin Trudeau just needs to rein in the costs of these out-of-control, high-flying international trips.
Well, you mentioned out of touch, and I don't think I could even come up with a more out-of-touch story than this.
The Trudeau government spending $61,000 to stay in a fancy hotel in New York City to attend an anti-poverty summit.
Do you hear that, folks?
This is how the Trudeau government fights poverty by staying in a five-star hotel in Manhattan and spending $61,000 on hotel rooms.
Not even to mention the cost of the flights or other meals.
So here's a question.
How many people do you think the government lifted out of poverty by spending $61,000 on a five-star hotel?
I don't think very many, unfortunately.
You know, I drilled down on the per-room costs here, and I think there were some rooms that were in excess of $1,000 a night.
So, you know, the $61,000 covers the whole delegation.
But why are you bringing an entire delegation to New York, by the way?
I was told that I could go to church on Zoom, so they can attend their anti-poverty conferences via Zoom.
But, I mean, they weren't reining in the costs of these, the individual rooms either.
Well, I guess Trudeau had to bring his official photographer and videographer.
I mean, how else is Trudeau going to fight poverty, right?
But no, Sheila, all kidding aside, I mean, you're absolutely right.
At one point, they booked 39 hotel rooms.
Why are they bringing a band of bureaucrats to go to this two-day summit?
And to your point, we've heard countless times: hey, zoom in, zoom in.
Don't go to the meetings when you don't have to, right?
Stay at home.
Well, here's the thing.
This is becoming the rule, not the exception with this government, because the government doesn't just rack up these huge tabs as a tactic to fight poverty.
It's also racking up huge tabs flying international as its tactic to fight climate change, right?
Let's not forget about COP26, the UN's climate conference GabFest, where Canada sent about 276 delegates.
It was the largest delegation of any G7 country, including the host, United Kingdom.
Isn't that something?
But it's also not fighting climate change.
It's also virtue signaling.
So, you know, in your press release, you note that the governor general spent $700,000 on a four-day trip to a German book fair.
Why is she at a German book fair?
What's the value for Canadians there?
Well, that's the thing.
I mean, we know that the government loves spending buckets of cash so they can fly international and go to these fancy fairs and stay in these fancy hotels and eat that fancy food.
But what value, if any, are taxpayers getting for it?
And you know, let me just go back to the COP26 example because this is just so outrageous.
You know, fighting climate change gets very expensive when your finance minister books a hotel in the wrong city, right?
She stayed about 80 kilometers away from the actual conference.
And of course, they had to book a luxury chauffeur service to cart Freeland back and forth between the city and the hotel.
Now, you mentioned the governor general.
She doesn't fly on the cheap.
We all remember that week-long trip her and her band of bureaucrats took going to Dubai for Expo 2020.
The entire trip cost more than a million dollars.
It was only a week, folks.
And they spent almost $100,000 on airplane food.
It's crazy.
I mean, it is absolutely insane.
And then there's the symptom of Justin Trudeau of him wanting to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral.
Canadian Taxpayers Federation, you guys were so instrumental in getting to the bottom of this and naming and shaming what was going on here when Justin Trudeau spent $6,000 per night for a luxury suite to attend the Queen's funeral.
Now, that's just one part of this.
He didn't want to tell anybody that it was him being the princess in the pee, the queen's funeral, but the hotel expense for the entire trip was nearly half a million dollars.
Yeah, that's absolutely right.
I mean, look, this is such a waste of taxpayers' money when you're talking about the government could have saved money by staying at the Shang-ri-La, right?
That's how you know they really spared no expense.
You know what I mean?
But look, let's even put the money aside because we all know spending $6,000 on a hotel room while Canadians can barely make it paycheck to paycheck is a crazy amount of money.
And that's just pure waste, okay?
But what really irks me is that the government wasted our money and didn't want to come clean with us.
Remember the months and months and months of them essentially pulling out all the stops so Canadians didn't know who stayed in that room, right?
Like, let's be honest, you didn't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out it was Justin Trudeau who stayed in that luxurious hotel suite, but he has a duty to tell us.
In fact, we filed an access to information request.
The bureaucrats wrote down Justin Trudeau's name down and then they blacked it out.
They redacted it.
Now, we didn't think that we don't think that would pass a sniff test.
So we hired some lawyers.
We launched a legal challenge to force the government to come clean.
Trudeau knew he was going to lose in court.
So he finally fessed up and admitted that it was him who stayed in the 6K per night hotel room.
But he did so the day before or just hours before President Biden came to town.
He tried to bury the story.
You know, and that's how you know it's wrong.
And that's how they know it's wrong, is their attempts to hide it.
Do you recall?
I'm often curious because I work in access to information so much.
What reason did they give you for redacting that name?
They gave us two reasons.
One was a personal reason, but that doesn't fly the legal sniff test because when they're there on official government business and they're using taxpayers' money, they have a responsibility to be honest with taxpayers on what the money was spent towards.
So that doesn't pass the sniff test.
The other one is even crazier.
They gave us a security reason for why they couldn't release who stayed in that room like five months prior.
So Sheila, unless they were worried about the Tamaneta traveling back in time to the hotel room, you know, I just don't think that there's a security issue there at all.
Second Carbon Tax Raise00:08:32
Neither did our lawyers.
And honestly, Trudeau knew that those arguments would pass up in court, and that's why he finally fessed up.
Yeah, more like the security of his poll numbers.
Come on.
And it's funny to see, and I know this isn't maybe something that the Canadian Taxpayers Federation concerns themselves with, but it is interesting for me as a right-leaning journalist to see just how differently the mainstream media treats the liberals with their out-of-control spending and expense spending versus how they treated members of Stephen Harper's government, for example.
I always go back to Bev Ota's $16 orange juice and nuked that woman's career because there was just no toleration for it, not just from the Canadian public.
She probably could have survived the outrage from the Canadian public, but there was no toleration for it from her own party.
They were the ones that were having none of it.
But the liberals, they just seem to be perfectly fine with Justin Trudeau blowing money on himself.
I think maybe because they hope maybe he might spend some of it on them once in a while, too.
Well, I mean, it's the us versus them, right?
Like, let's not make no bones about it.
We are not the government.
The government is not us.
We pay tax.
We pay a lot of our income in taxes.
The latest numbers I saw was that when you add up all the different taxes that we pay, federal, provincial, municipal, it's close to half of our income is going to taxes, right?
I mean, with some people that are listening, it's probably more.
And so we pay this taxes and what do we get out of it?
Well, I mean, it seems like the tax burden is going up and up and up.
And I'm not seeing better services.
I mean, I get to go across Canada with my job to talk about different issues across the country.
And I mean, the roads are a complete mess in many of the provinces.
You know, it doesn't seem to me like healthcare has gotten any better.
What about the passports, right?
How many hours do you have to wait in line to get something like that?
So you see the government spending buckets of cash more every year.
It seems like it seems like taxes are always going up.
And what results are we getting for it?
Well, we know what results they're getting for it.
They're getting pay raise after pay raise after pay raise.
They're going on all these international gab fests.
And they won't even tell us what value, if any, we're getting for all of this.
Speaking of additional taxes, it's one of the reasons I wanted to have you on the show is we are about to get hammered with an additional carbon tax that nobody really seems to be aware of.
And before you came, before I hit record, you said that's because they don't want you to be aware of it, Sheila.
So tell us about the clean fuel standard.
Well, it's a second carbon tax, right?
Let's call it what it is.
They want to call it that name because it sounds better, but what it really is is a second carbon tax.
Okay.
So, but here's what I meant when I said that to you, okay?
So they tried to bury this second carbon tax within fuel regulations.
They want it to bury in regulations so it's not as transparent because they're getting hammered over the carbon taxes and the higher gas prices that have been going on in Canada while inflation reached a 40-year high last year.
So here's what the regulations do.
They require producers to reduce the carbon content of their fuels.
If producers and companies cannot meet Justin Trudeau's requirements, then they have to pay Justin Trudeau's second carbon tax.
But as all your listeners will know, it's not just the big industry players that are going to feel this.
You're going to feel it every time you go to the pump to fuel up your minivan with gas or to fill up that ram with diesel, right?
And the parliamentary budget officer, the government's own nonpartisan independent budget watchdog, shows that this second carbon tax will cost a family in 2030 up to $1,100.
Sorry, costs an average family up to $1,100 in 2030.
Now, that's an annual hit.
So 2030 onwards, the second carbon tax will cost an average family in Alberta, for example, about $1,100.
And folks, that's not replacing the current carbon tax.
That's in addition to the current carbon tax.
So by 2030, Trudeau's two carbon taxes will increase the price of gasoline by about 55 cents a liter and cost the average family more than $2,000 every single year.
And the opposition to this is not just coming from conservatives like me who say, you know, I've got a 45-minute round trip to get a jug of milk from the convenience store up on the highway.
I'm surprised you don't have cows.
Yeah, don't get me started on the cartels.
But, you know, it's for a lot of people in this country, we don't live in town.
This is a very sparsely populated place.
And it's not, the outrage against this is not just coming from people like me.
It's coming from fellow liberals like many premiers in the Atlantic provinces.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, they are.
And I think the reason is, is because, I mean, let's just have some compassion for people, right?
And, but the problem is, is that it's tough for politicians to have compassion for the people they're supposed to represent when they're so financially divorced from the realities facing the people they're supposed to represent, right?
It's very difficult to understand someone who is barely living paycheck to paycheck or who's worried about their credit card statements going up every single month when you get to go all to these fancy parties.
You know, you're meeting with all these lobbyists when bureaucrats are, you know, giving you these fancy briefings.
They're so detached from that reality.
But I think people are starting to understand, like, look, it is the government's taxation and regulations that are driving up the cost of living.
And all of this is useless.
The carbon tax is a useless tax that does nothing for the environment.
Okay, let's just talk about global emissions because that's kind of the narrative that this is all for reducing global emissions.
Well, hold on a second.
Okay, Canada makes up 1.5% of global emissions.
So how does making it more expensive for someone in Calgary or Medicine Hat or St. John's, how does it make it, how is making it more expensive for them to fill up their grocery cart or to fuel up their minivan, what does that do to reduce emissions in China, India, Russia, the United States?
It does absolutely nothing.
The carbon tax is just a useless tax from the environmental standpoint.
All it does is make Canadians poorer.
Well, and, you know, these people tend to measure our carbon footprint against people who live in equatorial regions.
I'm just trying not to die for most of the winter.
So yeah, my carbon footprint is going to be a little bit higher.
I think Canadians are doing pretty well considering just how darn cold and vast this place is.
Well, I mean, yeah, we live in a very big, very cold country, right?
And look, we also, we also have to recognize too, like other countries aren't doing this.
Like your listeners might not know this, but more than 75% of countries do not have a national carbon tax.
Okay.
More than three quarters of the countries out there do not have a national carbon tax.
And as of Canada Day, we'll have two, right?
So like, what is this all about here?
Because I can go through a laundry list of countries that have just cut gas taxes.
Australia cut its gas tax in half.
Germany just cut gas taxes.
India, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, South Korea cut its gas tax by 30%.
The United Kingdom has provided billions of dollars in fuel tax relief.
Some of the provinces are doing the right thing.
Newfoundland and Labrador cut taxes.
Ontario cut taxes.
The Daniel Smith government completely suspended gas taxes.
I mean, kudos to those governments who are doing the right thing, all while Ottawa continues to raise taxes, raise the cost of living.
And to be honest, I can guarantee you, or maybe I can't say that, but I bet you, politicians in Ottawa, every time they go buy a shell or they go buy a petro, they're patting themselves on the back because they want these high gas prices.
Yeah, and they're not getting rid of their town cars.
Getting driven around every single day to wherever they're going.
They're driving in a big SUV or a town car for sure.
They're not pulling up in a Prius.
That's for darn sure.
We've all seen it with our own eyes.
Franco, I want to thank you so much for coming on the show and being such a strong advocate for just the normals of the world out there who are trying to just get by as it seems like the government is picking our pockets more furiously every single day.
Church Under Fire00:07:24
How do people find your work?
And more importantly, support the work that the Canadian Taxpayers Federation does because unlike a lot of these groups, you will never take a penny from the government.
No, we never have, never will.
I can tell you that.
And thank you so much for having me on.
Please, everyone, head over to taxpayer.com, check out our newsroom, check out our petitions, and yeah, let's help us hold these big spending politicians and bureaucrats accountable.
Great.
Thanks, Franco.
Stay with us.
your letters to, I guess, Ezra, read by me up after the break.
Well, letters, letters, letters.
We get your letters and comments every hour of every single day because we don't close the comment section.
We actually care about what you think about the work that we do here at Rebel News because without you, there is no Rebel News.
We don't have a sugar daddy named Justin Trudeau reaching into other people's pockets to take their money, to give to us, to create content they don't care about, as is the case with Justin Trudeau and the mainstream media.
So if you look over my shoulder, there are a few different ways where you can get in touch with us here at Rebel News.
But also don't hesitate to leave a comment on any of the places that you might find our work, especially in this instance today, YouTube.
Now, I said in my interview with Franco that I would be reading your letters to Ezra, but then I changed my mind in between just moments ago and now.
I thought that I would read your comments on our trailer for our brand new documentary called Church Under Fire, Canada's War on Christianity.
But before I read those comments and tell you how you can see the movie, because we're taking it all across the country, take a look at the trailer.
In a vast land of untamed beauty, hidden within its borders lie stories of unwavering faith and resilience.
When the world was engulfed in fear, COVID-19, which is causing all of the concern right now, pastors faced an unimaginable trial.
They were wrongfully persecuted during the COVID-19 pandemic, their voices silenced by oppressive measures.
And we realized something doesn't match up.
There's an agenda under the surface here.
I cannot abide under their wishes.
I cannot just abide this new norm, if you will.
In the face of adversity, they held on to their beliefs, defending the sacred right to worship.
Out of this property, you Nazis!
Out!
Join us on an extraordinary voyage across Canada as we shine a light on the untold stories of these pastors who were wrongfully persecuted during COVID-19.
Witness their courage, their unwavering faith, and their determination to reclaim their voices in the face of adversity.
I'm not going to let those who are in Ottawa determine my peace, my joy.
You're disobedient to the government or disobedient to God.
And take your pick.
This summer, embark on an unforgettable exploration through Church Under Fire, Canada's War on Christianity, a documentary that will inspire and challenge your perceptions.
Experience their remarkable stories, a testament to the indomitable human spirit and the power of faith.
Now, from the comment section underneath the trailer, Judy S. 5638 writes, As a Christian, I'm astounded this has gone unchecked, not investigated, ignored by the crime monster in Ottawa, Freedom.
Unfortunately, with liberals winning half the by-elections yesterday, where is the hope for Canada's future?
She's talking about the series of by-elections last week, where I think the status quo was maintained.
It's hard to flip a by-election in the middle of a term.
And I don't think it's indicative of the public sentiment.
I think more and more people are waking up to the reality that nothing was quite as they were told during the pandemic.
Hindsight being 2020, people are figuring out the vaccines weren't as effective, the lockdowns weren't everything that they were sold to be, and the restrictions on places of worship were heavy-handed and completely unnecessary.
And I think a portion of the population now looks back upon what we all just lived through with horror and perhaps maybe a little bit of shame for what they didn't say as things were unfolding and as the attacks were occurring on their fellow Canadian citizens.
We've got another 888 here and now writes, breaks my heart.
Let's remember what the enemy meant for evil, God will work for good.
You know what?
I've seen this play out in real time in my communications with these pastors.
They have said that more people are finding faith and finding fellowship and finding community since the pandemic.
They were looking for churches to stand up against the state.
And the churches that did stand up, they're growing.
And the churches that moved communion to Zoom, well, maybe some of those congregations never come back because they were told by their priests, by their pastors, that in-person fellowship was not vital, not essential to the practice of their faith, despite what the Bible tells us.
One last one, Brendan Schultz, 980, writes, this must never be forgotten.
Thank you for making this.
Generations will look back in shame, but those who fought will be seen as heroes.
I think there's a lot of shame to go around.
A lot of people who cheered on the lockdowns.
And a lot of people who condoned the lockdowns through their silence.
They should really be ashamed.
This was a chance to show the world who we all really were.
And frankly, a lot of people showed me exactly who they were, and I don't really like it.
And I learned a lot about a lot of people during the course of the pandemic.
And I think people at home, you probably feel the same way.
But I also hope that you learned a lot about us here at Rebel News.
That not only were we willing to tell the stories of the absolute bonfire of civil liberties that was occurring around us during the pandemic, but you realize that we were people who maybe we couldn't put out that bonfire of civil liberties, but we would bring a bucket of water to do our best to stop it from spreading through our partnership with the registered Canadian charity,
Documentary Tour Begins00:02:22
the Democracy Fund, who helped a few of these pastors featured in our documentary, including Pastor Phil Hutchins, who spent seven days in solitary confinement for the crime of church services, singing in church during the time of COVID.
Now, for those of you who just saw that trailer and you want to see the documentary in person, we're doing something very, very different than what we have done in the past.
We are touring our documentary because I'm not going to lie, and I'm not just saying this because I am in the documentary and I worked with our brilliant chief documentary filmmaker Kian Simoni to put it together.
But I think this is some of the best work and maybe some of the most important work that we've ever done, creating an historical record of what happened in this country to places of worship at the hands of the government in the name of public health, when really it was just all about control.
They now know which congregations will heal before the government instead of God.
But if you want to see the documentary, go to savethechristians.com.
We have showings all across the country.
We want to bring the documentary as close to the people who are in the documentary as possible because without them, the documentary isn't possible.
So we've got showings and we're adding showings, but I should tell you, showings are already starting to sell out.
So if you go to savethechristians.com, you'll see the list of cities and keep checking back because we're adding cities all the time.
But the cities on there, like I said, they're already selling out.
So if you're hemming and hawing about getting a ticket, just get one because I can't help you once they sell out.
I can't change the fire code.
So go to that website, savethechristians.com, find a city near you, click through, buy a ticket, and we will see you there.
It's just that easy.
I can't wait for you to see this work.
As I said, it's some of the most important work that we've ever done.
It's savethechristians.com to see our documentary, Church Under Fire.
And again, I'm just, I'm so proud of it.
Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
You know, I'm not sure who's hosting tomorrow.
I don't think it's me.
Thanks to everybody who works behind the scenes to put the show together every single day.