Ezra Levant exposes Toronto police enabling pro-Hamas protesters—blocking Jewish neighborhoods, providing hot coffee, and ignoring death threats—while enforcing COVID lockdowns against peaceful Canadians like Adam Skelly. Criminal code violations (319) go unpunished despite video evidence, with $476K wasted on bureaucratic awards while Trudeau spends $61K on Manhattan hotel rooms. Police complicity, tied to DEI policies, fuels distrust, risking escalation as citizens feel powerless against systemic bias. [Automatically generated summary]
I want to show you some crazy things that happened over the weekend.
A bridge closure in Toronto.
Hamas protesters started to close the bridge and police came and finished the job for them and actually brought hot coffee for the Hamas protesters to be, quote, helpful to them.
Absolutely outrageous.
And the next day, those same protesters, the same people stormed a public skating party of the mayor.
I'll show you footage from that too.
Which is why I want you to get the video version of this podcast.
Go to RebelNewsPlus.com.
It really is a video story, and it's citizen journalists who are making it happen, not the mainstream media.
I want you to see the cops giving the protesters, the Hamas protesters.
I want you to see them getting them coffee.
I want you to see the abusive approach that these Hamas thugs took to ordinary Torontonians skating on Sunday.
You've got to see it.
Go to RebelNewsPlus.com.
Click subscribe.
It's $8 a month.
You get all the video for these shows, and you help keep us strong.
All right, here's today's broadcast.
Tonight, why are Toronto police refusing to arrest pro-Hamas mobs?
It's January 8th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Shame on you, you censorious bug.
It's great to be back in the studio at our world headquarters.
January is going to be a busy month for Rebel News.
Obviously, we're covering so many things in Canada.
But as you know, a lot of decisions about our life here in Canada, well, those decisions are made far away by undemocratic entities, whether it's at the United Nations or the World Economic Forum, which are two of Justin Trudeau's favorite places, certainly a lot more than, say, Alberta.
So this Friday, just four days from now, we're sending a big team to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
We're sending six journalists.
I'm going, Javi Yamini's going.
We're going to Barry, not to praise.
As you know, we are not officially permitted to go.
Flashback To Toronto Police Violence00:07:23
We are not accredited.
They refuse us.
But Switzerland is a liberal democracy with freedom in the press.
And from personal experience, I can report that their police are actually the most respectful of freedom that I've encountered anywhere in the world.
On two occasions at the last World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, police asked us questions, including at a checkpoint on the highway.
We literally said we're exercising our freedom of the press, and the police immediately let us go on our way.
It was actually kind of amazing.
And remember when Avi Yamini and I scrummed the CEO of Pfizer, Albert Burla, asking him about his vaccines?
That, I don't think, would have happened in Canada.
The RCMP would have come in and started pushing and shoving us, maybe even arresting us.
Not so in Switzerland.
In fact, their cops were very heavily armed there at Davos.
Like I'm talking submachine guns and whatnot, but they had a very light touch.
As long as we were not threatening or physically bugging anyone, they didn't care what we asked them.
Here's a flashback of that scrum with the Pfizer CEO.
Mr. Boorla, can I ask you, when did you know that the vaccines didn't stop transmission?
How long did you know that without saying it publicly?
Thank you very much.
I'm sorry.
I answered that question.
I mean, we now know that the vaccines didn't stop transmission, but why did you keep it secret?
You said it was 100% effective, then 90%, then 80%, then 70%.
But we now know that the vaccines do not stop transmission.
Why did you keep that secret?
Have a nice day.
I won't have a nice day until I know the answer.
Why did you keep it a secret that your vaccine did not stop transmission?
Is it time to apologize to the world, sir?
To give refunds back to the countries that poured all their money into your vaccine that doesn't work, your ineffective vaccine?
Yeah, you have a little bit of round.
Are you not ashamed of what you've done in the last couple of years?
Do you have any apologies to the public, sir?
Are you proud of it?
You've made millions on the backs of people's entire livelihoods.
How does that feel to walk the streets as a millionaire on the backs of the regular person at home in Australia, in England, in Canada?
What do you think about on your yacht, sir?
What do you think about on your private jet?
Are you worried about product liability?
Are you worried about myocarditis?
Anyway, so that's the police.
That's the best police force I've ever encountered in the whole world.
Now I'd like to talk to you about some of the worst policing I've ever seen.
You remember the Toronto Police Service and how when there was a young restaurant owner named Adam Skelly who dared to keep his barbecue open during the pandemic lockdowns, the Toronto Police deployed, I don't know, 100 police officers to shut him down, including riot police and horses.
It was the most grotesque police state display I've ever seen in Canada.
Well, at least unto that point, because the trucker convoy police brutality, of course, exceeded that, but that came later.
So here's a flashback of how violent and over the top the Toronto police were when some guy wanted to sell some sandwiches.
Remember this?
Shame on you.
Shame on you.
That guy!
Get it off with it.
Shame on you.
Shame on these police.
Shame on these police.
Look at the way things started now.
You're a hero, Adam.
I love you guys.
Ooh!
So that's how it was when a peaceful Canadian citizen was trying to keep his company alive.
But here's how it is when violent foreign thugs wearing masks, often flying flags of banned terrorist groups, storm through our streets, into our shopping centers, vandalize and harass Jewish businesses, and outright make death threats.
Here's a reminder of a bit of that.
Let's start with that masked Hamas thug shouting inside a private shopping center that he has already been asked to leave, shouting about murdering someone with the Toronto cops right there.
I'm telling you, because he touches my payment, you'll come near now and put your leg down on the floor.
I'll lay you asleep.
I'll put you six feet deep.
I'll put you six feet deep.
I'll put you six feet under.
Remember, the cop just stood there.
Here's some more, a reminder of how docile and useless the Toronto police are when it's a politically protected group of protesters, if you can call chanting death to the Jews, a protest.
No!
I can't hear you.
Yeah, I don't think there's been a single arrest made of any of these thugs, even when they chant death threats or call for genocide, which is weird.
Those things are actually in the criminal code.
I've never been a fan of hate speech crimes, but they are the law of the land.
They have been used by left-wing prosecutors against right-wing individuals, typically marginal working-class, maybe mentally unbalanced individuals, usually harmless and nonviolent.
In those cases, the police and the prosecutors are very brave.
But when it's an actual menacing mob, well, the police aren't quite as courageous, and neither are the prosecutors, are they?
Police As Messengers00:14:53
Here, let me remind you of some of the laws on the books.
I'm not saying I necessarily agree with these laws.
I think they're too restrictive on speech, but they are the laws of the land.
But not a single one is being deployed against the daily hate marches.
I'm going to read through.
This is from the criminal code.
You can look it up yourself.
Section 319, public incitement of hatred.
Everyone who, by communicating statements in a public place, incites hatred against any identifiable group where such incitement is likely to lead to a breach of the peace is guilty of an indictable offense and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or an offense punishable on summary conviction.
I'll keep reading.
Section two.
Willful promotion of hatred.
Everyone who communicating statements, other than in private conversation, willfully promotes hatred against any identifiable group is guilty of an indictable offense and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or an offense punishable on summary conviction.
I'll keep reading because there's one more here I want to tell you about.
Willful promotion of anti-Semitism.
Everyone who, by communicating statements, other than in private conversation, willfully promotes anti-Semitism by condoning, denying, or downplaying the Holocaust is guilty of an indictable offense and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or is guilty of an offense punishable on summary conviction.
Yeah, those things are happening every day, let alone actual death threats like I'll put you six feet under, vandalism, harassment, and just plain traffic offenses, which were enough to imprison truckers like Tamara Leach for nearly two months.
So yeah, two-tiered policing.
It's bad enough when these protests shut down entire highways like this.
This is on behalf of everybody in Toronto for Palestine.
We're ensuring solidarity with them.
This action is only taking four minutes.
We're not here to disturb anybody.
We just wanted to show solidarity and we're going to be on our way.
Four minutes.
That's it.
Embaya, brothers and sisters in Palestine, and decide that we will never, ever give an inch away from this land.
When they know, young brothers and sisters like yourself, who are so concerned about Aimata, they thought they made you forget it.
But they are wrong.
Because as long as we live and as long as we breathe air, Palestine will never, ever be forgotten.
And this is the message that we send clearly to the Zionist Israeli regime.
That's the main downtown road in Toronto.
Clearly, an organized shutdown.
No charges, of course, of any sort.
It's bad enough when private businesses and malls are targeted with anti-Semitic boycotts.
But the Hamas mob has moved from highways and malls into residential areas now.
I did a story about this a few weeks ago before the Christmas break.
And I talked with David Menzies about it last week, but it went nuts just over the weekend.
I'm talking about the blockade of the Jewish community in Armor Heights in Toronto.
Lots of Jewish homes and synagogues and schools in the neighborhood.
It's a completely residential neighborhood.
There's no corporate offices, no embassies, just Jews.
The Hamas supporters are clever enough to use the euphemism, Zionists.
Listen to these foreign thugs dehumanize Canadians.
Take a listen.
And their leaders are calling for the elimination of the Palestinian people in Gaza.
Here is no better than the U.S. They're no better than the Nazis, who thought they were also superior in race.
Zionists think they are superior than anybody else.
And tomorrow is Christmas Day.
And in the Holy Lands, Zionists are the worst shit disturbers.
Jesus, Christians.
Jesus in holy spaces.
Jesus.
How dare they desecrate churches in the Holy Lands?
This tears your ass off.
That is why on this side you have Jews again on our side.
You got pre-Palestinian Jews and you have Christians on our side.
Over there, all you have is filthy Zionists and filthy Zionists.
These are Hamas thugs and they're promising that they will continue to keep harassing ordinary Jews on the streets in Jewish neighborhoods.
They go crazy when they see this flag, so we will keep exposing them.
How many of you, how many, look at the little fingers, bring it all on, no problem.
Bring it all on.
We are never going to shy away from coming into any neighborhood who experiences anti-Palestinian racism.
Inshallah.
On the ground.
On the ground.
Whether it's back against Israel.
You will see us there.
All of you here today.
This intention that you will be present and walk against Israel.
Because that is really the anti-Palestinian so that finally we will never.
And we are standing very clearly.
We will never shy away from exposing this film.
Never.
That is our promise.
So they've been blocking a key bridge for a key road into that community.
It's a very major road called Avenue Road, and it's the main way in and out of this Jewish residential area.
And these Hamas protesters are just blocking it.
And instead of clearing the road, issuing tickets and telling these foreign harassers to leave, the police actually come to help them.
The police formally block the road and give tickets to any Jews trying to leave or come on that road.
I kid you not.
Here's a video of the cops ticketing one Jew who slowed down his car to argue with a Hamas protester.
The Jew got the ticket.
The Hamas protester can't believe his law.
But the cops actually blocked the bridge into this community.
The Hamas supporters didn't block it.
The cops blocked it.
They brought in huge buses to actually block the streets on the Jews, to make a little ghetto, an enclosed Jewish neighborhood where police and Hamas racists decide who can go in and out and when and where.
And they love doing that on the Jewish Sabbath.
Can you imagine if there were a racist group shouting hateful things against Muslims, blocking a Muslim neighborhood and a Muslim mosque on a Muslim holy day?
It's unthinkable.
It would never happen.
But if it did, do you think the police would actually assist?
But thanks to citizen journalist Karim Asad, we saw this beautiful moment of friendship and allegiance.
A Toronto cop actually delivering hot coffee to the Hamas thugs to help keep them warm during their little protests.
Kid, you know, take a look.
I'll just ask.
Sorry, it's the person with the best.
Jihad?
Yeah, I know.
I know the guy.
No, no, no, no.
How did you get coffee from the police?
We're not the police.
Someone has brought it for us, but the police won't let them in.
So the police are now becoming our little messengers between us.
I don't know.
I have no idea what's going on.
We're on the bridge.
They're not letting anyone else come on.
Which makes no sense.
Because if we're already on the bridge, how is their public safety?
I tell you, the Hamas protesters must be laughing, laughing, and laughing at us.
I mean, the rest of the world is.
That insane collaboration between the police and the Hamas protesters was covered around the world, including on Fox News, but throughout the English language in Europe, too.
I did a tweet on the subject myself that got more than 2 million views on the weekend.
The whole world was stunned by that video.
What is wrong with Canada?
I mean, I guess it's not that surprising considering Trudeau voted with Hamas of the United Nations, and that got a thank you video from Hamas.
But to literally help a racist hate march blockade a Jewish street, that's just nuts.
One of the Toronto Police Service's many Twitter cops, I'm serious, they have those.
I thought she'd help by tweeting, and let me read this to you.
Our officers are managing a dynamic situation in performing a helpful act today.
Our officers' motivation was to help keep tensions low and should not be interpreted as showing support for any cause or group.
Our officers continue to work to de-escalate these demonstrations.
What?
What?
You saw the video.
They were cheerfully chatting back and forth with the Hamas thugs.
What do they mean by de-escalate?
Is there some hostage they're negotiating for?
In a way, I guess there is.
They're holding the whole Jewish community there hostage.
But what are they talking about?
No one was arrested or even ticketed except that Jew who drove by the other day and heckled them.
Helpful act.
Well, that part was right.
That PR cop later deleted the whole Twitter account, but it was a police Twitter account, a public Twitter account.
What went on there?
Who wrote that?
If it was an incorrect message, what was incorrect about it?
Won't they correct it?
Why are morally void children running police messaging about deadly serious events?
What a stupid, useless police force.
I wonder how much in taxes the Jews of Armor Heights pay.
I think they need their own police force, a private police force, because Toronto's public police force is too partisan, too political.
They've been colonized by DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
That's the phrase used for cultural Marxism.
They believe the same thing that that Harvard president who just resigned believes, which is you determine right and wrong, not on merit, but based on race or sex or grievance.
So foreign bigots who propose violence, they're still the oppressed ones here.
And the Jewish children trying to get to school in Armor Heights, they're the oppressors.
It's the same logic that defended the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7th.
It's a double win for the left.
They have co-opted the police to protect Hamas and even to bring them coffee.
And they're also turning law-abiding Canadians against the police.
It's a double win.
The Jews really do need their own police because they cannot trust the Toronto police anymore.
I sure don't.
In part because Toronto is one of the stupidest, most communist mayors in Canada.
And I say those as observations, not as insults.
Olivia Chow is mayor only because she is the widow of former NDP leader Jack Layton.
That name recognition was enough to give her the edge in what turned into a mayor's race of more than 100 candidates.
Seriously, there were more than 100 names on the ballot.
So sheer name recognition gave it to Olivia Chow.
That and the city socialists and communists voted for her too.
She endorsed the pro-Hamas ceasefire that would let them rearm and regroup.
She's absolutely in sync with the Hamas terrorist.
She doesn't care much for Jews or for Israel.
The funny thing is, yesterday, she had her mayor's annual skating party, a family affair right outside City Hall at a place called Nathan Phillips Square.
It's named after Toronto's first Jewish mayor, actually.
And the exact same thugs, literally the same people who were blocking the Jewish neighborhood, they came to disrupt Chow's family skating party.
Take a look at some of that.
Free, free Palestine!
Free, free, pull the star!
Free, free Palestine!
Free, free, pull the star!
Free free Palestine!
Olivia Chow!
You can hide!
You support this genocide!
Olivia Chow!
You can hide!
You support Janocide!
Olivia Chow!
You can hide!
You support this genocide!
Olivia Tow, you can't hide!
You support this genocide!
Olivia Chow!
You can't hide!
You support this genocide!
Free, free Palestine!
Free, free, Palestine!
Free, free Palestine!
Free, free, Palestine!
Why your skating bombs are dropping!
Why are you skating bombs are dropping?
Why your skating bombs are dropping!
Why are you skating bombs are dropping?
Why your skating bombs are dropping!
So they weren't skating.
They weren't wearing skates.
They were bringing their hate flags and their megaphones, and they're shouting at Canadians.
And they had that sign promoting Hamas itself, which is crazy.
They are literally claiming that Hamas is no different from Nelson Mandela.
By the way, it is a crime in Canada to support a banned terrorist group.
But if they're not going to arrest a Hamas thug for wearing a mask and uttering death threats, they're certainly not going to arrest these people.
Harassing, shouting, threatening Canadians.
Do not touch me.
Do not touch me.
You touch me.
Don't touch me.
You literally touch me.
Back the fuck away.
Are you assaulting people?
Back the fucking church.
And no family skating party would be complete without some foreign thug bringing his loudspeaker and calling for an armed genocide against every Jew in Israel.
Hamas Hate Marches00:04:38
I mean, he's been getting away with this for three months.
Why would he have his beats for the 300th time?
I said 300 times because that's how many Hamas hate marches have happened, according to the police chief.
On Sunday night, after the whole world was wondering what was wrong with Ontario, with Toronto, the chief put out a useless, vague word salad.
I'll read some of it.
Questions have been raised regarding one particular interaction between officers and a person on the Avenue Road Bridge during an hours-long demonstration.
Whatever the intent, the impact has been to cause concern and confusion.
And for that, I am sorry.
Well, what was the intent?
And what is the policy?
And really, who cares about the coffee other than it was a symbol?
Final utter proof that the police are in league with the Hamas protesters.
They're a team.
They're buddies.
And they're normalizing this hate march.
Imagine police bringing in coffee, say, for the Ku Klux Klan.
If they were blocking a road outside a black church and chanting in support of lynchings, and the cops just brought coffee to help.
The police chief wrote, We are doing everything we can in the locations that have been targeted for demonstrations to uphold and enforce the law.
Don't lie.
They're not doing everything.
They're doing nothing.
Not one arrest, not one clearing of the road even.
The opposite, they brought in big buses to block the road for the Hamas protesters.
They're bringing coffee for them.
Just useless.
What is the point of the Toronto police?
What an awful statement.
But really, it's a reflection of the awful mayor and the awful premium prime minister.
But I think the connection is the closest to that atrocious communist mayor.
Watch this clip of Olivia Chow, the mayor, trying to make some banal statement about her skating party and being shouted down.
You'll notice she stops and turns around and says, I agree with you.
She says she agrees with the protesters.
She interrupted herself when they were interrupting her to plead with them to say, look, I've already endorsed a pro-Hamas ceasefire.
They don't care.
This isn't about persuasion.
This is about domination and showing Canadians who's boss now, who controls the streets now, who are the new masters of the police now.
I do agree.
You see my message about ceasefire, right?
So why don't you let me continue?
Today we are taking the life belongs.
I'm trying to have a dialogue.
How many more kids, Olivia, how many more kids?
I think we are.
Democracy in action is...
Is that what that is?
Coming to a children's skating party, storming onto the ice without skates, but with megaphones and terrorist flags and banners, shouting at Canadians just skating.
Is that democracy in action, really?
Is it democracy in action to block a road to homes and schools and shut it down?
Oh, by the way, here's what Olivia Chow wrote about her skating event after the fact.
Some good fun at today's New Year's levee and skating party, looking forward to a great year ahead.
And it's carefully curated.
No Hamas protesters in sight and just photos, no videos, so you won't hear the swearing and I'm up death chance.
That's Toronto, the laughingstock of the world.
We know the truth because a citizen journalist, by the way.
It would be funny all this, unless you're a citizen wondering what the hell happened to your city and what's happening to our whole country.
stay with us for more.
Government Mindset: Harper's Legacy00:12:13
You know, a fish rots from the head down.
What does that mean?
Well, it means everyone in an organization watches the boss and sort of models themselves after that.
That's how they know what's acceptable or not.
So, for example, when Stephen Harper was the prime minister, Bev Oda, a cabinet minister, was actually sacked from cabinet because she had the audacity to buy an orange juice from a hotel mini bar.
You know how expensive those are.
It was a $16 orange juice.
But that was so offensive, not just to the media party, which was outraged by this, but to Harper's own sensibilities that he sacked her.
That's how it was under Harper.
Compare that to Justin Trudeau, who's been convicted under the Conflict of Interest Act so many times, and he doesn't care.
And over the Christmas holidays, we learned that contrary to his public statements, he accepted a free gift worth almost $100,000 of a vacation getaway in Jamaica that he claimed he had paid for, but he lied.
Just absolutely tone-deaf to begin with, going to this $100,000 free vacation when Canadians are having one of the toughest economic times in a generation.
The lie, of course, came naturally.
Now, his son Xavier, who's quite active on Instagram, was boasting about it, publishing videos of some of that luxury lifestyle.
I mean, really, rock star lifestyle.
It's really weird to me also that Sophie Trudeau tagged along, even though allegedly she's in a new relationship with a new guy.
Well, she came along for the party too.
Here's some of Xavier Trudeau's Instagram videos just showing what it's like being part of that rock star family.
Listen, I don't begrudge anyone having wealth, but this was not earned wealth.
This is a bribe.
This is a $100,000 gift to Trudeau, which I guess is how it is now.
Under Stephen Harper, you get sacked for a $16 orange juice.
So every reason I tell you this is that every single person in the public service, every single MP and cabinet minister is watching the boss.
And they're learning by example what is or isn't acceptable.
And so far we have found no limits of what is or isn't acceptable.
And that is on my mind because I see a new press release by our friends at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
Let me just read the headline to you before we go to their director, Franco Terrazano.
The headline, oh, it's just perfect timing.
Feds drop half a million on glitzy galas for bureaucrats.
Let me just read a paragraph before I call on Franco.
Cameras flashing as honored guests strut down a red carpet.
Catered menus featuring charcuterie, cured Arctic char, and duck prosciutto.
Speech writers and lavish venue rentals.
Trophies made of antique gold, clear crystal, and beveled black glass.
It's not the Oscars, not the Golden Globes, not even the Junos.
It is the Public Service Award of Excellence.
Joining us now to talk about how the public services just taken after their boss is our friend Franco Terrazano, the director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
They're living in their own world, and it's a luxury world, and things have never been better, richer, fatter, comfier in that world.
To heck with what ordinary Canadians are going through.
Franco, tell us what this is all about.
What are these glitzy galas and why are you and I not invited?
Well, yeah, you're right.
We're not invited, but we sure are picking up the tap, aren't we?
I mean, we're laughing because if you don't laugh, you have to cry because this story is just so outrageous.
The feds have dropped about 476,000 smackers since 2012.
So that's over a decade on these award shows, okay?
And they're supposed to be celebrating the excellence within the public service, if I could even say that, when these government departments can't even meet half of their own performance targets.
Now, folks, we're going to dive into the details here, but let me just give you kind of the big picture here.
Half a million dollars for these bureaucrats to show up and get these very fancy awards.
Some of the menus that we've seen in recent years show these fancy feasts, these fancy foods, all paid for by you.
But let me just start with the last two years.
So over the past two years, these award shows that these bureaucrats pat each other on the back over at a time when so many Canadians struggled during government lockdowns, during government-induced inflation, during small businesses closing down, during people losing their jobs.
While all that was happening, they dropped over the past two years, $118,000 on these award shows for themselves.
And folks, the big part of the bill here are these fancy trophies worth $80,000.
They dropped these trophies.
Come on.
$80,000.
Ezra, one last stat here.
I'm a number cruncher.
One last stat here.
The trophies over the last decade have cost taxpayers $240,000.
You know, we have the Rebbe Awards here at Rebel News, and we get these fun, like part of the fun is that they're little and goofy and they're sort of cheesy.
It's like when you're a kid and you get like a bowling award in third place.
I think we spend maybe 20 bucks on each of them, including engraving.
It's the fun of it.
It's just that I can't believe like that's that's what a real Oscar would cost.
Like it, I mean, next year.
You're looking for Ezra.
Oh my God.
They did the unthinkable, Ezra.
Even you're lost for words because of their crazy spending.
Isn't that something else?
It's, oh, my, I didn't realize that.
I knew they were having gourmet meals.
And I'm looking at your press release here about, and frankly, the menu sounds delicious.
These folks really are partying like rock stars.
This is the rock star life.
This is, you know, a pop music star.
This really, when you start off by talking about the Oscars or the Junos, that's where you would expect this kind of luxury menu.
This is so out of touch with the times for the public service.
They aren't servants at all.
They're our masters and we're just paying for it.
Yeah, it really sounds like public servant in name only, right?
It really feels like you work hard so that you can pay their lavish work lifestyle and fund their big bloated paychecks, right?
So who is serving who?
I think that's a question to leave in everyone's mind.
Now, you mentioned the menus.
Let me read you the menu from 2019 or a proposed menu from 2019.
I don't even know what that is, but it's probably fancy.
And Duck Prosciuto.
Folks, in 2019, they had a literal red carpet.
Isn't that nice, right?
They had a photographer for a flashy photo shoot, all that fun stuff.
Now, out of all the different details in this, which are truly absurd, Ezra, you want to know which one for some reason I'm just so upset about is in 2022, their annual party for themselves in 2022 was $37,000.
Okay.
That's enough to make you mad.
What makes me so frustrated is the fact that the expensed mileage.
I was just going to say, go ahead, finish it.
The expense mileage for 165 local employees.
Local employees, just to get on, get up, drive to their own party.
They got paid to do.
That is not normal, by the way.
That's not normal to pay someone to come to work.
That's just not.
And this is to come to their own gala.
That's not normal.
I don't think that's normal.
You have to wonder if they had to buy these bureaucrats a mat so they could remember how to get back down to the city.
They were all working from home.
Oh my God.
Holy moly.
You know what?
I just am reading that menu again.
But it's the trophies themselves.
I just, you know what?
I think that there are two candidates or maybe more than that.
But I think, yeah, I like to joke that Trudeau's base is what I call the media party, all the journalists that are on the dole now.
But in a way, anyone with a government job is part of his base because, you know, the work from home, I was stunned to learn half of the passport office is still working from home in 2024.
Government services has rarely been worse.
The size of the government has never been larger.
The cost of it has never been higher.
There's no such thing as restraint for them.
They get cost of living and inflation adjustments, so they're not pinched in any way.
They are living a fake life that is supported by, you know, the number of people pulling the wagon versus the number of people riding in the back of the wagon is so out of joint.
But why would they not do that if their leader and boss is living that party lifestyle?
I don't know.
I'm just very frustrated by this, and it makes me long for the boring days of boring Stephen accountant Harper again.
Ezra, can I jump into two things here?
Because as you were talking, two things really came to mind.
And number one is I think the real issue that we face when it comes to how do we deal with this mess of a government or just governments across Canada, right?
And it's the fact that it's us versus them, the makers versus the takers.
You are not the government.
The government is not you, right?
And I know that's a tough pill to swallow, especially when growing up, you know, going through grade school, high school, university.
This might sound different, but the truth is the truth, right?
Like it is so different.
There really are two classes, right?
There's the productive class, the people who essentially drive our country forward, you know, working, producing the tax revenue.
And it kind of has become the fact that there's also now another separate, distinct class, the government class that takes this money, that spends money without thinking about the people who actually work for it and essentially are spending a lot of money to benefit themselves, right?
These fancy parties, or whether it's Trudeau spending $61,000 on fancy Manhattan hotel rooms during a two-day anti-poverty summit or the governor general spending $71,000 on a limo service in Iceland for what, a four-day meeting where the hotel was like an eight-minute walk away from the main conference center, right?
It really does feel like the makers and takers here in Canada.
But the second thing that really came to my mind, more of a deeper issue than this crazy amount of spending, is that I honestly, I have to say, this goes much deeper than just the political element of it, right?
It's really, if we want to address this, we have to realize like, how do we fix the bureaucracy, right?
And I take your point that it all starts at the top, the political leadership, and we pay for them to be there to look after the public first.
But the real question, if we really want to solve these issues, is how do we tame the unelected bureaucracy and who's actually going to go in there and do what has to be done?
And what has to be done isn't just control spending.
It's not just moderate spending a little bit.
We actually need a massive overhaul.
Spending has to go down.
It can't just be, you know, business as usual with a little bit of savings.
Yeah.
Well, I sure hope so.
And Pierre Polyev has said that he will outline some cuts before the next election.
I certainly hope he does.
And I hope he's not deterred and scared off of that because it absolutely must happen.
I think the number one problem is the mindset.
Government Mindset Misalignment00:04:48
And you know, some people said, Ed, so why are you suing these cabinet ministers for blocking rebel news reporters on Twitter?
That seems a little bit petty.
I don't believe it's petty.
I think it goes to the government mindset that they are, they think they're the boss.
They think we are subjects, not citizens.
And it shines through everything they do.
And this half million dollar bureaucrat party for themselves, I think, is a symptom of their mindset.
Franco, I'm so grateful to you guys at the Taxpayers Federation.
As I always say, the reason you're trustworthy is because you do not take government money.
And so you can advocate for your members who are ordinary Canadians.
Great to see you again.
Keep up the fight.
Thanks, Ezra.
All right, there you have it.
Franco Terrazano, the director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
Can you believe paying people to come to their own gala from their own town?
Unbelievable.
Stay with us.
Hey, welcome back.
Instead of letters, I want to give you some final thoughts on this crazy bridge blockade in Toronto.
It's a neighborhood that is served by Avenue Road, which if you've ever been to Toronto, you may know it's one of the large north-south roads.
There's Young Street and there's Avenue Road and there's like it's a major artery.
And to block that off right where it enters this Jewish community is basically sealing off half the community.
It's ghettoizing them.
It truly is a blockade.
And it's just so astonishing that that happens time after time.
And that the police have normalized it.
The media have ignored it in the main.
It's citizen journalists who are showing the craziness there.
I can't help but think, what if there was a band of Ku Klux Klan or other racists who were marching on a black neighborhood?
I mean, what would the police do?
They would have their batons out.
Every single one of them would be charged with some made-up offense from jaywalking.
Remember when I encountered Omer Cotter on the streets in Halifax at the airport, and I was following him, and a cop said, You step on the road, I'm going to get you for jaywalking.
Like, you know, as the as La Vrenti Beria of the Soviet secret police said, find me the man, show me the man, and I'll show you the crime.
As in, there's so many laws out there.
I got you on anything.
Just show me the guy and I'll get him.
And when I was going to follow Omar Cotter, this cop said, you step on the road, I'll get you for jaywalking.
So there are countless laws you could apply, but none of them are being applied, even for a thug making death threats.
And I remember when we went on Nathan Phillips Square and the police wouldn't let us there in the daytime to do peaceful journalism because Antifa had a little tent city.
Remember that?
That was a few years back.
So police have a lot of discretion.
And by the way, I think we generally want police to have discretion because every situation is different.
But when week after week the Hamas thugs chant for the death of the Jews, oh, they say Zionists.
They're smart enough to say that.
But it's not a Zionist community center.
It's not a Zionist building.
It's a school.
It's a synagogue.
Those are houses with people.
They mean Jews when they talk about infested with Zionists.
That's Nazi-like language.
And the city's fine with that.
I never would have imagined it.
Growing up in Calgary, we had a fairly small Jewish community at the time, less than 10,000.
I always thought of Toronto as this Jewish Mecca because there's 200,000 Jews and they had the highest heights of the city.
And wow, that's an amazing place.
No, not in 2024 when cultural Marxism says Jews are the oppressor class and Palestinians are the oppressed class.
So you can literally do or say anything and the cops aren't going to do anything because they're involved in this whole DEI business.
I think it's a terrible look.
I think the world is shocked by Canada, but who's going to do anything about it?
Justin Trudeau?
Rob Ford?
Sorry, Doug Ford, excuse me, Rob Ford passed away.
I think that this is out of sync with Canadians, but just like during the unanimity amongst the parties during the COVID lockdowns, if there's no one in a position of power who will stand up and do anything, the people have no outlet.
I think you might see someone getting killed or injured.
I think you might see some vigilante reaction.
When people can no longer trust the police or rely on the police to uphold the law, terrible things may happen.
And I think this is only going to get worse, not better.