Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s policy bans gender-affirming surgeries for minors under 17, restricts hormone therapy to mature teens with approvals, and tightens parental oversight in schools and sports. Critics like Rachel Notley and Mark Holland call it unconstitutional and harmful, but LeVant argues it aligns with Alberta’s 88% support for parental consent. Meanwhile, Justice Hoag’s inquiry into foreign interference—amid 117 briefings to MPs and ministers—fails to address perpetrators, raising suspicions of a Trudeau cover-up. Reports link China’s operatives to election swaying in key ridings, while U.S. migrant releases strain Canada’s borders, exposing deeper democratic vulnerabilities. [Automatically generated summary]
Going to talk about Danielle Smith's announcement on a new transgenderism policy.
Oh my God, does it have the NDP and liberals apoplectic, which tells me they're on the right track.
I'll have her announcement and the reaction to it.
But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus.
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Just go to RebelNewsPlus.com, click subscribe, eight bucks a month.
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All right, here's today's podcast.
Tonight, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith brings in a sensitive, sensible policy on transgenderism.
And the liberals go nuts.
It's February 1st, and this is The Ezra LeVant Show.
Transgenderism has stormed into the public consciousness just in the last 10 years.
It's about queerness.
Queerness in general, not just sexuality.
And what I mean by queerness is a rebellion and normalizing abnormality for its own sake.
That's literally what the word queer means.
And I want to read to you from 1984.
As you know, we republished George Orwell's classic.
It's in the public domain, so we published it with 30 new illustrations.
You can buy your copy at the website buy1984.com.
I'm going to read from you two pages from the book, which back then when Orwell wrote this more than 70 years ago, he couldn't even fathom normalizing transgenderism.
But what he talks about here is queer math, in a way.
You'll understand in a moment.
Let me read to you a little bit from 1984, just two pages.
O'Brien held up his left hand, backward to Winston, with the thumb hidden and four fingers extended.
How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?
Four.
And if the party says it is not four, but five, then how many?
Four.
The word ended in a gasp of pain.
The needle of the dial had shot up to 55.
The sweat had sprung out all over Winston's body.
The air tore into his lungs and issued again in deep groans, which even by clenching his teeth, he could not stop.
O'Brien watched him.
The four fingers still extended.
He drew back the lever.
This time the pain was only slightly eased.
How many fingers, Winston?
Four.
The needle went up to 60.
How many fingers, Winston?
Four, four.
What else can I say?
Four.
The needle must have risen again, but he did not look at it.
The heavy, stern face and the four fingers filled his vision.
The fingers stood up before his eyes like pillars, enormous, blurry, and seeming to vibrate, but unmistakably four.
How many fingers, Winston?
Four.
Stop it.
Stop it.
How can you go on?
Four, four.
How many fingers, Winston?
Five, five, five.
No, Winston, that is no use.
You are lying.
You still think there are four.
How many fingers, please?
Four, five, four.
Anything you like.
Only stop it.
Stop the pain.
And it goes on.
That's what transgenderism is about.
Transgenderism is about making you look at a man and making you say it's a woman.
That is what the phrase queer refers to.
Queer can refer to sexuality, but it can refer to anything.
It can refer to math.
It can refer to history, queering math, queering history.
They'll tell you two plus two is five.
They really will.
That's what transgenderism is about.
Well, yesterday, Danielle Smith weighed in on the subject.
Transgenderism and Sports Disadvantages00:15:26
She released a video talking about her province's new policy that has yet to be put into the form of legislation or regulation.
But here, let's watch it together.
I'm going to play the whole thing and then we'll talk about it afterwards, including the reaction to it.
Take a look.
My fellow Albertans, today I wish to address a very sensitive issue involving our children and gender identity.
This is not always an easy conversation to have.
I strongly believe that we as a society must support and reach out with kindness and inclusion to those who identify as transgender and work to eliminate the discrimination they often experience in their lives.
As Premier of this province, I want every Albertan that identifies as transgender to know I care deeply about you and I accept you as you are.
As long as I lead this province, I will ensure you are supported and your rights are protected.
In the case of children aged 17 and under who identify as transgender, I also want you to know that you are loved and supported as you work through your often changing emotions, feelings, and beliefs.
As we all know, children and teenagers are in a constant state of biological, social, emotional, and sexual development and change.
They're constantly learning about themselves, trying new things, dealing with biological changes, and trying to understand a wide range of new thoughts and feelings.
It's a very complicated time.
In my view, one of the greatest responsibilities we as parents, teachers, and community leaders have is to preserve for our children the right to grow and develop into mature adults so that they are better prepared to make the most impactful decisions affecting their lives.
Decisions like choosing a career, a partner, raising children, their interaction with legal drugs like alcohol and cannabis, their sexual activities and preferences, and many other adult choices.
It is my view that list of adult choices includes deciding whether or not to alter one's biological sex.
Making permanent and irreversible decisions regarding one's biological sex while still a youth can severely limit that child's choices in the future.
Prematurely encouraging or enabling children to alter their very biology or natural growth, no matter how well-intentioned and sincere, poses a risk to that child's future that I, as Premier, am not comfortable with permitting in our province.
Similarly, the risks and unfair advantages that young women and girls are experiencing when competing with biologically stronger transgender females in sporting competitions have also grown too high.
After much discussion, the government caucus and I have therefore decided to implement the following policies and guidelines as it relates to transgender minors and athletes, including additional supports to assist transgender adults to secure the health care they need and the counseling support for youth identifying as transgender to ensure they can successfully work their way through their complex feelings and emotions as they grow to adulthood.
First, on the issue of gender reassignment treatments for minors.
For minors aged 17 and under, top and bottom gender reassignment surgeries will not be permitted.
For children age 15 and under, puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the purpose of gender reassignment or affirmation will also not be permitted, with the exception of those who've already commenced their treatment at this time.
Minors aged 16 and 17 will be permitted to commence hormone therapies for gender reassignment and affirmation purposes, so long as they are deemed mature enough to make these decisions and have parental physician and psychologist approval.
For transgender adults, our government is currently working to attract one or more medical professionals to practice in Alberta who specialize in transgender surgery to ensure those individuals transitioning have access to an expert in Alberta to assist them with their extremely unique and complex medical needs, rather than going to Quebec, which is now the practice.
We will also be building a private registry of medical professionals who specialize in this field to better support the lifelong health care needs of transgender Albertans, including access to needed hormones and surgery aftercare.
When it comes to classroom instruction on subject matter involving gender identity, sexual orientation, or human sexuality, we will be requiring parental notification and an opt-in requirement for each instance a teacher intends to give formal instruction on these subjects.
Furthermore, all third-party resource materials or presentations related to gender identity, sexual orientation, or human sexuality in our K through 12 school system will need to be pre-approved by the Ministry of Education to ensure the materials are age-appropriate.
For a minor age 15 and under, the government will require parental notification and consent for a school to alter the name or pronouns of a child.
For 16 and 17-year-olds who choose to alter their name or pronouns, parents do not need to give consent, but they must be notified.
We know that nearly all parents, even those who may disagree with the decision of their children, will love and care for their children no matter what choices they make.
However, in the handful of rare situations where one or both of the parents reject or become abusive to a child who identifies as transgender, we have child protection laws that will be strictly enforced.
The government is also designing a pilot project to provide appropriate counseling services to support parents and youth identifying as transgender to work through the unique challenges these families face.
We encourage all teachers, parents, classmates, and youth volunteers to be on the watch for any instances of bullying of youth or children for any reason, so adults can assist with putting a stop to it the moment it is detected.
Our government also needs to deal with the emerging issue of the unfair disadvantages that young women and girls are experiencing when competing with biologically stronger transgender female athletes in sporting competitions.
I strongly believe that those who are born male but have transitioned to or identify as female are owed the opportunity to meaningfully participate in sport.
However, there are obvious biological realities that give transgender female athletes a massive competitive advantage over women and girls.
It is not beneficial for those women, including those who are transgender, for this divisive and sometimes dangerous situation to continue.
That is why the Alberta government will work with sporting organizations active in our province to ensure that women and girls have the choice to compete in a women's-only division in athletic competitions and are not forced to compete against biologically stronger transgender female athletes.
We will also work with those same sporting organizations to ensure transgender athletes are able to meaningfully participate in the sport of their choice through the expansion of co-ed or other gender-neutral divisions for athletic competitions.
I understand how controversial and divisive discussions on topics of sexuality and gender can be, especially when those conversations involve children.
I would therefore ask that as we work through implementing these policies, we, as adults in this province, do all we can to depoliticize the discussion and focus on the well-being of the children involved, whether they are young people identifying as transgender or who find themselves attracted to those of the same sex, or simply trying to understand the complex and often changing emotions and feelings of being teenagers.
They all need our unconditional love and support.
And it's to those children and teens that I want to say just how much we love you and support you in becoming the person you want to be.
You never have to feel alone or isolated.
If you do, reach out to your parents, family members, teachers, a coach, or other trusted adults and ask for support.
We, as the adults in your life, will be there for you to make sure you know just how amazing and precious you are.
Thank you for listening.
So that's her presentation in full.
I thought it was very full of heart, full of sensitivity and compassion, and I thought it was quite balanced.
In fact, some will likely argue that Danielle Smith is aiding and abetting transgenderism by looking to establish doctors in Alberta to complete sex change transitions just for adults.
What she's doing is saying that children won't be allowed to make those decisions in Alberta at all, and in some cases in Alberta without their parents' support, and it makes sense.
Try getting a tattoo if you're under 18.
You can't.
Try buying alcohol.
Try voting.
Try doing many things.
You simply aren't allowed to do it before you're 18 because the government knows that you're not a fully formed grown-up.
You're not as thoughtful and mentally experienced as possible.
You're subject to persuasion and trickery.
There's a saying taking candy from a baby, it's because the baby doesn't know, isn't savvy enough to push back.
I thought that that was a very balanced approach.
And what was interesting was the discussion of bullying.
There's an enormous amount of bullying going on, but the bullying I see quite often is from transgender women against anyone else who disputes them, against women, for example.
I mean, following David Menzies' coverage of trans craziness around the country, and what's so shocking to me every single time is that moms and dads of girls are too terrified to stand up to these transgender bullies, terrified not so much for physical punishment, but because they'll be deemed transphobic and marginalized and canceled.
What Danielle Smith here is really doing is saying, you don't have to worry about that anymore.
I'm going to be the bad guy for you, and I'm going to say there's no more transgenderism in sports.
You can have women's sports and men's sports.
And for people who are transgender, they can have their own third sports league, but they're not going to be able to smash women to pieces anymore.
Now, of course, the reaction from the left, in my opening, I said liberals.
It's not even liberals.
It's the woke left.
Here's Rachel Notley, who has recently announced her departure as the NDP leader, but she's still the NDP leader for now.
I have a couple of clips from her and a couple from the federal liberals.
She says that this is clearly unconstitutional.
Here, take a look.
There's no question that this horrifying policy will be tested and rejected by our courts.
As such, the Premier will likely consider using the Notwithstanding Clause, which is yet another conservative attack on our Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
You know, if the courts are telling you that your policy is attacking the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the rights of individual citizens, that should be a clear indication that you're not doing the right thing.
We in the NDP believe that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is an essential foundational document for all Canadians and that human rights must be protected no matter whose human rights and what human rights we are focused on preserving.
I'm not here to suggest that the federal government has to roll to come in and yell at health ministers.
Health ministers provincially have the obligation under the Constitution to administer their programs in alignment with our charter.
So we don't need the federal government to tell us whether this is right or wrong.
What we need is for a health minister to administer their services legally.
And what I'm saying here is that I think we will probably find that we're moving outside of that.
Is this policy going to result, you think, in more attempted suicides, more marginalization of transgender youth and more discrimination?
I'm so deeply, deeply concerned for what this means for transgendered and other marginalized youth within the queer community.
We know that houseless children disproportionately come from those communities because the relationships with their families have broken down.
I was shocked and really angry.
And I have to tell you, it's hard to get me angry at Danielle Smith these days because every day is a day.
But when she suggested that the solution for a child who was rejected by their parents was to find support through our child protection services, I almost leaped through the computer.
You know, I know a little something about the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
I've read it probably 50 times.
Section 33 is called the Notwithstanding Clause, which basically, as the courts say, it's a dialogue between the courts and the legislature.
And the courts can say something's unconstitutional, but the legislator can say, well, thanks for that.
But in this one case, we'll pass law notwithstanding that the court says it's unconstitutional.
It's section 33 of the charter.
I don't know if Rachel Notley's actually read the Charter because how can using Section 33 of the Charter be against the Charter?
It makes no sense.
I think she may be right that Danielle Smith may have to use the notwithstanding clause to stop meddling unaccountable judges from overturning her.
That may well be the case.
But that's certainly not illegal.
In fact, it is the essential condition upon which the charter was turned into our constitutional document.
Did you notice that one journalist who asked the question, will this cause more suicides?
That's emotional blackmail.
If you don't let these kids cut off their body parts, they'll commit suicide.
No, it's actually the opposite way around.
I should dig up the study.
I remember doing a show on it a couple years ago that people, young, confused teens, especially, if they go through with the drug therapy, and especially, God forbid, if they go through with the surgery, cutting off their breasts or their genitals, their likelihood to commit suicide goes up.
Because if they're emotionally troubled, mutilating your body, pumping yourself full of drugs and cutting off your body parts will not make it better, even if some doctors and activists say so.
And that's just emotional blackmail in this BS.
I think that you can see that it's the media, political, industrial complex that is pushing transgenderism, not severely normal folks, not parents.
Here's the second clip of Rachel Notley.
Take a look.
I'm very troubled by what they're talking about.
You know, there are complex issues in there, but they have reached in to an area that is broad and complicated around ensuring that a whole range of medical interventions are managed in a way on a sport-by-sport basis that ensures competitive competitiveness.
They've reached in and pulled out one example and lifted it up as the dog whistle that this is really meant to be.
And so it's very inconsistent.
And the starting point for me is that a trans woman is a woman and a trans man is a man.
And this is an issue that Danielle Smith is pursuing because of extremist politics, not because there's a massive call for it amongst Albertans right now.
Targeted Trans Politics00:09:38
I can tell you that.
I really believe that this push is the approach to the sports issue is, as I said, it's not even broad-based and thoughtful.
It is very targeted and irrational in its targeting.
It doesn't even make sense.
So what it is, is it's about pandering to the most extremist element of what remains of the Conservative Party in Alberta.
That's what that's about.
I don't know what she meant by the sports example is extreme.
If you've been watching David Menzies' coverage or any other coverage of transgenderism and sports, it's the men who often aren't on meds or haven't cut off their body parts, who are just competing to beat up women, to beat them.
Second-rate men figured out they can win contests if they call themselves a girl.
And that's unfair.
That's unsportsmanlike.
It's cheating.
But it's what I talked about when I read that excerpt from 1984.
And that's what Rachel Notley herself said.
A trans woman is a woman.
A trans man is a man.
No, it's four fingers.
No matter how you punish Winston Smith, four fingers is still four fingers.
The whole purpose of transgenderism is to get you to say four fingers is five fingers or three fingers or whatever they say.
By the way, you know who's extreme on this?
Rachel Notley in the media.
Here's a poll that Angus Reed did a few months ago when New Brunswick was taking similar baby steps towards giving parents information about what's going on with their kids.
And if you can see, they polled Alberta too.
88% of Albertans want informed consent for this sort of thing.
88%.
Can you tell me anything else that 80% of the population agrees on?
It took Justin Trudeau's liberals a day to figure out what to do.
They didn't respond last night.
I was thinking they weren't going to dig in on this because it's such an extreme position to be against what Danielle Smith said.
I mean, really, she was full of so much love towards transgender kids.
All she was saying is you can't do irrevocable surgeries to yourself till you're 18.
You can't get on these body and mind-changing drugs till you're 16.
And by the way, we're going to include your parents in it.
Imagine attacking that.
Here's Arif Varani, the new justice minister, who said that what you just saw there was targeting and intimidating trans people.
Really?
Take a look at him.
I could just touch on the Alberta point.
I would say also that one needs to reflect on this as a parent.
I'm a dad, Mark's a dad.
Parents have these conversations all the time with children.
They need to be able to have those conversations with children.
Sometimes children don't feel empowered to have those conversations.
That's a small amount of children around the country, an even smaller amount in Alberta.
I think actually targeting that small minority for some political purpose in Alberta, as it seems that the Premier is doing, is not becoming of her office and is in fact actually targeting and perhaps even demonizing those children.
We're not talking about their exploration of their sexuality when we're banning kids from a schoolyard or from a playground or from a sports team.
That looks more targeted, and that's what I have significant concerns about.
There is nothing to go.
That is a completely speculative question.
They've announced what they're thinking about doing.
They've not tabled anything.
There's no legislation.
There's nothing to be taken to court.
I'm not going to speculate about future processes.
Yeah, no, I don't think it was targeting and intimidating anybody.
In fact, it was sort of the opposite, wasn't it?
She talked about helping kids and, you know, even having child and family services intervene if a kid's being abused.
Here's Mark Holland, the new health minister, with his thoughts.
Take a look.
Daniel Smith introduced some new changes in Alberta that would make some changes to transgender kids, to sports, to policies in schools.
And I want to know, I mean, the government has introduced legislation to protect trans youth in the past.
Is there a role?
Has your government discussed any type of action on this?
Is this something that might fall into a category of withholding health funding, for example?
I'm deeply disturbed.
The decision that was made by Alberta places kids at risk.
We know that one of the number one reasons why kids take their life is problems around sexual identity and that the ability to be who you are is so vitally important.
And I thought we were in a place in this country.
When we voted on C3 and we stood unanimously.
I thought we were in a place in this country.
We were moving past this.
I think it's extremely dangerous to engage in this kind of thing, which is, I think, playing politics when you're talking about children's lives.
And so affirming gender, making sure that kids and families have the health care that they need on extremely sensitive issues is so very important.
So what are we going to do?
You know, I've got to, I'm going to be in Alberta very soon.
I'm going to be meeting with Adriana Lagrange.
I've had a very strong working relationship with her.
I want to talk through these issues.
I want to see if we can find a solution through talking to really understand what this is going to mean and the devastation that it's going to bring so that we can find an off-ramp.
So, you know, that's my first priority is to try through communicating, and as I say, I'll be in Alberta very soon to have that face-to-face meeting.
That's the first step.
Did you hear what he said?
This places kids at risk.
It's extremely dangerous.
It's playing politics.
Justin Trudeau goes to every single pride parade in the country.
He hangs out with transgender transvestites.
He does political photo ops, and he calls out Danielle Smith for politicizing pride and transgenderism.
By the way, I want to, I've mentioned this before.
I remember when I was in the UK at a conference, and I heard a man who was with the Gay Men's Network, and he said this, and it was shocking.
I had never heard it before.
Maybe it's obvious to you, but I'd never heard it put this way before.
He said, he's a gay man.
So he is.
He said, if he was a gay youth today, they would have told him, cut off your body parts.
You're not actually a gay man.
You're a woman in the wrong body.
He said, and I had never heard it put this way, that transgenderism is a war against gays and a war against lesbians because it's saying you're born in the wrong body and the solution is a Joseph Mengelis-side-style mutilation surgery.
You heard Danielle Smith say top surgery and bottom surgery.
I can't even say those words.
It's so grotesque what is being done by medical doctors and for children.
And Danielle Smith is saying, no, you're not going to cut up kids.
You can cut up adults because I suppose it's their right, but you can't cut up kids.
And imagine calling that extremist.
The head of the Gay Men's Network said, if that were around when he was a kid, he would have mutilated himself.
What's the liberal policy?
They're full in with transgenderism.
They've gone so nuts, I guess they realize there's no turning back now.
I mean, it reminds me of Justin Trudeau's important decision to make tampons available in the men's bathrooms at Canadian Armed Forces bases.
I don't know if you saw, but the tampon distributor machine in the men's bathrooms was ripped out almost immediately.
And of course, that's being investigated by the Canadian Armed Forces.
They'll probably court-martial whoever did it.
Gee Wiz, I wonder why they're having such a hard time recruiting soldiers.
If it weren't for the vaccine mandate and now their tampon mission, no equipment, no military equipment, no proper pay, no tanks or fighter planes at work, but they're there with the tampons.
I don't know if you saw this in the New York Post just yesterday.
What a funny story.
New state-mandated tampon dispenser in Connecticut, high school boys' bathroom, ripped down in just 20 minutes.
The principal is outraged and he wants to get to the bottom of it.
I tell you, the kids are all right.
They know that's BS.
Look, here's what I have to say: Danielle Smith is doing what the people want, what 88% of Albertans want.
What parents want.
By the way, if you're a parent and your kids are 17 and 18, I hope you don't do it, but you can put your kid on drugs.
And once your kid's an adult, they can get the mutilation surgery.
And I guess theoretically, they could just leave the province and go and do it elsewhere right now.
But I think the most important part of what Danielle Smith said is that she's going to let parents know what's going on.
And to see the Alberta Teachers Union and see the mayor of Calgary, who's just the least popular mayor in history, say this is her line in the sand.
Since when is the mayor of Calgary is it her business to keep sexual secrets about children from parents?
And since when do teachers have a higher priority in a student's life than parents themselves?
I think that this is an excellent thing that Danielle Smith is doing.
Foreign Influence Inquiry00:15:11
Let's call the question, as they say.
Justin Trudeau is flailing around.
He's an absolute failure in every regard, whether it's inflation, housing, immigration, foreign policy, corruption, whatever it is.
But if this is their hill to die on, let it be.
Let's have an election on this issue.
And you know what?
It won't just be the liberals on the ballot and the NDP.
It'll be the entire media party too.
And they'll get a thumping.
Stay with us.
What a difference it made last week to have the federal court of Canada with an independent judge using the processes of civil procedure to render a judgment on the invocation of the Emergencies Act by the government two years ago.
As you know, it was a stunning ruling rebuking the invocation of martial law using words like illegal, unintelligible, unreasonable, unjustified, and unconstitutional.
What a bracing decision.
And the reason I mentioned that is what a difference between that, a real court with an independent judge, versus what happened a year before that.
The hand-picked liberal appointee, Justice Rollo, with a handwritten mandate given to him by Justin Trudeau, surprise, surprise, that earlier fake commission of inquiry exonerated Trudeau.
Well, of course, it was Trudeau investigating himself.
And I mentioned that because there is a new judicial inquiry going on in Ottawa, and it has all the hallmarks of another Trudeau cover-up.
I'm talking about the appointment of Justice Hoag to look into foreign influence in Canada.
Well, she was selected and given a task that by design will exonerate and exculpate Trudeau.
It's in fact worse than nothing because some of the politicians credibly accused of being agents of influence of communist China have been granted standing with this commission, which means not only are they participants, they get early opportunities to review confidential matters.
We are literally letting credibly accused Chinese agents of influence inside the security process while we have this inquiry, while others, like the conservative opposition in Canada, merely have outsider intervener status.
It is a, as Woody Allen would say, a mockery of a sham.
Joining us now to talk about it is our friend Andy Lee, who's been following the foreign influence beat for years.
Andy, great to see you again.
Welcome back to the show.
We've missed you, but I follow you on Twitter, so I feel like I know what you're up to.
Have I been too harsh in my characterization of this judicial inquiry?
Is there something actually good going on here, or is it a whitewash?
Yeah, that's a good question.
I think a lot of us had high hopes for this public inquiry that had a little bit of different powers, the power to summon witnesses and cross-examine.
The only problem is that some of the people who are under suspicion of perhaps acting under foreign influence, or even on the more serious side of things, there's some accusations that they could actually be actively working for a foreign country or foreign government, mostly the PRC.
Some of those people have got those powers to cross-examine.
And so that's unfortunately led to some human rights groups.
And this is the Uyghurs, they do the Uyghur advocacy project.
So they've pulled out of the inquiry.
They're not happy with the way that it's been conducted.
And they're not comfortable with the idea, rightfully so, that they could be cross-examined by the people who are accused of maybe aiding and abetting foreign influence.
And of course, we're talking about Michael Chan, Handong, and Senator Wu.
So I think we started off well.
There was some conflicts of interest with Hoag.
She had some ties to law firms, but I mean, this is the way that Ottawa operates.
It's almost impossible to get a judge who doesn't have some sort of ties to somewhere, someone somewhere, right?
But yeah, and it's sort of falling apart.
And now we're getting new information as well, that it seems like the scope of the foreign interference is maybe bigger than we first thought.
So Stu Bell from Global put something out saying that there was definitely meddling in the 2019 and 2020-21 elections.
Sam Cooper has followed up with that today with a story saying that there were 117 briefs, which they're calling specifically defensive briefs to politicians telling them that, you know, to be aware of foreign interference that's been going on.
So that's a little bit more serious than what's been let on.
I don't know if this is going to change Justice Hoag's perception of things, given that there's new information.
One of the people who was the victim of foreign interference was Michael Chong.
We know that earlier on in the year, we heard that there were threats made against his family.
And this was news to him.
He said that he didn't learn about these threats until they came out in stories in, I believe it was the Globe and Mail that published them first.
So, if there were 117 debriefings given to politicians since May of 2021 on foreign interference, how did Michael Chong get missed in all of this?
How did that information get overlooked?
That's a great question.
Of course, he was a conservative politician who was critical of communist China and he was kept in the dark.
That's an interesting story in itself.
But 117, I take it that means that CSIS or the RCMP would have contacted, I'm guessing, if I understand it, 117 candidates or sitting politicians saying, hey, you are being targeted by China to be boosted or defeated.
That's an extraordinarily wide battlefront that China has opened up here.
I mean, even if, let's say, four of those are in each district.
So let's say you have a riding, like there's some Vancouver area ridings or Toronto area ridings where there's a lot of Chinese Canadians.
I could imagine that the Chinese government would target those districts and every candidate in there.
So maybe you have 30 districts where four are the politicians each, but that's still an enormous, that would make the difference.
30 districts, 30 ridings being swayed one way or another is absolutely enough in our minority parliament to choose who wins the election or not.
117 is, and as you point out, that doesn't even include Michael Chong.
I don't think Canadians knew the scale of this.
And that's just China, sounds like.
Who knows what Iran is up to and others also?
Yeah, that was another interesting thing.
So just going through Sam Cooper's report following up on Global News.
So he said specifically it was 71 MPs that 71 that had these defensive briefings and 15 federal ministers.
Oh my God.
15 federal ministers got these briefings.
And I mean, what was done about it, right?
We didn't hear about it.
You know, we have the site task force, and that's our election sort of watchdog.
And what they're supposed to do is they're supposed to do election monitoring, things like that, and, you know, alert us if there's any sort of threat to the integrity of our elections.
Site wasn't activated to my knowledge for 2019, 2021.
It was just activated, though, recently, when they were monitoring, they say, for a by-election, and that's when they picked up a secondary campaign against Michael Chong.
And that was news as well, right?
And I actually, we did some work and we published, we actually traced that campaign directly back to the PRC.
They said that they could not trace it back to the People's Republic of China.
I went onto WeChat.
It was very, very quickly able to determine who was putting out this information.
It was by, it went back to Global Times.
So that's a state propaganda putting out information.
So we found that we published that article.
So yeah, I mean, fascinating, you know, to think that 15 federal ministers had this information.
And this is the first that we're hearing about it.
And this was through an access information that anybody could find.
And the other thing is that five senators were aware.
I tell you, you know, you were giving me so much useful information here.
I was just guessing that it would be 30 districts.
You're telling me it was 71 MPs.
By the way, that would be the third largest party in parliament, 71 MPs after the Liberals and the Conservatives.
Astonishing, 15 cabinet ministers.
And we know so many of these cabinet ministers are going to China all the time.
Even when the two Michaels were held hostage, you had cabinet ministers going to China, not only to suck up to the Communist Party of China, but perhaps to be influenced by them in return.
Just astonishing.
Do you think that this ruling, this judge will issue some sort of a finding or report that will be useful?
Or do you think the real use here is to give people an opportunity to air facts like what you've just said?
I would say, at least if we hear things like what you've just told me, there's some use to this inquiry.
But I'm skeptical that the judge is going to actually give suggestions that are of any use.
I think she was handpicked by Trudeau for a reason.
I think that she said it's not so much about pointing fingers or placing blame.
Yes, it is a bit of a fact-finding mission.
I'm also of the opinion a little bit that the how is more important than the who and the why.
But the who matters as well, because you can't get to the bottom of the why and the how unless the people who maybe were involved were honest.
If you want to take Handong, for example, and I've done a lot of work on Handong, and he's the people who ran his campaign, specifically one man who's been mentioned as a person of interest as thesis, Wei Cheng Yi.
You know, I've traced his whereabouts in Canada back to 2010 so far.
You know, he's been deeply involved with the Chinese Communist Party from the get-go.
This is one of the people who's actually been invited to the political conferences.
He was personally recognized and singled out in Beijing by Xi Jinping himself.
He's shaken his hand and then he came back here and you know threw his weight behind Handong.
So when Handong says that he wasn't aware of any sort of foreign interference and that he was maybe getting some help or some support from a foreign government, I'm sorry, I don't believe that he doesn't know that the person who was working on his campaign announced his run from this person's office.
Yeah.
I don't believe that he doesn't know that he's going overseas meeting with Xi Jinping.
That's incredible.
That's quite a thing, right?
Not every person gets to do this.
Yeah, meeting Xi Jinping out of that crowd.
So unless people like Handong are honest and unless we single them out and say, well, what went on here?
It's very hard to understand the why behind it and the how.
How did this happen, right?
Did he approach you?
How are these introductions made, right?
How do you fall into this trap?
Were you selected?
Were you groomed by the Communist Party?
Were you a willing participant?
And we're not going to know that unless the people who are taking part in this inquiry are honest about that.
And those are important things to know because how do we counter it if we don't even know how it's happening?
Right?
We know that they're often targeting people, you know, not at the federal level.
They start early.
They start at school boards and at the municipal level and then work their way up the chain.
So, and this is what happened to Handong, right?
He started meeting with these people before he was a federal candidate back, you know, way back when.
So, unless those people are honest and say, yes, I do think that maybe some people who were involved in my campaign had insider links to the People's Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party, we can't really get to the bottom.
You know, it just, these people need to be honest because how do we get it if we don't know what's happening?
Are they coming up to you?
How did they approach you?
What was the deal?
Right?
What did they say?
What did they offer?
Yeah.
I hope those questions are asked.
I doubt those questions would be answered.
You know, Sun Tzu was, of course, a Chinese master strategist of war.
And I think if I had to sum up Sun Tzu's messages in one line, it would be deception, not to attack frontally.
And I think that China, which has practiced war and diplomacy for millennia, knows exactly how to handle the Canadian government.
They don't need to deploy Navy ships or even that spy hot air balloon.
In fact, that's the worst thing they could do because that would alert everyone that they're antagonistic to us.
What they do is influence within our systems and appear as Canadian MPs and senators.
That's the Sun Tzu method of undermining Canadian democracy.
Andy, I'm glad you're following this.
I'm glad you gave me, you corrected me on a few facts and you opened my eyes to others.
By the way, we have a reporter in Ottawa covering this commission every day.
His name is Robert Krachik, and we have a special website where we update every day.
It's called protectourdemocracy.ca because I think nothing less is at stake.
Andy, congrats on your excellent work.
Keep it up.
We look forward to publishing your work when you submit it.
We've loved publishing your stories before.
We know that you're working closely with other journalists.
Keep it up because I think more journalists need to be following this.
And I'm glad you are.
Democratic Party's Migrant Strategy00:02:16
Yeah.
And like I said, you know, I don't want to throw this inquiry away yet because we're still getting new information.
Justice Hoag is looking at new information.
So it is possible, and I would like to see this myself, is that maybe she reverses some of the decisions that she's made.
That's within her power to do so.
And to bring a bit of credibility back to this after the Uyghurs pulled out, you know, perhaps to grant standings to some people who were intravener status standing to some people who were denied it before and give them an equal opportunity to call witnesses and examine and cross-examine.
Because that's the only way that we are going to get somebody who's going to ask those questions to some of the people who are maybe have questionable ties.
I think it could, you know, re-legitimize the process and, you know, ensure that everybody feels that it's a credible and worthwhile thing to continue doing, right?
I'd hate to see it thrown away at this point.
Well, you're more optimistic and hopeful than I am, but that's one of the things I like about you.
Andy Lee, special rapporteur on these issues.
We'll talk to you again soon.
Stay with us, folks.
more ahead.
Hey, welcome back.
Some letters on sending our friends Lincoln Jay and Alexa Lavoisier to Texas.
Mark Davis says, blame the policies of the Democratic Party.
Why should Texas bear the burden of their party's decisions?
Well, I think this is done for a few reasons.
First of all, the welfare state loves migrants.
The crime state, there's a lot of forces in society that like the destabilizing chaotic effects.
But of course, the Democrats have a long-term goal to turn Texas blue.
By blue, they mean turn it into a Democratic state.
And you bring in millions of people who eventually will be naturalized or granted amnesty.
And you've got yourself, you can win Texas for the Democrats.
And if Texas went Democrat, Republicans would never win again.
So good for Governor Abbott to send these migrants to other sanctuary cities to give them a taste of the pain.
Canada's Sucker Bet00:01:26
It's very interesting.
I hope you're following TexasBorderReports.com because Lincoln and Alexa are just pumping out tons of videos.
Mr. Vivalos Lagos says in Trump's defense, he tried several times to build a better wall, but Congress continually blocked him from doing so.
Yeah, I don't think he tried hard enough.
Listen, I don't know the ins and outs of it, but I get the feeling that if Donald Trump wanted it done, truly wanted it done, he could have got it done.
I don't know.
I'm not an American.
I don't know all the facts, but I think that breaking that or not keeping that promise was one of his greatest failures.
Elizabeth Moncell says, thank you, Rebel News, for covering this, for speaking frankly and truly, and putting boots on the ground.
This is impacting USA and Canada so much.
Well, one of the things that Alexa talks about, because she's covered that Wroxham Road border crossing, is when people come from New York State into Canada or other border crossings too, including, for example, in Manitoba, they're obviously not Americans.
Some of them are from Latin America.
Many of them are from Africa and the Middle East.
They just know Canada's a sucker.
Go on in.
Well, the entire southern border is completely open.
And some of those people will be ordered, deported.
Some will be arrested and put out on bail and they'll run away and they'll run away to Canada.
We are getting the worst of the worst.
Anyhow, it'll be interesting to see how Alexa and Lincoln do down there.
That's our show for today.
Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, see you at home.