Ezra Levant exposes Leah Gazan’s refusal to condemn church burnings in Indigenous communities, instead accusing Conservatives of "denialism" during a June 4, 2023, House of Commons clash. Meanwhile, Sheila Gunn-Reed links rising religious vandalism to Trudeau’s policies and Justin Trudeau’s federal bureaucracy ballooned by 108,000 hires (42% growth) since 2016, costing taxpayers $1B in bonuses despite service failures. Levant also highlights Ireland’s migrant camps, where locals face cultural displacement while elites push open borders—undermining integration and accountability. The episode reveals a pattern of institutional neglect and ideological contradictions fueling public distrust. [Automatically generated summary]
Asking a member of the Liberal NDP Corruption Coalition to condemn church burnings is now perpetrating colonial violence.
I'll show you the clip.
Then Franco Terrazano of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation joins us to discuss the ballooning bureaucracy.
It's July 23rd, 2023.
I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed, and you're watching The Ezra Levant Show.
Shame on you, you censorious bug.
No justification for burning down a church, period.
Regardless of the other information or regardless of the other justifications that people would claim to use, there is never a justification to burn down a church.
And we as conservatives have called for stronger criminal sanctions for arson against all who carry out these attacks.
We've also called for more security infrastructure around places of worship so that we can stop terrorists who burn down churches, who attack mosques and synagogues.
Unfortunately, these crimes against religious communities have raged out of control after eight years of Justin Trudeau's catch and release system.
After he has divided our country and turned people and groups against each other, we have more violence directed against religious groups, including Christians, than we have ever seen in Canadian history.
This is the result of Justin Trudeau.
He is not worth the cost.
He is not worth the crime.
And he is not worth the country that we know and love.
And we should provide the resources to allow for full investigation into the potential remains at residential schools.
Canadians deserve to know the truth, and conservatives will always stand in favor of historical accuracy.
None of this changes the fact that the residential schools were an appalling abuse of power by the state and by the church at the time.
And we need to move forward in a country that is free so that every single Canadian, whether their ancestry goes back tens of thousands of years or whether they have been here for 10 days, has the freedom to live their life in prosperity and happiness.
Thank you.
In Canada, over 100 churches have been burned or vandalized since the so-called discovery of unmarked graves of Indigenous children at a former residential school site in Kamloops, British Columbia.
Since 2021, we've had over 100 Christian churches burned, vandalized, or desecrated in Canada.
And sometimes when I see that and I see the lack of media coverage of those attacks on religious freedom, when I see that we cannot even in the House of Commons get every party to agree on condemning those attacks on religious freedom, I think to myself, like, yo, dog, are we like in the Truman show or something right now?
Like, it just seems so frustrating and puzzling how you get to this point.
And often I will hear from constituents who are concerned about it, and they'll say, express a sense of hopelessness.
Like, well, how do you get people to care about this?
And then I see other communities go through their own ordeals when it comes to attacks on their religious freedom.
We've seen, you know, schools and synagogues get shot at in Montreal.
Or just over the weekend, we've seen the House hate-motivated attack on a Muslim family in London.
And I think to myself, well, maybe there's an opportunity for us all to work together and draw attention to the various ways that faith communities in this country may experience discrimination or persecution.
Maybe there's an opportunity for us to build some bridges across different religious communities in hopes that the experiences that are happening throughout this country right now where people feel in many ways afraid that they will lose their jobs by showing that they are a person of faith or that they will lose something, their standing, perhaps, in their workplace or their school for showing that they are a person of faith.
That perhaps by working together, we actually wind up being able to protect believers of all different types.
Now, I say so-called discovery because nothing has actually been discovered there.
There have been no excavations, no remains found, and we're just supposed to take everybody's word about what happened there instead of investigating what we're being told is a large-scale murder scene.
Well, the remains of 215 children have been found in a mass grave in Canada.
Many of you know that just over a year ago, the discovery of the remains of 215 children was found at the Kamloops Indian Residential School at the Tekumloop-Shaswamik First Nation.
But what if I were to show you that what I just said wasn't true?
And that, in fact, a year later, not a single body has been found.
This mass grave is a painful reminder of the genocide.
Handlers leaders aren't condemning the burning of churches.
No, they're endorsing the burning of churches.
A juvenile rib bone that surfaced in the same area.
You'd be surprised that a number of people who say, you know, I'm a doctor, I'm a paramedic.
This is definitely a human bone, and it's definitely not.
Except the chief.
It is.
Now, the misreporting of what happened in Kamloops, combined with statements of our Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, who clearly has a low regard for the country he governs, set off an epidemic of violence, destruction, vandalism, and...
and arson against Christian churches all across the country, and it continues to this day.
As you know, Ashley, we have put in place a security infrastructure program that partners with places of worship to be able to put in cameras and security systems to keep those institutions safe from what is unfortunately a rise of intolerance and racism and hatred that we're seeing across the country.
And certainly we will continue to roll out those funds in partnership with community centers, religious institutions, and others that need that protection.
As I've also said, it is unacceptable and wrong that acts of vandalism and arson are being seen across the country, including against Catholic churches.
One of my reflections is I understand the anger that's out there against the federal government, against institutions like the Catholic Church.
It is real and it is fully understandable given the shameful history that we are all becoming more and more aware of and engaging ourselves to do better as Canadians.
But I can't help but think that burning down churches is actually depriving people who are in need of grieving and healing and mourning from places where they can actually grieve and reflect and look for support.
We shouldn't be lashing out at buildings that can provide solace to some of our fellow citizens, but we should be every day.
committing ourselves, each and every one of us, to the hard work we need to do to actually rebuild a path forward that reflects the terrible intergenerational trauma and present-day realities of suffering that we are all collectively responsible for.
Now, one of the inconvenient facts for the sympathizers like Justin Trudeau of the Church Burners is that many of these churches are on reserve or serve Indigenous communities or Indigenous populations.
You only have to look at this handy, however, horrific list of burned and vandalized churches tabulated by our friends at True North to see just how many of these religious buildings are in Indigenous communities.
When you live in a small town where the church is the place where people gather to mark the milestones of their lives like births, weddings, and funerals, the cultural and historic damage done to your community when you lose your church is devastating and irreparable.
And if you're targeting churches that are on reserve to be destroyed and you're doing it in a systemic way across the country, and then the people who operate the system, who actually are the system, the liberal and the NDP coalition, if they're not treating it with the significance and moral outrage that the damage to your community deserved, wouldn't you then call that systemic racism?
I would hear that argument every single day of the week.
Now, I want to show you this wild exchange that nobody really picked up on when it happened from back in June, June 4th, to be precise.
I recorded this clip when it happened, and then I never really got back to it because it's just little old me watching these committees and House of Commons sittings.
I don't have an army of overpaid journalists and worker bees like they do at the CBC, so I never really got back to this clip until now.
And once you watch it, it'll be clear to you why the mainstream media didn't pick up on it, because it's an absolute indictment of the robotic progressive talking points of the Liberal NDP coalition.
If you say something they disagree with, even if it's completely true and reasonable, like, for example, if you ask them to denounce church burnings, they'll not denounce the church burnings and instead accuse you of systemic racism, residential school denialism, and perpetrating colonial violence.
And they will say it without a shred of evidence, without even a tidbit of working knowledge about the person they're accusing of these things.
And they'll do it with an admirable level of confidence, unwarranted confidence, but confidence nonetheless.
I want you to keep in mind as you're watching this House of Commons exchange between my Conservative MP, Garnet Jennis, and the NDP MP from Winnipeg Center, Lee Gazin.
I want you to keep in mind that Garnet Jennis is married to a woman who is a very visible minority, and he has a gaggle of kids with that woman.
It's a long clip, but I think you need to see the whole thing.
Watch this.
Thank you, Madam Speaker.
I thank my colleague for her impassioned speech, highlighting ongoing instances of racism and injustice in our country and within our institutions.
One instance where I see this happening is the fact that destruction of cultural property in Indigenous communities has not been treated with nearly the level of seriousness that it deserves.
I was just reading a report saying, for instance, that a very significant number of instances of cultural and religious property, in this particular case churches, have been destroyed in Indigenous communities.
I think this would have required a stronger response from leaders at all levels.
I've asked this member this question twice if she would condemn this destruction of cultural property in Indigenous communities.
I asked her twice during a debate in February, and she chose not to at that time.
I wonder if this time she would, a third time, join me in condemning the destruction of churches and other cultural property that has occurred in Indigenous communities and call for a stronger response to that destruction.
The Honourable Member for Winnipeg Centre.
Now, not surprising.
This member, every time we're talking about violence against Indigenous peoples, I mean, it's clear there's residential school denialists in his party.
I'm assuming his.
He is one of them.
One of the last speeches that he gave.
Is there a point of order here?
Does it not have a point of order?
Well, I don't know.
I mean, she made a claim.
She didn't call anybody any names.
Specifically, she made a claim that...
Madam Speaker, the member made an outrageous, unfounded, and obviously false claim in the House.
And I think she should be called to order for that.
She didn't even claim she had any evidence for her statement.
She just said, I suspect that this member may have particular views that he's never stated.
Come on.
We're starting into debate, and unfounded accusations are something that go around quite often in this chamber.
I do advise members to be very judicious with the words they choose.
The Honourable Member for Winnipeg Centre.
I know this member has very big feelings about Indigenous people.
I know he has a history of disregarding any discussions on Indigenous people.
Madam Speaker, I would be very happy.
I mean, I have articles and facts about what else they said was a false claim, quoting articles about residential school denialism comments that actually came from the member from Carleton, the leader of their party.
I'm very happy to do it.
But getting back to the bill, the RCMP, and I know that the member, as I said before, from Sherwood Park, Fort Lawn, Saskatchewan, has trouble controlling his toxic masculinity and often heckles in the House, as he's doing right now.
But I really welcome the member to read the paper, and I welcome the member to really learn about the history of this country, maybe explore some of his cultural bias.
We've gone way beyond the time for the comment and the answer.
Questions and comments.
The Honourable Member for Sherwood Park for Saskatchewan.
Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Look, very respectfully to the member, I asked a simple question and the member didn't want to answer it.
I've asked her twice previously.
I guess I'll have a chance to ask her twice tonight.
It's not a trick question.
It's a very sincere question.
The question is, for the fourth time, will the member condemn the destruction of churches and other cultural property that has occurred?
I see this as a form of violence and racism against Indigenous communities, that there's been many instances now of destruction of churches and other cultural property.
Trudeau's Bonuses for Bureaucrats00:12:39
If the member had condemned it, I wouldn't have asked the question a second time.
Will the member condemn this?
The Honourable Member for Winnipeg Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
And I know he has trouble talking about the bill because it actually has to do with dealing with systemic racism to address systemic racism and policing for Black, Indigenous, and people of color.
It's unfortunate that at a time when we're talking about making systems better, that this member consistently chooses to talk about things that have no relevancy to the discussion, as he has in other debates.
I would invite the member, Madam Speaker, to learn about the residential school system in Canada.
I would be happy to go for coffee with him, and then maybe we can work through some of the colonial violence that he regularly perpetrates in this House.
Thank you, Madam Speaker.
Okay, those accusations are really beyond what is acceptable.
And I would recommend, yes, an apology would be appreciated because we are accusing other members of perpetrator colonial violence, which is pretty strong in terms of wording.
And I would be very grateful if there was measure in what is said.
Oh, so now Lee Gazin wants to go for a coffee with a perpetrator of colonial violence.
I mean, if she really thinks he's this perpetrator of dangerous colonial violence against Indigenous people, why does she want to go to Starbucks and be friendly with him?
She'd love to take Garnet Jennis for coffee once she figures out that his riding is not Sherwood Park, Fort Lawn, Saskatchewan, but rather Sherwood Park, Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta.
Like I said, they're so clueless, but so darn confident about it.
Stay tuned.
Franco Tarzano of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation joins us up after the break to discuss the ballooning bureaucracy and what it means for your pocketbook.
As I was explaining to our next guest on the break, my disdain for public sector bureaucrats is high today because I've been forced to sit through a committee hearing where they showed up with no answers and no sense of accountability whatsoever.
And apparently, we're going to get more of the same.
Joining us now is good friend of Rebel News and good friend of taxpayers, Franco Terrazano of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, to talk about Justin Trudeau's public sector hiring spree.
More bureaucrats to annoy me in committees.
Franco, thanks for coming on the show.
Tell us what's happening with the public sector hiring spree as Canadians are just struggling to make ends meet.
We're getting more highly paid bureaucrats and all the federal benefits that go along with it.
Well, Sheila, I mean, look at your tax bill.
Look at the massive debt bill under the Trudeau government.
And one of the reasons, a big reason both of those are going up is because of Trudeau's out-of-control bureaucrat hiring spree.
So last year, Trudeau added another 10,000 bureaucrats to the taxpayer dole.
But even that doesn't shine a light on the true problem because since Trudeau first became the prime minister, he has added more than 108,000 federal paper pushers.
Folks, he has added more than 108,000 bureaucrats in less than a decade.
That is a 42% increase in the number of federal bureaucrats in less than a decade.
And I mean, just ask yourself, are you getting 42% more from the federal government?
And I think the answer is pretty obvious.
If you're not getting a taxpayer check, the answer is a big fat no.
Now, the other side of this argument, the big government side of the argument, would say, well, they're just keeping pace with Canada's growing economy, but the taxpayers federation drilled down, and that's not true whatsoever.
No, not even close.
I mean, look at Canada's population growth over that same time.
Canada's population grew by 14%.
The bureaucracy grew by 42%.
So it's not even close.
And in fact, if the bureaucracy had just grown to keep pace with population, we'd have 70,000 fewer federal bureaucrats working for the federal government.
And again, folks, like this is just crazy, right?
That the fact that Trudeau, since becoming prime minister less than a decade ago, has added more than 108,000 federal bureaucrats for an increase of 42%.
It's crazy.
Well, and I don't think Canadians are getting better service.
Like for that many bureaucrats, we should be getting concierge service.
Just to put this in context, Justin Trudeau has hired as many bureaucrats as the population of Red Deer Alberta.
And that's just been added to the federal payroll, but also to federal pension liabilities.
But I don't think you could talk to a Canadian out there who's tried to, let's say, renew their passport, call the CRA, that the level of service that Canadians are getting is somewhere anywhere near the number of dollars we're spending on public sector bureaucrats.
No, not even close.
I'm glad you brought up the CRA.
I mean, trying to get the CRA on the phone.
I mean, good luck with that, hey, folks.
And like, when you mentioned that the growth in the bureaucracy, it's about the size of Red Deer Alberta.
That's not the total bureaucracy.
That's just the new number of bureaucrats that Trudeau has hired in the last less than a decade, right?
Because the total number of federal bureaucrats now, when you don't count those who are in the military or active RCMP officers, is now 367,000 federal bureaucrats.
Then there's all the provincial bureaucrats you're paying for, all the municipal bureaucrats.
But Sheila, you kind of touched on this when you mentioned the pension obligations that taxpayers are paying for.
It's not just the size of the bureaucracy that has grown out of control.
The cost of the bureaucracy has grown out of control as well.
In fact, since 2016, the cost of the federal bureaucracy has gone up 68%.
And you might be scratching your head asking yourself why.
It's because we're paying for a bigger bureaucracy collecting bigger paychecks.
So over the last four years alone, Trudeau has handed out more than 1 million pay raises.
Now, think about the last four years and let that sink in.
Number one, services have been atrocious, right?
We all remember the horror stories of the long lineups to try to get a passport.
But number two, and more to the point, what has happened to the private sector over the last four years?
Lockdowns, right?
Job losses, business losses, some business owners closing up shop for good.
Then you have an inflation crisis where Canadians struggle to afford the necessities like rising rent payments and grocery hauls.
So all during that time, Trudeau has taken more money from the people who pay the bills around here, the private sector taxpayers, and handed out more than a million pay raises in just the last four years alone.
Now, do we know if these are bureaucrats that will actually have to go to a physical building to work?
Because I know that that is a big deal for public sector bureaucrats these days.
They love working from home.
And like, are these ones that are going to have to go to a physical building?
Like, if we don't notice you back at the office, maybe we don't need you.
What's going to happen to these ones?
Are they just the work-at-home luxury ones where we have to buy them a fancy chair so they can sit next to it on their couch all day and clickety clack on their computer?
Well, I'm glad you brought that up.
And I'm not really sure where the dispute is at this moment, but your audience will probably remember in the last couple of months or so, you had the main federal union boss who essentially was like trying to light their hair on fire about having these bureaucrats go to the office about three times a week, right?
So, what you had are these whining, overpaid federal bureaucrats complaining that they have to show up to the office about the same amount of time or less than what anyone in the private sector would really be forced to do.
And, you know, who are the people who should be complaining right now?
Not these overpaid federal government bureaucrats.
The people who should be complaining right now are taxpayers, right?
Because just think about the last few years alone, right?
Where the federal government has added hundreds of or tens of thousands of extra bureaucrats, sorry, tens of thousands of extra bureaucrats has rubber stamped hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses, handed out more than a million pay raises in the last couple of years alone.
Meanwhile, taxpayers still aren't getting good services.
The only thing that taxpayers seem to be getting out of this deal are a higher tax bill.
Now, Sheila, I've mentioned the more than 108,000 federal bureaucrats being added since Trudeau became prime minister.
I've mentioned the more than a million pay raises over the last four years to federal bureaucrats.
I haven't even mentioned the most infuriating part of all of this is the fact that Trudeau has rubber stamped more than a billion dollars in bonuses, taxpayer-funded bonuses, by the way, to federal bureaucrats when federal departments can't even meet half of their own performance targets consistently.
And Sheila, it's not like these are the performance targets from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
These are performance targets that they set for themselves and they still can't meet barely half of them.
And doesn't matter, bonuses anyways.
Right.
We saw this with the CBC.
Nobody watches the CBC except, I think, grandparents who don't know how to change the remote control.
Like, that's the greatest thing that Canadian grandchildren can do for the state of the country is teach their grandparents how to use the remote control so they're not obligated to watch the CBC.
But nobody's watching the CBC.
A statistical rounding error of Canadians watch their flagship news coverage, and yet it is nothing but a fire hose of bonuses being shot in the faces of CBC bureaucrats.
Well, you'll remember that last year, the CBC handed out, what, $15 million in taxpayer-funded bonuses, all while their president, CEO, Catherine Tate, was claiming chronic underfunding, right?
Begging the government for more taxpayer cash.
And, you know, like, I don't know what's worse, right?
The fact that Tate still had enough money to hand out in bonuses while she's claiming chronic underfunding, or the fact that Tate thinks the CBC is chronically underfunded when they take more than a billion dollars from taxpayers every single year.
Like, I'm not sure what's worse, but it's not just the CBC, right?
It's not just the state broadcaster.
You have the Bank of Canada, another failing Crown corporation who has one job, keep inflation low and around 2%.
Well, over the last three years, they completely failed to do their one and only job, yet they still rubber stamped around $60 million in bonuses.
Or how about this one, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, another failing Crown corporation?
You know, Sheila, they have repeatedly claimed that they have one objective above all others: housing affordability for all.
Over the last four years, Canadians couldn't afford to buy a home, yet they still rubber stamped like a hundred million dollars in bonuses over the last four years alone.
And it's going to get worse, much, much worse, because we know Justin Trudeau is scaling up the bureaucracy even more.
He's got three new bureaucracies just to impose his censorship legislation.
And then the Competition Bureau has this extra power now to censor the oil patch.
That'll require more bureaucrats.
So I think this is just the tip of the iceberg if Justin Trudeau continues to govern this country.
You know, I'm glad you brought up the so-called online harms bill and the fact that the parliamentary budget officer only looked at like some of the aspects that pertain to this new piece of legislation and said, look, this is going to cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
This is going to require like 300 new censorship bureaucrats snooping around what you say, see, read, and hear online.
Censorship Bureaucrats Needed?00:02:14
And, you know, Sheila, if this was really about actually going after legitimate criminals, well, who do you call when you have to go after a criminal?
Do you call a bureaucrat in Ottawa or do you call the police?
I think we all know the answer to that.
So if this was really about going after criminals and if it wasn't about online censorship, then why wouldn't they just hire 300 police officers rather than 300 plus online hall monitors?
I think we all know the answer to that.
Indeed, we do, especially us here at Rebel News.
Franco, tell us how people can find the work that you do at the Taxpayers Federation and more importantly, support the work that you do to hold the government to account on behalf of the little guy.
Well, number one, you can find us pretty much on all social media platforms.
Just type in Canadian Taxpayers Federation if you want to follow me at Franco underscore Nomics.
But the best place that you can go to is taxpayer.com, taxpayer.com.
Check out our newsroom, sign some petitions.
And I think that's the best way to stay up to date with the work that we're doing.
Great.
Thanks so much, Franco.
We'll have you back on again very soon.
Hey, always a pleasure.
Thank you.
Stay with us.
your letters to Ezra, read by me, up after the break.
Friends, it feels like we get your viewer feedback every minute of every single day.
And I like that because a lot of things irritate me in the world, or a lot of things that I like in the world, I like, and then I just keep it to myself.
It takes a special level of motivation to get me to send an irritated comment or a comment saying that I approve or I appreciate.
So I know a lot of you are motivated and you really like the work that we're doing.
And that makes me happy because without you, we don't get to do work because we'll never take a penny from Justin Trudeau.
And how could we hold him to account if we ever did?
Friends, you should really watch or read mainstream media coverage as though it were a grant application to the government because, really, at the end of the day, that's what it is.
Holding Government to Account00:03:02
But not us here.
We hold the government to account on behalf of the people.
And based on the volume of comments that we get, I feel like you appreciate it.
Now, on Ezra's Ireland reporting, as you know, big boss Ezra Levant, he just went over to Ireland to cover the migrant camps that are popping up in small towns where the locals are protesting because they are going to dump more migrants in the town than there are townsfolk.
Think about what that does to the culture of your community.
It just completely erases it.
It changes everything.
And it makes it impossible for the migrants to actually integrate.
Right?
How is that even possible?
Woofius, I think that's how you say it, right?
Speaking of migrant housing schemes, so let me figure this out.
The taxpayers are the ones having to suffer and pay for the prime minister's gulag economy, yet it's the migrants which have all the fun for a free lunch, so to speak.
Feds are going to garnish migrant wages for their costs once they start working.
Do you think that's going to happen?
Do you think that has happened anywhere that this sort of scheme happens?
Doesn't happen in Canada.
I can't see it happening in Ireland either.
65P Baker writes: These countries have to come together and send these people right back where they came from.
God bless Ireland.
Now, I should be clear to you: I'm not against immigration.
I'm not against refugees.
I think that dumping more people into a community from someplace else, a number that's larger than the community itself, is the complete erasure of the community.
And nobody wants that.
And people have a right to stand up to save their own community, right?
And yet, these people who are protesting it are being called far-right-wing extremists.
We don't know how they voted, they're just saying, and not only that, we don't even know if they're against immigration, we don't know if they're against the migrants.
We just know that they see what is about to happen to them as wrong and they want a say in what happens to them because this is being done to them, not with them.
And let me circle back: I'm not against immigration, I'm against controlled immigration that meets the needs of the host country that doesn't place a burden on healthcare, housing, and other infrastructure.
That also happens in a way that the immigrant is able to find a sustaining job for themselves wherein they aren't reliant on the taxpayer.
Immigration That Works For All00:01:06
I think that's fair.
That sets the immigrant up for success, but also the host country as well.
Normal guy, crazy world rights, our governments have sold us out to the highest bidder.
You'll own nothing and be happy.
These people are open borders.
They have also enough money.
I say these people, the decision makers, they have enough money to escape their bad ideas, right?
They can propose open borders and it will happen to your community, but it won't happen to them in their gated community.
You see, they understand borders insofar as the gates to their community and their estates are borders to preserve their lifestyle.
But you're a racist if you want that for yourself, right?
Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
I'm not sure who's hosting the show tomorrow.
Could be Ezra, could be David, could be me, who knows?
But thanks to everybody who works behind the scenes to put the show together so that it is there when you want to click on it.