Ezra Levant’s guest David Menzies blames Canada’s multiculturalism—established by Pierre Trudeau in 1971—for surging antisemitism, citing pro-Hamas protests since October 7th, 2023, including genocide chants and swastikas. He targets NDP leader Jugmeet Singh for Khalistani ties (2015–2016) and Hamas support, mocks Mississauga’s fake Remembrance Day event honoring Yahya Sinoir (a terrorist), and slams the Trudeau government’s $7.8M artwork rentals, $50K/month booze budgets, and $1.2T debt doubling under chronic deficits. Menzies frames pro-Israel rallies as a fight for Canadian values against systemic bureaucratic waste and foreign-backed extremism. [Automatically generated summary]
I am the guest host for the Ezra Levant on this Friday, November 15th, 2024.
Hope you get a chance to tune in.
My monologue is about multiculturalism, namely that what has happened in the streets of our great dominion these past 13 months?
Well, I think it's proof positive that multiculturalism, the state-sanctioned version of multiculturalism, I should say, it's been an utter disaster.
And you won't want to miss my guest with the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
That would be Franco Terrazano.
What if I told you folks that $76,000 of your hard-earned tax dollars went to artwork being bought by federal bureaucrats?
Oh, it's worse.
It wasn't bought by bureaucrats.
It was rented by bureaucrats.
Oh, it's even worse.
It's $76,000 a month of rented artwork, some $7.8 million.
That's the off-the-lot price for artwork in offices, which go back to the pandemic.
So that means there weren't even people, most likely, in those offices.
It is outrageous.
Franco's interview, I think, will make your blood boil, and it shows that we need regime change in Ottawa sooner rather than later.
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Tonight, given the hatred we've seen in the streets of our Great Dominion, the verdict is in.
State-sanctioned multiculturalism has been a complete disaster.
It's Friday, November 15th, 2024.
I'm David Menzies, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Shame on you, you censorious bug.
Jump the Shark Moments00:06:34
Folks, one of my all-time favorite pop culture idioms is jump the shark.
The credit for this chestnut goes to John Hein, a Howard Stern show staffer and fast Food enthusiast.
He coined it decades ago, and it is a phrase that resonates so much so that the now-defunct TV guide actually paid Hein a whopping US $1 million to take ownership of those three words.
Oh, by the way, if any corporate entity wants to buy the manzoid, why don't we start the bidding with, I don't know, a steak dinner.
Anyway, the definition of jump the shark is the following: quote: It is a term that is used to argue that a creative work or entity has reached a point in which it has exhausted its core intent and is introducing new ideas that are discordant with or an extreme exaggeration of its original purpose.
End quote.
In other words, in the case of, say, a TV show, the Jump the Shark moment is that point in the series in which subsequent episodes are no longer as good as the previous episodes.
And once the Jump the Shark moment occurs, it's typically a precursor to the show's extinction event.
As for the origin of Jump the Shark, it's actually a literal term.
I speak of that infamous 1977 episode of Happy Days, in which Arthur Fonzarelli, aka the Fawns, donned a pair of water skis in order to, well, jump over a man-eating shark for reasons that I can no longer recall.
Here, check it out.
Well, not really.
Let's be frank, that scene is cheesier than a bucket full of Bulgarian feta.
And let's not kid the kidders here.
The only reason Fonzi was donning swimming trunks and for some inexplicable reason still donning his black leather biker jacket was due to the producers riding the wave of shark mania.
You see, Jaws, a film that was responsible for so many people canceling their beach vacations and instead investing in backyard swimming pools, was released in 1975.
Its much anticipated sequel was due for release just months after that particular Happy Days episode aired.
But that's the thing.
Happy Days and Man-Eating Sharks go together about as well as cats and dogs.
From the get-go, this episode entitled Hollywood Part 3 was forgive the pun fishy, which is to say, it was an obvious cash grab from the get-go.
The whole cast of Happy Days had to be transplanted to Southern California, no doubt due to the reason that the Midwestern setting for Happy Days, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is pretty much a dead zone for sharks and other oceanic life.
Besides the utter cheesiness of the action scenes, remember, kids, this was long before the invention of CGI.
Well, the audience knew this was really just blatant exploitation.
I'm sure if the blockbuster movie of the day involved, say, space travel, the producers of Happy Days would have come up with a preposterous plot device that would have the cast land on the moon for whatever reason.
The point is, this preposterous Jump the Shark episode left a sour aftertaste, and Happy Days was never quite the same ever again.
In any event, there is a mountain of content online in which TV fans make the case for when the precise moment their favorite TV shows went into an irreversible nosedive thanks to Jumping the Shark.
For example, numerous fans of The Simpsons believe that show experienced its Jump the Shark moment in season nine when it was revealed that Principal Skinner was actually called Armin Tamzerian and had assumed the identity of Seymour Skinner after the Vietnam War.
Like, what the hell?
For the Brady Bunch, there is near unanimous consent that this show's Jump the Shark moment was when the much-lathed cousin Oliver moved into the Brady household.
But in my book, I think the ultimate Jump the Shark TV moment goes to Dallas, specifically the first episode of season 10, in which it was revealed that Bobby Ewing did not die the previous season.
His death, alas, was just a bad dream endured by his fiancée.
And so it is that season 10 has her waking up one morning to discover that Bobby is very much alive and well and having a jolly hot shower.
The only hitch, alas, is that since Bobby's death was a dream, meaning his demise never did happen, that meant the entire events which occurred in season nine were officially annulled.
Just like that.
Like, are you kidding me?
It was outrageous.
Everyone knew that Patrick Duffy, who played Bobby Ewing, had quit Dallas to pursue other projects such as the man from Atlantis, essentially a low-rent Aquaman.
The man from Atlantis flopped, so it was an economic no-brainer that Duffy would go back to the hit series Dallas.
But seriously, wiping out an entire season of content in order to accommodate an actor who had made a really bad career choice, that's a jump a great white shark moment.
But enough with the pop culture stroll down memory lane.
Why Canada Is Called Stolen Land00:15:30
Let's veer into politics, shall we?
Because a jump the shark benchmark has been achieved when it comes to Canadian culture, methinks.
You see, for the past 13 months now in the streets of our great dominion, we have seen ugliness that is off the charts since October 7th, 2023.
That is, of course, when Hamas terrorists butchered almost 1,200 people while kidnapping more than 250.
It was the biggest single-day massacre of Jews since the end of the Holocaust some 80 years ago.
It was disgusting.
It was enraging.
Hey, we always knew anti-Semitism was a thing, but this?
This was a shock to the system.
This whole idea of pro-Hamas supporters taking to the streets weekend after weekend and chanting hatred, enraged thugs physically assaulting Jews for being Jewish, shooting up Jewish schools and synagogues, displaying swastikas and chanting genocide.
We're talking Toronto here, not Tehran.
It was utterly baffling.
Israel was the target of a brutal terrorist attack, and yet, before the corpses were even called, terrorist supporters were not only celebrating, but clamoring for more violence.
I think that what we have witnessed this past year has given us cause to question the policy of multiculturalism.
For I think what we have seen on the streets of our nation and what we continue to see is the ultimate jump the shark moment for multiculturalism.
You know, it was on October 8, 1971 that Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced in the House of Commons that multiculturalism was now official government policy.
According to the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, quote, the government committed to support multiculturalism in four specific ways.
Assistance to cultural groups in their development and growth, assistance to members of cultural groups to overcome barriers to full participation in society, promotion of creative exchanges between cultural groups, and assistance to immigrants in learning French or English, end quote.
Essentially, unlike the so-called melting pot south of the border philosophy, the government was fine with newcomers hanging on to their culture as opposed to fully embracing Canadian culture and Canadian values and assimilation.
But while nothing was put down in writing, there was an unspoken agreement when it came to Canada's official multiculturalism policy.
And it was this: you can immigrate to Canada, you can pursue the Canadian dream, you can make use of all our social programs ranging from health care to welfare.
But in return, this is what we ask: you behave yourself.
You don't break the law.
You embrace peace and order.
And perhaps most importantly, you do not import age-old hatred and feuds into Canada because, well, that's just not the Canadian way.
And you know what?
For a newly arriving immigrant to Canada, this would seem to be a great deal, wouldn't you say?
Alas, as we have witnessed these past 13 months, the verdict regarding this lofty social policy experiment is in multiculturalism is an abject failure.
Clearly, too many people who have immigrated to Canada have not upheld their part of that aforementioned unwritten bargain, which is to say when you have people openly supporting a terrorist group and breaking the law from vandalism to violence and chanting genocide in the streets,
well, the proof is in the proverbial pudding that multiculturalism, much like the 1970 Ford Pinto, might have looked good on paper, but in practice, it's been a disaster.
And you know, it's not just the Hamaso community in Sneaky Patrick Brown's Democratic People's Republic of Brampton.
Multicultural tensions are simmering now, specifically due to violence in the streets involving Hindus and Khalistani Sikhs.
It should be noted that those Sikhs who support an independent state in India called Khalistan are indeed responsible for Canada's bloodiest act of terrorism.
In June 1985, Air India Flight 182 was blown out of the sky over the Atlantic Ocean.
The plane had started its journey in Montreal, but somehow a bomb was placed inside that aircraft.
Every single man, woman, and child on board, 329 innocent people, were vaporized.
What is perversely ironic is that the Khalistan movement in India is deader than disco, but it lives on abroad, specifically in Canada, the US and the UK, because the immigration policies of these nations failed to vet the good Sikhs, who I would argue are the majority from the very bad Sikhs, who will resort to mass murder, if need be,
in their pursuit of a pipe dream that shall never come to fruition.
By the way, can you possibly guess who the most famous pro-Khalistan Sikh is in Canada?
Well, that would be none other than Jugmeet Sellout Singh.
Yep.
Check out this article published by India Today last month entitled, quote, Jugmeet Singh, Canada's Pro-Khalistani Leader with Troubled Childhood, end quote.
Here's an excerpt of the article about our co-prime minister.
Quote, he was accused by the then Indian government of this insidious agenda of disturbing the social fabric of India and undermining the peace, harmony, and territorial integrity of India.
The NDP leader attended a pro-sovereignty seminar in 2016 with the co-founder of the British-based National Sikh Youth Federation, who made clear demands for a separate land for Sikhs.
This was the second time Singh was part of such an event.
In 2015, he attended a Khalistani rally where participants chanted, Khalistan, Khalistan, reported Canadian broadcaster CBC, end quote.
Is that not a most appalling example of the failure of multiculturalism?
I mean, folks, it's not just regular Joes out in the street supporting terrorism and chanting genocide and whatnot, but we even have those who would aspire to be the nation's prime minister, which for Sellout Singh at Middle Elliot is even more of a political pipe dream than militant Sikhs achieving an independent state of Khalistan within India.
Unbelievable.
Oh, sure, we'd love to get Singh's side of the story, but this so-called parliamentarian prefers to sprint rather than speak.
Check out our brief encounter with Sellout at an NDP event in Toronto last month.
Say, Mr. Singh, you said several weeks ago you tore up the support agreement with the Liberals, but you continue to prop them up in the House.
Mr. Singh, for the good of the country, are you going to walk away from your multi-million dollar pension?
He doesn't allow nobody to know.
Is there any policy of his that you support?
Well, I'm not so much familiar with all the policies.
Oh, you're not familiar?
Yes.
Wow, see how he runs.
And is it any wonder that Singh is allegedly a Hamas supporter?
I mean, what's with that human shield he's carrying about these days?
Despicable.
But that's another odious side effect when it comes to multiculturalism.
It is not nurturing patriotism, but rather entitlement.
Case in point, in Brampton, well, of course Brampton, Indian international students and those on temporary work visas remain camped out near the intersection of Queen Street and Highway 410.
They are demanding to remain in Canada, even though it's time for them to go.
They've been there for months now.
But have the authorities moved in to dismantle this illegal encampment?
Have they criminally charged anyone?
Have they thrown anyone into solitary confinement?
Have any of the unhappy campers had their bank accounts frozen?
Well, no, no, no, and no.
I guess there is a special allowance for certain folk under our perverted policy of multiculturalism.
But what is really astounding is the elevator pitch of these freeloaders, which is to say they don't want to remain in Canada and become Canadian citizens because they love Canada.
Rather, it kind of looks like they hate Canada.
Check out this excerpt of when we visited the encampment just a few months ago.
Question: If there no one is illegal on stolen land, as you call Canada, if Canada is full of hatred and racism, why would you want to move here?
Why would you want to be a citizen of this awful place?
Nobody has claimed that, like, we hate Canada.
Nobody has claimed that.
Pardon me, sorry?
Nobody has claimed that, like, we hate Canada.
The Canadians are the wonderful people.
I have Canadian friends as well.
I love them a lot.
The signs say stop racism and hatred.
It's calling Canada stolen land.
So if there is racism and hatred in Canada, if this is indeed stolen land, why would you ever want to come to such a place?
No, it's not about like stolen land.
You are talking about we are not even saying.
But sir, with respect, that's what the sign says.
The main problem is like there might be miscommunication.
The main problem is we immigrants are facing hatred with the people, right?
We are not hating anyone.
We are just telling like what is happening right now.
Oh, I'm not saying that you're haters.
The sign isn't that special.
Canada is on stolen land.
Canadians are racist and hateful.
Gee, who in their right mind would want to live in such a dump?
But seriously, this is belligerence and entitlement on steroids.
Do you want these campers becoming Canadians?
Or do you want to give them, I don't know, a free ride to Pearson International and bid them bon voyage?
But back to the Hamasholes.
Their biggest act of atrocity is yet to come.
I speak of their Remembrance Day at Celebration Square in Mississauga, slated for Tuesday, November 26 at 6 p.m.
There's only one little problem with this belated Remembrance Day.
Take it away, Romulan Senator Vernek.
It's a fake.
Oh, yeah, it's a fake, all right.
This so-called Remembrance Day, which is being promoted with the imagery of poppies and the slogan, lest we forget, is not honoring patriots, but rather terrorists.
Kid you not, folks, they are honoring the Hamas martyrs, including the evil and thankfully deceased mastermind of October 7th, Yahya Sinoir.
And as far as Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish is concerned, well, this is a free speech issue, you see, even though the reprobates at this so-called vigil will be resorting to their due rigueur chants for genocide of the Jewish people, contrary to section 319 of the Criminal Code of Canada.
What do you say about that, Mayor Parrish?
Then again, although I am not a psychiatrist, I really believe that Miss Parrish is mentally ill.
Remember the incident that was the beginning of the end for her career as a Liberal MP?
Carolyn?
That was a George Bush doll Parrish was stepping on, whom Parrish also referred to as a bastard.
Look, I get it.
Parrish is not a conservative, nor is she a supporter of the Republican Party.
But at the same time, she was a member of Parliament.
She wasn't a comedian.
The U.S. is our closest ally.
The U.S. is our biggest trading partner.
You think it might be a bad idea to act out in such an outrageous fashion?
Well, even Parrish's own governing liberals of the day thought so and eventually kicked this lunatic right out of the party.
Now, there's been a predictable amount of outrage about the fake Remembrance Day.
And how has Mayor Parrish responded?
Well, she's doubling down comparing Sinoir to Nelson Mandela.
I know that many times they have to be bland and stick to the law.
But in this case, we have a person who's recognized as a terrorist very widely.
Thank you.
Well, thank you for your advice.
You're free to do whatever you want and free to say whatever you want.
I am not.
My job is to consult with our lawyers and do exactly what they tell me.
So I just want to point out, and I'm not being facetious, Nelson Mandela was declared a terrorist by the United States of America until the year 2008.
You're a terrorist and somebody else's terrorists may be two different things.
But I am extremely careful and I do not step out of line, but you're free to do whatever you like.
By the way, why do the Hamassols think the death of Sinoir is a sad thing?
As a martyr, isn't this gentleman now in the afterlife enjoying the sexual favors of 72 voluptuous, black-eyed virgins?
By the way, think about that for just a second, folks.
Not 71 or 73, 72.
Not skinny, but voluptuous.
Not blue-eyed, but black-eyed.
Not sluts, but virgins.
It's all laid out like a little contract, isn't it?
Can you believe the mentality of these people?
Police Enforcing Sharia Law?00:06:57
The Justin Trudeau liberals even reward Islamists who are still amongst the living, alas.
Case in point, Canada's homegrown al-Qaeda terrorist, Omar Cotter, well, he was given $10.5 million in 2016 for allegedly suffering from hurt feelings.
Cotter is a terrorist.
Cotter is a self-confessed murderer.
Oh, but never mind.
This is the kind of diversity Justin Trudeau loves, and therefore, little Omar wins a Lotto Max jackpot without even having to buy a lottery ticket.
Speaking of blackface, he's also doubling down on this file by importing the worst of the worst when it comes to Middle East hate mongers, which is to say he is hell-bent on issuing some 5,000 visas to Gazans.
We know that about 80% of Gazans still support Hamas.
We know other Middle East Arab countries want absolutely nothing to do with these people.
And does anyone think these people are going to behave in Canada and embrace Western values?
Anyone?
But no, Justin Trudeau thinks the solution to out-of-control anti-Semitism on the streets is throwing gasoline on the fire.
And in the Department of There's Plenty of Blame to Go Around, where oh where is law enforcement when it comes to dealing with the pro-Hamas hooligans?
Well, the police are literally enforcing Sharia law as opposed to Canadian law.
You know, I know it's hard to believe, but case in point, for more than a year now, at the intersection of Bathurst Street and Shepherd Avenue West in Toronto, this has served as a gathering point for pro-Israel demonstrators.
Typically, the message being conveyed is the desire for the safe return of those remaining and hopefully still living hostages who were kidnapped in Israel by Hamas terrorists last October 7th.
But even though there are literally thousands of intersections in the city of Toronto, the pro-Hamas types have decided they must assemble at this particular place.
Why?
Well, the answer is obvious.
Clearly, they hate Jews and their allies, and teen terror wants to cause trouble.
And they are being aided and betted by the Toronto Police Service.
Check out what happened last Sunday when I tried to cover this protest.
First, I was assaulted by the pro-Hamas supporters.
Then the ringleaders demanded the cops arrest me for practicing journalism.
And the cops did so.
Check it out.
Don't touch that.
What's wrong with you fighting?
We told you.
Who are you fighting?
What do you mean you fight?
See this?
My grandfather spent five years of his life fighting the Nazis.
You think I'm going to bend the need of the Islamic Naxis?
No.
What crime am I committing?
No, come on.
Enforce the law.
Obey your oath.
Obey your oath.
You're enforcing someone.
What am I doing here?
Hey, hey, hey, let's go! Let's go, bye!
You're dealing with this.
Everybody back to your protest.
I also want you to check this.
Peace out folks.
Who should show up at 32 Division just as I was being released from my cell?
Well, none other than the junior jihadi Anos Seal, who was ordering the cops around at Bathurst and Shepherd just three hours prior.
Here, check it out.
Oh, Ezra, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but we have one of the lawyers.
Planted to your lawyers again?
Yes.
For committing another unnecessary obstruction to police and attacking our people again.
No, I didn't attack anyone.
But you did.
You came in and the Prisoner.
I know I was trying to talk to the Jewish demonstrators on your side.
Yeah, but do they want to talk to you?
You don't want to talk to a racist like you.
They don't want to talk to someone who's racist like you.
Why are you just going?
Are you turning yourself in for transient genocide?
Well, we're going to change genocide.
Oh, yes, you name genocide.
Sending you on the media.
Wow, nice dress, by the way.
Say, do you think Anus is trans?
Oh, and by the way, my advice to would-be parents out there, if you think your upcoming little bundle of joy might turn out to be an all-star asshole, maybe you shouldn't saddle the kid with a name that actually sounds like Anus.
Now, while I was in the slammer, I missed the rest of the protests, so I regret to report that I do not know if the Toronto police reimagine themselves as Uber Eats drivers by delivering coffee and tin bits to these deplorables.
Indeed, with the police refusing to enforce the law while criminally charging peaceful counter-demonstrators and members of the independent media, we have gone from jump the shark to the tail wagon the dog.
Not that these odious people have any love for men's best friend, mind you.
Now that I've demonstrated the problem, the question arises: what is the solution?
Compromises Already Made00:04:30
Well, it is all about having someone in office that has the political wherewithal to do the right thing.
Case in point, check out what President-elect Donald Trump said about this situation south of the border yesterday.
And here is what I will do to defeat anti-Semitism and defend our Jewish citizens in America.
My first week back in the Oval Office, my administration will inform every college president that if you do not end anti-Semitic propaganda, they will lose their accreditation and federal taxpayers.
Support truth is you don't have to do much after that You do that.
It's going to work miracles.
Please sit down.
We will not subsidize the creation of terrorist sympathizers, and we're not going to do it certainly on American soil.
We're not going to do it anywhere.
Next, I will inform every educational institution in our land that if they permit violence, harassment, or threats against Jewish students, the schools will be held accountable for violations of the civil rights law.
Very important.
Jewish Americans must have equal protection under the law.
They're going to get it.
At the same time, my administration will move swiftly to restore safety for Jewish students and Jewish people on American streets.
You know, I pray Pierre Polyev is paying attention to Trump's pronouncements because the vast majority of people on either side of the border are on side when it comes to deporting the deplorables.
Furthermore, should the Conservatives form a majority government, which polls indicate is inevitable, perhaps Mr. Polyev can take our multiculturalism policy and put it in the paper shredder where it rightfully belongs.
When I cover these hate fast folks, I swear I no longer recognize the city of my birth.
I no longer recognize my beloved country.
We need to put adults back in charge of this country.
In terms of multiculturalism, it was Justin's alleged father that got the ball rolling more than half a century ago.
And now Junior seems hell-bent on making Canada completely unrecognizable.
What we need is that Captain Picard moment from the movie First Contact.
We've made too many compromises already.
Too many retreats.
They invade our space and we fall back.
They assimilate entire worlds and we fall back.
Not again.
The line must be drawn here.
This far.
your father.
Picard was speaking of the Borg, of course, and Star Trek is the stuff of sci-fi fantasy, but we need a leader who, okay, sorry.
No problem.
Picard was speaking of the Borg, of course, and Star Trek is the stuff of sci-fi fantasy, but we need a leader who will also no longer fall back.
A leader who will also draw the line right here.
Because what next?
Do the supporters of terrorism further push the envelope?
Which is to say, how far away are we from the disgrace that occurred in Amsterdam earlier this month?
You know, when the wannabe jihadis tried to kill soccer fans because they were Jews.
Maybe we are already at that point, thanks to the failed policy of official state-sanctioned multiculturalism.
And even if you do not give a rodent's rectum about the state of Israel or the plight of the Jewish people, here's the cold, hard, politically incorrect truth.
If the New Age Hitler youth movement gets its way, if Israel is nuked into the Stone Age and every single Jew in the world is massacred, do you really think that's mission accomplished for the Islamists?
Government Wasting Taxpayer Money Renting Art00:15:01
Oh no, it's merely the completion of stage one.
What I'm saying is this, folks.
First it's the Jew, then it's you.
Hey folks, what if I told you that federal bureaucrats spent $76,000 of your hard-earned tax dollars for artwork?
Oh, wait a minute.
It gets worse.
It's $76,000 in order to rent some artwork.
Wait now, it gets even worse.
$76,000 a month to rent artwork.
I know you're saying this is a premature April Fool's Day joke.
It's not.
Again, your tax dollars hard at work in an environment that is just oozing in entitlement.
And with more details on this absolutely shocking story, I'd like to welcome the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
That would be Franco Terrazano.
Thank you so much for joining me on the Ezra Levant Show, Franco.
Hey, my pleasure.
You know, Franco, I wonder if sometimes you suffer from a type of battle fatigue.
You keep breaking these stories.
You keep, you know, when somebody says out there, what are these cats going to do for an encore?
Well, you deliver.
Franco, what's the background on this story?
Why did federal bureaucrats find it necessary to rent artwork for $76,000 a month as opposed to, I don't know, going down to the local value village and buying a picture for $20?
And it gets worse.
That's really the theme of this episode, right?
And it gets worse.
Yeah, well, it does get worse because not only are bureaucrats in federal departments and agencies spending $76,000 a month renting art, it gets worse because the government is essentially double billing taxpayers.
And here's what I mean when I say that.
So number one, the government uses your tax dollars to buy the art for its art bank.
Right.
And that's in a federal crown corporation known as the Canadian Council for the Arts.
And then bureaucrats rent that art with your tax dollars.
So it does get worse because the government is in effect double billing taxpayers.
So to lay the groundwork of this story, the feds between January 2016 and July of 2024, they spent about $7.8 million renting art from the art bank.
Okay, that's $76,000 a month renting art, billing taxpayers for it.
And now to put that into perspective, $76,000 a month renting art, that is more than what the average Canadian worker makes in an entire year.
You know, I can't believe I have to say this out loud, but maybe these bureaucrats should chill it on the art bank when record numbers of Canadians are lining up at food banks.
Franco, here's the question.
Why did they feel it was necessary to rent artwork in the first place?
They're federal bureaucrats.
I mean, I guess you could make the case, I think, if you were running an art gallery.
Yeah, you want to invest in art.
That's your bailiwick.
But these are bureaucrats carrying out the business of government, not the promotion of artwork.
What was the ostensible policy reason for renting this stuff in the first place?
Well, let's just be honest, right?
It's a lot easier to blow money when you're blowing other people's money.
Right.
Like, let's just, like, let's just be honest about it, right?
We all know what's going on here.
But you know what, the crazy part of this too, right?
Is that the highest single rental expense was about $120,000.
Now, to be fair, we don't know how many rentals were in that specific rental purchase, but $120,000.
You ready for the punchline?
Guess when that took place?
April of 2020.
April of 2020.
During the heart of the pandemic, right?
Where were the federal bureaucrats?
Were there any even in the office?
Oh, I see what you're getting at.
So they were renting artwork for $76 a month for offices where nobody was in attendance.
Well, that's the big question mark, right?
Like, were there even bureaucrats looking at this art?
But like, look, folks, this is crazy, right?
And I mentioned that there's a double billing, the fact that the government is buying the art in the first place for this art bank, right?
That's within the federal crown corporation known as the Canadian Council for the Arts.
In fact, in the last fiscal year where there's records for the feds gave that Crown corporation, the Canadian Council for the Arts over $400 million.
By the way, that government funding is about 90% of that Crown corporation's total revenue.
So not only are you paying for the art in the first place, but then the government bills you an extra $76,000 a month so federal department bureaucrats can hang up these pretty pictures in their offices.
You know, Franco, I can almost feel our audience seething.
And here's the thing.
If this happened in the private sector, if the CEO found out that some minion had rented artwork for $76,000 a month, there would be hell to pay.
That's the issue with government and bureaucrats, isn't it, Franco?
No one is accountable.
No one pays a penalty.
No one gets fired for even the most egregious spending.
And how can we reverse this or is it irreversible?
Okay, a couple things.
So, first, there's two problems.
Okay.
Number one, to your point, there is no accountability.
I wouldn't be surprised if they're all just getting bonuses, right?
The feds have dished out $1.5 billion in bonuses since 2015.
About 90% of federal government executives get a bonus every year.
Even with the worst federal waste, there's still bonuses.
Folks, remember Arrive scam?
Remember that simple app that launched for 80 grand ended up costing taxpayers 60 million bucks?
Well, the federal executives working on ArriveCan got $340,000 in bonuses.
Wow.
Right?
So, number one, there is no accountability going on in the government at this time for wasting taxpayers' money.
Number two, you know, maybe taxpayers could give the government a break if this was the only time they're wasting their money.
But that's not the case, folks, is it?
Right?
Global Affairs Canada, one department billing taxpayers like 50 grand a month on alcohol purchases, including a $1,000 booze-filled trivia night.
Or how about this, folks?
We got so many records of waste here.
How about Parks Canada spending $10,000 in four years to capture one single American bullfrog on a BC island?
Or how about this one?
Yeah, Parks Canada, right?
Spending 10 grand, four years to capture one frog.
Or how about this one, folks?
In one year, the Trudeau government had three affordability retreats costing taxpayers more than a million dollars.
Or how about Stats Canada producing a podcast that costs almost a million dollars on topics ranging from like gender ideology to arts and crafts to misinformation, right?
So, or one last one, folks, because this one just blows my blood.
On the podcast, don't forget, nobody was listening.
Yeah, barely anybody's listening to.
Or how about this one, right?
The federal government spending 8 million bucks building a barn at Rideau Hall.
Now, you could probably tell by how I'm dressed.
I don't know the first thing about farming, but I do know that my buddies in Brooks know how to build a barn for less than $8 million.
So, the problem is, is not just this crazy, crazy waste of money where the government is spending like $76,000 a month renting art, but also that this is happening all over the place, department after department, year after year.
You know, Franco, I will respectfully disagree with your last example, the $8 million barn.
I would surmise that barn is probably the size of an aircraft hangar.
And in Ottawa, with all the BS that you have to deal with, maybe that's why they need such a structure.
Franco, kindly remind our audience, what is our debt and our deficit right now?
Well, after what, nine years in office, well, Trudeau has officially doubled the debt.
It's now $1.2 trillion, double the debt, less than a decade.
And I believe the other question you asked were the deficit.
It's 2024.
There is no pandemic.
The federal government just hiked capital gains taxes.
It's still running a $40 billion deficit.
And oh, by the way, interest charges on that debt are now blowing a $1 billion hole in the budget every single week.
And one more bad piece of information, folks.
Every penny you pay in the federal sales tax is now going to pay interest on the government credit card.
And Franco, on the interest alone, how many hospitals a year could we build with that amount of money?
So the interest charges this year are costing taxpayers $54 billion.
Now, a hospital, I don't know, around a billion dollars, the construction costs of a new hospital.
So that's like we're losing out on a hospital, a brand new hospital essentially being built every single week.
Because instead of that money going to actual priorities, it's going to the bond fund managers on Bay Street to pay interest charges on the debt.
Wow.
You know, it's funny because I was in Washington for the election.
I came across a bus shelter poster.
It was a running count of the U.S. debt, which is now $35 trillion.
In other words, the interest to service that debt is bigger than the U.S. military budget.
Spending is out of control in so many jurisdictions.
But let's just get back one more second to this business of paying $76,000 a month on artwork, Franco.
The thing that jumped into my head right away was several years ago, it was one of the CEOs for the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation who was forced to resign.
I can't remember.
They go through CEOs like somebody with a cold goes through Kleenex there.
There's so much corruption at the OLG.
But two of the things that really stuck in the crawl of people looking at his lavish spending of a crown corporation was one, he sealed off the cafeteria so he wouldn't have to dine with the lowly people working at the OLG, and he rented artwork.
It was in the thousands of dollars a month.
I don't have a figure.
And people thought that was a scandalous waste of money.
I guess the point I'm getting to, Franco, is that this is, it's not as though this is unprecedented.
Why are federal bureaucrats who are probably aware of this story, why are they so tone deaf and go, yeah, it was a scandal, it was an outrage.
He was forced to resign.
We're still going to rent artwork.
Explain that to me.
Because they're not being held accountable by the people who should be holding them accountable.
Right?
We send politicians, elected representatives to Ottawa, in theory at least, to protect the public purse.
The politicians that we send there, they're not doing that, right?
What happens when you run a $40 billion deficit year after year?
It sends the signal to the bureaucracy that don't worry about wasting taxpayers' money because you're not going to be held accountable.
So look, like, I wish that these unelected bureaucrats would exercise some common sense and just realize that their neighbors in the private sector, the ones who pay their salaries, are going through a really tough time.
I wish those unelected bureaucrats had that common sense.
But at the end of the day, the responsibility is on the members of parliament to hold them accountable.
But when the members of parliament are spending like crazy, running these huge deficits, that sends the signal to the unelected bureaucracy that, hey, don't worry about it.
It's party time.
So who is really at fault here?
The elected officials that are supposed to be watching over the public purse and that are failing to do just that.
Unbelievable.
Franco, one last question, hypothetical one.
If we believe the polls, it looks like Pierre Polyev is headed towards a majority government whenever the next election is called.
I think Mr. Polyev has a generation of work to achieve.
Those first four years are just going to be absolutely incredible.
If I was in charge, and I want to bounce this off you, because I don't think this is a so-called stretch goal.
I think one of the mandates I would do is this.
Every single government, department, agency, bureaucracy, you must slash your budget by 1% per year.
That's it.
1%.
Is that doable?
Can that be done?
Do you think Pierre Polyev will go down that route?
Of course, it's doable.
I mean, like, Trudeau has added 108,000 extra bureaucrats in less than a decade, a 42% increase to the federal bureaucracy.
So it's doable.
I mean, 1%, in my opinion, is not even nearly enough.
Like, after this government has been spending like crazy for so long and you can only find 1% of savings, like, come on, right?
Like, the way that this Trudeau government has been spending, finding savings in every area of the budget should be like finding water in the ocean.
So, like, in my opinion, 1% savings is not far enough, not even close.
Is it doable?
Absolutely, it's doable.
In fact, Mr. Polyev has said he will fix the budget and provide tax relief.
Well, for Mr. Polyev to live up to that promise, it'll be directly tied to his ability to shrink Ottawa's bureaucracy.
Frustration and Hope00:02:05
Unbelievable.
And, you know, Franco, I lied.
I do have one more question.
It's a personal question to you, my friend.
You and all the other staffers at the Canadian Taxpayer Federation, you do incredible work uncovering the wanton waste there.
Do you ever get frustrated?
Do you ever get saddened that you expose all this financial carnage and it just seems to be business as usual?
No one faces any consequences.
The outrageous spending continues.
How do you keep a stiff upper lip, my friend?
Well, I've got the best job in the world, man.
I love the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
I get to work with a bunch of great people.
Our supporters are the best.
That's why we do it.
And we do it because we believe in what we're doing, right?
We know that Canadians work very hard for their salaries and for the tax dollars they pay.
And it honestly, it makes me sick to my stomach when you have these bureaucrats and politicians just blowing our money and trying to raise taxes.
But, you know, I'm naturally, I think, an optimistic person and I understand that policy takes time to change.
But what I'm really happy about is I see the tide is turning.
I see a light at the end of the tunnel.
And I just know and I see Canadians becoming more and more frustrated and ready to take action against these overspending, over-taxing politicians and bureaucrats in Ottawa.
Well, there you go.
Hope abounds, as always.
Franco, thank you so much for coming on.
I'm sure we'll have you back soon enough because it seems never ending.
Like I said, you're doing a great job.
Thank you again, my friend.
Hey, appreciate you guys.
Thank you.
Well, there you go.
My final thoughts on this file, folks, is for you to get proactive, which is to say, if you want to take a stand against what's happening on our streets, well, I invite you to come to the Toronto intersection of Bathurst and Shepherd from 12 noon to 2 p.m.
Stand Against Savagery00:00:45
That's when the dueling demonstrations shall be occurring.
The pro-Hamas people and the pro-Israel people.
This is beyond Israel versus Hamas.
This is really about civilization versus savagery.
We are going to make a stand on that Sunday.
We are going to take back our streets.
Please come out and join us.
Well, folks, that wraps up tonight's edition of the Ezra Levent Show, the big boss man Ezra.
He'll be back in this chair on Monday.
In fact, if you're coming out on Sunday to Bathers and Shepherd, I know he's going to be there too.
So in the meantime, have a wonderful and safe weekend.