Ezra Levant examines Donald Trump’s aggressive foreign policy tactics, like forcing Colombia’s Gustavo Petro to reverse migrant repatriation flight bans with 50% tariffs and sanctions within hours. Contrasting Biden’s pardons for figures like Fauci, Levant criticizes Canada’s Justin Trudeau for undemocratic tax hikes, elite detachment (Carney, Freeland, WEF ties), and dismissing small businesses as "tax-dodging schemes." Legal challenges—including a CTF lawsuit over capital gains taxes and JCCF’s Parliament dissolution case—highlight systemic overreach. Levant’s high-cost Davos coverage reveals WEF’s bizarre, taxpayer-funded agenda, proving independent media’s necessity while promoting Rebel News’ ad opportunities to counter it. [Automatically generated summary]
I don't know if you watched the battle, the very, very short battle, the less than one hour long battle between Donald Trump and the president of Colombia yesterday, but it was spectacular, and I'll take you through it blow by blow.
Really, a signal to the world about how Donald Trump is completely different from Joe Biden or Jimmy Carter or really any other president before him.
It's quite something.
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All right, here's today's podcast.
Tonight, Donald Trump wins his first foreign affairs battle in spectacular fashion.
It's January 27th, and this is the Ezra Levant show.
Shame on you, you censorious bug.
Donald Trump has been working on things even before his inauguration.
Trump's First 100 Hours00:15:57
I don't think the guy has taken a single day off since the election, and he was working every single day during the election, too.
I wish I had his energy, and he's almost, I guess he's 25 years older than me.
Here's an example.
He insisted that Israel wrap up its war against Hamas and that the hostages be released by the time of his inauguration.
And I suppose that was halfway accomplished.
He started negotiating with Vladimir Zelensky and Vladimir Putin over the termination of the war in Ukraine.
He has been lobbying Denmark to have Greenland become an American protectorate or territory.
He's been telling Panama that it should get ready to hand back the canal to America, which once owned it.
And of course, as you know, he's been pressing Canada and Mexico to strengthen our borders with the U.S. to stop illegal migrants and illegal drugs from coming across.
And he's threatened a tariff on our imports if we don't.
Now, given that Joe Biden is a bit of a vegetable, no one really dealt with him after the election other than those who were talking to, I don't know, the committee behind the curtain.
I don't know who ran the government during Biden's time.
People who wanted pardons.
Anthony Fauci.
He got a pardon going back to 2014.
That seems odd.
General Milley, the high-ranking general who said he had back channels with China and would stop Trump if he had to.
And of course, Biden's entire family getting pardons literally the morning of the inauguration.
Joe Biden has given away more pardons than any president in history.
They really meant it when they called it the Biden crime family.
But Trump's pace since he became president is staggering, even compared to how busy he was during that transition period.
They typically talk about the first 100 days of a president's term.
In the case of Trump, it's the first 100 hours.
Seriously, I found it thrilling to watch him sign so many executive orders.
I think there were about 200 of them in the first few days, obviously meticulously drafted in advance, ready to go on that first day.
But sometimes an executive order is just a piece of paper.
To take that piece of paper into action, well, that's been so exciting.
For example, to have the U.S. military deployed on the southern border with Mexico.
That was riveting to see the kind of thing that in the past, General Milley would have stopped.
And to see ICE, that's the immigration police, to see ICE enforcement against some of the baddest hombres out there.
Here's Dr. Phil, who was out with the ICE czar in Chicago rounding up criminals, in this case, a child rapist.
Take a look at this.
Where are you from?
Where I was born or where I'm from.
Where are you born?
Thailand.
You've been deported before from the United States?
No.
Never been deported.
I've been in a city before PMB.
Yeah.
What have you been charged with?
Charged for.
Before.
I'm not a sinner.
I'm not talking about a lawyer.
Yeah.
Are you a citizen?
My mom's a citizen.
Your mother's a citizen?
Yes.
But you're not?
Nope.
But you've never been deported before?
Dr. Phil.
Dr. Phil.
Yeah?
How do you know me?
No, I've seen Dr. Phil on TV.
Yeah.
Well, this is an example of sanctuary cities, right?
We got an illegal army convicted of sex crimes involving children.
And he's walking the streets of Chicago.
Again, the downfall, the problem with Sanctuary City, that people like us walk on the street rather than law enforcement working with federal agents.
This is what we're dealing with.
Yeah.
You've been charged with sex crimes with children?
Not really.
Not really?
And never been deported.
Well.
Huh.
Let's take them in process and lock them up.
Got it, sir.
On Trump's very first day as president, 308 migrants were deported.
It's been thousands more since then.
Now, by the way, those are still rookie numbers.
If you're going to deport 10 million people over four years, do the math.
You need thousands and thousands per day.
But it's an impressive start.
Speaking of deportations, there was a claim that Colombia and other countries that are hostile to the United States, Colombia being a socialist country led by an actual communist, there's a claim that Colombia emptied their prisons to go to the United States.
I mean, think about it.
That's what Fidel Castro did in the Marielle boatlift when Jimmy Carter was in office.
I think it was 79 or 1980, just before Ronald Reagan won.
About 120,000 migrants came from Cuba.
Now, some of them were indeed political prisoners.
Some of them were freedom activists that Castro was happy to kick out of Cuba.
But along with that, Castro emptied the prisons of murderers and rapists and thieves.
And he emptied the insane asylums, people who were simply mad.
And he sent them all to America saying, you want us to release people?
Here you go.
He sent some wonderful people, freedom fighters, but many of the most awful people around.
It was the idea behind the movie Scarface with Al Pacino.
Here's a flashback of that.
Obviously, this is a fictional movie, but based on the Mario boat lift.
Huh?
Como se llama?
Antonio Montana.
And you?
What you call your son?
Where'd you learn to speak the English, Tony?
In school.
And my father, he was from the United States.
Just like you, you know.
He was a Yankee.
He used to take me a lot to the movies, you know.
I learned.
I watched the guys like Hoffy Bogart.
They scared me.
They teach me to talk.
I like those guys.
I always know one day I'm coming here, United States.
So where's your old man now?
He dead.
He died.
Sometime.
Somewhere.
Mother?
She dead too?
What kind of work do you do in Cuba, Tony?
I was construction business.
I work a lot with my hands.
I was in the army.
As I showed you with Tom Holman in the field with Dr. Phil, criminal illegal migrants have been the first to go.
That is, every illegal immigrant is a lawbreaker, but those who actually committed secondary crimes as well, like rape, they have been targeted as the priority deportees.
And there's been incredible images of them being loaded onto military planes and flown to their home country, including to Colombia, which allegedly emptied its prisons in a Castro-like move.
So planes were en route to Colombia.
And according to the U.S. administration, this was all approved and authorized.
But then the Colombian president balked.
He refused to allow the planes of deported Colombian citizens, who the U.S. says are criminals.
He refused to let the plane in.
Well, Donald Trump, he was playing around with golf, so I'm not going to say he never takes a break.
He heard about it and he put out a tweet, or actually it was a post on Truth Social, his own social media platform.
Now, I want to read to you every single word.
It's about a two-minute read.
And this was put out in between rounds of golf.
So just to set the table, you have criminal Colombian citizens being deported on a plane that has been authorized to land in Colombia.
They have the right to return to Colombia.
They're Colombian citizens.
They were illegally in America.
And they were accused of crimes in America.
The president of Colombia says, no, thanks.
Here's how Trump reacted.
I'm going to read every single word.
I was just informed that two repatriation flights from the United States with a large number of illegal criminals were not allowed to land in Colombia.
This order was given by Colombia's socialist president, Gustavo Petro, who is already very unpopular amongst his people.
Petro's denial of these flights has jeopardized the national security and public safety of the United States.
So I have directed my administration to immediately take the following urgent and decisive retaliatory measures.
Emergency 25% tariffs on all goods coming into the United States.
In one week, the 25% tariffs will be raised to 50%.
A travel ban and immediate visa revocations on the Colombian government officials and all allies and supporters.
Visa sanctions on all party members, family members, and supporters of the Colombian government.
Enhanced customs and border protection inspections of all Colombian nationals and cargo on national security grounds.
IEEPA treasury, banking, and financial sanctions to be fully imposed.
These measures are just the beginning.
We will not allow the Colombian government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the criminals they forced into the United States.
He put this out in the middle of playing golf.
This is diplomacy by tweet or by truth social media.
I'll tell you one thing: that got Colombia's attention.
They thought they would flick Trump in the nose.
Trump is a man on a mission.
And by the way, Trump is legally correct.
You can't approve and authorize flights and then deny them.
And by the way, these are your citizens.
You must retake them.
Well, here is the reply.
Less than one hour later.
I mean, imagine, and this was on the weekend.
Imagine under Joe Biden, Joe Biden wouldn't have cared.
He would have accepted this act of impudence, and he wouldn't have even known some staffer would have dealt with it, and they would have been very risk averse.
Trump absolutely poked back on social media.
Why go through any more formal means?
And reading that, I imagine every single big shot in Colombia, political, business, sports, entertainment, said, What?
I can't go to the United States anymore?
Because Trump was basically saying: if you don't accept the ground rules for how we travel and visit each other, including sending home your criminal migrants, then if you're throwing out those rules, we're going to throw them out too.
You started it.
Here's what Gustavo Petro wrote, and I'm going to read part of it.
This is a rough translation.
The government of Colombia, under the direction of President Gustavo Petro, has dispatched the presidential plane to facilitate the dignified return of compatriots who were to arrive in the country in the early hours of the morning coming from deportation flights.
The measure demonstrates the commitment of the government to ensure dignified conditions for our compatriots, despite the challenges.
They have not been stripped of their rights, nor have they been expelled from Colombian territory.
Additionally, the government has convened a unified command post on migration, in which representatives from the Odbudsman's Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Presidency of the Republic will participate.
This body will act as an objective observer to ensure the dignified treatment of deported Colombians, guaranteeing that the procedures respect human rights and the integrity of each person.
Likewise, the government of Colombia maintains active conversations with the government of the United States, seeking agreements that ensure minimal conditions of respect and dignified treatment for our compatriots during deportation processes, blah, blah, blah.
So he absolutely capitulated.
But he framed it as, well, returning these criminals in a military jet was not dignified enough.
That's why we were really upset.
So let me send my private jet to take these accused murderers and rapists home.
He was trying to spin it.
But in other words, it was a total capitulation in less than an hour.
If he wants to send his personal private jet to pick up his country's criminals, so be it.
He has an obligation to do so.
And if not, why should America take any more Colombians of any sort?
And if they were criminals, why would he insist America keep them?
Does he think Trump is Jimmy Carter or something?
So he absolutely capitulated.
By the way, Trump said he's going to keep some of those conditions in effect until the plane actually lands with the deportees back in Colombia.
After writing that sort of official collapse, he wrote a very long rant that should have been started with Dear Diary.
Now, again, this is translated into English.
It's a little kooky.
You know what?
If you have the time, you should find and read the whole thing.
I enjoyed reading the whole thing.
It's a little bit poetic.
It's a little bit sad.
It's a little bit emotional.
It's a little bit, I don't know.
Let me just read it to you.
This is a partial excerpt of his dear diary.
He said, Trump, I don't really like traveling to the U.S.
It's a bit boring, but I confess that there are some commendable things.
I like going to the black neighborhoods of Washington, where I saw an entire fight in the U.S. Capitol between blacks and Latinos with barricades, which seemed like nonsense to me because they should join together.
I confess that I like Walt Whitman and Paul Simon and Noam Chomsky and Miller.
I confess that Sacco and Vanzetti, who of my blood, are memorable in the history of the USA and I follow them.
They were murdered by labor leaders with the electric chair, the fascists who are within the USA, as well as within my country.
I don't like your oil, Trump.
You're going to wipe out the human species because of greed.
Maybe one day over a glass of whiskey, which I accept, despite my gastritis, we can talk frankly about this, but it's difficult because you consider me an inferior race and I'm not, nor is any Colombian.
And it goes on and on and on.
Hey, fair enough.
Let the guy rant.
I don't really know what he's saying.
He finds America boring.
I don't think I've ever heard America called boring.
You can call America a lot of things, but boring it is not.
And hey, if he sent his private jet to get the gangsters, go for it.
I don't know if playing the race card is really going to work here.
But hey, he capitulated.
By the way, the United States provides millions of dollars every year for the security of Colombia, which is a pretty tough place.
I mean, there's terrorists, there's narco-terrorists.
Let me quote from the U.S. State Department report.
I'll just read one line.
The United States provides security assistance to Colombia to promote Colombia's long-term stability, strengthen its security capabilities, and boost regional security.
It's Not Going to Burn Anymore00:03:29
This security assistance, which totaled over $90 million in fiscal year 2023, includes funding from a variety of sources.
So, yeah, I mean, you're getting almost $100 million a year from Donald Trump, and it's to support you.
And yeah, you got to take your illegal migrants back.
Things are a little bit different now.
There's a new sheriff in town.
It's not, you know, senile Joe Biden anymore.
It's not push over Jimmy Carter.
And what are you going to do about it?
Is it unfair what Donald Trump did to you?
No, actually.
He has the right to deport non-citizens.
Will Donald Trump stand for BS?
It appears not.
I think that was exhilarating what happened there.
Did you see the amazing clip from Los Angeles the other day?
And this is related.
It was with the victims of the wildfire in the greater LA area.
And you had that atrocious mayor of L.A., who's actually a communist.
Again, I'm not saying that as an insult.
I'm saying that as a description.
Listen to the mayor talk about how she didn't want homeowners to have the right to even re-enter their property.
And Trump is sitting there.
Trump actually went and listened to people and he said, no, they should have the right to go back to their property tonight.
Look at this clip.
And if individuals want to clear out their property, they can.
Well, yes, but you know that you will be able to go back soon.
Mr. President.
We think within a week, everybody.
That's a long time a week.
I'll be honest.
To me, everyone's standing in front of their house.
They want to go to work and they're not allowed to do it.
And the most important people to be safe.
They're safe.
They're safe.
You know what?
They're not safe.
They're not safe now.
They're going to be much safer.
A week is actually a long time, the way I look at it.
I watched hundreds of people standing in front of their lots and they're not allowed to go in.
It's all burned.
It's gone.
It's done.
Nothing's going to happen to it.
It's not going to burn anymore.
There's nothing to burn.
There's almost nothing to burn.
And they want to go in.
The people are all over the place.
You know, before Trump said let them back in, and by the way, they were let back in today, you know what the city had planned?
An 18-month wait for the government to officially remove the debris.
18 months.
And no, you were not allowed to remove your own debris.
And we are 100% committed to getting this neighborhood rebuilt again.
You mentioned a couple of things in terms of us expediting.
So I signed executive directives right away so that we could cut the red tape.
We could get people back building as fast as possible.
And we're going to continue doing that.
Yeah, the one thing is they are saying they will not be allowed to start for 18 months.
No, that will not be the case.
Okay, I just hope that we're not.
You can hold me to it.
This poor group said that.
No.
That will not be the case.
Trump knows he's got four years as president and a precious week has already gone by.
He is going to do, do, do, do a million things, do more in a day than previous presidents did in a week or even in a month.
And he will simply get to, yes, he's a doer.
He's a builder.
Tax Hike Debate00:15:02
He's not a DEI hire.
I think we should study what happened to Colombia.
And I don't think that Trudeau and Melanie Jolie are up to the task.
Do you?
Stay with us for more.
Hopefully you're having a good time with this podcast, but I guarantee a better time would be coming to Alaska with me, Drea Humphrey, and my other rebel colleagues.
You've got to find out more at our special website, RebelNewsCruise.com, but it's taking place June 18th to June 25th, a vacation trip of a lifetime.
Again, that's RebelNewsCruise.com.
I'll see you there.
Take a look at this from Ottawa and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation earlier today.
I'm Franco Terrazano, the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
And today we're here with a simple message for the government.
No taxation without representation.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is taking the Canada Revenue Agency to court for enforcing the undemocratic and illegal capital gains tax hike.
The capital gains tax hike blows a hole through a fundamental principle of Canada's democracy while also blowing a hole in Canada's economy.
No taxation without representation isn't just an important principle or a catchy slogan.
It's enshrined in the Constitution of Canada.
It's Parliament's job to approve tax increases, but the government failed to introduce the legislation, debate the legislation, pass the legislation, or proclaim the legislation into law.
And with an election right around the corner, it likely never will.
Yet unelected bureaucrats at the CRA are taking billions of dollars from Canadians with this undemocratic tax hike.
This is a tax hike that will drag down our economy.
This is a tax hike that punishes Canadians who work their entire lives to save for their retirements.
This is a tax hike that will push young, smart Canadian graduates who want to start the next Google to leave Canada and set up businesses in other countries.
To put it bluntly, This tax hike is a financial sucker punch to many Canadians who worked hard to invest in properties, create businesses, or save for their retirement.
You know, our democratic system is broken.
Our parliament, that is.
You have a lame duck prime minister so low in the polls.
In some demographics, he's in single digits.
I'm not exaggerating.
Young men in Saskatchewan and Alberta, it is single digit support for Justin Trudeau.
He's dissolved parliament to avoid a confidence vote.
He really is like a cornered animal.
He's got a few weeks left.
He's going to go nuts like Joe Biden.
As you know, Joe Biden's final days, he was pardoning everyone, pardoning his friends, pardoning his families.
I saw this story in the CBC.
Did you see this one?
There are about 10 empty seats in the Canadian Senate.
Trudeau is going to go on an orgy of patronage appointments.
Three seats from Ontario.
It'll be interesting to watch the candidates try and outdo each other.
Is Rosemary Barton going to get it?
Is Andrew Coyne going to get it?
All these journalists are going to, you're going to see more sucking up in the next month than ever in Canadian history.
That's what happens when you have a discredited lame duck prime minister who said he'll resign sometime in the future, but refuses to go.
So how do you stop that?
How do you stop an out-of-control train when the engineer's laughing because he's only got weeks left?
Maybe you go to court.
And that's what the Canadian Taxpayers Federation are doing about an illegal tax.
Joining us now to talk about is our friend Franco Terrazano, the boss of the Taxpayers Federation.
Franco, our parliament is broken.
Can we find relief from the courts?
Well, we're going to win this challenge.
Okay.
Now, folks, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, we're taking the Canada Revenue Agency to court for enforcing the undemocratic and illegal capital gains tax hike.
Now, Ezra, you've heard me say this before.
No taxation without representation.
Okay.
But it's not just an important principle or a catchy slogan.
It is enshrined in the Constitution of Canada.
Okay.
It's Parliament's job to approve tax increases.
Well, the government has failed to introduce legislation, debate legislation, pass legislation, or proclaim legislation into law.
And with the election, likely right around the corner, it likely never will.
And yet you still have these unelected bureaucrats at the CRA that are going to be taking billions of dollars from Canadians with this undemocratic tax hike.
So, you know, at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, we knew we couldn't let that stand.
That's why we launched this legal challenge against the undemocratic and illegal capital gains tax hike.
And we're going to win this one because what the government is doing is wrong.
You know, I want to read from your press release because you and I talk about politics and ideas, but really, this is the stuff of real life of ordinary people who are making decisions in their lives.
And the government is doing a sneak attack on them.
Could I read just one paragraph from your press release?
And folks, you can find this at the Taxpayers Federation website.
The headline is taxpayers launching court fight against undemocratic capital gains tax hike.
Let me just read two sentences, okay?
The CTF, Canadian Taxpayers Federation, is representing Debbie Vorstveld, a resident of Mapleton, Ontario.
Last year, she and her husband Willem sold a property that included a secondary home.
They had rented the secondary home to their adult children, but had to sell it when the kids were ready to move on.
The CRA says the Vorstvelds must pay higher capital gains under the proposed capital gains increase or face financial penalties.
So you can just imagine literally millions of Canadians making life decisions about something they've worked on building their whole lives, a secondary home, a business.
These are regular folks.
I don't know the Vorstvelds.
I'm guessing they're not gazillionaires.
And you've got this illegitimate, unfounded tax hike that is surely to be swatted down in the next election, but it's being collected against them.
That is really infuriating.
I'm so glad you're helping them, but they're emblematic of millions, aren't they?
Well, that's exactly right.
And I'm glad you brought up this story, right?
Because at the end of the day, it's easy to throw figures at people, like the fact that the capital gains will mean 400,000 fewer jobs.
But at the end of the day, it's these individual stories like this family who are being penalized with an undemocratic and illegal tax hike.
And to your point, like not only are we doing it to stick up for this family, but what we're trying to do is set a precedent that what the government is doing is wrong here.
It's undemocratic and it's illegal.
And we're trying to protect the thousands of Canadians who will be impacted by this capital gains tax hike.
Now, many times you've heard the government spin, right?
Oh, it's just going to, we're just going to be going after the monopoly man with this tax hike.
No, Okay.
This is going to affect more than a million Canadians, half of whom earn $117,000 or less.
Okay.
This is a financial sucker punch to people who worked hard their entire lives to invest in properties, to create businesses and put their neighbors to work, and to save for their own retirement.
But not only that, this is also a tax hike that will push that young, smart Canadian graduate who wants to start the next Google here to leave Canada and set up shop in another country.
Yeah.
Okay.
You know, it's funny you mentioned that because Trump is really jabbing at Trudeau over the 51st state and all that.
And some people laugh that off, but there was a poll by Ipsos last week, which is a very reputable pollster.
And it showed young people, again, young men in particular, they're open to it.
And I think it's about prosperity.
So when you say young people would consider leaving, I mean, Trump is saying, hey, just join us.
But no, we're talking about a brain drain again.
I mean, if you watch America, and I know we all do, is we're all riveted.
He is cutting taxes, cutting spending, cutting regulations, that whole Doge idea, Department of Government Efficiency.
If you're a young person and you're ready to start something, are you going to start it under a country that's going to ratchet up carbon tax every year?
Or are you going to say, you know what?
I can live in California, Florida, Texas, better weather maybe in the winter.
And I'll be able, I mean, I really think that this is a competitive moment for Canada.
Your lawsuit is not just going to save individual families.
It'll change the whole temperament of taxes in this country.
Well, we hope so.
And Ezra, I'm glad you keep bringing it back to the person level, right?
I mean, people can't afford groceries, right?
The idea of owning a home is loss for so many people who are in their 20s or 30s, right?
Like, think about it.
If you can barely afford to pay rent, you can't save to buy that home, to start the family, right?
I mean, look, things are very tough right now.
And one of the biggest reasons for this was all the massive money printing we saw in Ottawa, the massive tax increases, the runaway deficits, the crazy amount of money that the government is borrowing.
Now, to circle back to this outrageously undemocratic and illegal capital gains tax hike, like the liberals in the 2021 election never even ran on a capital gains tax hike, okay?
And this mess is the Trudeau government's own creation.
Okay, they chose to not pass the capital gains tax hike with the budget.
They're going to use it as a partisan wedge issue.
They chose to prorogue parliament.
Okay.
So think about this.
They first announced the capital gains tax hike in their budget.
What was it, last April?
Well, Parliament is shut down until March 24th.
So it will have been almost a full year since the capital gains tax hike was announced.
And the legislation, forget not even being passed, it hasn't even been introduced.
Yeah, I don't know how they can do that.
Hey, you know, I want to throw a stat at you that I didn't know.
I heard it the other day and I didn't believe it.
And I just checked it.
The IRS, the Internal Revenue Service, that's what they call the tax department in the United States, a country of almost 350 million people.
I don't know the exact number.
It's about nine times bigger than Canada.
They have about 90,000, approximately 90,000 full-time equivalent staff working at the IRS.
Let me say that number one more time.
90,000.
In Canada, our CRA, Canada Revenue Agency, our version of the IRS, has 62,000.
So they have, America is 900% bigger than Canada, but they only have 50% more tax collectors.
How can Canada have really almost as many tax collectors as all of America?
Like, that's so insane.
And we have more people in the CRA than we have in the Canadian Armed Forces.
How?
Well, let me just put those stats into another context here.
In Canada, there is one tax bureaucrat for every 700 citizens.
In the U.S., there's one tax bureaucrat for every 4,000 citizens, right?
Like, look, the bureaucracy is so out of control.
Trudeau has added 108,000 extra bureaucrats in less than a decade.
Okay.
The cost of the bureaucracy has gone up 73%.
Nobody, unless you're getting a taxpayer-funded paycheck, is getting anywhere close to 70% better services from the federal government.
And then the government goes after doctors, entrepreneurs, people saving for the retirement with this capital gains tax hike, illegal capital gains tax hike.
And you have any wonder why people are feeling like there is two distinct Canadas here, the taxpayers versus the tax consumers, the makers versus the takers.
And the government and the political elite are running around wondering why everyone is so frustrated and fed up.
Well, Canadians should be fed up.
You know, you made me think of an old interview early in Justin Trudeau's political career when he sat down with Peter Mansbridge and he talked with great disdain about people who set up little companies and claim that they want to do that to dodge taxes.
I don't know if you remember this.
Here's a clip of that interview showing that Justin Trudeau has never really done anything, never taken a risk, never suffered, never put his blood, sweat, and tears into anything.
And that's fine.
I mean, he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.
He was born into riches and power and fame.
Fine.
But he never learned compassion for those who suffer.
Here's that clip of him and Peter Mansbridge a few years back.
I think small businesses should be paying less taxes.
We just have to make sure that it's done the right way.
So there could be a cut for small business.
We'll probably have things to say about it, but we have to know that a large percentage of small businesses are actually just ways for wealthier Canadians to save on their taxes.
And we want to reward the people who are actually creating jobs and contributing in concrete ways.
So there's a little tweaking to do around that.
I don't know.
I just feel like, and I got to be candid with you.
I feel like we're whoever the next leader is, whether it's Mark Carney, you know, oligarch master in the universe, or Christia Freeland, who herself is more middle class, but her whole life has been fawning before power.
She was George Soros' official biographer.
She was on the board of the World Economic Forum.
I feel like neither of those leading candidates actually knows what it's like to be an ordinary taxpayer.
I just feel like they're so out of touch.
Last word to you.
I know you're nonpartisan.
I just wanted to tell you my thoughts on it.
Last word to you, Franco.
No, our leaders have become financially divorced from the people they're supposed to represent, right?
It's called the House of Commons for a reason.
Yeah.
Right.
But look, like they are so financially divorced from the realities facing their constituents, right?
It truly is a bubble in Ottawa.
When I moved here from Calgary, I've heard the Ottawa bubble terminology.
I couldn't believe just how real it is.
And a lot of it is like, look, the capital, Ottawa, is really like the bureaucrats and politicians.
They're living off the hard work from the people who actually make things in society, right?
The taxpayers.
Ottawa's Financial Bubble00:02:00
How can we help you with the lawsuit?
Are you crowdfunding it?
Oh, yeah.
Well, I mean, all of our funding is from voluntary donations from Canadians.
So there's really two things that you can do.
I mean, if you're able to donate, of course, we would really appreciate it.
But if you're not able to donate, I understand times are really tough.
Please share this video.
Share what we're putting on social media.
Go to taxpayer.com.
Follow us on social media.
All of that stuff really, really helps.
Taxpayer.com, there you have it.
One of the reasons I like Franco and the taxpayers so much is they don't take government money.
So that means it's up to you and me to chip in.
I'm sure even 10 bucks would add up.
I know, you know, you have a thousand people chipping in 10 bucks.
That's going to move the ball down the field.
Keep us posted.
I know the JCCF, the Justice Center, they're taking the Liberals to court over the dissolution of Parliament, the prorogation.
And I didn't think that had a strong chance until I learned that in the United Kingdom, they took prorogation to court and won when it was involved in Boris Johnson.
I thought, wow, that really is a strong precedent.
So I now believe these things are possible.
I was a skeptic.
Wouldn't that be amazing if the Taxpayers Federation in a court ruling saved millions of people from taxes?
I'm really rooting for you guys.
Come back when you have more news on the lawsuit, how it's going, okay?
I will, Ezra.
Thank you so much.
And I just want to say we're going to win this one.
Right on.
Well, we're all rooting for you and we'll follow along at taxpayer.com.
Take care, my friend.
Hey, thank you.
All right, there you have it.
Franco is our freedom fighter.
He's our tax fighter.
Stay with us.
more ahead.
Hey, welcome back to you.
And I guess I'm going to welcome myself back to Canada, too.
I had a very interesting time last week.
I spent Sunday in Washington, D.C., including with Premier Danielle Smith.
Bugs in Davos Bars00:03:49
Very interesting.
Monday was the inauguration.
I am exhilarated by it, I have to say.
Tuesday, I went to Davos.
It took me actually a full day to get there.
I had to take three planes and then three trains.
But Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I was there for the World Economic Forum with our great team.
I thought it was very exciting.
And I hope you've watched all those videos.
We put a lot of them on the show.
But if you haven't gone to WEFReports.com, please do.
I don't know.
There was a lot of very interesting things.
And I got a lot of letters from you guys.
Let me go through some of them now.
The first is from Fred Hink, who's talking about the bugs.
That guy handing out energy bars made from bugs.
Fred says, don't see the billionaires lined up to feast.
Should check to see if bugs on the menu anywhere in Davos.
Well, we didn't eat in Davos other than at a cafeteria attached to a grocery store.
And I can assure you there were no bugs there.
No, these are more five-star Michelin-reviewed kind of people.
You know what?
I hated how deceptive these bugs were.
I mean, I was thinking about it.
If someone wants to eat bugs, I suppose who am I to say don't?
I mean, we live in a society where there's a lot of awful things that people can choose to do.
But are you really choosing to eat the bugs if it's kept hidden from you because it's not labeled?
Diane Mallon says, how people cue for compliance will never cease to amaze me.
Well, while I was talking to the bug guy, who you have to admit, he was pretty friendly and he really did answer all of my questions to the best of his ability.
I didn't count, but I think there was, now that I think about it, about seven or eight people who came by for those energy bars.
The Sikh guy didn't hear it.
When I said that's an insect bar, he said, I don't want to do it.
But there was this group of young people, and I didn't know if they understood it.
So I, because they had a different language, I kept saying insects, insects.
I don't know if they all understood it, but some certainly did.
Maybe they think of it as some sort of a novelty.
But I was surprised by how many people, if they understood it, were happy to eat the bugs.
Maybe young people just eat free anything.
I don't know.
Tilly Sanders said, 16 grams of sugar would mask any taste and cancel any potential goodness.
Guaranteed none of those bigwigs are eating worms at Davos.
Great interview, Ezra.
You know, I am very aggressively against bugs, but I wasn't going to take it out, so to speak, on some guy who obviously a true believer, but he was a really nice guy.
He wasn't running away from me.
He wasn't doing a Larry Fink.
You saw that where Larry Fink had his bodyguard shove us and take photos of us.
The guy was a nice guy.
I just don't think his arguments are compelling.
I want to learn a little bit more about who's behind this pumba.
I thought it was deceptive that the insect nature of this bar was really inconspicuous.
No one, no one knows that Latin phrase for bugs.
I can't even remember it.
And I said it like 10 times.
They really are hiding it.
I don't know.
It was a very interesting trip.
But I think we might even still be putting up more WEF report videos even today.
There was so much stuff.
In fact, I know we just put up a new one today about McKinsey.
So be sure to go back to WEFReports.com.
Anyhow, I'd like your opinion on that.
I mean, it's a very expensive project to take six people, three journalists, Avi, Sheila, and me.
And each of us has a videographer.
That is a cameraman who's also an editor, Benji, Ed, and Lincoln.
So six of us have to fly to Zurich and then take the train up to, not to Davos, because it's all sold out, but to Closters and to go back.
You know what?
Advertise With Rebel News00:01:23
I hate to say it.
It's close to $50,000.
On any other week of the year, it would be a quarter of that price.
But that week, it's astonishing.
They quadruple the price or multiply by 10 the price of what they can get because everyone wants to be there.
Anyhow, I think it's important that we're there.
And the fact that really no other journalists are other than the regime journalists, I think it's important.
Well, that's our show for today.
Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters to you at home, good night and keep fighting for freedom.
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