EZRA LEVANT | Thousands rally in Quebec against Carney’s gun grab
Ezra Levant exposes Mark Carney’s March 4 speech flip-flopping on Iran, blaming the U.S. and Israel for acting without UN approval while ignoring Tehran’s 47 years of anti-West aggression—from the 1979 hostage crisis to Dubai drone strikes. He mocks Canada’s "de-escalation" claims, accusing Carney of pandering to immigrant voters while MPs like him take automatic April 1 salary hikes ($209K–$419K) despite fiscal restraint rhetoric. The episode ties this to alcohol tax hikes, union wage demands, and Canada’s fading global moral authority, framing it as a nation losing influence through weak leadership and policy contradictions. [Automatically generated summary]
I want to focus on a 90-second excerpt of a speech by Mark Carney, in which he manages to flip-flop on Iran three times in 90 seconds.
And it's sort of incredible.
I'll take you through it line by line.
I don't think this guy is speaking for Canada.
I think he's speaking, number one, for his new world order around China.
And number two, he's really worried about ticking off his anti-Semitic voter base.
I'll make the case to you and you tell me.
But first, I want to invite you to get the video version of this podcast.
I want you to see Mark Carney when he says these things.
I have other visual images I want to show you, including the astounding torpedoing of an Iranian warship by the U.S. today.
First time a ship has been sunk by a torpedo since the Second World War.
Anyhow, just go to RebelNewsPlus.com, click subscribe.
It's eight bucks a month.
You get the great video content and the satisfaction of keeping Rebel News strong.
Tonight, Mark Carney takes three different positions on Iran in two minutes.
I've got the video.
It's March 4th, and this is the Azure Levant Show.
Shame on you, you sensorious bug.
Hey, can I show you a quick video?
It's not even two minutes long.
Here, take a look.
We support efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security.
Because Canada is taking the world as it is, not passively waiting for a world we wish to be.
We do, however, take this position with regret because the current conflict is another example of the failure of the international order.
Despite decades of UN Security Council resolutions, the tireless work of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the succession of sanctions and diplomatic frameworks, Iran's nuclear threat remains.
And now, the United States and Israel have acted without engaging the United Nations or consulting allies, including Canada.
So, where to from here?
With a rapidly spreading conflict and growing threats to civilian life, Canada reaffirms that international law binds all belligerents.
We condemn the strikes carried out by Iran on civilians and civilian infrastructure across the Middle East.
And we implore all parties, including the United States and Israel, to respect the rules of international engagement.
Canada calls for a rapid de-escalation of hostilities and is prepared to assist in achieving this goal.
Now, let's look at that line by line because it's just so amazing how it's crafted.
He starts off by saying this: We support efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security because Canada is taking the world as it is, not passively waiting for a world we wish to be.
So, if I understand what he's saying, it means Kearney is a realist, a pragmatist, not an idealist dreamer.
And Iran is a tough problem.
Okay, that seems to be true.
According to Trump's emissary to Iran, who's trying to negotiate with Iran until the last minute, Steve Witkoff, Iran was positively boasting about its ability to make nukes.
I mean, they said they could produce 11 nuclear bombs.
Let me read this sub-headline here: U.S. envoy says Tehran rejected zero enrichment offer before launch of joint strike.
The guys were saying they were going to make nuclear bombs.
So, you might think that Carney was supporting Trump and Israel by saying he was a hard-nosed realist.
I mean, the world is a dangerous place.
Iran has shouted death to America for 47 years.
They told America they could make 11 nuclear bombs.
We see what they can do with conventional weapons.
I mean, what's left to say?
Well, here's what Carney had left to say: We do, however, take this position with regret because the current conflict is another example of the failure of the international order.
Despite decades of UN Security Council resolutions, the tireless work of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the succession of sanctions and diplomatic frameworks, Iran's nuclear threat remains.
All right, fair enough.
You wish those things would do the trick, international law, and you wish that getting UN votes meant something and that bureaucrats could stop war, but for some weird reason, the theocratic dictators who murder their own people in Iran and countless people around the world, for some weird reason, they don't seem to obey the United Nations.
It's sort of like the proponents of gun control wondering why murderers don't listen to the anti-gun laws.
I mean, it's so sad to realize this, but it's a sign of being a grown-up, I guess, that not everything works out well.
Sometimes, might is needed to enforce your right.
Here's where it gets weird, though.
Take a look.
And now, the United States and Israel have acted without engaging the United Nations or consulting allies, including Canada.
Could you imagine Trump consulting Canada first?
And could you believe the audacity of Mark Carney calling himself an ally?
I mean, he just told the world he wants to embrace China as a strategic partner.
That's the words he used, and to replace America in Canada's world, replace it with China and have a new world order.
You saw him say that, and he's talking about leading a permanent rupture with America and assembling a global alliance against America.
And for some reason, he's just astonished that Donald Trump didn't call him up with the secret details of the attack before it happened.
It's a real head scratcher, that one, eh?
But actually, I think Carney said that for another reason.
He's signaling to his massive voter base of third world immigrants, many of whom hate the West and hate Israel, that no, don't worry, Carney and the liberals weren't part of this attack on Iran.
No, sir, nothing to do with us.
That's exactly what Keir Starmer said in the United Kingdom, and for the exact same reason, to appease Muslim migrants in Muslim ridings where they elect radical MPs.
The language is ambiguous, though.
So he can say to Americans, oh, no, no, no, I was just outlining reality.
But he can say to the terror mosques, oh, you see, I don't have anything to do with the great Satan or with the Zionist regime.
Here, watch some more.
So where to from here?
With a rapidly spreading conflict and growing threats to civilian life.
Canada reaffirms that international law binds all belligerents.
Hang on, you just said that it doesn't, it hasn't, and you're living in real life, not fantasy world.
You're not naive anymore.
So which is it?
And what does he mean?
Did America need someone's permission before attacking?
Iran has been attacking America for 47 years straight.
In fact, you might recall Iran taking 66 U.S. diplomats hostage way back in 1979.
An act of war, a violation of diplomatic norms.
And that was just the beginning of it.
By the way, they were held for 444 days.
It's one of the reasons why Ronald Reagan won the election after Jimmy Carter.
But since then, for nearly half a century, Iran has attacked America and Americans directly and through its proxies.
The attack on the American barracks in Beirut in 1983 killed 307 people, including 241 Americans.
Most of the IEDs used to kill Americans in Iraq were made in Iran.
Iran has been at war with America for half a century.
This is just from a decade ago when Barack Obama was president and Iran seized a U.S. naval vessel and humiliated the U.S. servicemen and violated their rights under the Geneva Accords.
And Obama did nothing.
Iran did similar things to the United Kingdom.
And today, apropos of nothing, the United States has sunk every ship in the Iranian Navy, including the first sinking of a ship by a torpedo since the Second World War.
I mean, take a look at this.
Yeah, don't mess with America, or more accurately, don't mess with America when Donald Trump is president.
Can you imagine if Jimmy Carter or Barack Obama had responded the way Trump did?
You wouldn't have had a 50-year war against the West.
You can do anything you like, though.
When Democrats are in office, they'll play dumb and play dead.
Okay, so back to Mark Carney, the irrelevant banker who says, Canada reaffirms that international law binds all belligerents.
Okay, what law?
And which part of the law?
And where can I read this law?
And who are the police who are going to enforce this law?
And are they going to arrest somebody?
And who's going to be the prosecutor?
And who's the judge?
And isn't this a little bit like arresting Benjamin Netanyahu, like Mark Carney promised to do?
Is it that thing again?
By the way, is unilaterally agreeing to create a new country called Palestine by carving it out of present-day Israel without Israel's agreement, of course.
Is that following international law or not so much?
Or is international law really just whatever you say it is in the moment?
I mean, I'm just asking.
But look at that part again.
The law binds all belligerents.
So he's putting Israel and America on the same level as the dictatorship of Iran that spent 47 years torturing its own people, including tens of thousands of its own peaceful protesters in recent weeks.
Is that Mark Carney talking, or is that the new Canadian spokesman for China doing the talking?
We condemn the strikes carried out by Iran on civilians and civilian infrastructure across the Middle East.
And we implore all parties, including the United States and Israel, to respect the rules of international engagement.
What does that mean?
What are the rules of engagement that he thinks the U.S. and Israel are not respecting?
I'd like to know.
I know what Iran is doing, by the way.
They're deliberately shooting at soft civilian targets.
Hotels, including in Dubai, airports, including Dubai, apartments, including in Israel.
America and Israel are not doing this.
So why is Mark Carney lumping both sides in this together as if they're both on the same moral plane?
Why can't he say one side is right and one side is wrong?
Why can't Mark Carney distinguish between friends and enemies here, between allies and enemies?
Well, like I say, there are millions of new anti-American, anti-Semitic migrants we brought into Canada in the past decade or two.
And that's his voter base now.
And that's, frankly, half his cabinet and caucus, to be honest.
But back to the flip-floppery.
Which is it?
He started his little speech by saying we support efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security.
Okay, me too.
But then he implied those efforts are illegal?
Okay, so which is it?
And then he ends with a whimper.
Canada calls for a rapid de-escalation of hostilities and is prepared to assist in achieving this goal.
Hang on, I thought he said he supported the effort to destroy the regime's hostile power.
Nukes, ballistic missiles, drones.
So that's not done yet.
It's going pretty well.
I mean, they've hit almost 2,000 targets so far, but it's not done.
Why would you want a rapid de-escalation of hostilities before the nukes are gone, the ballistic missiles are gone, the drones are gone, the regime is gone?
Why would he want America and Israel to stop now?
That's what he's saying.
Are there some missiles or drones or nuclear works that Carney wants to preserve?
Why does he want the good guys to stop before the job is done?
Why?
He doesn't explain it.
But that last line is just chef's kiss.
Canada is prepared to assist you guys.
Hey, guys.
Hey, over here, we're ready to help America and Israel to, you know, we're going to help you de-escalate because you don't know how, but we have that secret knowledge.
We're experts about that, and we have a lot to teach the world.
You see, hey, Mark Carney, don't ignore me.
Look, at least it wasn't what his defense minister said the day before, calling for a ceasefire.
We've been following the situation in Iran for quite a while, carefully.
We're getting just-in-time updates on the situation in the Middle East now.
And the Prime Minister and the government decided from the beginning of this that we would support this incursion.
But we're also calling for a diplomatic end to it.
We very much would prefer to see peace at a ceasefire.
That's what my colleague, Minister Anand, is driving forward now with her colleagues around the world.
And so we'll see where this takes us.
Canadians know this is a difficult, complicated, and unfortunate situation.
We would all rather see peaceful dialogue.
But we have a situation now where two countries, two sovereign countries, have decided to prosecute a war.
Canada's not involved in that war at this time.
Okay, so you're basically saying America and Israel have to stop fighting one of the world's worst dictatorships, got it.
So that's Canada.
Okay, let's be honest.
No one serious is asking, what does Canada think anymore?
They just don't think that way anymore.
They thought that 15, 20 years ago, actually, when we went to help America and Afghanistan, we wouldn't have the equipment or the manpower to do that again today.
And more importantly, we wouldn't have the moral clarity to do that because, well, we're on the side of the jihadists now.
We're on the side of Hamas now.
And we just don't actually have the ability to do anything militarily useful here.
Israel is using F-15s and F-16s and F-35s.
And the Americans are using even more amazing aircraft than that.
What would Canada do even if we had a supportive prime minister?
How many F-18s could we even send that are working?
Do we even have like four that are electronically up-to-date and serviceable?
Do you really think we even have four?
Government Pay Raises00:10:47
Of course, Mark Carney wouldn't, even if he could, because this is all about ethnic voter blocs for him now.
Even the French that everyone mocks for surrendering in the Second World War, even they are sending an aircraft carrier to help shoot down Iranian drones in the region.
Of course, that's miles ahead of what we could do.
So to sum up, Mark Carney is very wise and nuanced and pragmatic, and he totally agrees with doing what it takes to stop Iran, but only if that complies with the United Nations or whatever he thinks international law means.
And he thinks both Iran and the U.S. and Israel should knock it off and stop fighting before the regime is changed, even though he said he's for regime change.
But mainly, guys, he's really willing to help, even though no one has even told him this was going to happen.
But they'll surely ask for his help.
I would be deeply embarrassed that this guy is speaking for Canada, except for the fact that no one is actually listening to him other than maybe his bosses in China.
Stay with us for more.
Well, there's some dates that I just know by the name of them.
St. Patrick's Day is March 17th.
I love that day, even though I'm not Irish.
I sort of wish I were Irish half the time.
April Fool's Day is another day, and I try to think of myself as not being a fool, but odds are that day I'm going to believe some fake news on Twitter and then later on realize, oh, shucks, that's a false joke.
That's a jokey tweet on April Fools.
But I think it is more than a coincidence that the government of Canada, the Parliament of Canada, every year schedules its automatic self-pay raise where they all give themselves more money regardless of their performance, regardless of the performance of the economy.
Would it surprise you a jot to learn that they chose April Fools, April 1st, as that day?
How fitting.
And you know, there's only one person to talk to about this outrage.
It's our dear friend Franco Terrazano, the big boss at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
Franco, April Fool's Day is, you know, it's symbolic.
I wonder if they chose it on purpose.
But even if they didn't, it's very fitting, isn't it?
Oh, yeah.
I mean, welcome to Ottawa, where taxpayers are always the punchline.
And April 1, right?
Real insulting joke at taxpayers' expense is the day that politicians take more money out of your wallet and then stuff extra cash into their own, right?
It's been going on every single year for a number of years now, where every April 1, MPs give themselves another big fat pay raise the same day that they hike taxes.
And it looks like this April 1 is going to be no different because Ezra, as of tape time, as of right now, there is only one member of parliament who has the spine, the courage to publicly oppose the upcoming pay raise.
The rest of them all seem to be lining up for the taxpayer trough to collect another helping of taxpayer cash.
Well, it behooves us to say the name of the one conscientious objector.
Do you know who it is offhand?
Mike Dawson, a courageous conservative MP from New Brunswick.
Mike Dawson, what a hero.
Thank you for doing the right thing, sticking up for your constituents and publicly opposing the race.
Finally.
You know, if memory serves, Franco, and correct me if I'm wrong, when he announced that he would knock the pay raise, not take the pay raise, I understand he was chided by his colleagues because he sort of made them look bad by comparison since he was taking that stand.
Did you hear that rumor as well?
I heard the rumor.
I saw the press in Ottawa reporting it.
I mean, obviously, I don't know what was going on in the back rooms, but you know what?
I can tell you right now, it wasn't Mike Dawson making them look bad.
It's themselves who are making themselves look bad, okay?
And you know what?
Let's just do something a little fun.
Let's call out each major national party one by one.
Okay, let's start with the liberals.
First of all, the liberal government could stop the pay raises tomorrow.
Right?
The Harper government did it.
The Liberal government could too as well.
Not to mention, only a couple months ago, Kearney told Canadians to brace for sacrifices.
Well, why isn't Kearney telling his own liberal MPs to brace for a little bit of sacrifice and not take a pay raise?
But let's also talk about the conservatives, right?
The conservatives under Pierre Polyev have rightly bashed the government when they waste money and hike taxes.
Well, why aren't the conservatives standing with their own MP, Mike Dawson, and taxpayers and opposing this race, right?
The silence from the conservatives and the liberals have both been deafening.
The NDP, by the way, always talk about sticking up for the little guy.
Well, why aren't they opposing the pay raise going to politicians who all make about three times more than the average Canadian worker?
Yeah, yeah.
And of course, there's the Black Québécois who want nothing to do with Canada except for when it comes to paycheck time.
Now, I have in front of me your latest press release on the subject.
It's called Tax and MP Pay Hikes One Month Away.
And we'll get to the tax part in a second.
But I had forgotten how much money MPs make.
And let me just quote from your study.
A backbench MP salary is currently $209,800.
And Franco, that doesn't even include all of the free flights, the offices, all the perks, so many perks.
I mean, that's just for a backbencher.
Cabinet ministers collect $309,000.
And of course, Mark Carney, who I think is a billionaire, he has not disclosed the value of his 600 stocks, gets paid $419,000.
But actually, each MP costs a multiplier of that because of all their expenses, right?
Yeah, I mean, expenses are a huge cost to taxpayers, but it's even more than the expenses, right?
You talked about the perks.
Well, you know, get this, folks.
All they have to do is work for six years.
Right.
And then they get a taxpayer-funded pension for life, right?
Tens of thousands of dollars a year.
Obviously, that depends on how long they're in office, the rules at the time they're in office, but they get a taxpayer-funded pension for life if they're only in office for six years.
Well, if they're not in for six years, don't feel too bad for them because they'll walk away with a six-figure severance check.
Then, on top of that, they also get a $15,000 transition allowance once they get booted from the hill.
Okay, so I mean, like, the salaries are really just a tip of the iceberg.
And, you know, let me just say something.
Like, before anyone says, oh, but Franco, come on, it's just a drop in the bucket of the total budget.
No, no, no.
That is the wrong way to look at this.
Look, the biggest cost to taxpayers on like a day-to-day spending is the bloated federal bureaucracy.
Well, good luck cutting the bloated federal bureaucracy if you, as a member of parliament, aren't even willing to say no to another helping of taxpayer cash.
Don't believe me.
Look at the government unions.
We got our hands on government union demands, and it specifically pointed to the yearly salary increases that members of parliament give themselves as a reason why bureaucrats should take more money from taxpayers.
You know, it's a powerful argument, really.
I mean, if the government, if the government, if the MPs are saying we have to hold the line, but they themselves don't, it's like the animal farm book by George Orwell.
All animals are equal.
Some are more equal than others.
Now, there is, traditionally, the carbon tax goes up on April 1st, but Mark Carney has at least temporarily reduced the rate of that to zero.
He has not scrapped it.
He has simply put the rate for now to zero.
But there are other taxes, including on alcohol, am I right, that are going up?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
All this conversation could drive you to drink.
Well, too bad, folks.
The government is making your life more expensive if you just want to get a cold one, right?
So federal alcohol taxes going up again, April 1, making your beer, wine, your whiskey, your vodka more expensive.
Now, look, number one, it's going to make life more expensive.
Number two, the government doesn't deserve a single cent more from any Canadian.
Like even if you don't drink, the government shouldn't be raising taxes, okay?
They shouldn't be doing that.
Number three, there's a lot of workers who could be impacted here, right?
Because like there is a huge Canadian industry when like you think of the restaurants, the pubs, the distilleries, the breweries, the wineries who are going to be impacted.
That will also hurt workers as well.
You actually had this letter from unionized brewery workers.
to the federal government warning that there could be job losses from this tax hike.
And the last point I'll mention about this is that this alcohol tax hike has been going up every single year since 2017 without a vote in parliament.
Now, here's my message to politicians.
That's undemocratic.
And if you as a politician think that Canadians aren't paying enough tax, you should at least have the spine to vote on the tax increase.
Yeah.
Hey, I appreciate you joining us.
Thanks for reminding us of the one good guy in this story, Mike Dawson, who declined his pay raise.
And it's sort of incredible that out of 300 plus MPs, only one did that.
And I would have hoped for more from the Conservatives.
But like you say, they're all in on it.
Franco, great to catch up with you.
Thank you.
Thanks, Ezra.
There's our friend Franco Terrazano.
And as you can see, the Taxpayers Federation is non-partisan.
And that's why we can trust them.
Stay with us.
More ahead.
Hey, welcome back.
Your letters to me.
Dog of Hag, I think I'm saying that right, talks about Keir Starmer's Iran remarks and says, I had respect for Kearney for about 10 minutes, then he copied and pasted Keir Starmer.
You're right.
And they're really trying to walk this line.
And for the exact same reason, by the way, the UK actually could send a few ships and some jets, even though their navy is a shrivel of a fraction of what it was even a few decades ago.
By the way, if Argentina were to seize the Falkland Islands now, I don't think the UK would have the ability to take them back.
And I don't want Argentina to seize them.
I'm just saying the UK is so weak.
But besides being militarily weak, there's no way Kier Starmer would do anything to upset the Islamic vote in the UK.
Nicotine Habits in Britain00:01:56
That's, I think, becoming the norm in much of Western Europe.
Cold Spring 624 says, and all British efforts to control the U.S.
No allegiance to the British whatsoever.
We are not Canada.
Okay, I think you're speaking as an American.
America has inherited so much of the British tradition and kept so many of the best parts, including freedom of speech, individualism, military strength.
And remember, the British Empire ruled the seas for so long, and it was a great source of prosperity and peace to the world.
Unfortunately, the UK really isn't a player anymore because they're afraid of upsetting their fifth column.
On my chat with Minister Dale Nelly about reducing red tape, Vintage Guy says, turns out the nicotine is good for you.
That's why the libs don't want you to have it.
Well, it's interesting that you say that because most of the bad things in smoking came from the smoke part of it, the burning it and the tar and the ash and the different chemicals that were released.
It wasn't the nicotine that was the real problem with smoking.
It was the other stuff, which is why things like those pouches or gums or other nicotine replacement are so much better.
And smokers often use it to sort of climb down the ladder.
You're still getting the nicotine hit, which is what people crave in cigarettes, but you're not getting the smoke.
Now you have to change your other habits too.
A lot of people, smoking is a habit.
It's like something to do with their hands.
So it's a complex thing.
I mean, habits are complex things, but I really think I'm not a smoker and I don't use those pouches either.
But it's sort of obvious to me if it's a better alternative than cigarettes, why the heck are you hiding it behind a pharmacist rather than putting it in the same convenience stores that smokes?
Anyways, we'll see what happens there.
I was sort of interested with that story.
Well, that's our show for the day.
Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home.