On April 21, Candace Malcolm’s True North included a discussion of Bills C-10 and 11, the Liberals’ recent attempts to censor online content here in Canada. Candace is intelligent, articulate, rational, and utterly devoid of any of the vile characteristics constantly flung at the Right by the mindless Left. She is also, by the way, quite lovely. [Pardon me. My DNA made me say it.]
In attempting to shed light on Trudeau’s prolonged effort to stifle Free Speech here in the Great White North, she focuses specifically on Steven Guilbeault, formerly our Heritage Minister and now the head of Environment Canada. Guilbeault has the habit, it would seem, of denouncing as liars or hate-mongers anyone who doesn’t agree with the beliefs and policies of the Trudeau government. Malcolm cites 7 examples of his indiscretions. I shall cite but one to make my [her] point.
Hidden within a piece of legislation recently proffered by the Liberals was a tax on pick-up trucks that would significantly increase their price, all in the name, of course, of defending the environment. Kris Sims of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation having discovered this detail buried within a document of more than 200 pages, Pierre Poilievre, currently running for leadership of the Conservative Party, was appalled that the government would even think of such a tax when inflation was already out of control in the country. Guilbeault dismissed Poilievre as just another right-wing liar, saying the government had no intention of jacking up truck prices by as much as 4000 dollars. But that he was in fact the liar exposes the fundamental problem with the censorship legislation endorsed by his government, legislation which can clearly be used in the service of political bias, legislation the product of those given to a totalitarian mind-set.
Bill C-11 has not yet been passed into law but the Trudeau “Liberals” have established an “independent advisory board” to decide which organizations in Canada qualify as legitimate purveyors of the news. Predictably, outrageously, Rebel News has already been de-certified. The repercussions of this decision remain to be seen. But gee, would the “advisory board” in question have been brazenly biased or is it just a coincidence that the Rebel is one of the most powerful on-line sources of genuinely “conservative” views in Canada?
As is typical in this country which leans decidedly to the Left, I have “liberal” acquaintances who have never watched a single Rebel podcast yet smugly dismiss Ezra Levant and his crew as a bunch of racist monsters. Their ignorance is appalling, as is the fact that mainstream Conservatives such as former party leader Erin O’Toole aggressively distance themselves from The Rebel for fear of being contaminated in the public’s eye. But let me briefly explain why The Rebel has in fact far more integrity than the sanctimonious mainstream media.
The Rebel is unabashedly “conservative” in its point if view, making no pretense that it exists other than as an alternative to the mainstream narrative. But the mainstream pretends to be objective, pretends to be unbiased, whereas every word it publishes, every word it speaks, is implicit with ideological assumptions. Whether those at CNN, MSNBC, the CBC, N.Y. Times, Toronto Star, etc., etc., are self-consciously hypocritical or simply too ignorant to realize that what they are preaching is little more than a form of religious fundamentalism, is beside the point. As journalists, they are utterly devoid of integrity.
This is no place for an extended defense of The Rebel. Ezra Levant is an intelligent, rational man as are most of his opinions. His reporters are racially diverse and over the years he has been affiliated with such truly progressive Muslims as Raheel Raza and Tareq Fatah. He is not a racist. Believing that we in the West must be careful in welcoming immigrants from certain parts of the world makes one a rationalist rather than a racist. Perhaps the best example of the ludicrous tendency of the Left to hurl baseless insults was the accusation a few years ago that The Rebel was antisemitic, Ezra, as you may have inferred from his name, being what he facetiously referred to as the Jewiest Jew he could think of.
While Jen Psaki is clearly uncomfortable answering questions from Fox News, “Liberals” here in Canada have found the solution to her dilemma. Simply ban those who disagree with them. That such actions are inherently anti-democratic, indeed inherently fascistic, does not seem to matter to Trudeau and his legion of supporters, those geniuses apparently beguiled by his pleasant smile and cool haircut.
Bill C-11 awaits its day in parliament. With its passage, my blog could in fact be banned. After all, I did say Candace Malcolm was attractive and a recent critique of Mona Chollet’s “In Defense of Witches” in the N.Y. Times Book Review suggests men who prefer beautiful women are oppressive monsters. Perhaps I’m really little better than a slave owner! Or perhaps the Western “Progressive” World has gone insane!