Lauren Southern testifies before committee over allegations of Russian influence
Lauren Southern testified at the House of Commons committee on public safety and national security about her involvement with Tenet Media, after two Russian nationals were indicted in the United States over allegations of a foreign influence operation.
Subhead:Lauren Southern testified at the House of Commons committee on public safety and national security about her involvement with Tenet Media, after two Russian nationals were indicted in the United States over allegations of a foreign influence operation.#
Political commentator Lauren Southern appeared at the House of Commons Public Safety and National Security Committee Thursday, where MPs questioned her involvement with Tenet Media, a company implicated in the United States of spreading content sponsored by Russian state actors.
In opening remarks, Southern addressed claims Russia funded Tenet Media with $10 million to spread Kremlin propaganda.
Responding to a previous speaker's testimony before the committee, who suggested Russia received great value for the payments to Tenet, Southern said “anyone with even a cursory understanding of new media would know, however, that $10 million for 16 million views on YouTube hardly qualifies as extraordinary value.”
She also asserted the company had no creative control over the direction of her content, a point she reiterated under questioning from Conservative MP Dane Lloyd and repeatedly thereafter.
“In fact, if the company had any creative control over me, which they didn't,” she said, “they probably would have asked me to stop making Canadian videos since they didn't perform very well. So, if you were worried about this alleged Russian money influencing Canadian issues — good news, didn't happen.”
Southern, a Rebel News contributor from 2015-2017, stated some in the government were “hellbent on drastically exaggerating the extent of foreign influence because they can't seem to stomach the idea that they might be wrong about something.”
Dane questioned Southern if she felt “duped” by Tenet co-founder Lauren Chen. “If it [the information in the indictment] is all true, then yes,” she testified.
Liberal MP and part-time podcaster Nathaniel Erskine-Smith took issue with Southern's characterizations of COVID-19 lockdown policies. “You must know, since you've been very vocal on this,” the MP said, “it was provincial governments that implemented lockdowns.”
“Sure, but there were plenty of acts by the federal government to shut down legitimate protests, shut down people's bank accounts,” Southern responded.
Erskine-Smith further pressed Southern on her opening statement, specifically that a growing number of Canadians support her viewpoints. The MP then pointed to the Great Replacement Theory, defining it as “an active attempt to replace a white population with a non-white population," asking Southern if she agreed.
There are “a lot of people that have concerns about the impacts of mass immigration removing the culture in certain areas,” Southern replied. “I think you could ask people in Brampton or individuals in Surrey what they think about the language being spoken around them, whether it's a Canadian language, whether they feel their culture is being preserved.”
Southern claims she has been harassed and stalked by CSIS, eying her up as an informant, and repeatedly denounced any involvement - either past, current or future - with foreign or domestic governments in any capacity.
When asked if she would remove her content, Southern stands by her creative output.
"All the content I made was of my own volition, based on my own opinions and free speech," she said, "so I'm happy for that content to still be out there."
"Quite frankly, I spent a lot of money making some beautiful documentaries in which hard-working Canadians are featured, who put themselves out there and are now being slandered as 'Russian Disinformation'. I think that's a real shame."
COMMENTS
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Howard Mirkin commented 2024-11-24 15:46:21 -0500The interrogators sound like they are actors straight out of NAZI or Soviet KGB trials and paid by Hillary Clinton. . -
Bruce Atchison commented 2024-11-21 19:55:31 -0500This is a distraction to make people forget about Chinese influence among politicians. And white folks are being replaced. MAID is mostly used on whites. Accommodations are given to freeloaders while Canadians are having a tough time paying rent and mortgages. Our traditions are being changed too, as we saw on Remembrance Day. Globalization is happening in all countries where descendants of Europeans live. There’s no rush to countries like Zambia, Japan, or Brazil. It’s always Europe and commonwealth countries experiencing this demographic-changing influx of illegal alien freeloaders.
