Tonight, my newest on-air colleague joins me to talk about what it's like to be a Rebel reporter, and what two election cycles in 2019 means for us here at The Rebel. Sheila Gunn-Reed and Kian Bexie talk about who they think is the worst cabinet minister in Alberta and what they plan to do during the 2019 election campaign.
00:00:00.000Tonight, my newest on-air colleague joins me to talk about what it's like to be a rebel reporter
00:00:05.040and what two election cycles in 2019 means for us here at The Rebel.
00:00:10.140I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed, and you're watching The Gunn Show.
00:00:30.860We've got a provincial election coming up in just a few short months, hopefully before the end of May 2019.
00:00:37.740And then, before the end of the year 2019, we will also see Justin Trudeau face his first federal election as prime minister.
00:00:46.320And that means all hands on deck here at The Rebel.
00:00:49.620Now, over the last nearly four years here, you've seen us break stories that you won't see anywhere in the mainstream media.
00:00:57.500And you've seen us ask questions the mainstream media just refuses to ask newsmakers.
00:01:04.740Like when my guest tonight confronted convicted terrorist and murderer Omar Cotter at the Edmonton Law Courts building.
00:01:14.200That was something we had never seen before in Canadian media.
00:01:18.720A journalist asking Omar Cotter hard questions about his crime, the murder of U.S. Army medic Sergeant Christopher Speer.
00:01:26.560Before Carter was confronted like that, he had consistently been treated like a victim by the mainstream media here in Canada.
00:01:35.600It was shocking and refreshing to see him face scrutiny.
00:01:41.340Now, joining me tonight is that scrappy rookie reporter who took on the war criminal when everybody else was treating him with kid gloves.
00:01:49.240My guest tonight, in an interview we actually recorded New Year's Day, is my rebel colleague here in Alberta, Kian Bexie.
00:01:57.420And we're talking about what it's like to be a rebel reporter.
00:02:01.240Some of Kian's favorite stories, who Kian thinks is the worst cabinet minister here in Alberta.
00:02:07.500And what we both plan to do during the 2019 election campaigns, both here in Alberta and at the federal level.
00:02:19.240So, joining me now is our newest rebel here with the company, but also my fellow traveler in fighting the left in Alberta and bringing you the other side of the story.
00:02:43.180So, joining me now from Calgary is Kian Bexie.
00:02:46.600Hey, Kian, Happy New Year and Merry Christmas.
00:02:51.760Hopefully, you have your conservative batteries recharged because I think we have a big fight up against us here in 2019.
00:02:59.600And that's one of the reasons I wanted to have you on today is you and I, I think we're going to play instrumental roles in the election that the rest of the mainstream media isn't going to do.
00:03:11.500But I wanted to talk to you first about what it's been like for you to be a rebel and join the company.
00:03:20.440Like, what's your experience been like and has it been, like, unexpectedly hard for you?
00:03:26.500Because I feel like you sort of hit the ground running.
00:05:06.760It's, you know, the guy who did it, he's just so inconsequential.
00:05:13.500He's a failed city council candidate where Sam's from.
00:05:18.820But he actually directed people to go to Sam's, like, not just to, you know, attack Sam, but go to his parents' house on Christmas and then protest them.
00:05:48.920I wanted to ask you what has been your favorite thing or story that you've done here at The Rebel?
00:05:56.860It has, without a doubt, it was confronting Omar Khadr.
00:06:00.660I mean, coming face to face with a terrorist, sure, he didn't answer our questions, but I think we got our point across.
00:06:07.000Just the fact that he was so unwilling to talk and answer real questions shows a few things.
00:06:13.080First off, that the media has absolutely no ability to hold him to account.
00:06:17.780He has 10.5 million taxpayers' dollars in his pocket, keep in mind, but also that he has no remorse himself, right?
00:06:25.700We asked him if he regretted killing Christopher Speer, and he just said nothing.
00:06:30.200And then when we went into the courthouse and stood in an elevator with this convicted terrorist, he did nothing but smirk at me, knowing that I couldn't film him.
00:06:40.720And that was the true Omar Khadr that we saw there, I think.
00:06:43.320But you don't get those kind of opportunities to confront real-life terrorists unless you're with The Rebel.
00:06:50.720It was an eye-opening experience for me, that's for sure.
00:06:54.560Yeah, I think you did something that no other journalist has ever thought to do.
00:06:59.200And not only is that a credit to you and your bravery, really, but a real indictment of the mainstream media in Canada that nobody has ever asked him if he regretted killing an army medic, Christopher Speer.
00:07:16.180I was able to confront him, too, and it was strange because I didn't even realize, like, it didn't sink into me that I had confronted a war criminal and an al-Qaeda terrorist until I was in the truck on the way home.
00:07:28.120But I also asked him about Christopher Speer's children, these kids that grew up without their hero father because of Omar Khadr's actions.
00:07:38.340And, you know, he's never really been remorseful.
00:07:40.880And, you know, he's actually structured his payout from the Canadian government in such a way that the widow, Tabitha Speer, will probably never see any of it.
00:07:50.720You know, we talk about Christopher Speer and his children so much, and it's such a shame what happened to them.
00:07:56.300But what people need to know is that Omar Khadr, he hasn't just killed Christopher Speer and blinded another American military personnel in Afghanistan.
00:08:24.220We just don't know where his money is.
00:08:26.620And like you say, nobody's asking the questions.
00:08:29.140When I confronted Omar Khadr, all the other journalists looked at me like I was crazy because I confronted this newsworthy person with an entirely valid question that Canadians want to know about.
00:08:42.080But they just treat him as though he's the child victim in all of this instead of the fatherless children of his true victim.
00:08:50.600Now, I wanted to ask you, this is, I was thinking about this question myself because we're going into hopefully Rachel Notley's last five or so months in office, God willing.
00:09:07.800Who do you think the worst cabinet minister is?
00:09:10.480David Egan, I don't even have to think twice about it.
00:10:13.540But that's something that can be repealed with her, you know, changing how Albertans use our public lands.
00:10:19.600That's something that can be repealed with, you know, a vote and a new law.
00:10:25.740But what David Egan is doing is he's changing the culture of Alberta in such an irreparable way that, as you so wisely pointed out,
00:10:35.960we won't have this sort of skilled workforce who understands work and the oil patch and to be able to work ourselves out of this debt.
00:10:47.780If we don't have a workforce that is competitive with the likes of the Americans or the Chinese or the Japanese,
00:10:55.080we are not able to get out of this hole.
00:10:57.320And that's why I was so proud of you to see your campaign against David Egan, your Fire Egan campaign in that big, beautiful billboard on the side of the highway, too.
00:11:12.040How many people are seeing that thing every day?
00:11:14.620It's over one million impressions every month is the information we have.
00:11:20.780So that's over 250,000 people seeing it a week, which I think is crazy.
00:11:25.760I mean, thank goodness we were able to crowdfund for that because it was 100 percent paid for by Rebel viewers.
00:11:34.420And it's such a great message to send to the NDP every time Rachel Notley and David Egan and any of her cabinet ministers, her MLAs or the staffers or even people who support her,
00:11:46.000when they're driving from Calgary to Edmonton, they're seeing a big sign on the side of the road calling them out for what they've done.
00:11:52.520And if you go to www.fireegin.ca, you can see all the coverage we've done on David Egan and the people involved with him from Progress Alberta to Press Progress.
00:12:05.680And folks who, well, actually, the one video that I want to talk about specifically was the left wing trifecta video that we did.
00:12:13.560It was one of the first few ones that I did.
00:12:15.100Actually, we went to Weber Academy and talked to the headmaster there, Dr. Weber, and he was sharing a story about how he was called on Twitter a supporter of residential schools through a series of steps from the Egan ministry to Progress Alberta releasing statements.
00:12:37.300And it eventually ended up, Progress Alberta had to release an apology.
00:12:41.980Duncan Kinney had to release a public statement of apology, which he did on Christmas Eve, I think it was, so that nobody would see it.
00:12:49.140But that was part of our Fire Egan campaign.
00:12:52.140So there's a whole bunch of stuff that we've done and it's a lot of good work.
00:12:55.260So I'd recommend people go check that website out.
00:12:58.240Yeah, I normally don't like to talk about Progress Alberta because it feels like we're punching down.
00:13:04.460We take on cabinet ministers, we take on Trudeau, we take on the United Nations, you know, and we very frequently win those battles or at least severely damage the people we are up against and make them look like totalitarian wackadoodles.
00:13:19.020So I don't like to punch down because they're just, while Progress Alberta is very well funded and very well connected,
00:13:27.120I think they're just low level known at things most of the time.
00:13:33.080And they're just, you know, like the undeclared press secretaries of NDP.
00:13:41.100But what they tried to do to Weber Academy was really reprehensible.
00:13:46.620But it goes back to this attack on private schooling that you see from the left all the time.
00:13:53.680Yeah, it's harder to indoctrinate kids when they're in a private school, I suppose.
00:13:58.300I think you said it well a few months ago.
00:14:00.920You said the public education factories is what you call them, the public schools.
00:14:05.420And that's a great way to put it because that's what they are.
00:14:08.160And that's what they, well, maybe that's not what they are.
00:14:09.780But that's what the NDP view them as is just a factory to push kids through and form their ideologies early on.
00:14:18.020Well, and they attack a private schooling because they think that only rich people send their kids to private school.
00:14:30.240I've seen some studies, I think it was from the Fraser Institute, where when you take out like the elite level academies,
00:14:38.640I guess like Weber Academy and some of the, you know, really expensive elite level academies,
00:14:44.880when you take them out of the equation and you compare the incomes of people who send their kids to private school
00:14:51.000versus the people who send their kids to public school,
00:14:54.100the people who send their kids to public school are actually quite often earning more money than those who send their kids to private school.
00:15:02.080So it's not a place where, you know, the elite send their kids so that they don't have to mix with people like me, I guess.
00:15:09.900It's where people who are making sacrifices to pay that extra bit of tuition because they want to send their kids to someplace different for a whole host of reasons.
00:15:19.160It doesn't have to be for even the education.
00:15:25.980Sometimes it's because of class sizes.
00:15:27.860But when the NDP attack these private educational institutions, what it really what they're doing is they want to dump a bunch of kids into what seems to be an already failing public system.
00:15:42.600And you actually accurately pointed that out in your Fire Egan campaign.
00:15:47.240Yeah, it's it sure is a shame when when they attack those private schools,
00:15:51.860because what they're doing is they're attacking the parents and the children who have made a joint decision to go to that school.
00:16:00.040They decided this is in their best interests and that's what they want to do.
00:16:03.440And and for some reason, Progress Alberta and David Egan and his ministry think that it's OK to disparage them and act like they're the worst people ever.
00:16:13.960But really, they're just looking for a good education or have made that decision for those whole host reasons.
00:16:19.200Like you said, sports location, maybe they're avoiding a problem at an old school with a bully or something like that.
00:16:25.680You know, you never know what what causes these children to go to private schools.
00:16:29.220And and I think it's just it's a shame that that Progress Alberta thinks that it's OK to attack them like that.
00:16:35.580Well, and we know that private education actually saves the public system money because in Alberta, we only fund our children who are attending private schools.
00:16:46.820I think it's at 70 percent. So with 30 percent savings per student is being dumped back into the public system.
00:16:53.360It's not like the government is saving that money and just putting it away for a rainy day.
00:16:57.840They're dumping it into the public system.
00:17:00.420So, you know, to eliminate private education in Alberta would rise the cost of education by 30 percent.
00:17:08.900It is outrageous and it is very short sighted.
00:17:12.620But heaven forbid some kids escape those indoctrination factories.
00:17:16.000Well, you know, as well as I, the NDP aren't concerned with rising costs at all.
00:17:19.780Right. They're happy to spend as much as they as much as they need.
00:17:23.520So I pointed out earlier, we're headed into an election year, both federally and provincially.
00:17:32.620Provincially, we should hopefully see an election sort of by the end of May.
00:18:07.680The thing is, I think it they would have called an early election if they thought they could catch the UCP flat footed.
00:18:16.920But clearly, the UCP has been running their nominations for, you know, well over a year now.
00:18:22.960They've got most of their candidates in place.
00:18:26.640Although, you know what, I might agree with you if they if there was some sort of like a serious bozo interruption, they would from the UCP.
00:18:35.780I think the NDP might try to strike while the iron was hot.
00:18:39.380But I think they're going to hang on for all it's worth.
00:18:53.260Well, if you look, there's a few writings that are that are certainly in contention.
00:18:57.000I think Calgary Varsity, I think pretty much all of Lethbridge.
00:19:00.700These university areas where there's a high concentration of left wing voters, I think that if they get them before finals and before they all go home for go home for the summer, I think that'll help them a lot.
00:19:15.920So I think that's going to play a part in them in when they're going to call the election, because I seriously think that these these people don't don't know, can't see the writing on the wall.
00:19:26.720I think that they really think that they can win and maybe they can.
00:19:35.320Now, I know that you're sort of looking forward to doing some stories about cataloging what the NDP like their failures over the last three and a half years.
00:19:50.560I know I'm sort of looking forward to that because I feel as though it's sort of like the job losses in Alberta.
00:19:58.240Every one of them is terrible, but we you get barraged with them and you sort of become desensitized to how bad it is until you dig back down into, you know, the people and the catastrophe that it's causing.
00:20:16.360And I think the NDP have just been so bad that I think people are used to how bad they've been and they've sort of forgotten.
00:20:25.700And I know between now and whenever the election is, I'm going to be working on cataloging some of their catastrophe.
00:20:34.820You're right, is probably a good way to put it, because if you if you recall back to just it was a week after the election when the Deborah Drever stuff came out.
00:20:44.000This this woman who is posing with marijuana memorabilia and and posed in a heavy metal album cover in a way that made it look like she was being sexually assaulted.
00:20:55.260It was, you know, and she said quite a few nasty things online as well.
00:21:03.980And ever since then, it's just been a buildup of of bozo eruptions from the NDP and people just expect it now.
00:21:14.440But but we'll we'll have to see, I guess, whether or not that's going to play part in the everyday Albertans decision come the ballot box.
00:21:21.980When when we do the catalog, that's what exactly what we're going to do.
00:21:26.020I'm going to try to focus on Calgary MLAs to start with through this series of videos.
00:21:32.760And I'm going to it depends on which one it is, depends on who it is.
00:21:36.280But I'm hopefully going to go meet them and actually ask them questions in person.
00:21:40.420I think that would be entertaining because you never know how these people are going to act when they're when they have a microphone on them.
00:21:45.820And you can ask them questions that the CBC is not asking them.
00:21:48.780But I don't want to just go through them and and outline the stupid thing, the stupid things they've done.
00:21:54.400I want to actually ask them what their justification is for doing the things that they've done.
00:21:59.120So so you'll have to watch out for that, I suppose.
00:22:01.760And I'll be chatting with you as we go through it, because I imagine you're probably going to want to focus on Edmonton, Edmonton folks so you can do the same.
00:22:09.720Yeah, I think if you do that, I think you're going to catch these people.
00:22:18.060You're going to catch them in their natural environment and you're you are going to catch them off guard because I think for a lot of these MLAs, they're used to a very sycophantic media, a media that is, quite frankly, contracting.
00:22:31.440And it feels like every story they do is a cover letter for their job with the government.
00:22:36.300And I think it's almost it's over a dozen, if I recall correctly, mainstream media reporters who've gone on to work for the NDP government in some form or another.
00:22:49.400So, you know, when you're reading their coverage, of course, but, you know, but I don't know if the public really knows that or if they've they keep that in mind that that's the filter through which these people write.
00:23:01.980So but that's also the filter through which they ask questions of the MLA.
00:23:06.460So I think you are going to get some very interesting, very natural reactions from the NDP that I don't think we've ever seen before.
00:23:18.720What else are you going to be up to in 2019, though?
00:23:21.340Well, in 2019, we're going to continue on with our fire egging campaign.
00:23:26.460I imagine he just keeps handing us stuff, handing us content to talk about because there's disaster after disaster.
00:23:33.680But what I really want to focus on, and this is from feedback that I've gotten from viewers, is I want to focus on videos that involve the public in some way where I'm actually going out and asking questions because people want to hear some monologues sometimes, but they really want to hear what the everyday Albertan has to say about what's going on.
00:23:51.200So it completely depends on what what's going on in the media and current events and in some way, shape or form so that I can go chat with people and see and get their opinions about what's going on.
00:24:03.740You know, I think that's one of the things that we really do well here at The Rebel is we talk to the normal people in a way that normal people understand we don't use like when you go to these climate change conferences and you hear stuff like increasing ambition to fight climate change.
00:24:21.860Nobody does like no normal person talks like that.
00:24:24.300I've been to three of these conferences.
00:24:25.600I still don't even know what that phrase means because it is so vague and ridiculous.
00:24:29.760And I think you are becoming one of the best sort of man on the street reporters doing what we call in the business streeters.
00:24:39.240You're asking normal people normal questions that people ask around the dinner table and you're getting some incredible responses.
00:24:47.640And it's something that nobody else in the media really does run out and gauge the public on an issue.
00:24:54.000Yeah, no, it's nice when the weather's nice, but I just find a close C train station and wait for people to get off the train and ask them questions.
00:25:06.300So it's always a fun experience to do.
00:25:08.700Yeah, and it's I've been covering these ongoing truck rallies and when you when you're on the Internet every day, it's like I called it earlier, a blast furnace of hate.
00:25:34.760They have a story to tell and it reminds you that the Internet is not real life and it is it is the best thing ever.
00:25:43.460So when I get a chance to get out of my little cubbyhole studio that I work in, I jump at it.
00:25:49.540Yeah, and I'm glad I'm glad to see you doing it because we're giving voice to people that normally they're they're they're the forgotten people or the people that the mainstream media just glosses over.
00:26:31.040And hearing their story and sharing that online is a huge help to them.
00:26:35.520But also, everyday Albertans want to know why there was 600 protesters outside of City Hall two weeks ago when the CBC certainly isn't going to tell them.
00:26:47.280I mean, I guess we serve as a counterbalance to that because not only does the CBC not tell them in certain instances or the CBC totally makes up the reason those people are there.
00:26:59.000Like they won't say, oh, these people are like explicitly anti-Trudeau, they're anti-carbon tax, they're anti-Rachel Notley.
00:27:07.480There's some anti-immigration sentiments within the yellow vest protesters who seem to also support oil and gas or something stupid like that.
00:27:15.900But when you go to talk to the yellow vest protesters, like over the weekend, I talked to somebody who is a first generation Canadian.
00:27:22.460And he's like, I just want all the immigrants who are coming to the country to go through the same process that my parents had to.
00:27:35.120No, the CBC has a very explicit way they want to characterize people.
00:27:39.380If they're wearing a yellow vest or it's not even just a yellow vest, they're in a yellow vest, they're in a truck or they have an anti-Trudeau sign.
00:27:46.840They're always, you know, disgruntled Albertans or, you know, some sort of upset but discredited.
00:27:54.840They characterize them in some upset persona that they just discredit after that.
00:28:02.060Whereas if it's, oh, I don't know, some Antifa protests, then there's legitimate concerns that they talk about.
00:28:10.240They interview them and they share what their issue is with the public.
00:28:16.000They'll go to the Antifa protests and paint them as though they're out there fighting actual Nazis instead of just people with whom they disagree.
00:28:25.900As though there are actual Nazis out there, by the way.
00:29:09.680In 2019 at The Rebel, we will continue to do what we've always done here, and that is bring you the other side of the story.
00:29:31.640We will continue to file access to information requests with the federal government and freedom of information requests with the Alberta government and other provincial governments to get you the answers to questions that normal people are asking around their dinner tables.
00:29:48.180Questions like, how much did that really bad idea just cost us, and whose dumb idea was it in the first place?
00:29:55.880And as long as the mainstream media tailors their coverage of liberal and left-leaning politicians as though their coverage were a resume for a job with the government, Kian and I will always have a big job to do at The Rebel.
00:30:11.200Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.
00:30:13.600Happy New Year, and all the best to you and yours in 2019.
00:30:18.160I'll see everybody back here in the same time, in the same place next week.
00:30:22.800And remember, don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to think.