The world has gone mad, folks, and no one is crazier than the media! The case of a St. Louis family who defended their house with firearms, and how the media reported it. But what really happened?
00:09:23.520Systemically. Systemically, no, sir. Systemically, racism can only be white. Systemically, sir.
00:09:31.240Individually, it can be a different color, but systemically, it can only be white.
00:09:35.420She goes on to criticize a white officer who's married to a black woman, saying, despite that,
00:09:40.460he is racist. It was quite an exchange. And it reminded me of a recent fiasco
00:09:47.340in Alberta where the disgraced NDP leader, Rachel Notley, who is so white she's pink. And by
00:09:54.420the way, I've got nothing against white people myself. I am white. She denounced as racist,
00:10:02.400and I think she even implied he was anti-Semitic, an Aboriginal man, a status Indian, who is on
00:10:10.020various high-ranking judicial committees in the province. He's a Queen's Counsel, which
00:10:17.800is a very senior rank for a lawyer. He himself is a status Indian who works out of Cold Lake,
00:10:24.240Alberta. Not only is he ethnically First Nations, but he does charitable works in the First Nations
00:10:33.180community. He founded the Lakeland Sports and Learning Academy, a non-profit for Aboriginal kids
00:10:40.020in that area. He is a champion of Aboriginals within the law. And Rachel Notley accused him of bias,
00:10:51.120and had him drummed out of legal offices because of some conservative Facebook posts. Unacceptable.
00:11:00.400Unacceptable. Incredible. My friend Sheila Gunn-Reed had an excellent video on the subject,
00:11:05.000but we reached out to the lawyer in question. Leighton Gray is his name. He joins us now via Skype
00:11:11.400from Cold Lake, Alberta. Mr. Gray, what a pleasure to meet you. Thanks for taking the time to come on
00:11:15.660our show. It's my pleasure. At least I could do after what Sheila Gunn-Reed did for me and coming out
00:11:22.720supporting me and pointing out really the hypocrisy of the BBC piece that was done about me. Well,
00:11:30.760about me, but really more about conservatives everywhere, I think. Well, I've seen this before.
00:11:36.720I mean, anytime someone doesn't fit the mold of a conservative, and you don't even have to be very
00:11:41.560conservative. If you are black, if you are aboriginal, if you are gay, if you're anyone
00:11:48.900who is not supposed to be conservative, you get defamed brutally. And we saw that bizarre street
00:11:57.100incident where the liberal white girl was shouting at black cops that they were racist. That's what
00:12:01.920this felt like. In this case, it wasn't just Rachel Notley. It felt like the CBC itself was leading the
00:12:09.780mob against you. Tell us a little bit about what happened from your point of view. Well, I think
00:12:17.360the genesis of what happened to me actually started with a group of a lawyer's group called the
00:12:23.700Indian Trial Lawyers Association of Alberta. And a gentleman, a lawyer who was mentioned in the CBC
00:12:30.560piece named Tom Engel. Towards the end of May, CBC ran a piece that was written by the Indian Rachel
00:12:39.740Ward that had nothing to do with my appointment to the Provincial Court Nomination Committee. But she
00:12:47.320strung it together. And she contacted my office. And she wanted to ask me about the connection between
00:12:55.120this other story, which was about a Native man named Clayton Bruchet, and my appointment to the
00:13:01.120board. And I didn't respond. She ran the piece anyway. And even though the Clayton Bruchet story had
00:13:07.560nothing to do with me, it was all connected to me and the Provincial Court Nomination Committee. I thought
00:13:14.560and hope that was the end of it. But it turns out, based upon some lists or emails about someone that
00:13:20.340were originally out of the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association, that there was something in the works that
00:13:27.740grew in successive weeks, where there was coordination between the CBC or at least Mr. Engel, the NDP, and the
00:13:35.560CDC. And so about 10 days ago, Rachel Ward contacted my office. She contacted me by email. I didn't respond. She
00:13:53.280contacted me again, this time in a very threatening way, indicating that if I didn't respond, she was going to
00:14:00.560publish all kinds of unsavory things about me, that I was a racist, that I was anti-Semitic, and so on.
00:14:08.560I sought legal advice. And the advice was that I probably should not respond until I saw the piece. She emailed
00:14:18.560my office at least three times. The most concerning thing, however, was when she couldn't get hold of me, or when I
00:14:24.560would respond by email, she actually called my reception at my office and spoke to my receptionist, and
00:14:32.560indicated to me that, or to her, that I was a racist. And that lady was very distraught. She's worked for me for
00:14:42.560many years, a wonderful lady, a great employee, and she was very upset. I found out subsequently that, I'm not a
00:14:48.560defamation expert, but I received some advice that the reason for that is that CBC can avoid liability
00:14:56.560for defamation if they show that they've given notice to the person they're about to throw under
00:15:02.560the bus. So what happened at that point was the story was published on the Friday, going back about
00:15:12.56010 days. And it was a salacious piece. Those who saw it, I mean, unfortunate in a sense, I guess, because
00:15:22.560based on a recent survey, only about 3% of Canadians paying attention to the CBC, even though we funded
00:15:28.560100%. But there certainly was sufficient notoriety that I was contacted by the Ministry, and they
00:15:40.560indicated to me that they were going to be making a change based on the publicity. And this is all based
00:15:48.560upon some social media posts that Sheila Gunn-Reed really elaborated upon quite well. But the crux of it
00:15:58.560was based on a smooth interpretation of some social media posts. They presented this picture of me as
00:16:06.560as someone who was unsuitable or unfit. That was the way Mr. Engel described.
00:16:12.560So let me pause there, because you've raised so many interesting things. I want to get into them a little bit
00:16:18.560before we move on to other subjects. So the first thing is you believe, and you have some evidence based on
00:16:24.560the emails and who was talking to whom, that Tom Engel, who's an anti-police lawyer, sort of a radical leftist
00:16:30.560lawyer in Edmonton, the CBC, that they were coordinating with each other to basically whip up a campaign
00:16:40.560against you? Is that what you're saying, that the CBC was working with this left-wing advocacy group,
00:16:46.560the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association, to get you kicked off of this judicial appointment committee?
00:16:52.560Are you accurately stating what you've observed?
00:16:54.560Right. I'm not a member of the TTLA, but my partner in our office, Mr. Hart Spencer, is.
00:17:02.560And so he saw these emails. And of course, at one point, Mr. Engel realizes in the listserv that I'm
00:17:12.560probably seeing emails. But when you go back through the emails, it's very clear that Mr. Engel was
00:17:18.560coordinating with, talking to the CBC. And of course, throughout this time, the NDP was attacking the
00:17:25.560minister, Mr. Schweitzer, in the House, and using my name specifically, and saying that this person is
00:17:31.560unfit and shouldn't be on the board because of mine.
00:17:34.560So what were the actual tweets or Facebook comments, I think they were, that got the NDP so incensed here?
00:17:42.560So, I mean, you've got the NDP, the CBC, the Trial Lawyers Association, all working hand in glove.
00:17:48.560What was it that got under their skin? Was there a particular phrase or did you like something you
00:17:55.560weren't supposed to like? Were you too conservative for them?
00:17:59.560Yeah, well, I think one of them was a Black Lives Matter post that depicted two black men. And the
00:18:06.560crux of it was all lives matter. And that's what they were saying. And I simply reposted
00:18:12.560that because I thought it was a very positive message. But that was interpreted as, you know,
00:18:19.560I don't know if I was some sort of heretical advocate against Black Lives Matter.
00:18:23.560So literally saying all lives matter, and by the way, you're a status ending, you're an Aboriginal man,
00:18:28.560you could, you know, I think Aboriginal lives matter, Indigenous lives matter. You yourself have a deep
00:18:37.560stake in that. We could talk about this a little bit later. You're a lawyer for plaintiffs seeking
00:18:43.560compensation for treatment, that they mistreatment under residential schools. So you show in your daily
00:18:50.560life that all lives matter to you. But saying that was somehow disqualifying in the eyes of the NDP,
00:18:57.560the CBC, and this activist lawyer, Tom Engel.
00:19:02.560Right. And it's a great example, really, of how the left and the whole cancer culture works.
00:19:09.560It doesn't really matter who you are, or what your background is, if you're saying the wrong things. For
00:19:16.560example, in 2019, I received a very prestigious award from the Alberta Sahel Trials Association,
00:19:24.560Gary J. Big Humanitarian Justice Award. I received that award for my work over the past 20 years on behalf of Indigenous litigants.
00:19:34.560But in the cancer culture, that doesn't seem to matter. The only people who get a free pass seem to be the
00:19:41.560ones who are clearly on the left, useful to the left. The most obvious example is our Prime Minister seems to be
00:19:48.560capable of saying anything to anyone at any time. And he's given a pass. Whereas people who say things or
00:19:57.560express views that might be considered conservative, they will expose themselves to this type of cancel culture.
00:20:07.560And I can tell you, as someone who's lived it, it is quite horrifying. In my line of work, your reputation is your life, it is your business.
00:20:18.560And I've spent more than 30 years developing it, growing it, nurturing it, serving my clients to the best of my ability.
00:20:26.560And then, in a moment, some people who want to use you in order to serve a certain purpose that's useful to the left,
00:20:38.560in this case, the MVP, they're able to destroy that reputation or attempt to destroy it.
00:20:46.560In hindsight, I don't believe that's true. However, it has impacted me professionally.
00:20:53.560I have received a tremendous outpouring of support from Rebel News and other people in the profession,
00:21:00.560in the community. I'm grateful for that. But there are also a few hate speakers. There's a lady who contacted my office
00:21:06.560and left a message describing me as a horrible racist. And, you know, for example, the anti-Semite claim,
00:21:15.560that one's really interesting because only in April, I published regularly on a blog,
00:21:21.560in April, I wrote a paper about a wonderful man named Martin Hoover, who is a Jewish theologian.
00:21:29.560At the 20th century, I described in my paper as one of the most brilliant religious papers of the 20th century.
00:21:38.560So that's really odd speech from someone who is supposedly anti-Semitic. But it's a good example of how,
00:21:45.560in this sort of lack of discourse, how the left will ignore the parts of your reputation that you are
00:21:53.560that don't serve a particular narrative, and they'll focus on and twist certain things that are said
00:21:59.560that will focus, that will heighten and exacerbate a certain narrative that is useful to them.
00:22:05.560And I use myself as a pawn in this particular game.
00:22:09.560So you're a status Indian, indigenous man yourself. You're a follower, and I guess I would say a student,
00:22:16.560of the Jewish thinker Martin Hoover. I understand that you've recently hired various minority lawyers,
00:22:23.560Muslim lawyers included. I mean, frankly, the left, if you were a man of the left,
00:22:29.560would call you the greatest hero and they would be nominating you for the Supreme Court of Canada.
00:22:34.560Because you tick all of their identity boxes, you know, pro-Jewish, pro-Muslim, status Indian, lawyer, charitable,
00:22:43.560you know, you're in Cold Lake, like seriously, fast track to the Supreme Court for you.
00:22:49.560But because you're a conservative, and by the way, saying all lives matter isn't even a conservative point of view.
00:22:54.560It's just saying, I'm not, I'm going to treat everyone equally.
00:22:59.560Because of that, you were canceled. But you said that, I think I heard you say that as a reaction to this media manufactured storm,
00:23:08.560I think I heard you say that the minister, the Department of Justice called you up to kick you off the Judicial Advisory Committee.
00:23:16.560Just for our viewers who don't know, that's the group that helps vet and suggest people who should become lawyers.
00:23:24.560So it's, it's like a consultation with experts. And your role, I would imagine, is not just to provide legal scrutiny,
00:23:32.560but to say, hey, well, there's this, maybe there's this bright Aboriginal lawyer over here that we should put on the provincial court.
00:23:38.560So like, so, so frankly, not only are you there for your legal smarts, but you know Aboriginal law.
00:23:45.560So you're on this Judicial Appointment Committee Advisory Committee.
00:23:50.560Did you say that you got a call from the department asking you to step down?
00:23:57.560Well, they didn't put it in those terms. They made it clear to me that because of the pressure, because of the pressure that was coming,
00:24:05.560and because of some of the content of the CBC piece, that they were going to be going into another direction.
00:24:11.560And they gave me the choice of whether or not to resign or to be removed. And I thought it would be more appropriate.
00:24:21.560I mean, it's important to remember that I was given the appointment by the provincial government.
00:24:28.560And so I felt some degree of responsibility to them.
00:24:32.560I didn't want to do anything else that might cause them to be embarrassed.
00:25:39.560I think I want to say a couple of things about Mr. Schweitzer.
00:25:42.560First of all, he did defend me in the House quite vigorously, and I'm grateful for that.
00:25:49.560I didn't see his comment after the fact. I think the best way to put it is I was presented with a dilemma.
00:25:55.560And for me, the least worst option was to resign.
00:25:58.560But it was made pretty clear to me that I was going to be removed whether I resigned or not.
00:26:04.560You know, I'm very disappointed in that because the thing is, when you give in to the mob, it strengthens the mob.
00:26:14.560The appetite grows. Its appetite grows the more it eats.
00:26:19.560And if it can take you out, a status Indian, indigenous man on a judicial advisory committee, well, then maybe it can even take out a judge.
00:26:29.560Maybe it can take out a cabinet minister.
00:26:31.560And all for slurs and exaggerations and, I mean, seriously, saying all lives matter is grounds to take out a queen's council.
00:26:44.560I think that this is a very bad turn of events.
00:26:47.560And I'm not here to give you legal advice.
00:26:50.560You're the lawyer, not me. You're the QC.
00:26:52.560But I got to tell you, they smeared you as a racist.
00:26:56.560And Rachel Notley did so outside the house and she just went on a real tear against you.
00:27:00.560I got to tell you, I mean, you have your own you have your own responsibilities and your own priorities.
00:27:09.560But I if it were me, I mean, maybe I'm more conflict oriented than you.
00:27:15.560But I would I would take her to court and I would say, you prove all those things.
00:27:19.560You prove I'm a racist. You prove I'm an anti-Semite.
00:27:21.560And look at the damage you've done. You pushed me off the judicial advisory committee.
00:27:25.560You blackened my name in the community 30 years and you did it all for partisan gang.
00:27:29.560And flush out her secret collusion with the CBC and Tom Engel and his group.
00:27:36.560I don't know. I don't mean to. It's not my place to give you advice.
00:27:39.560But if I didn't say this to you, I wish I would wish I would.
00:27:44.560And I don't even know if you're time limited because I think her statements are still out on the Internet.
00:27:48.560I think the CBC smeared you. But I know for a fact that Rachel Notley went even further than what the CBC said.
00:27:55.560And I I don't think you should sit at the side of the road as roadkill.
00:28:01.560Well, I I'm not your equal in terms of conflict-oriented Ezra. You're the champion.
00:28:07.560But I am a litigation lawyer. And I will tell you that this is something that is being seriously considered in my camp.
00:28:18.560I think that I think where I stepped in it in terms of the political correctness.
00:28:24.560And that's almost an archaic term that we're well beyond political correctness.
00:28:28.560But I posted on social media that, and Sheila Gangwee brought this out in her piece, that I was not going to be governed by biases.
00:28:40.560Things like inclusion, diversity, which to the left are words that do not mean what they should mean in the Oxford English District.
00:28:49.560And so my what I said and what got me in trouble was that in terms of selecting special candidates, I was going to support people who are the best, most qualified candidates for the job.
00:29:02.560And when you're talking about selected judges, these are people who have enormous power, great discretion, and seriously impact not only individual lives, corporate lives,
00:29:14.560but the scope and the movement of our society.
00:29:19.560When you're talking about such an important position, in my view, and I said this publicly, and again, I realize this is a conservative view, not an alt-right view, that we have to have the very best people for the job.
00:29:33.560So that if, for example, we're looking at six candidates, and they were all, and the best, we're picking six people, and the six best were all women, I would vote for those six women.
00:29:44.560If they're all black, I would vote for all the black.
00:29:47.560If they were Jews, I'd vote for all the Jews.
00:29:50.560That was a mistake I made, because I said I was going to be oblivious to those things.
00:29:55.560Not that I wouldn't consider them in the total mix, but I just, I indicated very strongly that we have to have, we're picking something that important.
00:30:05.560You have to have the best people for the job.
00:30:08.560And that, I saw that as my responsibility.
00:30:15.560We're talking about inclusion and diversity.
00:30:18.560And if I'm being added to a board like this on the basis of checking boxes like inclusion and diversity, I think it's very ironic that I'm being excluded because I would be there in order to add a diversity of views.
00:30:34.560And this is why I say the left doesn't, when I talk about inclusion and diversity, it's not really talking about those things.
00:30:40.560There's no diversity of views if you disagree with the left.
00:30:59.560You yourself will have to weigh whether you want to take legal action.
00:31:04.560I mean, obviously, you've been thinking about that.
00:31:07.560And I am probably more conflict-oriented than most.
00:31:11.560But I think you ought to have another chapter.
00:31:15.560Because just talking to you for these last 15 minutes, the things you're saying are things that the country needs, not just for a strong judicial system, but in terms of uniting people of different backgrounds.
00:31:29.560And whether you're Jewish or Muslim or indigenous or white or whatever, to have that common ideal of unity and meritocracy.
00:31:39.560I feel that by casting you aside, we've set back racial harmony and unity.
00:31:49.560And that may suit Tom Engel or Rachel Notley or the CBC.
00:31:53.560But I think Alberta has been disserved by your ouster.
00:31:59.560And I hope that in the course of events, you will not only return to the kind of public service that you had on the Judicial Advisory Committee.
00:32:07.560And I understand the Law Society of Alberta also summarily fired you without even any notice.
00:32:13.560I think you should sue them, too, by the way.
00:36:32.560I'm not talking, he should just make personal inquiries into how this went down.
00:36:36.560And how this was a stitch up with the NDP, the CBC, and a left-wing trial lawyers association to derail a good man who was obviously on a good track.
00:36:47.560And I think the way that the balance can be brought back is with a judicial appointment.
00:36:53.560Leighton, great pleasure to talk with you.