We re fighting for freedom of speech even for our opponents, and tonight we re fighting in the streets of Edmonton, Alberta. Why should others go to jail when you re the biggest carbon consumer in the world and you won t give them an answer?
00:03:24.340Alright, so that was the bad old days under Rachel Notley and Sheila Gunn-Reed now is a welcome journalist amongst other journalists at that same lockup.
00:03:33.900Well, interesting enough, a group called Progress Alberta, which is not by any, I guess, traditional measurement, a media group.
00:03:43.860They wanted to send someone into the budget lockup too.
00:03:47.280Now, Progress Alberta, like a group called Press Progress, is a partisan group.
00:03:53.320Press Progress is owned by the Broadband Institute.
00:03:56.560It tells you where they're coming from.
00:03:57.860And Progress Alberta was a similar Alberta entity that's closely connected with the NDP.
00:04:05.580In fact, sometimes the NDP would literally refer questions about government policy to Progress Alberta.
00:04:58.200They were banned from the budget lockup today.
00:05:03.740And so they took a page out of our book here at The Rebel.
00:05:08.300And I received a phone call about this a couple days ago from the law firm that was representing Progress Alberta, or at least wanted to represent them, because they're my law firm.
00:05:32.140And I'm actually suing a member of Progress Alberta named Jim Story, because he de-platformed us in Edmonton a few months back.
00:05:43.780If you'll recall, I had a book launch here in Edmonton at the Princess Theatre, signed contract, paid in advance, and a mob on Twitter and Facebook and email and some phone calls.
00:05:55.740A mob terrified the owner of the Princess Theatre into ripping up that contract and breaching it.
00:06:05.040So we're suing all the de-platformers for breach of contract and inducing breach of contract.
00:06:12.820We're not just suing the poor theatre owner.
00:06:14.960We're suing the people who bullied the theatre owner, scared him, into ripping up the contract.
00:06:57.820I released my outstanding free speech law firm to help Jim Story's Progress Alberta and to sue a government I like, the Jason Kenney UCP government of Alberta, to make them let in my political opponents.
00:07:14.880Not just my political opponents, people who thugishly banned me from having my book launch.
00:07:21.080And I went one step further, if you can believe it, I wrote to the lawyers who successfully got me into the election debates federally in October when Justin Trudeau kept us out.
00:07:35.460And I said to my successful election debates lawyers, I said, send these guys any legal research that you've done for me, save them the hassle and the time, and frankly, the cost.
00:07:48.980Send them the free speech legal research that you already put together at my expense.
00:07:54.700So not only did I not say, keep Progress Alberta out of the Alberta legislature, budget lockup.
00:08:02.820Not only did I not say to my lawyers, no, no, don't help my enemy, my opponent, the people who deplatformed me, I said the opposite.
00:08:13.420I said, give them legal representation and give them for free, I said to my other lawyers, my arguments for getting in.
00:08:22.860I don't know if they actually made use of the free legal work we did.
00:08:26.820I don't know if they actually had the time to do it.
00:08:28.500But I know that yesterday, they were granted emergency authorization, an emergency court order to be given the right to report on the budget, just like we won that emergency injunction in Toronto at the Federal Court of Canada, forcing Trudeau's election debate commission to let us in.
00:08:51.400So that's why I'm standing on a street in Edmonton instead of at the legislature, instead of talking to Sheila.
00:08:58.820I think actually at the moment I'm recording this, the budget lockup is still happening.
00:09:03.620My flight was screwed up because of Toronto weather.
00:09:07.640But I still believe I have stories for you that are relevant to today and stories relevant to the city of Edmonton.
00:09:14.340Obviously, I couldn't get off the plane once we were delayed on the tarmac.
00:09:17.480Now, one of my teammates said, why are you showing solidarity with not just a bunch of hard left-wing activists, but people who actually censored us?
00:09:46.060One of the bases of our system of law, in Latin, it's stare decisis, which in English means stand by the precedent, stand by the decisions, which means, let me say it one more way, what's good for the goose is good for the gander.
00:10:00.480So, just like my legal victory against Justin Trudeau helped Progress Alberta get access to the Alberta legislature, Progress Alberta's access to the Alberta legislature will help me and other people and will build on this free speech jurisprudence.
00:10:21.960There will be a body of case law where case after case after judge after judge in different jurisdictions say journalists have the right to report even if the government doesn't like them.
00:10:33.740And I'm absolutely certain that the government of Jason Kenney does not like Progress Alberta.
00:11:24.300I actually haven't had a chance to check.
00:11:27.680But I know that when we fought in the Federal Court of Canada in Toronto, there was no one there to help us other than our friends at True North.
00:11:36.800There was no Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
00:11:47.360So isn't it something that we at Rebel News and you, our supporters, are helping through our efforts and our lawsuits and the financing for our lawsuits, which is crowdfunded by you, isn't it interesting that we have become a sort of Canadian Civil Liberties Association by necessity to protect ourselves?
00:12:09.340But also, in yesterday's lawsuit and today's access, in reality, we are actually helping people across the political spectrum get their freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
00:12:22.360And I've got to tell you, it makes me proud.
00:12:25.480And I'm proud to say I helped hard left-wing people get their free speech.
00:12:32.260Because if you want free speech for yourself, it's something you've got to give to your opponents too.
00:12:37.560Folks, that's it for my monologue today.
00:12:41.040I explained to you why I won't quite have the show I had hoped.
00:12:43.860But I'm going to give the second half of today's show to my colleague, Kian Bextie, who's in Toronto, ironically.
00:12:51.100And he interviewed a candidate for the Conservative Party leadership.
00:13:07.560And joining us now, we have Derek Sloan in studio.
00:13:14.180Derek Sloan is a first-term MP, and he's running for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada in the field of candidates that have already announced and been accepted.
00:13:22.820Derek Sloan is now officially one of them.
00:13:24.940I think you were just accepted yesterday, was it?