Rebel News Podcast - Alberta independence is coming — and Eastern Canada has no idea

00:00:00.000 tonight the latest on alberta independence it's february 27th and this is the ezra levant show

00:00:06.720 shame on you you sensorious bug

00:00:13.100 oh hi everybody bit of a snowstorm the usual for canada in february i was in edmonton last

00:00:29.080 week it was minus 27 i'm southeast of calgary now making my way to medicine hat for the latest in

00:00:36.760 our alberta independence tour featuring sheila gun reed cory morgan and tamara leach behind me

00:00:42.600 you can see a new high-tech grain elevator the kind that replaced the old wooden ones

00:00:48.260 decades ago you know driving through these bald craries it reminds me of my childhood i actually

00:00:56.120 grew up in west of calgary i wasn't in calgary proper until i was in high school and just the

00:01:04.420 loneliness of being in the prairies the only sound being passing trucks and maybe a propeller airplane

00:01:10.960 far away that's sort of the memories of my youth and driving by those it's almost like you were going

00:01:16.960 by a monument or a kind of cathedral or something an homage to the people who work these lands

00:01:22.980 anyways these are the sort of people that don't like what mark carney is doing either to canada

00:01:29.000 or how he's portraying canada to the world people here if you said did you hear mark carney wants to

00:01:35.280 put canada in a new world order with china at the center he wants to break away from the united states 1.00

00:01:41.320 and pivot towards qatar the world economic forum in china they'd say what but these people aren't

00:01:47.520 listened to and not just here in southern alberta i mean in edmonton a week or so ago when a duly

00:01:53.960 elected conservative mp who was told by his voters go and represent alberta the conservative way

00:01:59.900 by the way he's been off work for months no one knows where he's been he has a behind closed doors

00:02:05.400 meeting with mark carney and poof suddenly the election is undone it's like if you play by the rules

00:02:11.940 and lose the liberals will take it if you play by the rules and win as happened in edmonton well

00:02:18.380 they'll just come up with some way to cheat in the back room but don't you dare call it cheating

00:02:22.540 because you can't prove there was a bribe it's demoralizing for folks out here and the the

00:02:28.680 referendum is indeed coming it's coming it'll be coming on october 19th and i think it's going to

00:02:33.640 be the story of the year i think it's sneaking up on eastern canada that's so focused on hating

00:02:38.900 donald trump and now hating the american hockey team all this weird anti-americanism that you know

00:02:45.980 the bread and circuses by which the toronto star and the cbc and ctv and the global mail keep their

00:02:50.620 people entertained i think something bad is coming to them and they don't realize that albertans are

00:02:56.820 going to say hey you know what if the choice is between going at ourselves and following mark carney

00:03:01.700 we'll go at ourselves i think that they haven't quite realized what's coming in like brexit

00:03:06.540 the referendum a decade ago by which the uk decided to remove itself from the european union's

00:03:13.020 political system all the institutions all the powerful people all the money all the officials

00:03:18.900 are going to be for remain but the people are not just rural people here but i think a lot of city

00:03:24.420 people are going to say you know what we can't do any worse and at least if we were independent we

00:03:30.380 could we could develop our oil and gas without having mark carney say well no our major projects

00:03:37.560 office needs to approve that and you need to pay bribe money in the form of carbon care like it just

00:03:43.220 wouldn't be any of that bs and so much other wokeness would evaporate with it i'm on tour with the

00:03:49.980 aforementioned speakers as we go from town to town in alberta we had a sold out event in calgary

00:03:54.980 yesterday we'll be in medicine had to my lethbridge the day after and then i'll be back out in toronto

00:03:59.920 where i'm in exile um i think that this is going to sneak up on people sort of the way the trucker

00:04:04.980 convoy sneaked up on loot the laurentian elites i didn't really know what hit them who knows maybe

00:04:10.340 they'll try the same thing in the form of martial law anyhow without further ado let me invite you to

00:04:16.380 take in a sampling of the remarks from last night's event in calgary here take a look

00:04:22.480 in canada we're going to get project fear but we're also getting something i call project sneer

00:04:34.420 i would say that the majority of response to alberta's independence instincts have been personal

00:04:43.560 attacks condescension how dare you at best they're an appeal to nostalgia okay at least i can value

00:04:50.920 that you're not trying to browbeat me but the vast majority of the responses especially from

00:04:57.160 toronto-based commentators is how dare you who do you think you are you are not allowed to

00:05:04.400 and and you are not allowed to ask for the same things that quebec asked for either in a referendum

00:05:10.240 or even within canada and i think that our little province of alberta is in for a choppy ride because

00:05:16.740 i think you are going to see just like in brexit where all the major powers and institutions came

00:05:23.480 hurtling that down on ordinary brits i think you're going to see that in canada too but in the uk you had

00:05:31.640 people who were secret brexiteers they were secret leavers they didn't talk about it a lot loudly they

00:05:36.860 just said you know what when all is said and done we're all going into the ballot box and we're all

00:05:42.400 equal there we're all leveled you can be a billionaire or you can be a student and we all have one vote

00:05:49.000 and they they marked the ballot in a way that the establishment has never forgotten i think that

00:05:55.600 we are in similar times and it's only eight months away without further ado let me hand over the

00:06:00.580 microphone to my dear friend someone who whose new book is really worth reading and i know there's a

00:06:06.680 bunch of copies out there sheila gun reed

00:06:16.840 i'll give you sort of the run of the show tonight if that helps

00:06:22.520 we have cory morgan he'll come up next and he'll talk about his book but also

00:06:29.560 the challenges that you might face as a pro-independence minded person and how you can have those

00:06:39.720 difficult conversations with projects near but also how you can have those difficult conversations

00:06:46.360 with people you know have maybe had a little bit too much cbc in their life you know

00:06:51.560 after that i'll i'll come up and then of course we've got our headliner tamera leach after that um

00:07:00.680 and then we'll give you the opportunity to ask us some questions so i will invite cory up for those of

00:07:08.120 you who don't know cory has been one of the most consistent clear-eyed voices on alberta autonomy long

00:07:15.880 before now long before it was trendy or fun or meme worthy and before it was safe so he's a

00:07:24.120 columnist and a political commentator with our friends over at the western standard and he's

00:07:28.920 really done some deep dives into the structural issues that alberta faces within confederation

00:07:35.080 and on the issues the other side loves to throw at us what are you going to do about the treaties

00:07:41.400 what are you going to do about your pension he's thought about all of that energy policy

00:07:45.960 and he's really given i think all of us some tools to confront the emotion and nostalgia on the other

00:07:55.480 side so whether you're sovereignty curious fully committed or just trying to understand what comes

00:08:00.440 next cory and his book the sovereigntist handbook bring the kind of clarity i think the conversations

00:08:07.080 before us really do demand so please welcome up my friend cory morgan

00:08:19.960 i'm just gonna pin this on

00:08:29.080 oh what a great time to be alberton as if there's ever been a bad time has there

00:08:33.720 and this as sheila said i've been stubbornly at this for for quite some time measured in decades and uh

00:08:44.680 i've seen it surge i've seen it go back you know support for independence and then it cools down

00:08:50.680 i've never seen anything like we've seen in this last year this is singular this is unique these rooms

00:08:57.000 are packed i am so it's great seeing rebels setting these up and other groups i'm not seeing empty

00:09:03.000 rooms i was involved way back in the wild rose organizing as well and i i can't remember just how

00:09:09.240 many events i attended where we had maybe a dozen people or a couple dozen and hey it evolved into

00:09:14.680 something more but never a consistent eight months of just people wanting to come out and get moving on

00:09:21.000 this this movement now has momentum determination and it's got holding power it's sticking i'm going

00:09:29.880 to use a bit of an analogy those are familiar with me on social media i live in an acreage south of town

00:09:34.600 in a town play named printis and i like to post a lot about the wildlife in my backyard and the uh

00:09:40.520 crazy rescue dogs we have the collection of them and there's one of them who runs every time a snow

00:09:48.440 plow comes by with all he's worth down that fence tries to catch it you know hits the end of the

00:09:53.000 fence box his head comes back well he's got momentum and determination which is good those are powerful

00:10:00.680 things but if he ever got over that fence and caught that plow he wouldn't have a bloody clue what to do 0.98

00:10:04.520 with it so that's kind of the stage we're at now i'm not saying you're all dumb dogs that are going to 0.86

00:10:09.560 run into a fence but we need to go further now and into a plan and that's where sheila's book is so 0.86

00:10:17.800 brilliant where she talks much much more about what we would do the day after a yes vote you

00:10:23.160 know we're chasing that plow but we get that yes vote have we got our affairs in order have we got

00:10:28.120 a plan do we know what we're going to do the day after we have a lot of things we talk about

00:10:32.200 absolutely but boy there's a lot and uh you know i'll let sheila speak more to that book but it's

00:10:37.480 brilliant because a lot of it comes from what the party kindly already laid out and studied and

00:10:43.240 checked into back in the early 90s on our behalf even if they didn't know it all i gotta do is

00:10:48.360 scratch out come back and put alberta to a whole lot of those things in there and hey it's not 1.00

00:10:52.280 plagiarism we already bought it many times over so with these meetings and with my own book that's

00:11:04.760 what i like to focus a lot on is the how because this is unique this is a first time we've never had

00:11:11.000 an independence referendum in alberta a lot of us are ready to roll but we're not necessarily

00:11:16.760 experienced campaigners we haven't done this before and we don't have the mechanisms that

00:11:22.200 quebec or political parties have we don't have that structure that training that that hierarchy

00:11:29.240 so we've got to do it ourselves which is great because albertans love doing things ourselves but it

00:11:32.680 does make it a little more challenging sometimes we're doing it with each other and that's why we're in

00:11:35.560 a room tonight and somebody uh had asked on social media a little while back when i posted from one

00:11:42.200 of these rebel meetings you know it's great full house and everybody says it's great well but you're

00:11:45.960 all there preaching to the converted what what else is happening you know you guys are just talking with

00:11:50.840 each other and i'm glad they asked because i could answer and say no no it's much much more than that

00:11:58.200 these are the people ready to roll these are the people with that momentum with that ambition

00:12:04.040 but we're coming away from every one of these meetings stronger and i'm not just meeting a

00:12:07.720 social bond we're learning from each other we're asking the q a's are great what i i say at every

00:12:14.120 one of these i'm not kidding somebody will always hit me with a question i never even thought of at one

00:12:18.840 of these and often i might not even have a great answer but you can bet i'll study it and think about

00:12:25.720 it and the next time i get that one i will have an answer so i come away from these as a better

00:12:30.760 advocate for independence than when i came in likewise everybody else in the room listens to

00:12:35.320 that q a they listen to us we share what we've got going on because it's not just a room full of

00:12:40.280 people expressing gripes or just wanting to bond with their shared dislike of the federation right now

00:12:47.800 it's people planning and determining how they can make this happen how a yes vote will happen this fall

00:12:55.160 it looks like there's pretty much no doubt that date's going to be held on october 19th so i know

00:13:02.920 there's been a lot of people i want to address it uh premier smith came up and put a whole bunch of

00:13:06.600 other referendum questions packed into that day and people worried it's going to be a distraction

00:13:13.160 i tell you what with eight months of this campaign going on you can put 50 questions there

00:13:18.520 people are going to scroll down because there's only one they're really interested in it's stay or go

00:13:28.600 but it's our job to make sure they pick to go and we've got a ways to go yet the polls are coming out

00:13:35.480 and as i said they're showing momentum they're showing it's growing but we're talking growth getting

00:13:39.800 into the mid-30s maybe up to 40 percent as ezra said there's a lot of almost you know closet

00:13:45.000 independent supporters and they'll come out with encouragement and support like any other person

00:13:49.960 in a closet but we have to hit the undecideds that's a large group and they're reticent they

00:13:59.640 understand that the system's not serving them well i mean if we want to look at a comparison that

00:14:04.840 referendum that was held by jason kenney on equalization you know over 60 percent of albertans

00:14:09.560 said yeah we want to get rid of it of course ottawa told us to well that's cool roll it up and stick

00:14:14.200 it back where you got it in the first place it was a waste of time it was just a poll on albertans

00:14:19.240 and that's fine i see the referenda questions that uh premier smith is packing on some of them too you

00:14:27.160 know saying oh we want to abolish the senate or we want to choose our own judges those constitutional

00:14:32.280 questions in there we can all vote yes all we like on those without the rest of the country jumping on

00:14:38.680 board with it we're not going to get them but that's fine let's have the discussion in this next

00:14:42.760 month eight months so those people who are on the fence those people are undecided

00:14:47.800 realize that we are wasting time trying to fix this system from within you know over 60 percent of

00:14:55.800 albertans were already discontent enough at least to recognize they wanted to go up and make a mark

00:14:59.800 against equalization that same 60 can make a mark saying it's time to move on from the federation

00:15:06.920 but we have to get to them uh something i talk about is the emotional aspect it's real you know i'm

00:15:16.440 cold cynical calculating that's my nature but that doesn't sell sometimes you know so i can go through

00:15:23.240 all of the the misdeeds and the problems and everything else but it doesn't cut through a

00:15:28.440 person's emotion sometimes when they just say damn it i just love canada and i just can't let it go

00:15:32.360 you know you have to approach people like that it doesn't mean they're immobile but barraging them

00:15:39.400 with stats and facts or even getting in their face is not going to help and it doesn't matter what reason

00:15:46.840 a person might vote no to independence whether it was emotionally based or if they felt it was based on

00:15:52.520 some sort of facts it's still a no so we have to think on how we're going to win them and that's

00:15:58.920 where we have so much more power in these rooms than political parties do because this is personal

00:16:03.800 this is something people feel a real attachment to and the way to move it away from that is with

00:16:10.200 another person with somebody they trust with somebody they like with somebody they converse with

00:16:14.760 and it can take multiple conversations it can take a few touches because where where do you you know

00:16:21.560 when you look at anybody i'm sure a lot of people here volunteered on campaigns even the largest and most

00:16:27.480 organized campaigns what do they always rely on locally to win the votes they get the candidate

00:16:32.120 to the door knocking because that candidate speaking even 30 seconds of that person at that door

00:16:37.720 is going to have more impact than a thousand flyers or signs on the road or paid advertisements or

00:16:44.040 columnists online they know that and that's why they do it with us we're the candidates there's no

00:16:52.360 candidate this is a different structure it's a concept we're selling and part of it too now we have

00:16:57.720 to shift a bit we can't just talk about what's wrong i think most albertans already understand it

00:17:05.400 we've got to convince the undecided why it's right to vote yes how is it going to be better the day after

00:17:13.320 because people want to vote for something not just against they they want to know that we're not just

00:17:20.680 doing it out of spite we're building something bigger we're building something better i'm convinced

00:17:24.120 of that i think most of the people in here are convinced of that as well but we've got to take

00:17:28.600 it on ourselves that responsibility of getting out and convincing all of those other people about that

00:17:34.360 and it takes diplomacy you know it takes patience i mean we're crabby straight speaking albertans i love 0.99

00:17:42.200 that but diplomacy part of diplomacy means smiling at somebody when you know they're full of crap 1.00

00:17:50.680 or at least nodding and saying i appreciate your opinion when you think they're a moron 1.00

00:17:55.480 because the morons vote still worth as much as yours 1.00

00:17:59.480 and we've got to watch it when we get in people's faces we can inspire somebody who would have sat at 1.00

00:18:05.080 home to go out and vote against us that's part of it too part of the skill we have to learn

00:18:12.680 is when not to engage when it's a lost cause there's lots of people you see them all the time

00:18:17.880 they make it very clear to you it'll never happen you're wasting time you're a traitor whatever

00:18:23.400 fine disengage they're just sucking energy and time and thought from you i know a lot of our instinct

00:18:29.720 is well i gotta debate this person i gotta argue why why the 10 minutes you spend debating with that

00:18:35.240 person who's never going to change their vote could have been dedicated to somebody who's undecided

00:18:39.720 so politely disengage move on if this is at a family dinner or something like that

00:18:46.840 that's the place to disengage too this is something that i you know i like to remind

00:18:51.560 people in campaigns we do have to keep them fun it's going to be an eight month slog

00:18:56.120 and this is a serious personal subject and and getting back to covet and some of the horrible

00:19:00.840 things that happened because of it and some of the worst stuff that was done was splitting families up

00:19:06.040 some of the fights we had between each other over vaccination and quarantining and all that crap

00:19:13.160 just bear in mind don't rip your family or friendships apart over the independence thing too

00:19:17.800 you know friends family they're important if you got one who is never going to shift over to the yes

00:19:22.920 side just avoid that conversation with them it's not worth it but you can keep seeking out those ones

00:19:29.080 who are flexible and they're there they're there they're at the hockey game they're at the the bar

00:19:34.600 when you're out somewhere they're at your workplace you know the the stereotypical water cooler look

00:19:40.920 for those opportunities and arm yourself to talk with them and listen one of the things that's important

00:19:48.200 with somebody that's hard for a blowhard like me but the truth of it is if you want to move somebody

00:19:53.560 they want to be heard first and you ask them questions genuine questions we're albertans even the

00:20:00.600 ones against independence they got good bs detectors ask them what their concerns are and people become

00:20:06.280 a lot more receptive to a discussion once you've started on their turf and then you can start working

00:20:11.080 it towards the independence thing because when we have these conversations long enough all roads tend

00:20:15.160 to lead to independence anyways you know when they're saying oh well we can fix this and then you 0.87

00:20:19.320 talk long enough and oh maybe i can't oh we could change that crap that throws a dead end too 0.54

00:20:25.080 eventually they'll get to the same end of the road that you have and they'll get to the yes 0.95

00:20:31.160 so part of that's educating ourselves though and being able to answer and being able to say i don't

00:20:35.400 know when we don't and coming back to it later and doing things like buying sheila's magnificent book

00:20:41.960 that fills in so many of those gaps so that you can answer those questions for them so you can make that

00:20:48.680 case diplomatically leave the swearing and belligerence to me on x i've got it down

00:20:56.120 but here is this is our training session as albertans it's not a particular party it's not a group

00:21:01.480 we're here as albertans for an event that alberta has never seen before

00:21:07.480 and we're making history but let's make sure it's a positive vote in history and not just a

00:21:14.360 a footnote of a time that alberta got really uppity and crabby and then blew a referendum

00:21:18.360 and then went back into the federation we can do better than that we will so with that i'll

00:21:22.360 leave off and get on to those other speakers and i'm looking forward to the question and

00:21:25.560 answer and talking to you guys afterwards in the back as well so thank you

00:21:28.520 well i don't see a lot of young people here right you're going to ask that there are some young

00:21:41.560 people in the crowd but young people don't come to stuff like this that doesn't mean they're not

00:21:47.640 independence minded if you've gone to a petition signing particularly right after work like five

00:21:52.920 o'clock 5 30 you're going to see young moms and dads still in their coveralls hauling

00:21:58.360 car seats with babies in them fresh out of daycare to sign that petition they just don't come to

00:22:03.480 stuff like this like my kids are weaponized for independence but i couldn't pay them to come here

00:22:10.200 at all they already know that independence is their way forward in the future now i guess i'll start by

00:22:18.680 telling you how i come by my western separatism honestly and it's a bit of a tough story but like

00:22:28.040 ezra my family settled on the same chunk of land that i now farm in 1903 i still freehold the mineral

00:22:36.440 rights that's how long we've been around and the the land was passed down through generations i have

00:22:44.280 it now i'm the fifth generation god willing my kids will be the sixth but unlike a lot of people's

00:22:51.480 earliest memories mine is of my parents being worried about money who knows about jingle mail

00:22:59.480 do you guys know about jingle mail you do so that's what happened during the national energy program

00:23:06.120 interest rates skyrocketed people were underwater on their house and the mail in this province

00:23:11.000 jingled with keys being mailed back to the bank i never want to see that again we came close

00:23:17.960 during rachel notley's time so we almost had a jingle mail experience of our own in my family

00:23:25.560 so my dad worked in the high arctic for imperial oil and then the national energy program came

00:23:32.520 he had just financed some equipment against the farm interest rates shot up and then he lost his job

00:23:39.480 and it took years and years for my family to recover

00:23:47.240 and my family isn't unique it happened to thousands of families just like mine because of a bad decision

00:23:55.080 or decisions that were right for eastern canada and they didn't care one damn bit what it did to the

00:24:02.280 rest of us and it's always been that way hasn't it they're still doing it today so yes

00:24:09.480 so in 1995 i was oh i was 16 and i was inundated with federalist propaganda and i think it might have

00:24:26.120 even worked on me back then we only had three channels on the tv so and not social media so i

00:24:32.200 wasn't able to get the news the way that i should have but i was fully aware of a referendum happening

00:24:37.640 in quebec and how it would be a terrible terrible thing if they left and we just absolutely had to

00:24:44.120 stop it now being a little more long in the tooth and a diehard sovereigntist i thought what can i

00:24:52.680 learn from what they nearly did because they really nearly did it and they were very prepared

00:25:01.480 so if alberta is ever going to talk seriously about sovereignty and that can look different ways

00:25:08.760 for different people so it might be leverage within confederation or something completely different

00:25:14.120 we need to have a real adult conversation about what happens when a jurisdiction threatens to leave

00:25:20.840 and that has really only ever happened with quebec in the western world

00:25:25.880 when people say as ezra mentioned project fear it can sound dramatic and conspiratorial but that's

00:25:33.400 what they call themselves and it is what institutions do when they're slipping

00:25:39.560 they tighten up they start deploying credible voices like jason kenney who had him as

00:25:45.480 member of project fear and then they shorten the timeline they raise the stakes and then they focus

00:25:55.480 on the wobbly middle and that's what they're going to do they start asking questions like are you

00:26:01.480 prepared to risk your pension are you comfortable with market instability and fluctuating interest rates

00:26:08.920 what happens to your mortgage if those rates spike and who will pay the debt we saw this in quebec in 1995

00:26:19.320 quebec didn't wake up one morning and decide to roll the dice they created a national commission

00:26:25.000 on the future of quebec it was 10 weeks long 18 traveling commissions all across the province 435 public

00:26:37.560 hearings were held in that time more than 55 000 people participated in those public hearings

00:26:45.400 3 000 written briefs i went through so many of them

00:26:50.680 they deployed separate commissions for seniors and youth they employed economists and lawyers

00:26:58.680 indigenous leaders business owners and civil servants they wanted to hear from everybody and

00:27:03.240 they wanted to hear the concerns because when you hear from people who are anti-separation they're

00:27:09.720 asking those questions and in quebec they didn't treat sovereignty like a anti-canada slogan they treated it

00:27:18.360 like replacing a state what can we shuffle out and put in our own place they ask the public who pays the

00:27:26.440 pensions how is the federal debt divided what happens to the federal courts what happens to the

00:27:33.720 civil servants and what happens to the territory itself and even in that level of preparation this is a

00:27:42.600 warning for us they still lost by 54 000 votes now that number should stay in your head because it tells

00:27:50.200 you how narrow the line is between confidence between winning and losing but it does tell you that

00:27:57.320 preparation narrows the fear gap and the thing is we know the questions now we know what people are worried

00:28:02.680 about quebec did the homework for us now we just have to have the real credible answers

00:28:09.880 in the final stretch and this will happen to us the banks warned of instability corporate leaders

00:28:17.160 floated relocation we're going to move from montreal there was a unite rally that applied the nostalgia and

00:28:25.800 the emotional pressure and that's when the middle people hesitated and that hesitation was enough

00:28:33.160 to stop the momentum and if we look at brexit as ezra mentioned the united kingdom was further down the

00:28:40.760 road they had years and years and years of being fully independent it already had its own currency

00:28:49.080 central bank military global trade presence it wasn't inventing sovereignty from scratch and still when

00:28:56.040 the leave surged guess what they did project fear recession forecasts didn't happen by the way emergency

00:29:03.960 budgets also didn't happen by the way they said the housing market would collapse that didn't happen

00:29:09.560 the pound dipped overnight slightly after the vote and for that that was held up as proof of disaster

00:29:17.320 and yet this is what we should point to the state continued functioning just fine negotiations were

00:29:24.840 hard they were difficult they were unnecessarily emotional if you ask me but the markets adjusted

00:29:31.400 institutions adapted the fear shaped the landscape but it didn't erase the decision and they came out the

00:29:38.520 other side is there a buzzing that's driving everybody crazy where is that coming from is that me i think

00:29:44.680 it's feedback from that i'll move that down okay i think it was me i'm very sorry for that

00:29:52.040 so if alberta's ever moves beyond just this conversation that we're having in the room

00:29:56.840 today and i believe that it will we have to start actually planning because again the biggest question

00:30:01.960 was what happens to my pension so we have to come up with a pension transition model a debt apportionment

00:30:11.400 doctrine a currency framework an indigenous sovereignty framework legal contingency plans

00:30:20.520 for clarity act challenges because that will come charter litigation will descend on us like a flock

00:30:27.480 of vultures treaty injunctions that will happen there will be pre-drafted legislation waiting for us on

00:30:36.040 the other side and we need to have our best and brightest ready to fight it so we have to have a

00:30:41.160 litigation strategy and timelines because we only get one shot at this and i think we all know that

00:30:48.760 we're closer than we've ever been i can see the momentum but there will be no rehearsal for this

00:30:58.200 there's no let's test it we'll refine it we'll get close we'll try again quebec is trying to do that

00:31:04.680 but if alberta runs a sloppy sovereignty campaign and loses decisively that stigma will linger for a

00:31:14.440 generation and then what happens it becomes evidence in the minds of cautious voters that the project

00:31:22.120 before us this great new alberta we plan to pioneer that it was never viable and then they will change

00:31:30.040 the laws to prevent us from ever trying again so quebec really narrowed the fear with preparation and

00:31:38.600 they still fell short by one percent that is the task before us now but that doesn't make me pessimistic

00:31:48.200 honestly because we are most definitely most definitely not quebec alberta is not structurally weak

00:31:57.480 it's young it's strong we build we produce we attract capital and people every day by the billions

00:32:05.720 of dollars we have economic gravity that quebec never had those are our advantages

00:32:12.360 but gravity is not governance we even though we have all those things we still need to convince people

00:32:23.160 that things will be fine maybe a little shaky for 18 months but a better alberta lies on the other side

00:32:32.440 if alberta can sit across from the most skeptical voter in the room the retiree the small business

00:32:40.360 owner the cautious parent and calmly answer every question without flinching all that fear just dies

00:32:49.560 on the vine and i know that we can do that we need to be prepared project fear is going to come the

00:32:56.280 banks are going to scare everybody the media good lord the media they're going to amplify and then

00:33:02.920 they're going to attack it's already happening the courts will intervene political allies amongst us

00:33:11.560 will hesitate you know who's going to be some of the harshest critics of the separatist movement

00:33:20.040 the federal conservatives they will never win again if we leave and then shortly after

00:33:27.320 saskatchewan follows there will never be a conservative prime minister in the prime minister's office

00:33:35.240 without us and they know that the outcome before us will depend on whether alberta looks like a protest

00:33:43.000 or a government-in-waiting and that's what we have to create so if that day ever comes

00:33:47.800 it won't be just the campaign before us it'll be the year before us of quiet disciplined hard work

00:33:57.640 not an outrage but in readiness thank you

00:34:09.960 all right i'll call up the next speaker you know her you love her she brought the government to his knees 1.00

00:34:15.880 and she knows a lot about project fear because project fear was most definitely unleashed on the

00:34:23.880 convoy she was russian funded she was a seditionist she was running an insurrection when you know 1.00

00:34:32.920 she was lied about maligned and then incarcerated and all she did was stand up to the government and i fear

00:34:41.960 that if we are not steel willed enough that they will do the same to us so i think she's got a lot

00:34:49.640 a lot of advice to give on how to maintain cool heads while that honestly hate comes our way so please

00:34:58.440 please welcome up my friend and colleague now to merrilee

00:35:15.320 thank you thank you

00:35:19.320 hi everybody thank you so much oh my gosh that i'll just never get used to that

00:35:24.040 um first of all i was hoping that what we'd be showing was not just my face this is not my tour

00:35:32.920 but i haven't been technologically inclined since the late 90s um so i haven't actually used powerpoint

00:35:39.320 since probably the late 90s so i didn't want to touch anything once i got it up here um but uh thank

00:35:45.320 you all for coming and welcome to our independence tour it is an honor for me to be going around alberta

00:35:50.200 with sheila and corey um as i've said i feel like i've spent most of the last four years in eastern

00:35:56.520 canada so it's really a treat for me um to get to travel around my own province for a change so thank you

00:36:07.960 and of course sheila gun reed um um so my other conditions i'm allowed out for necessities

00:36:13.640 necessities of life so basically just things that will allow me to continue to breathe

00:36:19.000 and um work community service my community service is completed i did get my hundred hours

00:36:25.240 in um i'm still volunteering at the food bank though i was pretty happy that they're going to

00:36:29.720 let me continue to do that and of course religious services so those are my conditions

00:36:34.600 i'm let out of the house for that um it is a bit of a process to get out of the house obviously

00:36:39.000 everything has to be meticulously scheduled but the jokes on them i'm a logistics expert

00:36:44.120 self-proclaimed so anyways so yeah it's there's a little bit more to just getting oops out of the

00:36:51.720 house but it's really not uh i don't feel like i'm suffering put it that way

00:37:01.080 so as most of you know i worked in oil and gas uh for a lot of my uh time here in alberta i moved

00:37:08.760 to alberta in the late 90s and uh very proudly worked for um organizations like slumberger that

00:37:16.440 was my first job in oil and gas really really loved that company learned a lot from that company

00:37:22.280 um and just really started to love what i did that what i did i mean i got into the oil and gas

00:37:28.200 industry and logistics and realized that i was good at it you know when you just you don't know

00:37:33.880 sometimes and then you just find that thing that you seem like i worked well under pressure i was

00:37:38.520 great with deadlines i loved uh organizing frat crews and cement crews and the equipment and the

00:37:44.200 chemicals and i just i felt like i i found my place um and and so i was really confused when i sort of

00:37:52.280 started paying more attention to some of the policies that were coming out from ottawa 35 or 3 500

00:37:59.640 kilometers away um regarding our oil and gas industry and so with things policies and uh and

00:38:07.720 laws like bill c69 and bill c48 um medicine had my community much like a lot of alberta communities are

00:38:15.480 predominantly um oil and gas related or supported in somehow some way shape or form and i mean i just

00:38:22.920 couldn't believe it because i mean i see the policies and procedures and the safety uh factors and the

00:38:28.120 environmental factors and stuff that we had to follow and i couldn't believe that i was watching

00:38:33.080 our politicians in ottawa vilifying and condemning what was happening out here like in my opinion we

00:38:39.000 should have been shouting it from the rooftops alberta has the most environmentally friendly efficient uh

00:38:45.640 energy industries in the world like we really should be streaming this from the rooftops instead they're

00:38:52.440 trying to thank you yes it's something to be proud of and i mean i will always be proud of my time in

00:39:00.920 oil and gas i had the best time i met the best people uh worked with the best guys and gals and i

00:39:06.120 have i was really lucky to have some really good managers so i was pretty confused um that the things

00:39:11.480 that i was seeing happening in my workplace and in my industry uh were being vilified by the government that the way that they were

00:39:18.040 were and so of course as you can see here um that quebec picture will come up later but this is right

00:39:24.680 in the beginning of my sort of advocacy days when we i joined the local yellow yellow vest rally group

00:39:31.080 in medicine hat and so we used to you know put on our yellow vests and take our signs and our flags and

00:39:36.040 go stand on the road and think we were really doing something uh you know holding our signs when we get

00:39:40.920 some honks and some trudeau salutes at the same time and that was fine um but i made some really great

00:39:45.880 friends along the way here and it was really my first uh my first introduction into sort of the

00:39:51.880 advocacy i don't like calling myself an activist um but my advocacy and sort of my eye opening to what

00:39:59.560 was really going on uh with our federal government um so so yeah i did that for a little while uh went to

00:40:06.680 rallies every week and um had a great time met some great people we had lots of flags lots of signs

00:40:16.520 uh back then we were like i said protesting bill c69 bill c48 uh the m103 uh islamophobia isloba islamophobia

00:40:27.080 hate speech i mean hate speech is hate speech um so yeah we had a great time so anyways

00:40:36.520 it's about also the same time when i decided that i need to quit talking and just mean tweeting and

00:40:41.080 actually get off my butt and do something about helping um my province so in in 2019 i hopped on

00:40:49.000 board my local mla drew barnes i i joined his campaign to volunteer to help doorknock and help 0.91

00:40:56.040 in the campaign office and everything and at that point i got to meet mr jason kenney

00:41:02.440 and by the way i'm just going to hang on i got some photos from that day and i'm keeping them because

00:41:06.360 there's going to be a tweet one day he's gonna he's not going to be very happy but i got proof

00:41:14.920 but anyways you know and and to be honest when i first heard that jason kenney was coming back to

00:41:18.840 alberta i was i mean i thought that felt a little weird i thought it was kind of strange that this uh

00:41:23.880 member of parliament was just going to give everything up and come back to alberta to save us

00:41:28.520 all and i mean let's be honest we could have ran a cardboard box against rachel notley and it would have

00:41:33.000 won so uh but i you know i got working on the campaign i met jason kenney in the state uh and

00:41:45.400 and i actually he started to convince me that he was actually here uh for the benefit of albertans

00:41:51.640 and so i threw my heart into it i threw my heart and soul into into helping with this campaign

00:41:57.400 um because i still believed in the process i still believed in the democratic process and i still

00:42:02.600 believed politicians when they looked me in the eyes and talked to me so that was april of 2019

00:42:12.120 and uh i believe it was within well the the federal election was in october

00:42:19.240 and by then i had already decided that this wasn't working and um october 19th was the federal election

00:42:27.080 and justin trudeau won and i watched before our polls closed as the numbers came in and we already knew

00:42:31.800 that we had lost and and that's when i really knew for sure that we don't have a say out here i

00:42:37.240 mean like so many things that have to do with canadian politics it's just another dog and pony show

00:42:42.280 to make you think that you're living in a democracy to give the illusion that you have a choice and a

00:42:48.040 voice and so um october 20th i woke up and i messaged peter downing who had invited my husband and i to go

00:42:57.640 perform at a pro-gun rally here in calgary and so i reached out to him as i knew that he was he was

00:43:03.720 starting this wexit movement and organization and so i reached out to him and i just said what can i do

00:43:10.040 i'm happy to volunteer i'll be your southeast alberta coordinator let's do town halls we got to start

00:43:15.000 talking seriously about how we can fix confederation and our place in it or we need to seriously start

00:43:20.600 talking about leaving and of course um the wexit movement itself moved morphed into uh the maverick

00:43:28.680 party as you know and and we uh i mean i'm really really proud of my time there i met some wonderful

00:43:34.280 people i got to work on uh some great committees and it really actually helped set the stage for what

00:43:39.960 was to come uh even though i didn't really realize it yet i mean all the organization that has to go into

00:43:46.120 creating a party um and when wexit when i first joined i was a part of there was the wexit provincial

00:43:53.000 parties bc alberta saskatchewan manitoba and then there was the federal one um so in the beginning i

00:43:59.560 sat on the wexit alberta board the provincial board as well as the federal board um and then when the

00:44:05.960 pandemic hit my husband and i lost our jobs got laid off so i gave up the alberta position because we

00:44:13.560 went to stay with our family my daughter uh in manitoba so i so i took over the manitoba the

00:44:19.960 province of manitoba i was helping set up edas and trying to find candidates and stuff and it was

00:44:24.360 actually it was such a great experience um and i had quite a few different um positions within there

00:44:29.880 obviously as you know um i started off as a volunteer coordinator and then i went into communications

00:44:34.760 and then i ended up being the secretary um by the end but i mean i loved our i love the platform i

00:44:41.000 love the stuff that we came up with that i really agreed with because i don't think there's too many

00:44:44.520 people in this room that just you know want to leave so bad like so like just despise canada

00:44:50.520 i mean i think most of them in this in this room are reluctant um you know but i i mean if you feel

00:44:55.880 like i do like we've tried and we've tried and we've tried and we've tried and we've tried and at

00:45:00.760 what point you know do you stop just trying and actually try to find a real solution to the problem

00:45:06.040 instead of just hoping that this time like every federal election i think this is the time or every

00:45:11.560 scandal that justin trudeau had i would tell my husband i said this is it he's buried now i know

00:45:16.440 it like he can't get out of this and duane would be like oh no you watch and he was right every single

00:45:21.240 time um now he's now he's got katie perry so i'm not too sure but he's a real winner there anyways there

00:45:28.520 astronaut meets a rocket scientist i'm sure they're interesting conversations

00:45:39.640 um so yeah anyways i mean basically with the maverick party what we set it up to do was to

00:45:44.040 have a two-track system so the first the first option was to try and get some changes to confederation

00:45:50.760 for alberta to give us greater autonomy in the west um to you know access to our resources

00:45:56.360 um just to get a fair say in confederation and i feel like we have a say and barring

00:46:02.600 those changes which we were pretty sure we weren't going to get anyways then we were going to seek

00:46:07.400 independence which is what we're all doing here now um and i loved i've actually lots of people hated

00:46:13.720 the name i kind of liked it but that's because i'm like a tom cruise fan from way back but uh the one

00:46:18.920 thing i the reason i really love this logo is because we actually literally had freedom in our name

00:46:23.880 so it's just it's funny looking back now um on my experience doing this and how like i said how

00:46:29.480 it came to help me uh later on with the convoy um i just want to throw this out there i am so proud

00:46:37.240 that this picture is going to be in the history books for all of time me sitting in a courtroom with

00:46:41.160 a mask but with my i love uh canadian oil and gas too bad i didn't say i'll burn i guess

00:46:45.720 but yeah as i was saying as you know i do have some experience with uh with the the project fear

00:46:55.640 mongering that we faced it was it was when we were on our way to ottawa

00:47:08.280 um that chris and i which is funny chris and i actually didn't have a lot of time to talk on

00:47:12.440 the way to ottawa because he was either busy or i was busy and uh like i remember you know chris

00:47:18.200 barber's first world problem it was the cutest thing because he was you know sean hannity and

00:47:22.920 tucker carlson fan back then and he was doing an interview with tucker carlson and sean hannity

00:47:28.760 was on hold and he was just like you know the king of the world it was really really cute

00:47:33.800 but i remember having a conversation with him about how i felt you know um everything was so many things

00:47:38.920 were being exposed just before we even got there we were still on our way and and a lot of things

00:47:44.280 were being exposed and and i said you know i feel like now that a lot of this is coming up and people

00:47:50.440 are starting to have their eyes open they feel like everything that they have planned for us is going

00:47:54.360 to be expedited because the jig is up and what i mean by that is the censorship bills that we're seeing

00:48:00.280 right now um you know a lot of things that are happening right now i feel um have been expedited

00:48:06.040 because they got caught they didn't expect it and they were exposed um and as you can see i mean

00:48:13.240 it was one of the most beautiful beautiful things ever and it's too bad that the government didn't

00:48:19.480 i feel like the government and the mainstream media had a golden opportunity here to really

00:48:23.000 unite canadians like in a terry foxer moment or an olympic gold medal win sorry probably too soon

00:48:28.120 moment but uh but you know they blew it and it's it's it's it's just still to this day shocks me

00:48:37.480 um the amount of fear like i said they were telling people that we were setting apartment buildings on

00:48:42.680 fire that there was threats of rape that we were stealing from homeless people uh what were some of

00:48:49.240 the other ones oh yeah funded by russians of course i mean that's always that's i saw that out again on

00:48:53.800 twitter today did you know if the freedom convoy and now alberta separatists are backed by vladimir

00:48:59.880 putin so just so you know putin's got your back here i guess

00:49:11.160 and i mean obviously when we got there we worked very very very diligently so i guess my point here

00:49:15.320 is is that you know i went from being a proud canadian to uh you know we have to leave and we have to

00:49:19.880 seek an opportunity to get out of here to this experience and it changed my life whoops obviously

00:49:28.920 i went from i went from wanting to leave or feeling like alberta needed to leave canada to feeling like

00:49:36.120 we can do this this is the canada that i grew up in you know if you guys could have seen the reefers

00:49:42.120 full of donations that were at all not just one outpost i mean all of them that was canadians looking

00:49:47.720 after each other and that is the country that i grew up in i mean i lived in some pretty desolate

00:49:52.600 places growing up in saskatchewan where you know if there was a snowstorm we didn't get out of our yard

00:49:57.320 it was our neighbors that came and helped us or vice versa i grew up in a home where my family would

00:50:03.240 you know if people were stranded on the highway or hitchhikers my parents would pick them up and bring

00:50:07.160 them home and feed them and i can't tell you how many times i woke up to strange people on our couch

00:50:11.880 but that's just what we did back then and and so my perspective changed so we got into um we got into

00:50:19.000 ottawa and a couple days later um for more than just this reason alone but a couple days later i got an

00:50:25.240 email from the chair of the board who was in lovely palm springs florida who emailed me to say you guys

00:50:32.520 have proved your point it's time for you to turn around and come home and this was a tuesday morning

00:50:38.440 after we just landed and i said come home i said we just got here i said nobody's even came to talk

00:50:45.720 to us yet like what point have we made and so sometimes i lose my temper and and but still even

00:50:55.160 still i'm so grateful for my experience there and the people that i got to meet and um you know it taught

00:51:01.000 me a lot like i said of what was to come so of course when the when the convoy started and immediately

00:51:06.840 you know when we started seeing the kind of support we were getting i mean i knew exactly i

00:51:10.680 needed a finance committee i needed a social committee we need to set up spokespeople like 1.00

00:51:15.160 we had to basically so i don't want to say like a political party because that'll just start a bunch

00:51:19.080 of conspiracy theorists but but we had to set up a grassroots you know loosely run some kind of

00:51:25.560 organization or it would have been complete chaos um but i also recognized what happens um because of

00:51:33.000 course the wexit movement and the maverick party we were all once again i can you imagine how many

00:51:40.120 times i've been called a white supremacist or a domestic terrorist uh a traitor a seditionist i don't

00:51:47.000 think wanting to exercise your democratic rights makes you a traitor i think trying to stifle those rates

00:51:52.760 is what makes you and not even a traitor i'm not even going to use that rhetoric but you know what i mean

00:51:56.760 and so i completely had changed my mind and i thought canada is totally worth saving and i walked

00:52:02.840 away basically from the independence movement because i thought we got this you know we we're going to do

00:52:08.280 this and then you know i didn't want to give up hope and i still haven't given up hope i'm always going

00:52:16.360 to have hope i guess just because of my experience but i also know if you're if you're being um if you're

00:52:22.200 in a terrible relationship um you need to eventually leave like if you don't help yourself no one else is

00:52:27.960 going to help you um and i said this but like the other day i mean there's a reason when you get on a

00:52:32.760 plane that they tell you if there's something happens to put your mask on first because if you

00:52:36.840 are not strong and stable you're no good to anybody else and i personally feel like albertans are generous

00:52:43.800 and kind i don't think we mind helping other parts of the country but a little appreciation would be

00:52:48.760 nice maybe a little encouragement to help us with our resources um you know um but that said again

00:52:56.120 we can't help other people unless we're coming from a position of strength and stability ourselves

00:53:02.520 and i much like myself i mean i feel like alberta has been shackled they've got leg shackles on and

00:53:09.240 we can't do anything because we're vilified we're cancelled we can't move our resources etc etc

00:53:16.760 but as you know seeing how obviously my treatment in the ottawa court um ontario court system was very

00:53:24.680 eye-opening for someone that's never been through the legal system before um i was absolutely stunned

00:53:33.240 at how um how they even spoke about me in court i mean one of my charges was intimidation you guys i mean

00:53:40.440 come on in what realm of reality am i intimidating to anyone um and so i guess you know i started to

00:53:49.960 just get a little bit disappointed and a little bit disappointed and then of course the poec came 1.00

00:53:56.840 the public order emergency uh inquiry into the invocation of the emergencies act and i went into that

00:54:04.440 with a lot of hope too because i still believed i still believed that uh we were going to have

00:54:10.360 some justice and some accountability and you know when i stopped believing i believed that right up

00:54:15.160 until about the sixth or seventh week when the bureaucrats and mps started coming in to testify

00:54:20.440 and i realized in very short order that i was watching a dog and pony show

00:54:25.320 and that was really disappointing to me um because i learned lessons the hard way too that's always been my

00:54:31.480 way if there was an easy way in a hard way i always pick the hard way i don't know why it's just what

00:54:35.560 i like to do um but you know i left there um first of all feeling very disappointed um and losing faith

00:54:43.480 and more faith in democracy but also i left there with the realization that out of all the organizations

00:54:50.440 out of all the law enforcement agencies out of the government municipal all levels of government

00:54:56.280 all of these organizations that i came in and watched testify

00:54:59.800 the most professional and well organized of them all was the ontario ontario provincial police

00:55:05.320 and the freedom convoy everybody else uh was a show i'm just going to say it they were all just all

00:55:13.160 i mean one hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing and i mean that's concerning especially when

00:55:18.920 you look at the size of our current government nobody has a clue i mean let's face it they've just sealed

00:55:24.760 uh the vaccine injured documents for 15 years why because there were so many there was over 3 million

00:55:30.120 documents well if you have a job and you can't do it then you need to get the heck out of there

00:55:35.320 and let people in that can come and do your job not being able to do your job or not being able to go

00:55:41.160 into work i mean i can't as an albertan or somebody that grew up on the west i think it's absolutely

00:55:45.880 laughable that we have federal government employees that are fighting going back to work

00:55:51.240 going into an office they're not going to sit on a drilling rig in minus 30

00:55:56.360 they're not digging a pipeline and minus 25 they have to drive to their office

00:56:03.000 and they're taking the government to court i mean let's just get back to some common sense

00:56:08.440 that's all i that's all i want

00:56:09.880 and then of course i mean my whole experience through the uh the justice system itself

00:56:23.080 i mean this is pretty concerning when we quite clearly have a two-tier justice system in canada

00:56:29.560 the first headline that you see that says ottawa pro-palestinian protesters claim legal victory after

00:56:34.440 all the charges are dropped this happened uh just before may 12th i think that was our

00:56:43.560 it was the hearing we had just prior to our conviction

00:56:46.760 so it would have been like final arguments and stuff the interesting thing about this particular case

00:56:52.280 is that the crown prosecutor who if you have had my book and read my book his name is moise karimji

00:56:56.920 uh he was the original crown prosecutor on our case and had to quit after my book came out um

00:57:05.960 because he said in an interview that i mentioned his name 60 times some of them defamatory

00:57:11.640 oh you called me a terrorist dude i'm just making fun of you in my book and you're going to call that

00:57:17.240 defamation anyways he was legit he was the crown prosecutor on this case

00:57:22.920 so we get into ottawa to go to the hearing prior to our our verdict and find out that this particular

00:57:30.440 crown prosecutor who wanted 10 years in jail originally for chris and myself

00:57:35.080 let off five pro-palestinian protesters with the exact same charges as me and chris

00:57:40.440 and all they had to do was donate money to a charity and write a letter to the courts

00:57:45.080 so tell me how that works it's obviously very clearly two-tier justice system also not long ago

00:57:56.280 as you will know um well we were both sentenced to 18 months house arrest um i have already done just

00:58:02.120 about 50 days in remand which is not jail um actual jail would be disneyland compared to a remand center

00:58:08.920 um this gentleman here was trying to buy sex from an underage 15 year old girl or who he thought was

00:58:13.560 um that he got a conditional discharge so that the charges and a conviction would not hurt the

00:58:20.120 process for his immigration into canada

00:58:22.760 and then there's me very scary i had my bail over both twice

00:58:34.280 uh yeah so i mean i've obviously come full circle i'm sad i don't want to i i would i hate to leave

00:58:41.560 canada you know i but i mean it's not what it was sometimes i now look back and i wonder if it ever was

00:58:47.960 what i thought it was i mean we've had problems i mean i've read both metis people the history of the

00:58:52.600 metis people i mean how the governments run all along and and but it's the people it's the canadians

00:59:00.360 right that i love that that that i that i hate to that this is happening to but like i said we have to

00:59:06.920 come from a place of strength and stability and prosperity uh before we can live really help anybody

00:59:13.560 else and i don't think that makes us selfish i don't think that makes us treasonous traitor seditionists

00:59:19.960 we are literally literally exercising our democratic right to hold a referendum to leave

00:59:28.680 the confederation of canada and we may lose i mean we might lose we don't know it's not going to be

00:59:34.840 easy as she was saying it's a long road to hoe and then after the referendum you know we still have 0.87

00:59:40.120 all the negotiating to do after that but one thing that i'm going to say is that i'm so proud just like

00:59:45.880 the convoy i hope this doesn't make me cry you know i see a lot of name calling i see a lot of um

00:59:52.520 dismissive ness i see a lot of mocking but i don't see any of that coming from our side i'm seeing that

00:59:59.800 all coming from the other side i left medicine the other day to drive to red deer for one of these tour

01:00:04.440 stops and as i was leaving i heard about um i don't know if it was the free canada petition but anyways

01:00:09.480 it was one of those let's all stay in canada and love one another events that was happening in

01:00:13.720 medicine had and i didn't see one letter to the editor asking them to shut down the event i didn't

01:00:18.200 see one post on facebook calling any of the names have your event come and have your say this is what

01:00:23.400 we're here for to have discussions and this is the way to do it have discussions like corey was saying

01:00:29.480 have these very positive discussions with people um the pros of stay the pros of leaving i mean as

01:00:36.440 opposed to just the cons i mean there's lots of pros and be mindful of the fear mongering you know

01:00:41.560 the sun the morning after the referendum the sun is still going to come up and we're still all going

01:00:46.600 to get up and go to work uh the world is not going to end and we're just going to figure it out

01:00:52.360 when we left for ottawa we didn't have a hot clue what was going to happen we hoped we prayed but we

01:00:59.720 didn't know but it's going to work out and you have to be brave you have to be brave and you have to

01:01:05.160 be willing to understand that there might be sacrifices this is maybe isn't going to be the

01:01:09.320 easiest thing ever but if you're not willing to make the sacrifices then you know this isn't going

01:01:15.160 to work it is a risk but what i will tell you is if you don't risk change you know what changes

01:01:22.520 nothing you're right so it's worth a shot in my opinion um

01:01:28.040 um and i think we can do it the right way and i think we got the great heads here oh yeah and uh

01:01:35.480 this book is oh this is a not a plug for my old book but uh i'm starting a new book so we're going

01:01:40.680 to have a part two coming out pretty soon which i'm really excited about um that one ends up um

01:01:47.480 at the end of the public order emergency commission and i feel like i've lived three lifetimes since then

01:01:51.800 before i finish off um there's one person i meant to thank which is my husband in the back there

01:02:00.600 i was going to try it

01:02:09.000 in the uh you know as far as the um well i feel like he sort of won the jackpot in the uh

01:02:14.920 honey i didn't sign up for this lottery

01:02:16.680 we thought we were just going to play cover tunes and rock bands in the bars until we died basically

01:02:23.800 but last week he drove me up to mirror in a blizzard today he drove me up in a dust storm

01:02:29.080 and he does so much more than just that and i just thank you thank you to duane for for having my back

01:02:39.320 and lastly sorry i know i'm talking a lot i'll wrap it up um i could literally stand here and talk

01:02:44.520 to you all night when i was in prison the second time when i was in jail a good friend of mine sent

01:02:48.840 me this poem and um i had a lot of time on my hands so i committed to learning it uh to memorizing

01:02:56.920 it so you know alberta i feel has been shackled um just like i have been shackled we have all these

01:03:03.480 we have all these resources we have all these things that we could be doing but we're being uh governed

01:03:07.720 uh by a by a place on the other side of the country and so i feel like there is some similarities

01:03:15.560 here and so i'm going to read it to you it's called invictus by william ernst henley

01:03:21.480 pardon me out of the night that covers me black is the pit from pool to pool

01:03:27.880 i thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul

01:03:31.880 in the fell clutch of circumstance i have not winced nor cried aloud under the bludgeoning of

01:03:39.960 chance my head is bloody but unbowed beyond this place of wrath and tears looms but the horror of

01:03:47.560 the shade and yet the menace of the years finds and shall find me unafraid it matters not how straight

01:03:56.280 the gate how charged with punishments the scroll i am the master of my fate i am the captain of my soul

01:04:05.800 and alberta you are the masters of your fate you are the captains of your soul get out and talk to

01:04:12.120 your friends uh because we can do this we got one shot and we can do this and we're going to do it the

01:04:16.920 right way so get out there sign the petition tell all your friends and uh my deepest sincere sincere

01:04:25.000 thank you for coming up to hear us ultimately thank you

01:04:40.280 well it's pretty chilly out here i'd better get back in my vehicle and keep going down to mendeson hat

01:04:45.080 on behalf of all of us at rebel news in alberta and around the world to you at home

01:04:49.720 good night and keep fighting for freedom

Rebel News Podcast - February 28, 2026

Alberta independence is coming — and Eastern Canada has no idea

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