Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Alberta's ethics commissioner condemns Premier Danielle Smith, is it an inside job？

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. Today, I talk about the late breaking news in Alberta that the ethics

00:00:04.980 commissioner has condemned Danielle Smith, the premier, for wanting to drop some prosecutions

00:00:11.760 of old pandemic cases. I'll take you through the report, including my own small cameo role in it.

00:00:17.960 But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. It's the video

00:00:20.980 version of this show. Just go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe, eight bucks a month,

00:00:25.680 and you get my show every night, Sheila Gunn-Reed's show every week, and the satisfaction of knowing

00:00:31.000 that you are keeping our independent journalism strong because we take no money from the government.

00:00:36.140 All right, here's today's podcast.

00:00:41.900 You're listening to our latest podcast.

00:00:44.160 Tonight, on the day of the election debate, Alberta's ethics commissioner condemns Premier

00:00:57.760 Danielle Smith. Is it an inside job? I'll tell you more. It's May 18th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:04.040 You're ready for freedom! 0.76

00:01:07.340 Shame on you, you censorious bug! 0.72

00:01:14.160 I've never seen a bureaucracy move so fast, never seen a court move so fast, never seen a judge move

00:01:25.200 so fast. Just a few weeks ago, the NDP filed a complaint with Alberta's ethics commissioner,

00:01:31.820 a former judge named Marguerite Trussler. The ethics complaint said two things, that the CBC had reported

00:01:38.920 that Danielle Smith had sent a series of inappropriate emails to Alberta prosecutors telling them not to

00:01:46.280 prosecute pandemic cases. The CBC reported this as a fact, even though they say they didn't actually see

00:01:52.360 the emails themselves. The NDP forwarded that to the government. They also said, and it's a fact,

00:01:59.180 that Danielle Smith had a conversation with Arthur Pawlowski. As you know, Arthur is a Christian pastor

00:02:06.020 who was charged with various offenses under lockdown rules, and we know that conversation did happen because

00:02:12.480 Arthur recorded it, and the video made its way to the same CBC.

00:02:17.620 So the CBC was not just a reporter of the news, it was a maker of the news, and that news just

00:02:25.380 happened to dovetail nicely with what the NDP opposition was doing, and they filed it with the

00:02:32.100 judge, the former judge, Marguerite Trussler. And I've never seen anything move so fast. Today,

00:02:38.260 the judge released her ruling. In the middle of the election, less than two weeks to go,

00:02:43.320 on the day of the debate, ensuring that the media party, including CBC reporters,

00:02:48.860 will be there to make that the lead topic. Isn't that quite something? The CBC wrote a story

00:02:54.720 about emails and about Arthur Pawlowski. The CBC formed the subject matter of a complaint to the

00:03:00.500 ethics commissioner, and tonight the CBC will have a role in the debate between the leaders. That's

00:03:06.840 that's a neat trick if you can arrange it. Except, and importantly, this judge,

00:03:14.060 former judge, ruled that the CBC accusations were baseless. The Arthur Pawlowski story was real,

00:03:23.120 but exaggerated. But in the case of the CBC, the judge had an exhaustive investigation,

00:03:29.440 spoke to many individuals, all 44 prosecutors who were in charge of prosecuting COVID offenses in the

00:03:39.040 province. Every single one of them said the same thing. They had not, in fact, received an email

00:03:45.620 about prosecuting or not prosecuting. Not a single one received such an email from anyone,

00:03:52.420 let alone the premier. Not only did the 44 prosecutors on that file say that, but all 32

00:03:59.580 staff of the premier's office said the same thing. And in case that's not enough to convince you,

00:04:06.580 the civil service had a massive search on the tech side. They had their tech people, their IT people

00:04:13.140 search more than a million emails. They didn't find a single one. The judge concluded that there was

00:04:20.600 zero evidence that any inappropriate emails were sent. And yet, the former judge, the ethics

00:04:30.300 commissioner, condemned Danielle Smith, said she broke the rule, though she offered no punishment for

00:04:36.000 it, saying that by talking to Arthur Pawlowski, Danielle Smith was in the wrong. And that by raising 0.91

00:04:43.480 the subject with her justice minister, Tyler Shandro, who just happens to be the health minister who put

00:04:48.920 into effect all these lockdown laws, she put undue pressure on him, even though they only talked

00:04:54.700 about the subject once. And he did not act on him. And he was not fired. Compare that with the case of

00:05:01.960 Jody Wilson-Raybould, the justice minister under Justin Trudeau, who simply refused to call off the

00:05:07.480 prosecution of his criminal friends. His friends at SNC-Lavalin were on trial for criminal corruption

00:05:13.120 involving hundreds of millions of dollars. Trudeau wanted to get that to go away. Jody Wilson-Raybould

00:05:18.440 refused to do that. They continuously badgered her all the way up to the top. Gerald Butts himself.

00:05:24.920 And they finally fired her when she wouldn't comply. Imagine comparing a single five-minute phone call

00:05:30.540 between Danielle Smith and her justice minister, in which case the justice minister did nothing.

00:05:35.240 Imagine comparing the two of them, the two of those cases. It's incredible. I myself had a small

00:05:41.740 cameo appearance in the report. You see, last year, and I tweeted about this before, I think I did a

00:05:47.260 show on this before, I bumped into Danielle Smith and I mentioned to her our campaign that we call

00:05:54.100 lockdownamnesty.com. Amnesty is technically not the precise word. It would be more a stay of a

00:06:02.020 prosecution, but amnesty is a layperson's term. And I sent a follow-up email that I had a lawyer help me

00:06:07.760 draft to the premier outlining how it's perfectly legal for the government to stay the prosecution

00:06:14.120 of cases for which there is no public interest. As you may know, for decades in Canada, police

00:06:22.000 simply didn't arrest people for mere possession of marijuana. Prosecutors simply didn't prosecute

00:06:28.220 for mere possession. If you were a drug dealer, sure. Or if you were doing other crimes at the same time,

00:06:33.000 sure. But it was just the use of public discretion that it wasn't worth the resources. It was not deemed a

00:06:39.740 serious enough crime to prosecute. So this is not new. In fact, in my memo, I cited the Supreme Court of

00:06:46.620 Canada case discussing prosecutorial discretion. Now, the judge claimed that I got it wrong in my memo. I wasn't

00:06:56.440 under investigation or anything. The judge just in passing said that I, quote, advocated direct

00:07:02.680 interference by the premier by having her order a stay in prosecutions. My memo clearly doesn't do

00:07:08.720 that. I said she should talk to the justice minister, which is what the law prescribes. That's 0.93

00:07:14.420 neither here nor there. It was just a passing comment by the judge. But the fact that she got it wrong on a

00:07:19.120 pretty basic matter makes me wonder if she read the whole thing carefully. But the long and the short of

00:07:25.200 it is that today, in a late hit during the campaign, just less than two weeks to go on the day of the

00:07:31.260 election debates, the ethics commissioner condemned Danielle Smith, confirming the NDP CBC narrative,

00:07:39.240 which is a bizarre one, given that the CBC continues to report on these fictitious emails.

00:07:45.460 The media coverage of this was absolutely nuts. They were not pure reporters. A genuine reporter

00:07:52.320 reporter would tell both the good and the bad news. If you're the NDP, the good news is that

00:07:59.760 Danielle Smith was caught or was called out for breaking one of the rules. If you're a Danielle

00:08:06.560 Smith advocate, the good news is that there was she was completely exonerated on the other one,

00:08:11.220 the CBC email story. Yet the media only covered the fact that she got in trouble for talking to Arthur

00:08:17.960 Pawlowski, even though she actually didn't do anything about his case. What's so incredible

00:08:22.440 is that the CBC didn't even mention the rebuke to them that their story was fake. The judge went on

00:08:30.120 for pages about the CBC fabrication. The judge didn't use the word fabrication. She just said there's no

00:08:36.140 evidence of these emails at all. The CBC didn't even mention that. And bizarrely, CTV in their stories,

00:08:44.640 for some reason, had this sub-headline that the emails exist when the judge specifically said they

00:08:51.340 do not and quoted 44 prosecutors to that effect. I find it an absolutely stunning proof of my theory,

00:08:59.500 my concept of the media party. The only reporters you can trust in Alberta are the independent

00:09:08.780 journalists who are not on the take. I'm talking about Rebel News, of course,

00:09:11.640 Western Standard, True North, and Kean Bextie at Counter Signal. The only journalists who are

00:09:20.220 telling the truth about this, the good, the bad, and the ugly, are the journalists who are not taking

00:09:25.040 money from Trudeau. And I think that although the independent journalists I just listed have a large

00:09:32.620 following in Alberta, typically that following is already fairly conservative and already on side for

00:09:38.880 the conservative party. The CBC and the other media, they reach people in the middle, people who are not

00:09:46.180 particularly political, and of course people on the left, who will never hear the other side of the

00:09:50.700 story. As CTV claimed, the emails exist. That is a lie. That is specifically what the judge said does not

00:09:58.580 exist. Now, I did an emergency live stream on this today for about an hour, and I went through things,

00:10:05.580 and I'd like to show you some of that today. So, I'm going to throw a clip from the live stream,

00:10:12.400 and then I'm going to interview Derek Fildebrand, the boss of the Western Standard, and see what he

00:10:16.380 has to say. Look, this is much more than just the Alberta election. I think it would be atrocious

00:10:22.440 if the NDP won and brought socialism back, and frankly, authoritarianism back. They're real bullies 0.86

00:10:29.000 when it comes to civil liberties. But I think how Alberta goes, well, that's really the conservative

00:10:35.780 hope for the country in many ways. And if Alberta manages to get snuffed out by a second atrocious

00:10:42.120 term by a socialist premier, I honestly don't know if it'll ever regain its old spring in its step.

00:10:48.620 It's also a test of how the controlled, restricted, funded, subsidized media party can operate in an

00:10:56.160 election. What they're doing to Danielle Smith is exactly what they will do to Pierre Polyev.

00:11:04.000 It'll be interesting to see if the CBC journalists and their friends in the other bailout media are

00:11:09.120 strong enough to destroy a sitting premier. If so, it's bad news for Pierre Polyev.

00:11:16.200 Stay with us. Next, the excerpt from my live stream.

00:11:26.160 Today, the ethics commissioner ruled that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith broke the ethics code

00:11:40.740 in regards to pursuing lockdown amnesty, that is, a stay of prosecution against people who are still

00:11:50.100 being hounded by prosecutors for obsolete rules that were in effect a year, two, three ago.

00:12:00.540 I'll take you through the ruling itself, what it says, what it does not say.

00:12:04.360 But I think there's an even deeper, more important story to it, which is how

00:12:08.260 Alberta's deep state, as it were, is trying to get rid of Danielle Smith with an election, 1.00

00:12:15.700 what is it, 11 days away now? Today, by the way, is the debate day in the province of Alberta.

00:12:25.640 Danielle Smith, the leader of the UCP, the United Conservative Party, and Rachel Notley,

00:12:30.560 the leader of the NDP Socialist Party, former premier who was deposed by Jason Kenney,

00:12:35.900 but wants a second crack at it. And opinion polls, I've seen opinion polls showing the NDP with a

00:12:41.500 real lead, but I've also seen opinion polls showing that UCP is in the lead. I think that means that

00:12:49.800 it's a volatile electorate. Normally, pollsters are generally in the same zone. I think that this

00:12:57.000 election is really up in the air, and the deep state has decided they're going to make the decision.

00:13:03.380 I'll tell you what I mean by that. This ethics report was rushed out hastily. Most of the ethics

00:13:10.860 reports by this commissioner take three, four plus months to do. This one was done very hastily to

00:13:17.500 make sure it got out before the election. And maybe that's appropriate, or maybe that's someone

00:13:23.960 putting their thumb on the scale. It was released today, the day of the debates. Not tomorrow,

00:13:30.400 the day after the debates, but today. The day where the candidates are normally preparing,

00:13:35.740 and where the candidates themselves would choose the issues. No, the ethics commissioner herself 0.99

00:13:42.460 will choose the issue. You know that that will be the case. The CBC has a major role in what I am

00:13:52.980 calling an attempted coup d'etat. And here's what I mean by that. A few months ago, the CBC reported

00:14:00.140 something as fact. They said that Danielle Smith or her staff emailed prosecutors on the COVID files

00:14:09.280 telling them to stop. They couldn't be more explicit. They said they were emails. Now, later on,

00:14:16.360 they said they hadn't actually seen the emails. Isn't that interesting? But they insisted they happen.

00:14:24.220 Well, this launched an enormous investigation in the public service by the non-partisan public service.

00:14:30.920 I don't mean political appointees. I mean the permanent bureaucracy that runs the government.

00:14:37.640 They checked over a million emails and couldn't find the emails that the CBC said had happened,

00:14:46.320 even though the CBC couldn't have been sure about it because they never saw them themselves.

00:14:51.240 Who would have told them? And why would they believe someone who wouldn't show them in the face

00:14:58.420 of a massive investigation by the bureaucracy that showed no such emails were done?

00:15:04.320 Well, in today's report by the ethics commissioner, which talks about Danielle Smith and her views on a 0.86

00:15:11.980 kind of lockdown amnesty, there's a major section on the CBC. And I want to show it to you. And this

00:15:18.980 isn't the most important part of today's story, but it shows you the collusion between the NDP,

00:15:26.620 the media party, Justin Trudeau's CBC, and how it's all happening, in my opinion, with some

00:15:34.260 dissident conservatives who have never accepted Danielle Smith as a leader.

00:15:38.960 Here, I'd like you to, Olivia or Efron, I'm not sure who's at the computer there. Is that you, Olivia?

00:15:47.640 Can you please search for CBC and go to the next instance of it and first show the title page of

00:15:53.100 the report to show people what document we're referring to? I have on the screen, and I'll show

00:15:59.180 it to you, and we'll have a link to it. If you could put that on the screen. This is the Office of the

00:16:03.660 Ethics Commissioner, Province of Alberta, a report of findings and recommendations by the Honorable

00:16:07.920 Marguerite Trussler, King's Counsel, Ethics Commissioner, into allegations involving Danielle

00:16:14.160 Smith. So it was published today. So that's the document I'm reading from. And then do a find,

00:16:19.220 the word CBC, and skip the first one. That shows that, you can put it on the screen there.

00:16:23.280 Um, um, in January of 2023, the CBC aired a story relying on an unnamed source that a political

00:16:31.400 staff member in the Premier's office had directly contacted prosecutors, plural, in the Criminal

00:16:37.020 Prosecution Service about COVID-related prosecutions. In March of 2023, a tape was posted to the CBC

00:16:42.340 website of a conversation between Premier Smith and Arthur Pavlovsky. We can talk about that a little

00:16:46.760 bit later. The allegation is that the Premier and your staff, as a result of these two incidents,

00:16:51.020 interfered with the administration of justice and thereby breached Section 3 of the Conflict of

00:16:54.880 Interest Act. Oh, I skipped a paragraph there. Highlights from the tape are set out in the NDP

00:17:00.180 request for an investigation. I also downloaded the tape and personally listened to it. So those

00:17:04.200 are the two allegations, um, that, that Arthur Pavlovsky recording of his personal conversation with

00:17:10.840 Daniel Smith, and far more serious in my mind, the accusation that Smith or her staff were literally

00:17:18.360 emailing prosecutors, plural, and telling them what to do. That would be political interference

00:17:23.700 like Justin Trudeau does. That's not something a good conservative would do. Uh, skip ahead to

00:17:29.400 the next instance of the word CBC, because this is quite something.

00:17:35.060 And the next one, just one more.

00:17:36.580 Yeah, let's read this. The CBC allegation. We already read that. The person who was alleged to

00:17:46.960 have sent one or perhaps more of the emails was incensed by the allegations and denied them. The

00:17:52.440 lawyer conducting or participating in all the Cooch prosecution, Stephen Johnson said that he was never

00:17:57.540 contacted by anyone in the Premier's office. Kim Goddard, assistant deputy minister of justice at one

00:18:02.320 point, held a town hall video meeting with prosecutors and reiterated the impendence of

00:18:06.580 the Crown prosecutors. She told them to ignore political statements and to advise her if anyone

00:18:10.140 was contacted, particularly if the contact was from a political source. At one point, she requested

00:18:14.820 and received from the Crown Prosecution Service an update on all cases, but it was used by her merely

00:18:19.320 as a reference to bring the attorney general and was never forwarded. The public service commissioner,

00:18:24.860 with the consent of the deputy minister, um, conducted an email search. I referred to that. Keep going.

00:18:29.920 Skip to the next page. Look at this. I think it can be said that the members of the Crown Prosecution

00:18:37.940 Services, that's another way of saying prosecutors, were annoyed and even incensed by the allegation

00:18:44.540 that one of them had received outside political pressure. Assistant Deputy Minister Kim Goddard is confident

00:18:51.720 no one in the service received an email. So that's not a political appointee. That's a lifer prosecutor.

00:18:57.900 But look at these next two paragraphs. Absolutely devastating to the wicked liars of the CBC. 0.96

00:19:06.460 Look at these two next paragraphs. All 44 Crown prosecutors who had coots, that was the border 0.94

00:19:15.800 blockade by the truckers, or COVID-related files, provided a statement that they did not receive

00:19:24.560 any contact relating to their files from the premier's office. 44 prosecutors on the COVID file.

00:19:33.300 None of them appointed by Daniel Smith, of course. They're not political appointees at all. They,

00:19:37.900 they're, they're people, lawyers who just work for the government. 44 out of 44 said, I don't know

00:19:44.300 what the CBC is talking about. I have never received such an email. And then this next line.

00:19:53.480 All 32 political staff members in the premier's office at the relevant time provided a statement

00:19:58.900 that they did not contact any Crown prosecutors regarding the coots or COVID-related files.

00:20:03.620 76 people, 76 people, 76 people said it is not true. That is absolutely devastating to the CBC.

00:20:21.860 It was one of the grounds for this ethics complaint. And here, Marguerite Trussler, retired judge, 0.98

00:20:31.720 now ethics commissioner, said in a polite way, the CBC made it up and they continue to lie about it

00:20:42.960 to this day.

00:20:44.820 That's a pretty devastating review of the CBC. Back in October last year, I bumped into the premier

00:20:53.540 and I said, look, there's a way, a legal way to stay these prosecutions. That's illegal. Amnesty is

00:21:02.280 probably not the right word. And amnesty implies you did it, you didn't do it, whatever stage of it,

00:21:08.100 you're just, you're, you're washed clean of your sins. Amnesty isn't the word. Pardon isn't the word.

00:21:15.000 The legal technical term is to stay a prosecution.

00:21:18.380 Now I'm going to read you some of the letter I wrote. Now I wrote it to Danielle. So I met with

00:21:22.360 Danielle Smith and she said, hey, give me your ideas on, on, on how to do it. So I'll just read

00:21:27.140 some of this. You can see this from October. Marshall is the name of her chief of staff.

00:21:33.120 Please thank the premier for taking the time to speak with me. It's nice to see her again in her

00:21:36.380 new role. Nice to meet you. I'll send you another note in a couple of days about blah, blah, blah.

00:21:39.600 On the lockdown and pandemic prosecutions, I was heartened to see how well informed the

00:21:45.040 premier is on these matters. She clearly understands how important these issues are,

00:21:48.280 both politically and morally. She really is on the right side of history, blah, blah, blah.

00:21:54.000 The premier was interested in information that I could provide her about the situation on the

00:21:57.840 ground and mechanisms available to her to provide leadership on these issues. The purpose of this

00:22:01.660 is to provide the premier with that information. So what follows is a slightly more technical version

00:22:06.620 of what I say on my nightly show all the time. There are still an unknown number of tickets,

00:22:12.680 charges and contempt proceedings or related matters. I have good knowledge of some of the

00:22:19.020 prosecutions, but other lawyers have files and, you know, some trials have commenced. There are real

00:22:24.020 issues about why they're proceeding. As the premier says, they appear to have been politically

00:22:29.600 motivated. Staying or withdrawing the charges would send a strong message in support of the rule of law.

00:22:33.320 I'm only suggesting that prosecutions which have been politically motivated targeting people who

00:22:39.560 only sought to exercise their constitutional freedom of expression and religion be stayed

00:22:43.340 or discontinued. So let's just go stand to, I'm not going to read all of it because it's a little

00:22:49.500 bit legalistic. Jurisdiction, almost all the prosecutions that I'm aware of are conducted by

00:22:54.220 provincial prosecutors. They're under the premier's jurisdiction. The attorney general has the

00:22:59.420 discretion on whether and how to prosecute. Here's a leading case on the matter.

00:23:04.860 Significant of what is common with various elements of prosecutorial discretion is that

00:23:07.940 they involve the ultimate decisions as to whether prosecution should be brought,

00:23:10.700 continued or ceased, and what the prosecution ought to be for. Put differently, prosecutorial

00:23:14.800 discretion refers to decision regarding the nature and extent of the prosecution and the

00:23:18.500 attorney general's participation in it. Decisions that do not go to the nature and extend the

00:23:22.180 prosecution need the decision to govern a crown prosecutor's tactics and conduct before the

00:23:26.200 court, blah, blah, blah. So you see I have footnote number one there. Scroll to the very bottom on

00:23:30.580 this memo. I want to show you that that case is from the Supreme Court. It was in the case called

00:23:37.520 Krieger and the Law Society of Alberta. A 2002 case. SCC says it's a Supreme Court of Canada case. So I'm

00:23:44.340 quoting the Supreme Court. I'm not making this stuff up. Okay, go right back up. Thanks very much. I just

00:23:49.460 wanted to show my footnote there. This next paragraph is important. Specifically, the attorney general can

00:23:55.440 decide the nature and extent of the prosecution and the attorney general's participation in it.

00:23:59.900 And crown prosecutors employed by Alberta Crown Prosecution Service have prosecutorial discretion

00:24:04.020 to stay or withdraw proceedings, blah, blah, blah. It's usually done in open court. Scroll down, scroll down,

00:24:11.140 scroll down. The basis for staying them, if there's no reasonable likelihood of conviction,

00:24:17.300 and if it does not suit the public interest. There are clear legal issues with many of the cases,

00:24:22.640 vague and confusing. As aptly noted by, you know, and I quote others, other experts, Dr. Fluker.

00:24:39.100 Yeah, I'm not going to, this is a fairly dense legal memo.

00:24:42.920 The premier can, should she choose to, direct the attorney general to review and withdraw or discontinue

00:24:53.600 any cases arising from the chief medical officer of health orders under the Public Health Act

00:24:58.040 or any pending charges. So I don't say that the premier should tell the prosecution what to do.

00:25:05.180 I say the premier can direct the attorney general to review and withdraw. The premier could request

00:25:12.820 that the review be undertaken with respect to each prosecution. Obviously, the attorney general would

00:25:17.420 take into account the premier's view that without more, proceeding these prosecutions is not in the

00:25:21.580 public interest. I would also encourage the premier to note that beyond the lack of merit and political

00:25:26.440 nature of these charges, the province has a shortage of prosecutors, court staff and superior court judges.

00:25:29.820 Can you imagine putting 44 prosecutors on this beat? In consultation with my lawyers, it appears the

00:25:36.480 most direct and efficient way to direct a state proceedings is to make a written memo, and I get

00:25:40.420 into the technicalities. Anyways, so thanks very much. You can read the whole thing. I've tweeted that.

00:25:44.940 It's on our website. It's a technical memo, but it's really what I say and have been saying in public for

00:25:50.780 about two years now, which is, I don't really use the word amnesty. I use the word amnesty,

00:25:56.800 lockdown amnesty, because it's a common parlance. People know what amnesty is.

00:26:04.180 Stay of prosecution is a little more technical. That's actually what it is, and you can see my memo

00:26:10.980 from October outlines, and you can see, and I mentioned it twice there, that nowhere do I recommend

00:26:19.520 the premier talk to any prosecutors at all. I say, talk to the attorney general, have him review

00:26:26.680 things with an eye to, are these good cases? That's what I say. If you don't blame me, read the memo

00:26:31.860 for yourself. But go back to Judge Trussler's ruling, because I think she misquotes my memo.

00:26:40.960 It's not a big deal. I mean, I don't care. But she says, the only incident that is in any way close

00:26:46.020 to what was reported was the email containing a letter sent by Ezra Levant criticizing the prosecutions

00:26:51.540 and purporting to show why they were wrong and what to do about them. The communication was sent

00:26:56.200 to the premier's chief of staff, who forwarded to the chief of staff of the minister of justice,

00:27:00.440 Christopher Thrasher, for response. As the latter was within the jurisdiction of the justice ministry,

00:27:05.720 the email was appropriately forwarded from one political staffer to another, so that the second

00:27:09.380 political staff member could deal with the matter. Mr. Thrasher provided the email letter to the

00:27:13.560 minister of justice, Tyler Shandro, who in turn forwarded to the deputy minister, Frank Basha.

00:27:17.460 It was then sent to the assistant deputy minister in charge of the Crown Prosecution Service,

00:27:21.500 who did not forward it to any Crown prosecutor. She appropriately had a discussion about it with

00:27:25.760 the deputy minister, and nothing further than it happened with the letter. So that's it.

00:27:32.200 Can you scroll back up a little bit?

00:27:36.280 Okay, can you search my name one more time? Because it's at a later point where she refers to

00:27:40.620 my memo itself. Yeah, search it just one more time.

00:27:42.900 So I'm fine with what she described there. But here she says, go back up one, one, or two, yeah.

00:27:57.580 Yeah, so she says, on October 25th, Marshall Smith received the email directly from

00:28:01.480 Mr. Levant, which surprisingly, from someone legally trained, that's me, advocated direct

00:28:08.400 interference by the premier by having her order a stay in prosecutions. I did not say that.

00:28:14.980 I just read to you what I said. I didn't say that at all.

00:28:19.520 I said that the premier should direct the justice minister to review the cases,

00:28:24.620 and the ones that do not meet the legal standards, the justice minister should state them. I never said

00:28:31.580 that the premier should order a stay in the prosecutions. I defy you to find that. I think

00:28:38.440 I'm going to write to the judge and point out that she's wrong. Not that anything turned on it. Like

00:28:44.680 I say, this fake complaint by the CBC was thrown out by the judge. But it bothers me about this much

00:28:52.680 that the judge didn't read my memo. It was only like five pages.

00:29:08.540 Well, I'm based in Toronto, even though my heart may be in Alberta. So the information I get about

00:29:13.440 Alberta is often through the filter of the internet. One of the things I've detected by going through 0.83

00:29:17.920 dozens of tweets about this Ethics Commission report and Danielle Smith is that the media party,

00:29:23.700 the regime media, the legacy media, the bailout media, whatever you want to call it,

00:29:27.960 have universally ignored the fact that the CBC's central allegation against Danielle Smith,

00:29:34.960 that she or her office meddled with prosecutors, communicated with prosecutors, was absolutely

00:29:40.120 devastated by this report. The judge, Marguerite Trussler, who's now the Ethics Commission, she's a 0.78

00:29:45.100 former judge, said 44 out of 44 prosecutors who touched COVID file said, no, they didn't receive

00:29:52.340 a single email about it. And everyone in the premier's office testified they didn't send an

00:29:57.900 email, which seems to make sense since none were received. And yet the CBC is still publishing that

00:30:05.320 such email, a series of emails were sent to prosecutors, plural, yet not one can be found.

00:30:12.320 I find that incredible, an incredible lie to begin with. But even more so that this former judge,

00:30:19.220 Marguerite Trussler, now the Ethics Commissioner ruled, said I have can find no evidence of this.

00:30:26.300 And yet even noting that, which was half the complaint here, is completely absence in the

00:30:32.340 regime media. It's almost like they're in a club together. In fact, this stunning website story by CTV

00:30:41.840 actually has a headline, email was found or email exists. Even though the Ethics Commissioner said

00:30:49.840 there were no emails, just absolutely incredible. So that's what it looks like through the filter of

00:30:54.300 the internet from here in Toronto, a couple thousand kilometers away. But who is a man on the ground,

00:30:59.280 finger on a pulse, who is living and breathing Alberta politics every day, who's about an Albertan

00:31:04.020 as they get? I'm talking about my friend, Derek Fildebrandt, the boss of Western Standard. Hey,

00:31:09.860 Derek, nice to see you. Always good to be back. Thank you.

00:31:13.300 Well, thanks for having us. And how, by the way, how are the wildfires? I mean, the smoke,

00:31:17.960 I know, is an inconvenience, but how are the fires themselves? Are there still people who are in

00:31:21.820 danger? Yeah, it's still raging, still nasty. I mean, most of my interaction with it is just

00:31:29.400 smoke around Calgary. It's a lot clearer today than it was the last few days. I had a couple,

00:31:35.920 two days ago, it looked like the red planet, looked like Mars around here. But I've talked

00:31:39.960 to some folks who are up there. I've talked to one MLA who's running for re-election up in the

00:31:45.300 northwest corner. And he has essentially not campaigned the entire election. He's just been

00:31:50.920 kind of coordinating efforts on the grounds there. It's still pretty chaotic, but it seems to be a

00:31:56.780 little less extreme than the 2016 ones that saw Ford McMurray get singed pretty bad.

00:32:02.240 Yeah, I can imagine what, I mean, not just an inconvenience, but when there's that real

00:32:08.000 emergency on the ground, even a politician has to, especially if they're an incumbent MLA,

00:32:12.580 has to be part of the solution, not just indulging in the campaign. Do you think that's going to

00:32:18.420 affect the election timing at all? I mean, it's one thing that'd be an inconvenience or even a

00:32:24.520 blight in the sky. But what do you think there, do you think there will be some parts of the province

00:32:29.140 where voting is delayed at all? I want to get back to the ethics question, but I am curious what I

00:32:34.860 think. Just quickly, I don't think it'll be a material difference. Most of those are big,

00:32:42.200 sprawling rural ridings that for the most part are safe UCP. The only one in the north that's in play

00:32:48.480 in any way would be a lesser slave lake. And it's a very low population riding. It's under a special 0.57

00:32:54.760 formula. So even a few hundred people not able to vote actually could switch things there. But

00:33:00.000 I don't think it's going to be a material, make a material difference to the ability of people to get

00:33:04.100 out and vote in a way that'll actually change the outcome of any seats. Yeah, I think you're right.

00:33:09.100 And doing something as dramatic as changing an election, I think erodes confidence. People,

00:33:13.840 and by the way, it's a license to move elections around for any so-called emergency. All right,

00:33:19.660 let's get back to the news of the day. Look, there's no getting around it. The ethics commissioner

00:33:27.520 did say that Danielle Smith broke the rules. She had no punishment, no sanction, no advice even on how 1.00

00:33:33.780 to fix it. But she did say that. I got a question for you. Is this what they call in campaigning a late

00:33:39.540 hit, as in something so close to the election, so dramatic, like a surprise by someone who could

00:33:45.540 have waited a couple of weeks, but said, no, no, no. I want this to come out before the election. I

00:33:49.520 want this to come out on election day. I'm going to, I'm going to meddle in the election. I'm going to

00:33:53.360 drop a bombshell right on debate day, 11 days to the vote. Is that unfair on my part? Or was this a

00:33:59.980 late hit in the campaign? Well, it is a late hit. Was it intentional? I mean, it's certainly weird.

00:34:07.900 I've never seen federally or provincially an ethics commissioner release a negative report

00:34:13.460 during a campaign period. I've just never seen that before. So it definitely leaves open the

00:34:18.720 possibility. But at a minimum, the ethics commissioner is sensitive to the allegation of

00:34:23.160 it, because in it, she recommended that the legislature consider amending the laws around

00:34:28.560 the Conflict of Interest Act so that the ethics commissioner could put investigations on hold during

00:34:34.880 a writ period, because it's obviously a very hyper-political time. But these are always political

00:34:40.140 things, but this is a very political time. So at the very least, the ethics commissioner

00:34:44.040 is aware of the perception that this is very politically timed. That doesn't necessarily

00:34:51.100 mean that it was done intentionally, but it is extremely strange. But to be fair, though,

00:34:56.260 I mean, if this had dropped a week after the election, the NDP and the media would allege

00:35:01.080 that the ethics commissioner was covering up for the UCP and for Premier Smith. So there's

00:35:07.740 probably no good way to time this kind of thing one way or another.

00:35:10.680 Now, there are two main complaints. The first was those CBC emails, which the judge, if you

00:35:17.380 read the report, exhaustively looked into, talked to multiple people. And the judge, I say the

00:35:25.160 judge, she was a former judge, now the ethics commissioner, she said that the prosecutors 0.99

00:35:30.080 were adamant it didn't happen, and they were even angry with the allegation. Like these prosecutors,

00:35:35.880 44 prosecutors, not only every single one of them denied it, but they were sort of hurt that

00:35:42.120 someone would smear them saying that they were somehow being directed politically. So all 44

00:35:50.240 prosecutors said no. I think it was 32 staff in the Premier's office said no. The judge here says

00:35:56.080 there is no evidence at all. To me, that's a calamitous rebuke of the CBC's reporting. And yet the CBC

00:36:03.000 is still reporting that. Still reporting the existence of emails that the judge can't find and 44

00:36:07.980 prosecutors can't find. So I've never seen anything so brazen in my life. So it's a good news, bad news

00:36:13.040 story, because Smith did get her hands slapped on a bit. And I know you're going to want to touch on

00:36:17.040 that in a bit. But on this, this was the good news side. Smith has maintained she has not,

00:36:22.600 her and people in her office, to her knowledge, have not been in any contact with prosecutors. And

00:36:27.040 if someone had, or if Smith had, that would be bad. You know, that would be definitely warranting

00:36:34.160 significant censure. It'd be very inappropriate. But the report was clear here. And the CBC has not

00:36:44.540 changed their story that we've seen, at least they haven't updated the story or retracted it and

00:36:48.980 apologized. All of the media that I've at least seen from the legacy media in Alberta, have at the

00:36:57.920 very least in the story, if not really talked about that part, generally not put it up front. It's been

00:37:04.100 all about the negative side. And I mean, I guess that is the news business. We're all guilty of,

00:37:10.620 you know, if it leads and bleeds. If it's negative, it tends to be more newsworthy. It's never a news

00:37:15.520 story that nothing happened today. But it's definitely been downplayed in the press that

00:37:22.740 that she's been, it seems entirely exonerated of the more serious allegation against her.

00:37:30.100 And the CBC is not only not playing up that in the reports on the report that came out today,

00:37:37.700 but hasn't, uh, hasn't retracted its existing story. So definitely would seem to strengthen the

00:37:45.040 legal case if Smith decides to pursue her defamation suit against the CBC post-election.

00:37:50.280 You know, it's one thing for them not to retract. Like they can say,

00:37:53.300 we stand by it, but they don't even acknowledge that the judge tore a strip off them and said it's

00:37:59.400 fake. Like you can say the judge ruled against the CBC email allegation and said they had no

00:38:07.040 evidence. CBC stands by its reporting. So, okay. So you're saying you disagree.

00:38:13.340 Now we have to choose between the judge's version, the CBC's version, but at least we have

00:38:17.620 the news that the judge was against it.

00:38:20.060 It is possible that the CBC is correct. I don't think it is at this point. I think the,

00:38:25.320 the scales have been pretty heavily tilted one way to show that it's not likely a correct story,

00:38:31.080 but it is possible. It's true. And they have a right to stand by it, but they do have an

00:38:36.880 obligation to at least acknowledge that, uh, that, that, that this has been, uh, the result of the

00:38:44.000 report that, that this, uh, former judge and the ethics commissioner says, no, didn't happen.

00:38:48.840 Fake news.

00:38:49.640 Yeah. I mean, if there's a million emails searched on by the public service, nothing shows up all 44

00:38:55.780 prosecutors say, no, we didn't receive anything. The entire premier staff said, no, we didn't send

00:39:00.720 it. I think it behooves the CBC to put up or shut up or at least acknowledge this contradiction,

00:39:05.440 which they haven't done. I have a theory though, and I'm going to run it by you. I just, it just

00:39:09.840 popped into my mind. I make a cameo appearance in this report. Uh, in October I met with the premier,

00:39:15.020 I bumped into her at an event and I, um, talked to her briefly about, uh, I used the word lockdown

00:39:21.660 amnesty. It should have been stay a prosecution. That's the more accurate term. And, uh, followed

00:39:27.120 up. Um, and, uh, I sent her, I think it was a five page memo where I, I, I remember I read that,

00:39:34.140 you know, I, I had a lawyer help me prepare it. So it wasn't just my musings off the top of my head.

00:39:39.040 And I talked about how you do it properly. You know, you have the attorney general review cases

00:39:45.200 with the public interest in mind and reasonable likelihood of conviction. And the attorney general

00:39:49.600 is the decider. Um, yeah, I stand by the memo. I think it's a great memo and I'm not shy about it.

00:39:55.880 Frankly, I've said the same thing on TV many times. Um, indulge me for 30 seconds. So the, the judge

00:40:03.260 treats my legal memo. And she says, the legal memo was sent by me to Smith and her chief of staff.

00:40:10.420 Okay. That's true. And then it was sent to the justice minister and then the chief of staff and

00:40:15.640 then the attorney, sorry, the associate deputy minister or something. And then the head of

00:40:20.900 crown prosecution service. And it went no further. So this ethics commissioner, former judge tracked

00:40:29.060 where my memo went and it just went to the names I just told you. So it, that's, she literally

00:40:34.940 followed who forwarded it to whom. So she just listed all the names, Danielle Smith and her chief

00:40:40.860 of staff, justice minister Tyler Shender and his chief of staff. And I think three bureaucrats in the

00:40:46.980 justice department. That's it. Yeah. Now my memo was leaked to the CBC a few months ago. I don't think

00:40:56.140 Danielle Smith leaked it to the DBC. I don't think her chief of staff leaked it to the CBC. And frankly,

00:41:01.300 I, I, I can't fathom why a civil servant would leak it to the CBC because they were angry at any

00:41:07.620 accusations of interference. This wasn't interference. This was my advice. I see how you go with this.

00:41:13.180 So if it wasn't Danielle Smith or her chief of staff, and if it's not the civil, the only political

00:41:17.440 person was Tyler Shender and it was leaked to the CBC. And so here we are, Derek, the CBC is digging

00:41:28.320 their heels in on this. Oh, I swear there were emails. We can't prove it to you, but someone told

00:41:33.140 us and we believe them. Well, gee, I wonder if that's Tyler Shender. Because if, if Tyler Shender

00:41:41.560 had told the CBC, there had been emails, trust me. Well, my God, if the justice minister tells you

00:41:47.560 it would happen, you better believe him. He wouldn't lie, would he? He's Danielle Smith's right-hand

00:41:52.360 man. So that would be the explanation for why they are so extremely tenacious, despite not finding an

00:42:00.860 email after a million email search, despite 44 prosecutors saying, I don't know what you're talking

00:42:06.620 about. Why would the CBC hang on for dear life? Well, if Tyler Shender had said, no, no, no, guys,

00:42:15.580 trust me. Well, the CBC would not give that up and they would not reveal who he is. And that's a hell

00:42:21.560 of a thing. Who else could it be besides the guy who leaked my memo? I think Tyler Shender did it.

00:42:27.180 I think that he is against Danielle Smith. I think he was the health minister who put in place these

00:42:32.040 lockdown laws. I think he wants to be premier. And I don't think he's been particularly healthy.

00:42:36.600 to Danielle Smith. He certainly didn't do her bidding on this matter. I accused Tyler Shender

00:42:41.760 of being the source of the CBC and a leaker of my memo. What do you make of that allegation I just

00:42:48.260 told you? Um, you've got me a lot. That's a lot to think about. Um, it's, uh, there's a lot,

00:42:58.160 I think, uh, to lend credibility to the possibility. I, I'd have to do some more research myself,

00:43:04.620 but it is possible. I mean, I, I did think it was very, an awkward position that Shandro was put in

00:43:12.460 that he, you know, he was dropped as health minister soon after Shandro introduced the vaccine

00:43:18.360 passports for Jason Kenney. Uh, Jay, you know, Shandro was after Jason Kenney and kind of alongside

00:43:24.900 Jason Nixon, the kind of the guy that the insurgent element in the UCP and Alberta wanted gone for his

00:43:32.420 role in lockdowns and mandates. And then Danielle Smith comes in as the crusader against these things. 0.53

00:43:39.180 And she doesn't obviously put him back in health, but then she puts him in justice.

00:43:42.320 And clearly on the docket in justice is dealing with these people, uh, many of which have been

00:43:48.480 wrongfully, uh, charged with, uh, violating lockdowns and mandates that were put in place

00:43:56.220 by Tyler Shandro that now that is an awkward position. Nothing else that you put in place,

00:44:02.760 these regulations and laws that people get charged under, then you're responsible for overseeing

00:44:09.120 them then as justice minister. And the new boss says, I want you to look into essentially stay

00:44:13.640 of prosecution for these people who've been charged under the regulations that you as health

00:44:17.380 minister introduced. Yeah. And if nothing else, that is grossly awkward. Uh, and I, but I, you know,

00:44:24.240 I'd have to follow, uh, the dots a bit more, but it, it, it certainly raises a, a real possibility

00:44:30.900 that it, that it could have been, uh, Shandro, but I, I'm not confident enough to myself say.

00:44:35.080 Well, and I have no proof of it other than there's a, there's a very short list of people

00:44:38.800 who had access to my memo. It was leaked to the CBC. Uh, uh, it, it sounds like, uh, the same,

00:44:46.740 um, motive and modus operandi as the leaker on the, um, invisible emails. Well, I, I, I think that

00:44:56.140 and, and, and, and leaks are great. I mean, we used to get leaks like, like nobody's business

00:45:01.420 out of, out of the Kenny government. People who were opposed to Kenny in that government,

00:45:05.240 they were leaking to us twice a day, like two years. And it was devastating to the government.

00:45:10.540 Yeah. Um, and I generally agree with the reasons for it, but, uh, you know, it was our job as

00:45:15.360 journalists to, to collect information. It wasn't our job to carry water for the government, but, uh,

00:45:20.620 definitely would not be surprised, uh, one bit if, you know, Smith had people in her government who

00:45:27.200 were not her friends and were leaking things. Yeah. You know, a house divided against itself cannot

00:45:31.160 stand. That was the case under Jason Kenney. It's definitely the case under Danielle Smith.

00:45:36.660 I, thanks for indulging my theory. That's all it was, a speculative theory, but I just, uh,

00:45:41.160 reading the report today. It's worth digging into. I think it's very much worth digging into by,

00:45:45.640 by process of elimination. Uh, that's what, yeah, exactly right. Hey, um, there's about a week and a

00:45:51.120 half to go, which is not a lot of time, but in another sense, it's an eternity in politics. So many

00:45:56.300 more things can happen. Typically political parties save their biggest bombshells in their

00:46:00.680 opposition research for the last week. They don't shoot it all in the first week of the campaign.

00:46:05.640 I think that we haven't even seen the worst of it. Now on the Danielle Smith side, the woman did radio 0.91

00:46:12.060 and TV shows for years in which she said controversial things as a pundit. So I'm sure there's some clips

00:46:17.860 there they'll dig up. Who knows what the UCP's bombshells are on the NDP? I think both sides have

00:46:23.180 priced them in. I think conservatives know that Rachel Notley is an anti-oil extremist. 0.99

00:46:28.220 I think NDPers are already terrified that Danielle Smith is a libertarian who doesn't believe in,

00:46:34.700 you know, a heavy handed government. How much are these bombshells going to move the needle?

00:46:40.160 Because boy, the polls are close and I was scared this morning, but then I thought, you know what,

00:46:45.340 has this changed anything? Has anyone who liked Danielle Smith before changed their mind or vice versa?

00:46:51.180 What do you think? Well, it depends what polls you're looking at. Most polls until now have showed

00:46:56.260 a modest UCP lead, which was a huge comeback after, you know, Jason Kenney spent the better part of

00:47:02.600 two years, like 20, 25 points behind the NDP. So Smith brought the party back into a competitive

00:47:08.940 position. Now, some polls are still showing the UCP with a modest lead, especially in critical battleground

00:47:15.360 Calgary. But there are others that have showed the NDP with a modest lead. Previously, all the polls

00:47:23.240 showed across the board showed a moderate UCP lead. Now they're showing moderate UCP leads and moderate

00:47:30.740 NDP leads. So I'm not sure what to make of it. It's possible that these bombs have been hitting their

00:47:36.540 mark and eroding it. I think a lot of, as you said, I think a lot of the controversy around this,

00:47:41.980 you know, Danielle Smith is a controversial figure who said controversial things. A lot of that is baked

00:47:46.820 into the price already. It's a sunken cost, if you will. But the, you know, kind of the oppo drops

00:47:53.160 against the NDP, they're not hitting the mark, because the media have reported precisely zero of them.

00:48:00.900 So, you know, if, you know, if a UCP can, you know, if there was an audio recording of a UCP candidate

00:48:07.840 farting in the public washroom 10 years ago, that's going to be on the front page of the Herald

00:48:11.780 of the Journal. But, you know, as of this morning, we have released evidence of four NDP candidates,

00:48:21.580 including one incumbent MLA, who have clearly and unambiguously publicly stated their support

00:48:30.360 for communism or communism affiliated things. Including Rod Loyola, we already know he was a

00:48:37.660 communist, but it's kind of swept under the rug, because it wasn't explicitly capital C communist,

00:48:43.300 it was just supporting Hugo Chavez, who happens to be a communist. But, you know, we've gotten photos

00:48:48.260 of him at the front of a Communist Party of Canada delegation in a parade. We've got another candidate

00:48:55.860 for MLA who's been sharing images of Chairman Mao with inspirational quotes from him. And so there's

00:49:04.500 now four of these MLAs in total. And you know how many stories I've seen in the government funded

00:49:10.200 legacy media on this stuff? Precisely, zero. Yeah, zero. And that is much worse than even I thought. I

00:49:17.720 think neither of us have a particularly charitable view of the government funded media. But I mean,

00:49:23.500 they used to keep up the appearance of balance. And not everybody working there is bad. But now

00:49:28.220 it's, it is worse than it was even four years ago, I think. Yeah, I think four years ago, if it was

00:49:35.080 exposed that an NDP candidate running for to be the government had supported and explicitly supported

00:49:42.660 an ideology that killed about 100 million people in the last century, it would get a mention at the

00:49:48.320 bottom of a story somewhere. Maybe not, it wouldn't get a headline, but it get a mention somewhere.

00:49:51.780 I've seen precisely zero mentions. So any hits on the NDP, they're just not landing because

00:49:57.460 unless you're watching independent media, reading independent media in Alberta, it's just not

00:50:03.780 happening. It doesn't exist. And so the UCP is fighting against, in a media landscape, even more

00:50:10.740 hostile than is normally there for conservatives. You know, you make me think of what happened a few

00:50:16.140 days ago, uh, at a press conference, but a week ago, your reporter, Jonathan Bradley, who is so

00:50:22.700 mild-mannered, he's so polite. I think he's too polite, by the way. I mean, nice guy.

00:50:26.820 He's such a nice guy.

00:50:27.980 He's too nice.

00:50:29.020 I'm trying to make him meaner. I'm like, like, like trying to make a pit bull. I'm going to like

00:50:32.820 beat him and make him meaner. 0.94

00:50:33.820 You've got to meanify him a bit. But the reason I mentioned that is because, you know, butter

00:50:38.660 wouldn't melt in his mouth. And he goes to an NDP event to ask a bona fide question. And

00:50:44.500 the, and the press aide says to him, we're banning you because you engaged in hate speech

00:50:51.220 against one of our candidates. As in writing a critical story isn't just criticism. It's

00:50:55.820 just, it's hate speech. Let me just show a clip of that because people might be thinking

00:50:59.560 I'm making that up. And by the way, this is the nicest guy. I think he's too nice. But

00:51:04.820 I emphasize that because he's not a hater. And, and his criticism is fair and gentle.

00:51:11.600 Take a look at this clip.

00:51:13.160 Jonathan Bradley, Western Standard. I got a question about the, the military.

00:51:16.340 Hey, don't, don't yell your questions out, okay? You know that you have a policy with your

00:51:20.860 particular outlet where you have operated in hate speech against our candidates.

00:51:25.180 How we validate a criminal candidate.

00:51:26.220 From you. I've gone over this, Jonathan, several times. Happy to continue talking about it. Happy

00:51:31.360 to have that discussion with your editors. Thank you for coming. Appreciate it.

00:51:34.660 That's a smear. And, and they've kept out others like, uh, the other day, Kian Bexty.

00:51:42.060 He literally told the NDP in advance what his question was. It was firm, but fair.

00:51:46.880 He wasn't noisy. He wasn't swearing. He wasn't blocking. And they simply refused to come out

00:51:52.100 until he was let out by police. And then Rachel Notley later said, oh, we had a protester here.

00:51:58.380 Here's a clip of her calling him a protester.

00:52:00.980 Well, thank you very much. And, uh, thank you everybody for your, uh, patience. Uh, as many

00:52:05.460 of you here know, we had to, uh, remove a protester, but I'm very pleased that we were

00:52:09.500 able to, uh, have folks stick around.

00:52:11.280 Now, the thing is that looks insane to me. And by the way, they banned Rebel News, of course.

00:52:14.620 So you're banning Western Standard. You're banning Counter Signal, Kian Bexty. You're banning 1.00

00:52:20.880 Rebel News. Rachel Emanuel gets into some, some of the events. I think it's just because she's so nice,

00:52:26.400 but it didn't work for Jonathan Bradley. Um, the reason I mentioned all this, Derek, is because

00:52:33.080 this would normally be a devastating authoritarian approach by Rachel Notley and the NDP if the rest

00:52:40.100 of the media were to describe what they were doing, but they don't. So Rachel Notley has perfect

00:52:45.380 serenity kicking out the four independent media in Alberta because she knows that the big boys 0.98

00:52:51.360 won't even talk about it. So she'll get away with it.

00:52:54.340 Well, there was a, there was a one day story. Um, so at the beginning of the campaign, you might

00:53:00.300 recall, uh, there was controversy because, uh, Danielle Smith said she's going to take only one

00:53:05.040 question from all of the media. So she could take questions from more media instead of two questions

00:53:09.780 from just a few media and the media were very, you know, the kind of media were, uh, upset about

00:53:15.520 this and Rachel Notley tried to make a big point of it. And she, uh, put on Twitter, I'm having a

00:53:20.200 press conference tomorrow and I will answer all of the questions and their follow-ups from all of

00:53:25.540 the media. And I kind of scratched my head. I was like, Oh, we've been kind of quietly banned from

00:53:29.300 the NDP for a while. Well, we haven't made a big deal of it, but you know, cause like, whatever,

00:53:33.340 they, they don't have to talk to us if they don't want to, we're not going to cry about it, but

00:53:36.600 she's, she's kind of on her high horse here. I think I'm, I'm seeing some serious hypocrisy.

00:53:41.000 So I sent the classiest, um, most bonafide experienced journalist. I got around here,

00:53:49.360 uh, next to Dave Naylor. I sent my news editor, Nigel Hannaford.

00:53:52.720 Oh, he's a great guy. He's very British, very proper gentleman.

00:53:56.800 How much more frigging mainstream do you need to get than one of the former editors of the Calgary 0.86

00:54:00.900 Herald? So I sent him down and Rachel Gottlieb just says, Nope, Nope. You guys are engaged in a hate 0.98

00:54:06.100 speech. And so that now, so the media, the legacy media picked that up, except they put it kind of

00:54:12.240 at the lower half of the story after, well, Danielle Smith will only take one question from 0.97

00:54:17.420 everyone. And that's a big deal. And then, uh, Rachel Notley, not taking questions from people

00:54:22.820 she doesn't like is the bottom of half of the story, but there's been virtually nothing since,

00:54:27.020 but you know, it's just, she keeps moving the ball. She says, uh, okay, if you're, um,

00:54:34.160 you know, rebel is, uh, not rebel or counter signal, they're not accredited members of the

00:54:39.220 legislative press gallery, that nice little club there, uh, gatekeep. Um, so they're not allowed

00:54:44.880 in because they're not accredited. Well, then we show up, we're accredited and we're, we're,

00:54:49.740 we're accredited at the press gallery here, Saskatchewan, Parliament Hill, we show up.

00:54:53.600 Well, she needs a new excuse because we are accredited. So she says, well, you're, uh,

00:54:58.480 you're hate criminals. So, uh, you know, and how do you defend against that? That's just 0.84

00:55:03.720 technically, according to lawyers, that's just her opinion that she could say we, we, we commit

00:55:07.360 hate crimes. So, uh, she just moves the ball. And at the end of the day, what it comes down to is,

00:55:13.280 are you too much of a pain in asking inconvenient questions for her? And if that is the case,

00:55:18.080 you don't get to go.

00:55:18.820 You know, I, I don't like it when journalists complain about how tough their life is and maybe

00:55:24.500 that's what I'm doing here, but I, I don't think I'm talking about myself. I don't think I'm even

00:55:28.720 talking about you and, or Jonathan Bradley or Kian Bexley. I'm talking about Rachel Notley and how she

00:55:35.000 demonizes and defames her opponents as hate criminals and, and, and shuts down public accountability

00:55:42.780 now in the opposition. Imagine what she will do if she becomes premier. Alberta could go 1.00

00:55:50.040 very dark in terms of censorship. Derek, it's great to catch up with you in the closing moments we have.

00:55:57.320 I don't want to put you on the spot, but if you had to guess based on current trends,

00:56:03.600 do you think Danielle Smith will, will pull it off? Or do you think Rachel Notley will be restored

00:56:08.340 and the socialists will take the castle again? Oh God. Uh, you know, and this is the worst

00:56:14.020 possible time to ask because by the time this airs, it'll almost be debate time. It's so much

00:56:18.620 could go. Yeah. Yeah. I take your point tonight. Uh, the debate's on, we're having a live stream.

00:56:24.180 Are you guys having a live stream too? But here, I hate when people cop out and give non-answers.

00:56:27.920 So I'm going to give the best answer I can. Absent the debate, if the election was held at, you know,

00:56:36.900 noon today, I'd say the UCP squeaks by. Yeah. Uh, I'd say in aggregate, they're leading in polls,

00:56:44.260 although not all the polls, but also the math favors them better because the NDP are so heavily

00:56:48.620 concentrated in, in Edmonton. So if the election was held at noon today, I'd say the UCP wins a

00:56:55.000 slight majority, loses a bunch of their seats, but still holds on to government. But, uh, this

00:56:59.460 evening, the debate, uh, has the potential at least to, uh, finally tilt, uh, tilt real momentum

00:57:06.140 one way or another. Yeah. I think you're right. All right, my friend, thanks for your time. Good

00:57:10.120 luck today. You're doing important work out there. Love the Western standard. Keep it up.

00:57:14.260 Thank you. Appreciate it. You too. All right. Cheers. There you have it. Dare fill the brand,

00:57:17.600 the boss of Western standard dot news. Stay with us more ahead.

00:57:25.000 Hey, welcome back. Your feedback to me on my monologue about the immigration poll.

00:57:31.420 Bill Fairhall says we don't have, and can't build the kind of infrastructure to support this in the

00:57:35.860 timeframe. Ridiculous idea. You would wait at emergency departments for hours to days from

00:57:41.480 hours to days and doctors from months to several years. It's a crazy idea. Imagine a hundred million

00:57:48.520 Canadians, but they're not going to be new villages in Northwest territories. They're just going to turn 0.98

00:57:54.420 Toronto from the greater Toronto area, about six and a half million people. They'll turn it into a 20

00:57:59.300 million person mega city, like Mexico city. It makes no sense economically, infrastructure wise,

00:58:07.760 social cohesion. Most people in the country would not be born Canadians. You would completely change

00:58:16.500 the character of the country. You would snuff out old Canada. And where would these folks come from?

00:58:20.340 Quebec is worried because they know they're not going to be French speakers. I don't understand.

00:58:24.720 It's an insane idea. It's an idea that makes sense. If you're a corporation looking for a market,

00:58:30.120 not if you're a country looking for citizens.

00:58:34.260 Peter, after he says, I would be angry at Danielle Smith if she had not made the call,

00:58:38.960 sending a half a dozen police to a church during services should be talked about,

00:58:42.220 investigated. Lone police officers sometimes get killed dealing with violent offenders,

00:58:46.120 like in a Hay River Northwest territories a few years ago. But we sent a group of officers to a

00:58:50.640 peaceful church. Where or who is giving these police their orders? Start a petition to fire

00:58:55.740 Tuss Trussler. Lacking any common sense, best regards. P.S. Recent poll was comparing Premier Smith

00:59:02.200 and Notley, but they left out who practices cancel culture category. Yeah, isn't it funny?

00:59:08.320 Danielle Smith has gotten more trouble from the media for a brief phone call with Arthur Pavlovsky 0.98

00:59:13.800 then other politicians got in trouble for jailing pastors. Like, isn't that crazy? I think that's

00:59:21.240 a reflection of the media party, not the common sense of the common people, but we'll find out in

00:59:24.660 11 days, won't we? That's our show for today. Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at

00:59:29.820 Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night and keep fighting for freedom.

00:59:43.800 ones Christ who rulett from the people off, good night and we'll talk about Xiang

Rebel News Podcast - May 18, 2023

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Alberta's ethics commissioner condemns Premier Danielle Smith, is it an inside job？

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