Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Alberta woman faces eight-day tribunal hearing over rainbow crosswalk flyer as campaign targets censorship law

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. I can't believe it, but the exact same law used against me to prosecute me

00:00:06.660 for publishing those Danish cartoons of Mohammed, it's being used again right now in Alberta.

00:00:11.800 How's that law even still on the books? I'll tell you about it, and I'll tell you what we're

00:00:15.820 going to do to fight back. I think we can actually win this one. But first, let me invite you to

00:00:20.420 become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. It's the video version of this show. Just go to

00:00:24.360 rebelnewsplus.com and click subscribe.

00:00:30.000 Tonight, 20 years after I was prosecuted under it for publishing the Danish cartoons,

00:00:48.020 why does Alberta still have its woke censorship law in the books?

00:00:52.380 It's September 16th, and this is the Ezra LeBant Show.

00:00:55.040 Take a look at this flyer, homemade flyer made by a woman in Westlock, Alberta, handed out back in

00:01:18.020 June of 2023 because her town council wanted to paint a rainbow crosswalk on the street and she

00:01:25.780 didn't. She wrote down the phone number of the town office and told her neighbors to call them.

00:01:32.060 For this, Benita Peterson is on trial right now, but not in a real court. She's before the Alberta

00:01:40.260 Human Rights Tribunal, eight days of hearings, 15 witnesses, dueling expert psychiatrists.

00:01:49.900 It started Monday. My colleague Sheila Gunn-Reed has been covering it, live tweeting the proceedings,

00:01:54.340 and it is insane, truly an embarrassment to everyone involved, including the province,

00:02:01.280 which gave his life to this tribunal through its laws. Benita Peterson's crime is section 3-1

00:02:07.660 of the Alberta Human Rights Act. I'm going to read it to you because I know that section

00:02:12.100 by heart because I was charged under it for the Danish cartoons, remember?

00:02:16.840 No person shall publish anything that is, quote, likely to expose a person or a class of persons

00:02:23.120 to hatred or contempt. Likely to, so not that it does, it just might in the future. And likely to

00:02:32.220 do what? Well, expose someone to feelings. That's what hatred or contempt are. So maybe in the

00:02:37.320 future you'll cause person a to have hard feelings about person b we didn't say it's happened but it

00:02:43.280 could happen that is the law who decides what's likely why is this a crime or a quasi crime even

00:02:53.080 if you've caused no damage a government appointee at a tribunal with no rules of evidence where truth

00:02:59.240 is not a defense you've got to know that because what's truth got to do with whether or not you

00:03:03.020 cause someone to have hard feelings just outrageous you're guilty because it could happen it might

00:03:09.080 happen in the future i know this law because it was used on me 20 years ago i was hauled in front

00:03:13.960 of an alberta human rights officer back then for publishing the danish cartoons of mohammed in the

00:03:18.420 old paper version of the western standard remember this even though they've been as there as you have

00:03:24.080 in summary fashion what was your uh intent and purpose of your article with the cartoon

00:03:29.940 and illustrations published on February 27, 2006.

00:03:33.860 Why is that a relevant question?

00:03:39.280 Under Section 3.1a, it talks about intention, purpose.

00:03:46.700 We would like to get some background as well.

00:03:49.020 Is it you'd like to get some background, or does this determine anything?

00:03:55.140 We publish what we publish.

00:03:56.340 The words in the picture speak for themselves.

00:03:58.340 Are you saying that one answer is wrong and one answer is right?

00:04:04.940 Will a certain answer, is a certain answer contrary to law?

00:04:09.500 No.

00:04:10.520 So if I were to say, hypothetically, that the purpose was to instill hatred, incite hatred, and cause offense, are you saying that's an acceptable answer?

00:04:22.460 I have to look at it in the context of all the information.

00:04:25.260 900 days they went after me about 100 grand in legal fees about half a million of your money

00:04:33.140 to prosecute me taxes were used obviously and then they just dropped it like a sack of potatoes

00:04:38.960 when they were embarrassed by it that's the trick of this law the process is the punishment they

00:04:43.760 didn't need to actually have a hearing for me they put me through the grinder for three years

00:04:47.620 you're punished first and you're acquitted later if you're lucky here's the thing i don't want to

00:04:54.580 talk about me today because i was a publisher with lawyers and a national magazine and a camera and i

00:05:00.180 had some strength benita peterson is a dj who does kids birthday parties she had a flyer they're going 1.00

00:05:08.620 after her with the full weight of the law of course her case is crazy and unfair and illiberal

00:05:13.860 and un-canadian but really what on earth is this law still doing on the books in alberta

00:05:18.980 at all the freest province how dare that human rights commission show their face

00:05:25.320 with a censorship trial after their disgrace on the danish cartoons

00:05:29.100 i'm asking you to help me do something about this and i'll tell you exactly what in a minute

00:05:34.200 the website is scrap the censorship law.com i'll say it again at the end of the video now i checked

00:05:40.940 and in the 20 years since i was prosecuted it looks like there was just one other hearing under

00:05:47.320 this censorship provision. And it was actually pretty long ago, a pastor in Red Deer named

00:05:52.120 Stephen Bazan, who wrote a letter to the editor. I actually briefly worked on his case, if you can

00:05:57.060 believe it. The tribunal fined him $5,000 and ordered him for life, never to say anything

00:06:05.600 disparaging about gay people again. What does that even mean? For life, a ban on saying other

00:06:12.340 things. It took two Alberta courts to throw that out. The court of appeals said the law would

00:06:16.460 cast a chill on free speech if it was implemented that way. 0.71

00:06:20.660 But then the politicians left the law in the books anyway.

00:06:23.500 This law is so discredited.

00:06:25.700 And even the Human Rights Commission, what a misleading name, right?

00:06:29.020 Even their own annual report says Section 3 censorship complaints

00:06:33.040 are less than 1% of its caseload.

00:06:35.700 Last year, they rounded it to zero.

00:06:39.180 So even by its own terms, even if you accept this Alberta Human Rights Commission,

00:06:43.700 even if you like this censorship law,

00:06:46.460 It doesn't actually do anything most of the times.

00:06:49.500 Two uses in 20 years?

00:06:50.980 The law does not actually protect anyone from real harm anyways.

00:06:53.980 It causes harm, like a trap you fall into by accident and just sits there.

00:06:58.660 And every decade or so, it lands on a person and destroys them,

00:07:02.320 destroys a year of their life and 100 grand.

00:07:04.140 This year, it's Benita Peterson's term. 0.57

00:07:07.260 This law is odious.

00:07:09.240 But the thing about laws is, when they're on the books, governments use them.

00:07:13.020 The director of the Human Rights Commission,

00:07:14.960 the official who decides which complaints go to a hearing, is Nicholas Milliken, a lawyer and a

00:07:20.600 former United Conservative Party cabinet minister appointed by Daniel Smith's own government in

00:07:26.180 2024. This is not some Trudeau holdover. An allegedly conservative appointee, applying the

00:07:33.600 law as written, still ended up sending a flyer to trial. That's what the statute does. It gives

00:07:40.400 politicians of any stripe the power to destroy. Imagine what the NDP would do with this if they

00:07:45.840 could. Imagine what Mark Carney would do with this. Change the people, but you're only going

00:07:50.380 to get the same result. The only fix, the only permanent fix is to change the law, to take this

00:07:54.980 tool away from governments. So here's the good news. I think Danielle Smith agrees with us.

00:08:02.700 Here, take a look at this. Well, I'll look forward to seeing that. And we had initially thought when

00:08:07.920 I wanted to protect people's medical choices, that we were going to open up the Human Rights

00:08:12.560 Act to do that.

00:08:14.080 Preston Manning gave me other advice.

00:08:15.440 He said to protect people through the Alberta Bill of Rights, because we have to start with

00:08:19.680 making sure government is not discriminating against people.

00:08:22.220 So I thought that was wise.

00:08:23.880 But let me watch how this unfolds to see if there is any additional need for us to give

00:08:29.200 protections.

00:08:29.740 My personal view on hate speech has been that the criminal code already draws the lines.

00:08:35.780 And it has to be a very high bar. And that is something that is, I think, very rarely used, but it's been used in cases that I think most people would look at and say, well, that seems like a legitimate use. Whereas I think the tribunals, they're very subjective. I've watched your testimony and how unbalanced it seems. 0.97

00:08:57.840 But I don't have anything on the table right now to change the Alberta Human Rights Code.

00:09:04.160 Let's get through the Bill of Rights.

00:09:05.260 I'll watch what you're doing, and then we'll see if there's any need to modify.

00:09:08.320 That's the premier on our stage two years ago at a Rebel News Live event, and it's not new for her.

00:09:14.040 Here's her 2012 Wild Rose platform that proposed repealing Section 3 outright.

00:09:19.480 She was right then, and she's right now.

00:09:21.700 This isn't a case where we have to change the premier's mind.

00:09:24.740 We just have to help her get it done.

00:09:27.840 Here's what the rest of the country did.

00:09:29.720 In 2013, the Harper Conservatives repealed the federal version of this law called Section

00:09:35.700 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

00:09:38.100 The same hatred or contempt language, exact same thing.

00:09:41.360 A backbench MP named Brian Storseth from Westlock, by coincidence, brought a private

00:09:47.560 member's bill and the Justice Minister backed it and it passed in Parliament.

00:09:52.120 The sky did not fall.

00:09:53.660 Ottawa has tried twice to bring it back and failed both times.

00:09:56.860 spring the carny liberals actually gave up and said they won't try again. So in 2026, this is

00:10:01.840 crazy, the carny liberals have less of a censorship law in place than the UCP conservatives in Alberta.

00:10:10.840 Just think about that. That is a fact. Only three provinces in one territory still have this terrible 0.76

00:10:17.140 clause, this censorship clause. How is Alberta one of them? Why didn't Alberta get rid of this law

00:10:23.700 after the whole cartoon's disgrace.

00:10:26.480 Alberta, the province had expanded free expression protection

00:10:29.340 in its own Bill of Rights just two years ago.

00:10:31.880 So here's the plan.

00:10:33.600 It's not complicated, but it's not a one-week thing either.

00:10:35.980 We are going to run a permanent campaign

00:10:38.380 to repeal Section 3 of the Alberta Human Rights Act,

00:10:42.040 and we're not going to stop until it's gone.

00:10:44.480 And don't tell me we can't do it.

00:10:46.360 I was part of the campaign that got the federal version of the law repealed

00:10:50.340 in a much tougher place, the national parliament.

00:10:53.200 This battle is in Alberta. Of course, we're going to win. Here's my plan. Number one, right now,

00:10:59.540 this week, the UCP is asking its members to rank the policy resolutions that go to the November

00:11:06.140 convention. There is a resolution in that pile written by Benita Peterson herself,

00:11:11.520 telling the human rights bodies to give free expression, quote, the widest possible

00:11:15.700 interpretation. If you are a UCP member, go to scrapthecensorshiplaw.com and we'll show you

00:11:21.520 exactly how to rank it first. It takes two minutes. Number two, we are going to put this

00:11:26.200 up on our Highway 2 billboard between Calgary and Edmonton, where every delegate driving to

00:11:30.680 that convention will see it. Number three, we're going to be at that UCP political convention in

00:11:37.460 Calgary, November 27 to 29. Our chief reporter, Sheila Gunn-Reed, will lead our team with the

00:11:43.940 petition. And we're going to ask the premier, respectfully, you said the criminal code is the

00:11:49.580 right place and the tribunals are the wrong place for dealing with these matters. Ottawa got rid of

00:11:57.260 its version 13 years ago. Is Alberta ready to scrap the censorship provision too? I think your answer

00:12:04.580 is yes. We just want to hear it. Point four, we're going to cover every one of the eight days of

00:12:09.540 Benita Peterson's hearing so Albertans can see what a hate speech trial looks like over a flyer.

00:12:15.560 I think people can't believe this is going on when they hear about it.

00:12:20.020 I promise you, if this were a CBC reporter on trial for a pamphlet,

00:12:23.180 it would be on the lead story every night.

00:12:25.120 But instead, it's a DJ from Westlock who's sort of prickly and conservative.

00:12:29.340 So the mainstream media is ignoring it.

00:12:31.400 We're not.

00:12:32.080 You can watch Sheila Gunn-Reed's live tweeting of this hearing on our website.

00:12:36.240 Let me be clear about what I'm not asking.

00:12:39.020 I'm not asking you to pay Benita Peterson's lawyers.

00:12:41.940 The Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms is doing that

00:12:44.680 and doing great. If you want to help her directly, go to their website. What I am asking you to fund

00:12:50.540 is the campaign, the billboard, the petition, the convention, the ads we're going to run on

00:12:56.180 Alberta's independent media. I'll tell you the numbers. It's about $6,000 for the billboard to

00:13:01.580 have it through November and roughly $17,000 for the rest of it. But just imagine how much this is

00:13:09.600 going to save people who won't be destroyed by these inquisitions like Benita Peterson. 0.97

00:13:16.600 So let's sum up. Number one, a woman is on trial for eight days over a flyer. Two, 1.00

00:13:22.380 the law she's charged under has produced one finished case in 20 years. It's like an

00:13:26.740 appendix in your body. Just take it out. The courts threw out their last ruling anyways.

00:13:31.280 So it's not like this is a positive law. No one can say this law is actually helping them,

00:13:35.540 even if you believe in the law. Number three, the premier has already said in her own words several

00:13:40.660 times that this law violates our civil liberties, and then any prosecutions in this sphere should be

00:13:46.680 of real crimes in a real court in front of a real judge, not thought crimes in a kangaroo court.

00:13:54.260 Number four, her own government's appointee applying the law shows the problem is the

00:13:59.380 statute itself. It's not enough to change the party. Look, the conservative party is using

00:14:05.000 this law. It's atrocious. This campaign is winnable. And Alberta would be the first province

00:14:10.700 in Canada to do it. It wouldn't be the last, I promise you that. If you want to be a part of

00:14:14.920 this solution, go to ScrapTheCensorshipLaw.com. That's a great website, isn't it? Sign the

00:14:21.820 petition. If you're a UCP member, rank the resolution. And if you can, chip in for the

00:14:27.220 billboard and the ads. Thanks. A woman in Westlock is facing an eight day human rights trial over a

00:14:35.620 flyer she made. The law that put her there is the same one used on me in 2008. And Danielle Smith,

00:14:42.480 the premier has said herself, the law doesn't belong. Help us help her repeal it. Go to 1.00

00:14:49.380 StopTheCensorshipLaw.com. Thanks.

00:15:00.280 It's easy to be conservative when you're middle-aged. You have things that naturally

00:15:04.980 turn you conservative. You have a house, so you're worried about things like interest rates.

00:15:10.140 You have a business, so you're worried about things like crime, taxes. But when you're young,

00:15:16.160 I think it's easier and it's riskier to be a socialist. Let me take a crack at it from another

00:15:21.780 point of view. I think it was Churchill who said to the effect, if you're not a socialist at age

00:15:26.840 20, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by age 40, you have no brain. I think it's all

00:15:32.560 talking about the same thing. Young people, because of reasons of enthusiasm and idealism,

00:15:37.720 sometimes adopt socialist thinking. And these days, there's a campaign to socialistify young

00:15:45.740 people. I think our teachers colleges, especially the Ontario-based Teachers College called OISE,

00:15:51.980 pumps out ideologues more than actual educators. That's why the work that Charlie Kirk did was so

00:15:59.640 important and so encouraging. Not only did he go to win debates, he went to inspire and lead by

00:16:07.080 example. It's also a terrible reason why he was murdered, assassinated, because he was quite

00:16:12.720 simply the most effective promoter of conservative ideals to the young people. One of the responses

00:16:20.640 to the murder of Charlie Kirk, I think, is to complete his work or to try to do so in our own

00:16:26.780 small ways. And so I am so delighted to introduce to you today someone who you might remember from

00:16:32.900 past appearances at Rebel News when he was on our staff. He moved from Ottawa, where he was our

00:16:38.900 reporter, to Alberta, worked for the premier's office there briefly, and then another media

00:16:43.040 company. And it is such a source of pride and pleasure for me to reintroduce to you the new

00:16:50.260 national campus coordinator for a new organization called Canadian Students for Free Speech,

00:16:57.840 modeled in part after Charlie Kirk's efforts.

00:17:01.660 Welcome back to the show, William Diaz Berthium.

00:17:05.340 William, great to see you again.

00:17:07.320 Yeah, good to see you, Ezra.

00:17:08.700 You know, you were a reporter for Rebel News,

00:17:11.220 and you did some incredible work.

00:17:12.700 I remember in Ottawa, you showed courage to challenge cabinet ministers

00:17:16.920 much older than you, much more experienced,

00:17:18.960 but you went up to them with courage.

00:17:20.680 Here, let me just play a little bit of that to remind people.

00:17:24.520 Well, you moved west, which I think is something

00:17:26.740 every young person should do. And now you've returned in a way to a project we are, I suppose,

00:17:34.500 at arm's length, but which we support. Tell everyone a little bit about what your plans are

00:17:40.340 for the new organization. Thanks, Ezra. I'm the national campus coordinator for an organization

00:17:46.200 called Canadian Students for Free Speech. Their goal is to promote and defend freedom of expression

00:17:50.280 on every single university and college campus across Canada. But to go beyond that, to also

00:17:55.980 put together a platform so that students can be challenged to think critically about the biggest

00:18:00.960 issues facing our generation. We want to have debates on every single campus, change my mind

00:18:05.460 tables to talk about the hard topics that we usually try to avoid in university topics like

00:18:10.840 socialism, research capitalism, the social issues, religion, faith, abortion, transgenderism,

00:18:18.280 indigenous reconciliation, the mass grave story. We want to have a platform on every single

00:18:23.320 university and college campus in Canada, that students can debate and challenge themselves to

00:18:28.640 think critically about those issues. So we want to defend freedom of expression, but also facilitate

00:18:33.260 those hard conversations across the country. Yeah. And I think it's a good idea to do it in

00:18:37.920 practice, like simply to say, we're for free speech. Okay. I appreciate that. But it's the

00:18:42.620 kind of thing that you prove by doing it. I mean, I remember way back in the day when I was a student

00:18:48.620 at University of Calgary, there was a little area called Speaker's Corner and people would just hop

00:18:53.260 up and start ranting about whatever and if they said something really dumb they were booed or

00:18:58.960 heckled and if they said something great they were cheered and and there was sort of an automatic

00:19:03.440 feedback from the people that i think was like an attitude readjustment to the speaker i thought it

00:19:08.320 was excellent and yeah you're going to hear the odd swear you're going to hear the odd insult

00:19:13.140 but i have to say that's what life is like and these days universities have trigger warnings and

00:19:20.540 safe spaces and they have you know counselors if something happened and and i don't think we're

00:19:27.960 doing people any favors by you know that's like you know these bubble boys they're covered in

00:19:32.960 bubble wrap and and you know their parents are helicopter parents i think and i'm not looking

00:19:38.760 forward to a rough and coarse world but i think we've gone so far the opposite way especially on

00:19:44.980 campuses that we have to bring some of those rambunctious debates back that's right there's

00:19:50.780 nothing wrong with a civil and polite conversation between two speakers who disagree that's what

00:19:55.560 universities were made to be universities were created so that people could challenge themselves

00:20:00.340 to think critically about a whole a whole variety of issues UCLA in the United States was a

00:20:06.160 university that was made around freedom of speech when it first started and we've seen how it's been

00:20:10.920 co-opted by the left to now be a place for safe space on campus for one ideology to dominate

00:20:16.220 over the others. Charlie Kirk said it best when he said that when people stop speaking,

00:20:20.740 that's when violence happens. And that's what we want to prevent in Canada by having those

00:20:25.020 hard conversations. And we have a lot of projects ahead of us. I go around universities and have

00:20:31.140 challenging conversations because that's what is so important to our country is to find our

00:20:38.660 disagreements respectfully because when people stop talking that's when

00:20:42.420 violence happens well it's a growing trend because people like me are facing

00:20:48.280 violence assaults the left yes the campus Antifa I've been stormed out of

00:20:54.500 restaurants I've been assaulted publicly multiple death threats there's

00:20:59.840 more people that agree with me than some people would actually believe and they

00:21:04.300 come out of the woodwork when I do stuff like this we record all of it so

00:21:07.100 that we put on the internet so people can see these ideas collide when people stop talking

00:21:11.660 that's when you get violence that's when civil war happens because you start to think the other

00:21:15.600 side is so evil and they lose their humanity you know i think uh charlie kirk was the best at it

00:21:20.200 and he was such a appalling math he knew so much about so many subjects you know who else is good

00:21:25.960 at that is stephen crowder like he'll just plunk down with a table and he'll have like a thesis

00:21:29.860 statement like um there should be no i don't know i'm not gonna we we shouldn't invade this country

00:21:36.320 or we should invade that or or we should ban genetic here's one he would say ban biological

00:21:42.200 men from women's sports change my mind so he would have a slightly provocative statement

00:21:47.900 but then he would say change my mind which was so that's such a smart thing because it

00:21:53.980 reminds you that you can talk back you don't just have to grumble and shake your fist

00:22:00.020 and he reminded people by the hundred that they could debate him now he's a very good debater

00:22:05.600 very thoughtful uh i don't know if he ever changed his mind but it was wonderful to see

00:22:11.640 critics try and i just don't see that on the other side anymore like i i i don't think i've

00:22:19.320 ever seen someone say you know the world is going to die from global warming convince me i'm wrong

00:22:25.160 or like i just i i think that censorship has become a part of the ideological grab bag of

00:22:32.380 the left. It's part of it. It's part of their belief system. Maybe I'm painting with too

00:22:36.440 broad a brush, but anyway, I mean, who, are there any other models that inspire you? We mentioned

00:22:41.080 Steve Crowder and, and, um, Charlie Kirker. Are there any other, uh, examples or, or role models

00:22:47.860 you can think of? I think Charlie Kirker's laid a roadmap for this to happen and has shown why

00:22:52.520 it's so important. We've seen with the changes in, in election results in states that he's visited

00:22:57.180 as part of his tour in America.

00:22:58.960 I think that he understood how to,

00:23:01.720 like how important this was.

00:23:03.360 And I think in Canada,

00:23:04.240 we can see why this is so important.

00:23:06.080 The arrest of Frances Whittleson

00:23:07.380 at the University of Lethbridge,

00:23:09.000 because she challenged the narrative

00:23:10.720 around a residential school

00:23:12.360 or the whole Jordan Peterson situation in 2016.

00:23:15.220 And then in addition to that,

00:23:17.020 Lindsay Shepard's removal from university as well

00:23:20.240 in the 2010s.

00:23:22.200 I think this has shown why this is important

00:23:24.140 to do in Canada.

00:23:25.220 I think we can look at the way

00:23:26.260 Turning Point USA did it successfully in America, adapt it to a Canadian model, and try to do this

00:23:31.540 here at home with a whole variety of interesting speakers. Well, I happen to know that the

00:23:37.460 Democracy Fund, our favorite charity, is supporting you not just to give you some resources to go from

00:23:43.280 campus to campus, but I remember when I was a student, and what do you do if the students union

00:23:50.180 says, no, you're not allowed to have a club, you're not allowed to have a debate? What happens

00:23:54.240 if the university administration does that what happens if you say a spicy thing and suddenly

00:24:00.020 you're being dragged before some hearing like remember Lindsay Shepard at Wilfrid Laurier just

00:24:04.660 for saying that nothing more than hey take a look at this video of Jordan Peterson so one of the

00:24:10.760 things I always lamented as a student was the lack of legal firepower on my side I happen to know that

00:24:16.280 the democracy fund started as really a public interest law firm so not only do you have the

00:24:20.960 resources to go campus to campus you've got those lawyers already you know they're in-house lawyers

00:24:28.040 so it's not racking up huge bills with outside lawyers and i hope you won't need them but i sort

00:24:34.860 of know you're gonna and to have them already on your side i think it's going to make a big

00:24:39.840 difference and i hope it gives you the confidence to go out there and not to blink when some you

00:24:46.720 know security person goes too far or when even the campus university bans a club i hope you will

00:24:54.120 lean into it with confidence that's right yeah and we definitely will not be supporting self

00:24:59.020 censorship here i just want to touch on the issue of self self censorship a little bit i think that's

00:25:02.640 one of the biggest problems when it comes to censoring conservatives or people who disagree

00:25:06.880 with the mainstream narrative on campus it's self censorship there's a lot of students who feel

00:25:11.400 afraid to speak about what they believe because they fear lower grade i just i was just looking

00:25:16.020 in a recent study from the Aristotle Foundation today, 85% of conservative students fear lower

00:25:21.060 grade if they speak up about their beliefs in class. The biggest issue on campus, in my opinion,

00:25:26.000 is self-censorship. And it makes the job of the left a lot easier when you yourself prevent

00:25:30.820 yourself from speaking so that they don't have to take a step forward. So yeah, you can rest

00:25:34.940 assured we will not be self-censoring and we'll be moving full steam ahead. Now, just to let people

00:25:40.260 know there they can find out more information at the website studentsforfreespeech.ca that's

00:25:46.940 studentsforfreespeech.ca now i was out with you a week or so ago at your first event in calgary now

00:25:52.640 wouldn't you know calgary is the most sunshine of any big city in canada but the day we were out

00:25:57.060 there oh my gosh the heavens opened up and it rained heavy duty we were out there i was there

00:26:02.700 tamara leach was there you were there and you had a group of friends who were sort of starting it

00:26:07.000 Now, the rain sort of wrecked it because we were outside and everyone was running in.

00:26:14.080 But it was still a chance to do streeters and talk to people about freedom, and Tamara Leach did that.

00:26:20.120 Again, the whole thing was sort of aborted because of the weather, but there were a few moments that I found encouraging.

00:26:25.960 Let me show you some of those free speech encounters when we did streeters at U of C.

00:26:31.680 so do you feel like on campus say for example on this campus do you feel like you can express your

00:26:36.320 political views uh your religious views if you have any um like controversial do you feel like

00:26:42.400 safe um talking about that stuff it's it kind of depends on who i'm talking to like i feel like

00:26:49.760 there's some things that i might have to keep to myself only because i don't want to hurt the

00:26:53.680 person but it's like i believe that's maybe situational because there's a lot of people

00:26:59.120 who are like-minded versus people who maybe have different beliefs or viewpoints about life so i

00:27:03.840 guess it just depends on who i'm speaking to but there is times where i do need to like maybe

00:27:08.640 pull back and then pull forward in other places um i think it's okay yeah so far i haven't faced

00:27:14.560 any sort of craziness thus far yeah good i'm glad and you yeah same thing like no one's really up

00:27:21.680 being oppressed without like you say what you can say no one's like preventing you from saying it

00:27:27.040 I would say so for now yeah for sure. The people here I think are a little more welcoming a little

00:27:32.480 more open so I can see that happening. I feel like there's more nuance to that than the question

00:27:38.320 implies because on the one hand harmful speech is should be defined as speech that incites violence

00:27:48.080 or hate towards groups of people or specific people. Speech that is simply just I don't like

00:27:54.720 this you're allowed to say what you want you're just not supposed to be exempt from the consequences

00:27:57.920 of that really so um i'm not particularly keen on censorship personally but i feel like that's a

00:28:05.040 really long really big can of beans to open yeah yeah not one i'm keen on getting it

00:28:10.480 absolutely well that's a great answer so thank you thank you very much have a great day

00:28:17.120 sorry like hate likes to hate uh speech that could be deemed as hate speech i guess is what i'm trying

00:28:21.760 say do you like if it's hurt if it's hurtful to somebody do you feel that that type of speech

00:28:26.800 should be censored yeah yeah okay thanks yeah thanks like i probably think that it should not

00:28:33.520 hurt someone else or someone else feeling sick uh but the university doesn't oppose anything

00:28:39.200 regarding that so like it's speaking to public directly and and uh approaching them in a direct

00:28:46.800 do you think that even if it's like controversial subjects like you know

00:28:51.120 they're the residential school situation or transgender men and women's

00:28:55.140 bathrooms like do you think that that is something that the students here can

00:28:59.420 speak freely about I think I think they can speak for the body yeah yeah I've

00:29:03.000 really heard anything about them being too constricted about stuff like that

00:29:06.060 but yeah okay thanks have a great day ladies we are just talking to students

00:29:12.560 about the current state of free speech on campus okay thanks I think the

00:29:19.520 teacher kind of give students to have but I loved the student can make this

00:29:29.040 free speech in the class but not too much involving the political aspect I

00:29:35.960 feel that the state of free speech is very open and people are able to speak

00:29:41.360 really good that's excellent do you believe that speech that people could deem as hurtful

00:29:46.800 should be censored uh i think it should i don't really have a reason but yeah yeah well look

00:29:54.960 william you got a big job ahead of you it's a big country um but frankly i think that the fact that

00:30:01.680 there is no that i know of similar organization but there's so many young people who looked up

00:30:09.060 to charlie kirk i think you'll actually i'm not going to call it an easy job but i think you'll

00:30:13.800 be pushing against an open door when you go to set up these free speech clubs and when you appeal

00:30:19.440 to people and say look we're going to have a system we're going to have a team we'll have

00:30:23.280 lawyers to help you here's sort of how to do it i think i'm not downplaying the size of the

00:30:29.600 challenge you face but i think you're going to have success um because people still feel it was

00:30:35.320 a cosmic unfairness that someone so broad-minded as Charlie Kirk who would talk with anybody

00:30:41.820 was murdered I think there's a grave there's a there's a deficit there that people want to

00:30:47.560 fill and I think you're the guy to do I've seen you in action I've seen your energy and your

00:30:52.740 confidence and I think that's exactly what's needed for the job yeah and I can tell you right

00:30:57.140 now we have quite a few students across nine different university campuses across the country

00:31:01.440 who are willing and happy to help start a club, fill out all the paperwork.

00:31:05.940 We have a lot of motivated students.

00:31:07.840 If there's anyone watching and you know someone in university

00:31:09.920 who wants to support an initiative like this,

00:31:13.080 please send them to studentsforfreespeech.ca.

00:31:15.360 They can fill out the form and we'll make sure to be in touch with them.

00:31:18.060 But yes, there's a lot of energy and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what's ahead.

00:31:22.380 Great. Are there any schools you're going to visit in the month ahead?

00:31:26.100 Do you have anything pinned down yet?

00:31:28.160 Yeah, there's a few. There's a few coming up.

00:31:29.660 we'll have a concordia university and mcgill university hopefully next week uh we have an

00:31:34.840 event right now i don't want to say too much about it but it's going to be an exciting event

00:31:38.000 at the university of british columbia uh in october we'll have quite a few events at the

00:31:42.380 university of calgary i'll make my way to the university of alberta as well and a few more

00:31:46.400 across uh as as we go on well william you're the man to do it i've seen you in action i'm very

00:31:51.340 excited about this and and i think this is going to be good for the country and i'm grateful to

00:31:55.580 the democracy fund for making it possible keep in touch folks again that website students students

00:32:01.200 for free speech.ca and there's a way to sign up for more info so if you're a young person who's

00:32:07.540 watching or if you know a young person have them sign up and uh i i get the feeling that by the

00:32:13.700 time you know in in the year ahead there's going to be at least 10 universities signed up i really

00:32:18.280 believe that and the fact that you're starting in montreal at concordia mcgill that's tough ground 0.67

00:32:22.900 Like, that's very Antifa, Pro Hamas, silence.

00:32:27.140 Like, that's tough ground, but I think that you'll find some real gems there.

00:32:30.800 Good luck to you.

00:32:31.960 Yeah, thank you, Ezra.

00:32:32.960 All right, there he is, William Diaz Berthium, the new National Campus Coordinator for Students for Free Speech.

00:32:38.720 Stay with us.

00:32:39.720 Your letters to me next.

00:32:40.980 hey welcome back some letters on the plan in british columbia to expand the provincial sales

00:32:55.720 tax what an awful idea janet stoke says i have no sympathy for those who keep voting the liberals

00:33:01.500 and ndp into power i i hear what you're saying but remember a lot of people didn't um and this

00:33:08.000 wasn't a campaign platform. So I think it goes to, yeah, I mean, of course the NDP is atrocious

00:33:13.320 and I suppose some people there deserve it, but a lot of people don't. And a lot of people feel

00:33:18.300 ambushed and it's just a bad thing. Ace Path says billions unaccounted for and he wants to charge

00:33:25.320 you more. Oh, that's always the solution. Absolutely. I've really never seen a government

00:33:31.120 shrink. It's a kind of empire building. These politicians love it. JFK says the money alone

00:33:37.820 EB hands over to the indigenous is ridiculous. How about giving some back to us taxpayers?

00:33:42.800 Well, that's the real risk, isn't it? This indigenous title that can be discovered

00:33:46.800 by judges, removing you as the owner of your own property is absolutely terrifying. And that alone 0.99

00:33:53.840 should be cause to throw out the NDP. Well, that's our show for the day. Until tomorrow,

00:33:59.260 on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night,

00:34:03.620 and keep fighting for freedom.

00:34:07.820 You

Rebel News Podcast - September 16, 2026

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Alberta woman faces eight-day tribunal hearing over rainbow crosswalk flyer as campaign targets censorship law

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