Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Alberta’s premier opens the door just a crack towards independence — It’s no April Fool’s Day joke

00:00:00.140 Hello, my friends, an incredible but very softly spoken statement by Alberta Premier

00:00:05.880 Danielle Smith today, talking about the possibility of Alberta changing its status, maybe even

00:00:13.400 considering independence.

00:00:15.520 She didn't go quite that far, but she opened the door a crack.

00:00:18.560 I'll have the video for you.

00:00:19.580 And that's why I want you to get the video version of this podcast.

00:00:22.540 Go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe.

00:00:25.160 You got the video version.

00:00:26.120 You'll see it, not just hear it.

00:00:27.560 And eight bucks a month, I know that might not be a lot of dough to you, but it adds

00:00:31.160 up for us.

00:00:31.960 And so we pay the bills around here.

00:00:33.900 So please go to rebelnewsplus.com.

00:00:37.320 This podcast is brought to you by Rebel News.

00:00:41.040 That's right.

00:00:41.920 So if you want to support us, why not do it in a win-win fashion by shopping for yourself?

00:00:47.880 One of my favorite things to do, head to rebelnewsstore.com to pick the patriotic gear that pleases your

00:00:55.740 heart.

00:00:56.140 And while you're there, use coupon code DREA10 to save while you do.

00:01:05.360 Tonight, Alberta's premier opens the door just to crack towards independence.

00:01:10.960 It's no April Fool's Day joke, but it is April 1st.

00:01:14.100 And this is The Ezra LeVance Show.

00:01:16.080 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:01:22.120 Yesterday was a strange day for me.

00:01:32.720 I went up to Georgetown, about an hour away from our office in Toronto.

00:01:36.400 I went to watch liberals say, wow, about Mark Carney.

00:01:39.780 Some of the liberals were nice, some weren't so nice, and some were just a bit over the

00:01:43.800 top.

00:01:44.400 Like, I mean, he's a kid.

00:01:45.860 But look at this kid.

00:01:46.940 My boy here is excited to meet the prime minister.

00:01:48.760 Yes, I'm really excited.

00:01:50.240 And why are you excited to meet him?

00:01:52.120 Because I've never had an opportunity like this before, and I'm just really excited to

00:01:57.360 meet him.

00:01:57.960 And what will you say to him if you meet him?

00:02:00.820 Just welcome to Georgetown.

00:02:02.660 Are you from around here?

00:02:04.540 Yeah.

00:02:04.820 And what are you hoping that he does as a prime minister?

00:02:08.360 I'm just, I, everything that we were asking for.

00:02:11.660 Are you a student in school?

00:02:13.580 What grade are you in?

00:02:14.440 I'm in grade six.

00:02:15.460 Oh, yeah.

00:02:15.960 Well, good for you for coming to a political event.

00:02:17.640 Is that your dad or your grandpa?

00:02:19.100 Okay, well, good luck.

00:02:20.080 Now, if you look at the polls, it's mainly baby boomers who love Mark Carney.

00:02:25.140 I get it.

00:02:26.080 You already own your house.

00:02:27.880 You probably paid off the mortgage a long time ago.

00:02:29.980 Super high housing prices are a good thing for you.

00:02:33.680 When you sell and downsize, you'll get a lot of money.

00:02:37.500 You're not working anymore, so you're not competing against literally millions of foreign 0.99

00:02:41.840 workers.

00:02:42.320 So the system is working for you.

00:02:45.300 The last 10 years haven't been a problem for you.

00:02:47.960 You're not still living at home with your parents because you can't buy a house.

00:02:51.960 Maybe your kids are living with you, and maybe you secretly like that.

00:02:55.580 Mark Carney looks like a central casting version of what a prime minister is supposed to look

00:03:00.680 like, and if he's anything, he's boring, as you'd expect a banker to be, and boring

00:03:05.580 is good.

00:03:06.920 Boring is camouflage, actually, hiding extreme ideas.

00:03:10.800 But you're a boomer, and frankly, that Pierre Polyev seems a bit uppity, a bit cranky,

00:03:15.480 a bit combative, a bit too much like Trump, maybe.

00:03:18.260 And when Trump talks about annexing Canada, you believe that maybe he means it militarily,

00:03:23.040 even though he hasn't said so.

00:03:25.380 In fact, he's said the opposite when asked.

00:03:28.280 But he's just mean.

00:03:29.960 And because you're a boomer, you actually studied our history and our culture in school

00:03:34.020 before all that was wiped out.

00:03:36.040 Maybe your school was even called something like the Sir John A. McDonald School before

00:03:40.780 he was stripped off of our $10 bills.

00:03:43.380 You grew up loving Canada before Trudeau said we had committed a genocide.

00:03:47.600 So, of course, your love for Canada, your patriotism, would be pricked by Donald Trump

00:03:53.440 saying he wants us.

00:03:55.720 I mean, good for you.

00:03:56.540 You're patriotic and nationalistic.

00:03:58.140 Mark Carney isn't, by the way.

00:04:00.340 He's the definition of a globalist.

00:04:02.360 Someone with three passports.

00:04:04.120 Someone who calls himself a European.

00:04:06.220 He's loyal to nobody.

00:04:08.380 He has a home in New York.

00:04:09.720 He has a home in London.

00:04:10.640 And he has a home, I think, in Geneva.

00:04:13.780 Here, watch this clip.

00:04:15.000 Your ministers have been telling me for more than a year that a poly of government wouldn't

00:04:19.920 be focused on the issue of reconciliation.

00:04:22.900 Yet you're here in Winnipeg, which is a majorly indigenous city with no policy announcement

00:04:27.740 for indigenous people, no public meetings with them.

00:04:31.040 What does that signal about the Liberal Party's stance on reconciliation with indigenous people?

00:04:34.820 Yeah, thank you for your question.

00:04:36.140 I'll say a couple of things, if I may.

00:04:38.980 First, in my opening comments as Prime Minister, on the day that I was sworn in,

00:04:49.380 acknowledged the fundamental role of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples to the founding of our country.

00:05:00.020 Within two and a half days, I was in Iqaluit with the premier in meeting First Nations.

00:05:11.440 The Inuit people, sorry. 1.00

00:05:12.760 The Inuit people and the Métis.

00:05:15.220 You could tell that he hasn't been following Canadian news for a decade.

00:05:19.420 He didn't know the word Inuit.

00:05:21.380 He thought Inuit were First Nations.

00:05:23.880 They're not.

00:05:24.680 He's talking about the far north when he was asked about Winnipeg.

00:05:27.880 I bet if you asked him a question, point blank, like, will you reintroduce Bill 63?

00:05:34.020 If you said just those words to him, he literally would have no idea what you're talking about

00:05:38.220 because he hasn't been here in a decade.

00:05:40.320 He hasn't been following things.

00:05:41.940 He hasn't thought about us.

00:05:44.020 I'm not saying ordinary Canadians have to know what Bill C-63 is.

00:05:48.280 It's the online harm censorship bill.

00:05:50.480 But my point is that Mark Carney hasn't been thinking about Canada until about five minutes ago.

00:05:55.740 I'm sure his driver's license is a British driver's license.

00:05:59.600 I'm sure his health card is the British NHS.

00:06:02.940 So, yeah, if you're supporting Mark Carney because of his patriotism, you're being tricked. 0.51

00:06:07.700 He's like one of those phone scammers or Nigerian princes. 1.00

00:06:10.760 He preys on boomers and seniors. 0.97

00:06:13.820 And I've said before, asking Canadians to join America is a bit of an indecent proposal,

00:06:19.180 like that movie of the same name featuring Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson as his wife and husband

00:06:24.440 and Robert Redford making the indecent proposal to them.

00:06:27.600 It's rude and it's shocking to people who are in a happy relationship.

00:06:31.220 But what if you're not in a happy relationship?

00:06:33.760 What if you're not in a happy boomer with your house paid off and your car paid off just enjoying life?

00:06:38.580 What if you're young and have no chance to move up?

00:06:41.260 What if you're an entire province that's so obviously the whipping boy for confederation?

00:06:45.180 Here's Mark Carney talking about Alberta and Bill C-69, the bill that basically stops Alberta from getting its oil to market.

00:06:52.040 How do you reconcile keeping Bill C-69 with your plans to build infrastructure in Canada?

00:06:57.720 Do you plan to repeal Bill C-69?

00:07:00.640 We do not plan to repeal Bill C-69, to answer your question correctly.

00:07:05.960 What we have said and made very clear 10 days ago, formally, with the first minister's meeting,

00:07:13.280 is that we will move for projects of national interest to remove duplication in terms of environmental assessments and other approvals.

00:07:22.720 And we will follow, as the federal government, the principle of one project, one approval to move forward from that.

00:07:30.240 And so what's essential is to work at this time of crisis, to come together as a nation, all levels of government,

00:07:39.500 to focus on those projects that are going to make material differences to our country, to Canadian workers, and to our future.

00:07:47.680 We don't know what else Mark Carney owns.

00:07:50.340 Is he a competitor to the oil sands?

00:07:52.500 Has he bought or bet big on contrary technologies that he needs the oil sands to go away?

00:08:00.520 He hasn't disclosed his holdings.

00:08:02.800 He hasn't sold them either, which is weird.

00:08:04.920 He's still thinking about going back to Brookfield, maybe, or maybe if things don't work out, he'll go back to London or New York.

00:08:11.340 Assume the worst, I think.

00:08:12.560 He's hired the worst of Trudeau's team.

00:08:14.320 And even Trudeau, possibly, would not have kept that candidate, Paul Chang, around after he threatened a hit on a rival conservative Chinese-Canadian who happens to be for democracy in Hong Kong.

00:08:26.780 But back to my point, we know who is happy in Canada.

00:08:30.360 Boomers, liberals, environmentalists, globalists, criminals are having a lovely time.

00:08:36.860 Migrants are here by the million.

00:08:38.520 Woke activists are loving it.

00:08:40.140 But who's unhappy?

00:08:42.080 Well, Albertans, many young people, young men in particular, the oil and gas sector for sure.

00:08:50.680 And so let me play for you a video that is quite calm in its tone, but quite dramatic in its meaning.

00:08:56.660 Take a look at this from the Alberta Premier, Danielle Smith.

00:08:59.120 I got a mandate to try to fix Canada.

00:09:01.080 I got a mandate to try to make Canada work.

00:09:03.860 And that's what I've been working towards relentlessly over these last two and a half years.

00:09:08.380 As you know, we did put in place a process for citizen-initiated referenda.

00:09:13.460 And I leave it to Albertans who may feel differently to put forward a petition campaign.

00:09:19.600 But I think my job as an Albertan and as a Canadian is to try to put on the table the issues that are causing grave tension in our federation and to solve them.

00:09:31.960 And I'm going to look at it on the positive side because what I have observed is that it may be that the current prime minister doesn't get it, but all of the other premiers do.

00:09:40.180 And we have consistently, for the last number of meetings, signed on to communiques talking about how we're going to build economic corridors.

00:09:48.340 This last one, economic corridors with oil and gas and transmission lines, rail lines, and new highways and other infrastructure in those corridors.

00:09:59.020 And so I believe there's goodwill on the part of the other premiers.

00:10:02.400 The problem is, unless we solve those federal barriers, we're not – it's just words on paper.

00:10:09.240 So I'm going to continue to use sort of that newfound sense of esprit de corps with my fellow premiers.

00:10:15.460 We're going to do what we can after the election to make sure that we address those issues.

00:10:19.440 And I'll keep an open mind.

00:10:20.920 But so far, I'm dissatisfied with what I'm hearing out of the new prime minister.

00:10:26.020 He doesn't seem to – he doesn't seem to understand just how foundational these are if we're going to reset the relationship.

00:10:31.320 What would you say to those who criticize you for sort of entertaining the idea of Alberta independence as Canada faces a trade war and threats of annexation from the U.S.?

00:10:41.360 Well, I love Canada, and I want Canada to work.

00:10:44.940 I've been on Team Canada from the beginning.

00:10:46.800 It's part of the reason why I've been relentlessly going to the United States and trying to advocate for all of our industries, for all of Canada, in every venue I possibly can.

00:10:56.320 But I'm also Premier of Alberta, and quite frankly, at some point, Canada has to start working for Alberta, and it's not right now.

00:11:05.060 We have a number of policies that came in over the last 10 years that have been damaging to Alberta prosperity.

00:11:11.760 It's been damaging to our freedom as a province.

00:11:14.400 And if they persist, it is going to continue a dysfunctional relationship that harms Alberta. 1.00

00:11:19.040 So I put forward the nine major policies that I think have to be repealed after the next election.

00:11:25.600 Unfortunately, the current prime minister, despite what he said to me privately when he was here, has now gone public saying he supports export taxes, he supports Bill C-69, he supports emissions caps.

00:11:36.080 That is moving in the wrong direction.

00:11:38.020 So we will get through this election.

00:11:40.080 We'll see who ends up winning, and I will continue to advocate for those.

00:11:43.420 And that's part of the reason why I will do a What's Next panel.

00:11:46.900 We did that when my predecessor came in to hear some of the concerns that Albertans had about how to repair the relationship with Canada at that time.

00:11:56.420 And it'll be time for us to do it again.

00:11:58.080 Now, that's not square one in an independence project.

00:12:01.020 It's more like square zero.

00:12:03.040 And if Pierre Polyev wins, and the insanity of Trudeau and Carney recedes, and Carney goes back to New York or London or wherever.

00:12:10.440 I don't think independence will go anywhere.

00:12:13.120 But if Mark Carney and Stephen Gilboa, his extremist advisor, win, I think the province of Alberta will express itself, and the Toronto-based media will gnash its teeth.

00:12:23.360 The CBC will go to war against Daniel Smith even more than they already do.

00:12:27.440 The entire province will be defamed and attacked.

00:12:30.780 We took a poll the other day, and the number of Albertans who wanted to join the United States was still pretty small, less than 20%.

00:12:37.120 We specifically asked the U.S. version of the question, not independence or something else, just joining the states.

00:12:44.260 But I promise you, if Mark Carney wins, that number will jump.

00:12:47.920 And if Daniel Smith gives it life by talking about it, it'll really jump.

00:12:53.720 And all that needs to happen, because the precedent has been set with Quebec,

00:12:57.780 all that needs to happen, according to our Supreme Court, according to the Clarity Act,

00:13:02.120 is that a clear result in a referendum with a clear question happened, and Alberta's gone.

00:13:09.200 And that'll make many people happy, people who hate wealth and hate oil and hate capitalism.

00:13:14.540 They'll be glad Alberta's gone.

00:13:16.740 At least they'll say they are.

00:13:17.880 But I suspect in the end, if Alberta leaves, it'll make many people sad,

00:13:23.440 when they no longer have Alberta to push around, to tax, to take equalization payments from.

00:13:30.580 And if Alberta goes, Saskatchewan will go soon, maybe British Columbia and the North.

00:13:38.720 Is it true that electing Mark Carney could literally spell the end of Canada through a chain reaction like that?

00:13:46.860 Maybe not.

00:13:49.220 Probably not.

00:13:51.200 But just maybe it would.

00:13:54.000 Stay with us for more.

00:14:06.420 Hey, welcome back.

00:14:07.420 You know, it's been more than three years since the trucker convoy electrified the country.

00:14:13.300 Really, I think it was the largest peaceful civil rights movement in Canadian history.

00:14:19.800 And the convoy in Ottawa wasn't just a watershed in Canadian politics and law.

00:14:27.100 It was an international event.

00:14:29.040 I think the entire world was riveted by what those grassroots truckers and their allies were doing.

00:14:36.240 It was so authentic, so spontaneous.

00:14:38.460 And you could tell, when there was a GoFundMe crowdfund set up for them, the government squashed that.

00:14:44.420 So what?

00:14:45.080 They weren't based on money.

00:14:46.800 No party backed them.

00:14:48.660 No official instrument of the establishment backed them.

00:14:52.740 That's why they couldn't be stopped.

00:14:54.420 And it was amazing to see.

00:14:56.580 It was a peaceful process.

00:14:58.220 And never let anyone tell you it was an illegal meeting.

00:15:00.840 No judicial organization, no court, no tribunal ever ruled that it was illegal.

00:15:07.000 That was just a phrase used by its enemies.

00:15:09.760 In fact, the only thing that's been ruled illegal was the Emergencies Act martial law that was brought in.

00:15:15.780 As you may know, the Federal Court of Canada ruled that to be illegal and unconstitutional.

00:15:21.060 And now there's lawsuits against the government for what they did with that false emergency.

00:15:25.820 But there was one woman who stood out from the whole thing. 0.99

00:15:30.240 You know who I'm talking about, Tamara Leach.

00:15:32.100 She's not a trucker herself. 0.53

00:15:33.600 She came from the logistics business.

00:15:35.440 She's just a mom and a grandma from out west.

00:15:38.260 And this was her moment.

00:15:39.840 This was her time to shine.

00:15:41.120 And she got involved with the truckers.

00:15:43.140 And soon she became sort of their unofficial spokesperson, their poet in a way,

00:15:49.860 who would make Facebook posts and encourage people to stay positive.

00:15:53.760 She became a symbol.

00:15:54.960 She was everything that the establishment was not.

00:15:58.240 She was modest.

00:15:59.280 She was humble.

00:16:00.360 She was positive compared to the government's brutality.

00:16:03.860 So they had to target her.

00:16:05.420 They had to stop her.

00:16:06.320 They had to rebrand the truckers as something awful and evil.

00:16:11.420 She, Tamara Leach, by being the personification of the truckers, 0.99

00:16:15.300 made it a positive, fun, family-friendly thing.

00:16:18.860 Just like the images of the bouncy castles and the hot tubs.

00:16:21.920 It was not the January 6th narrative that Justin Trudeau so desperately wanted.

00:16:28.120 Remember, calling people a fringe minority with unacceptable views.

00:16:32.200 We know the way through this pandemic is by getting everyone vaccinated.

00:16:41.380 And the overwhelming majority, close to 90% of Canadians have done exactly that.

00:16:47.680 Do not represent the small fringe minority of people who are on their way to Ottawa or who are holding unacceptable views that they are expressing.

00:17:01.860 Do not represent the views of Canadians who have been there for each other, who know that following the science and stepping up to protect each other is the best way to continue to ensure our freedoms, our rights, our values as a country.

00:17:21.420 Well, Tamara Leach indeed was arrested just over three years ago and charged with inciting mischief.

00:17:28.180 And here we are more than three years later, and we have not yet had the verdict.

00:17:32.160 It turned into the longest mischief trial in Canadian history.

00:17:36.860 In fact, as far as anyone can tell, the longest mischief trial anywhere in the Commonwealth countries, UK, Australia, wherever.

00:17:43.860 Clearly, the process is the punishment.

00:17:47.140 As you know, I attended court several times in Rebel News, and the Democracy Fund attended court every time.

00:17:53.920 It was clear that the process, the prosecution, was designed as an enormous, extraordinary punishment, an absurd, months-long process.

00:18:02.820 But it's all coming to a close this week.

00:18:06.080 Like, on Thursday morning, Tamara Leach will be read her judgment by the judge in the courthouse in Ottawa, and we will be there.

00:18:17.140 By we, I mean me, with Rebel News, and Mark Joseph and the team at the Democracy Fund.

00:18:22.620 And Mark joins us now.

00:18:23.640 Mark, great to see you again.

00:18:24.760 Thanks for having me.

00:18:25.420 Did I properly get the details of Tamara Leach?

00:18:29.120 Yep, that was pretty comprehensive and professionalized.

00:18:31.900 I couldn't have put it better.

00:18:33.020 Now, Tamara Leach, no normal human being could afford to spend, and I'm not going to say the amount that we spend, but you can figure it out.

00:18:42.520 We've got Lawrence Greenspawn, one of the top criminal lawyers in the country, plus his two associates.

00:18:48.060 That's three lawyers who have been working on this case for an enormous amount of time.

00:18:52.920 I don't think I'm going to reveal their fee, but you can imagine how large it is.

00:18:56.600 No normal human being could pay that.

00:18:59.160 And if you were a millionaire, you wouldn't pay that.

00:19:03.120 You'd say, I'm not spending my life's savings.

00:19:05.320 I didn't work 30 years to save a nest egg, to have it spent on lawyers.

00:19:09.080 I'm just going to plead guilty.

00:19:10.480 So it took a very special person to fight, but it also took the Democracy Fund, of which you're a lawyer, to crowdfund from our viewers to pay for it.

00:19:22.060 It was only that combination that could have fought it.

00:19:24.040 A rich person wouldn't have paid.

00:19:25.780 A poor person couldn't have paid.

00:19:27.360 Only the crowdfunding model in the Democracy Fund would work.

00:19:31.800 That's right.

00:19:32.640 I mean, TDF got involved because the civil liberties issues are engaged quite substantially on this trial.

00:19:41.900 So, you know, we turned to Lawrence Greenspawn and his team.

00:19:44.320 They're obviously one of the best in the country, but they could take other cases.

00:19:48.240 So we had to convince him that this was a good fit.

00:19:51.100 But he agreed and TDF then stepped up and our donors came through for us.

00:19:56.620 And fortunately, you know, Tamara got an excellent defense. 1.00

00:20:00.060 Yeah, I attended, I'm going to guess, five days of court over the whole thing.

00:20:04.200 But you or your colleague, Adam Blake Gallupo or Alan Hawner, we had a whole TDF team there.

00:20:10.980 We were in the court every single day, live tweeting it, observing it, talking to Lawrence and the team.

00:20:17.440 This was the Democracy Fund's time to shine.

00:20:21.080 Right.

00:20:21.820 I mean, I think we provided some intelligent discussion on our feed.

00:20:28.660 People seem to respond to that.

00:20:30.580 A lot of these terms are complex.

00:20:33.180 So there's a Carter application we had to explain to our readers and viewers.

00:20:38.220 She was charged with five offenses.

00:20:41.040 We had to disambiguate those.

00:20:43.220 So I think we did a fairly good job.

00:20:46.660 But again, you know, the Crown spent 45 days logging through this stuff, trying to make the case.

00:20:52.900 And we had to explain that to our viewers.

00:20:55.680 You know, I sat there and the day I really realized what was going on, there was some mid-level bureaucrat from the city of Ottawa who talked about how he would go for walks in downtown Ottawa and just what he would see.

00:21:12.600 Now, he didn't record anything.

00:21:14.040 He didn't take a journal.

00:21:15.520 He was basically just giving his therapeutic views of, and I felt this way, and I felt that way.

00:21:21.120 And he would meander.

00:21:21.980 And within half an hour, it was clear that this guy had never spoken to Tamara Leach, had never interacted with her, had never seen her, did not know her other than through the media.

00:21:35.200 He had no standing as a witness.

00:21:37.660 He had no standing as an expert.

00:21:39.760 He was just some guy who the prosecution made the court listen to for nearly an entire day his feelings.

00:21:50.160 And I was just thinking, what the devil is going on here?

00:21:54.240 And why is this being permitted?

00:21:55.940 And when I asked some folks, they said, this is how it's going to be for weeks.

00:22:00.060 But the judge, and here's the theory I heard, if the judge wouldn't allow it, if the judge would clamp down on it, the prosecution might find that as some sort of a grounds for appeal.

00:22:11.440 So the judge is very lenient to let the prosecution take liberty so that an appeal, which is almost a certainty if Tamara Leach wins, that an appeal is not likely because the prosecution was given every indulgence at the trial level.

00:22:27.860 And a court of appeal will see that and say, no, you guys were given every opportunity.

00:22:33.220 And that's the theory I heard for why this trial turned into a monster.

00:22:38.540 Now, I don't like that.

00:22:40.000 I think the government should have been chided.

00:22:43.160 Listening to this bureaucrat, you know, dear diary, when I walked down the street, I felt scared, like it was that kind of BS.

00:22:52.260 Right.

00:22:52.820 OK, so there's two things.

00:22:54.020 I've heard that theory.

00:22:55.380 I don't disagree.

00:22:57.200 Lawyers always try to read the tea leaves to figure out what the judge is thinking.

00:23:02.500 But Justice Perkins McVeigh is a very experienced judge.

00:23:05.740 She wants to give wide latitude to the defense and the Crown to present their case.

00:23:12.380 I think she did so, even though the defense didn't enter a case.

00:23:16.680 They just disputed this officially the Crown's case.

00:23:19.220 And the other thing I would say is that the judge wants hard evidence.

00:23:26.080 So feelings, what did you think about the convoy?

00:23:29.820 What did you believe about the convoy?

00:23:32.420 Those sorts of amorphous type statements aren't going to play for her.

00:23:39.380 She wants hard evidence here.

00:23:41.000 Was the road blocked by the defendants?

00:23:44.080 Did the defendants intimidate anyone through their words?

00:23:46.660 Did they counsel anyone through their words?

00:23:49.800 And what words were they?

00:23:50.940 We heard a lot of things about hold the line was the big phrase.

00:23:54.860 And the defense pointed out, well, the police were using the phrase hold the line.

00:23:59.860 So it's ambiguous.

00:24:01.220 And if it's ambiguous, it doesn't have a certain meaning.

00:24:03.980 And therefore, it's not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that that phrase meant a certain thing.

00:24:10.700 And so what's your response, then, if you do get arrested, if you're the next person that police do arrest?

00:24:18.240 I'd love it if you'd speak louder.

00:24:20.520 She wants to know what my response would be if I get arrested.

00:24:23.240 What's the response?

00:24:25.060 Hold the line! 1.00

00:24:25.880 Hold the line! 1.00

00:24:27.100 I think you understand where I'm going.

00:24:28.720 Yeah, and even hold the line, like I say, this was not a riot.

00:24:32.460 This was not an illegal gathering.

00:24:34.460 It had never been condemned as such.

00:24:36.140 The Emergencies Act does not stop peaceful protests.

00:24:39.500 It's actually clear about that.

00:24:41.180 You know, you make me remember, I was in court in one of the last days of the trial.

00:24:47.060 And I think it was the defense that played, and you correct me if my memory is wrong.

00:24:52.380 I'm just going from memory here.

00:24:53.680 Played five very short clips of Tamara Leach.

00:24:57.360 There were five very short video.

00:24:59.080 I'm going to call them like a cameo appearance.

00:25:01.080 It was almost like the video was over there, but Tamara Leach was in the background. 1.00

00:25:04.320 Or she just passed through and said, hi. 0.94

00:25:06.900 Like, they were absurd and ridiculous. 0.91

00:25:09.500 And I'm thinking, why are these being shown? 0.95

00:25:12.280 They don't show anything.

00:25:14.360 They certainly don't show any crime.

00:25:17.820 It's almost like they were, you know, you leave your phone camera on by accident,

00:25:21.640 and you get like a goofy bit.

00:25:23.540 And I thought, what is this?

00:25:25.880 And I was told by the lawyer, that is the sum total of all the actual, like you say,

00:25:31.940 hard evidence, no one saw Tamara Leach do anything.

00:25:36.360 No one heard her do anything.

00:25:37.540 No one was a sub that received or sent any email.

00:25:40.860 Those five little, you know, she's standing in the background, 1.00

00:25:44.740 was the totality of any video of her doing anything in Ottawa.

00:25:50.200 She was just a regular person who happened to be a symbol.

00:25:55.380 And it hit me because I was thinking, why are they showing these meaningless shards?

00:26:00.360 Or like, some of them were like 10 seconds long to make the point that there is nothing here.

00:26:08.280 So when you say to Tamara Leach, she brought no case.

00:26:10.960 She didn't, it's on the government's, it's their onus to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

00:26:16.200 But in Canada, a defendant doesn't have to prove they're not guilty.

00:26:20.600 The government has to prove they are.

00:26:22.940 I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I am so confident she's going to win.

00:26:27.280 Look, I don't want to oversell it.

00:26:28.880 The Crown put in a lot of evidence.

00:26:31.020 As you say, some of that was a little mystifying to us.

00:26:34.580 But the judge has to judge the totality of the evidence.

00:26:37.980 And there was a lot in there.

00:26:39.280 The question is, was the evidence that was presented,

00:26:42.400 does it fit within each element of the offense?

00:26:46.140 Because every element of the offense must be proven.

00:26:48.360 So that's an open question.

00:26:51.320 There's some jeopardy here for both the defendants.

00:26:55.300 You know, so we'll see what Justice Perkins-Rivier does.

00:26:57.640 You know, I sat in this judge's court a couple of years ago

00:27:02.660 when Vice Admiral Mark Norman was being prosecuted

00:27:07.080 in an extremely political sham prosecution by the Trudeau government.

00:27:12.140 They accused him of some treachery or something

00:27:14.860 because he commented on a shipbuilding policy.

00:27:18.580 And I was there in court in the day

00:27:21.200 when the prosecution admitted they didn't give

00:27:25.100 all the documents to Vice Admiral Norman

00:27:28.300 that he could use to defend himself.

00:27:31.160 And they had held back, they had illegally,

00:27:33.460 the Trudeau prosecutors had illegally held back information.

00:27:39.020 And they finally revealed it.

00:27:42.820 And the case was dropped immediately.

00:27:45.140 And it was quite a scandal

00:27:46.580 that he had been put through this process to that date.

00:27:50.140 And I understand he got his legal bills

00:27:51.640 compensated by the government.

00:27:53.300 He was vindicated.

00:27:54.660 And Trudeau became even a greater disgrace.

00:27:56.540 My point for saying this

00:27:57.800 is that Justice Perkins McVeigh

00:28:00.600 was the same judge in that case.

00:28:03.460 And the reason I find that interesting and noteworthy

00:28:06.040 is because she, with her own eyes,

00:28:09.020 at least on that other occasion,

00:28:10.740 has seen how devious and political

00:28:13.560 and unethical political prosecutions in Ottawa can be.

00:28:18.500 And just like Vice Admiral Mark Norman

00:28:20.560 was an enemy of the state,

00:28:22.160 Tamara Leach is an enemy of the state. 1.00

00:28:23.620 And that also gives me a little bit of hope

00:28:26.580 that this judge knows BS when she smells it.

00:28:29.760 Well, look, I can't speculate

00:28:32.560 as to the reasons for this prosecution.

00:28:36.320 We do know, as you say,

00:28:37.520 it was a lengthy trial, 45 days.

00:28:40.400 A lot of judicial resources were spent here.

00:28:44.080 I'll let your viewers

00:28:45.860 speculate as to why that was.

00:28:50.720 Certainly, Tamara was a dissenter. 0.99

00:28:52.700 But this case is going to have ramifications

00:28:54.720 for protests, peaceful protests,

00:28:56.800 and free speech around the country.

00:28:58.380 And that goes to labor disputes.

00:29:00.220 That goes to ethnic and religious protesting

00:29:03.440 that we've seen in the last few months.

00:29:05.660 That goes to G7 protests.

00:29:08.280 And I think Justice Perkins McVeigh

00:29:10.280 will decide based on the precedents

00:29:12.740 established in those cases.

00:29:15.620 And she's no fool.

00:29:17.160 She's going to look at the case law 0.88

00:29:18.660 and she's going to look at the evidence

00:29:20.100 and arrive, I think, at a just decision.

00:29:23.460 You know, again,

00:29:24.120 I just don't want to reveal

00:29:25.820 the fees of Lawrence Greenspon.

00:29:27.940 I think he's worth every penny, by the way.

00:29:30.280 But it's extremely expensive

00:29:31.420 to have three top criminal lawyers defend.

00:29:34.340 And that's just to Merrill Leach's lawyers.

00:29:35.820 Chris Barber has a team of lawyers, too.

00:29:37.720 I think there's five or six lawyers

00:29:38.980 in that courtroom every day.

00:29:40.700 So I have sort of a rough idea

00:29:42.600 of how much money the defense costs.

00:29:45.160 And it's not unadjacent to a million dollars.

00:29:48.420 Let me just say that.

00:29:50.100 But for every defense lawyer,

00:29:52.620 there's a prosecutor.

00:29:54.240 And by the way, there's the judge

00:29:55.980 and the clerks and the courthouse

00:29:57.760 and the court security.

00:29:59.400 And then there was the police

00:30:00.620 in the first place.

00:30:01.820 And then there's the witnesses

00:30:02.840 who 45 days or whatever would.

00:30:05.480 I don't think there's any way

00:30:07.040 that the prosecution of Tamera Leach

00:30:08.640 costs taxpayers less than $10 million.

00:30:11.480 I just don't see.

00:30:12.740 I know what a sliver of this budget is,

00:30:17.220 what Tamera Leach's lawyer charges. 0.99

00:30:20.100 But then you've got to multiply that out

00:30:21.680 and you've got to realize all the hands here.

00:30:23.300 And then there's the whole,

00:30:24.380 you know, it's like that TV show Law and Order.

00:30:26.080 There's the first drama on the streets

00:30:27.940 with the cops.

00:30:28.660 And then there's the second drama in the courts.

00:30:30.900 I think it's a $10 million sham trial

00:30:33.700 just to get Tamera.

00:30:34.560 Well, it's certainly a lot of judicial resources.

00:30:38.560 The TDF represented maybe 30,

00:30:40.480 assisted maybe 40 people charged criminally

00:30:44.340 for offenses arising under the Freedom Convoy.

00:30:47.080 And the Crown was looking for jail time

00:30:48.840 in all of those cases.

00:30:50.300 Now, we managed to get positive resolutions,

00:30:52.360 I think conditional discharges for all of them.

00:30:54.440 But they certainly spent a lot of time

00:30:56.920 going after what we see

00:30:58.940 as fairly low-level offenses.

00:31:01.180 And I think that's problematic

00:31:03.200 when it comes to the administration of justice

00:31:04.820 because we see a lot of crime nowadays,

00:31:07.460 serious crime on the streets

00:31:09.160 affecting regular people.

00:31:10.580 And the Crown has to make a decision

00:31:12.480 as to what they're going to pursue,

00:31:14.900 what things they're going to take to trial.

00:31:16.360 And they have time limits.

00:31:17.480 So they have to move quickly.

00:31:19.660 So yes.

00:31:20.500 You know, that's a great point.

00:31:22.180 You say the trial was 45 days approximately?

00:31:24.540 45 or 47.

00:31:25.360 45, 47, let's say almost 50.

00:31:27.920 Almost 50 days.

00:31:29.580 50 full days, I think.

00:31:32.140 So a trial of a minor criminal matter

00:31:34.780 might happen in half a day.

00:31:36.440 It might take a day.

00:31:37.140 It might take two days.

00:31:38.620 Let's just say it takes a full day

00:31:39.980 to prosecute a break-and-enter.

00:31:43.280 So I guess the prosecutors

00:31:45.620 would be taking orders

00:31:46.420 from the government of Ontario.

00:31:48.300 But the feds were pretty heavily involved

00:31:51.080 in this too.

00:31:51.600 So Doug Ford and Justin Trudeau

00:31:55.360 made the decision

00:31:56.220 that not only should $10 million

00:31:57.820 go to hounding Tamera Leach,

00:32:01.400 but 50 other cases

00:32:03.060 should be abandoned, avoided.

00:32:06.000 50 other cases should be cleared aside.

00:32:08.500 Real crimes.

00:32:10.020 Property crimes.

00:32:10.820 Crimes of violence.

00:32:12.400 Just for the political crime.

00:32:14.160 We've got to take 50 days.

00:32:16.320 We've got to take $10 million

00:32:17.240 to go after Tamera Leach.

00:32:18.440 I think she's going to win.

00:32:21.900 I've said that.

00:32:22.680 I just said that a moment ago.

00:32:25.900 And I think it's immediately

00:32:27.080 going to be appealed.

00:32:28.460 Because I think the government

00:32:29.640 that spent $10 million

00:32:30.620 and gone this far in,

00:32:32.740 they're not going to let her go easily.

00:32:33.980 I think that's why Perkins McVeigh

00:32:35.300 is taking so long

00:32:36.420 to write this ruling too.

00:32:37.840 I think she wants it

00:32:38.720 to be bulletproof.

00:32:39.780 She wants it to be appeal-proof

00:32:41.340 as far as possible.

00:32:42.500 Look, I don't know

00:32:44.560 what the Crown would do

00:32:45.920 after the judgment.

00:32:48.980 I can say that acquittals

00:32:50.820 arising from mischief charges

00:32:52.500 from the Freedom Convoy

00:32:53.580 have been appealed by the Crown.

00:32:57.180 And we know that the penalty

00:32:59.440 in Pat King,

00:33:01.060 the Pat King trial,

00:33:02.580 is under appeal.

00:33:03.580 I believe it's going to be

00:33:04.400 appealed by the Crown.

00:33:05.460 So the Crown certainly

00:33:07.200 takes a hard look

00:33:07.920 at these things.

00:33:08.540 And they do have a motivation

00:33:10.820 apparently to appeal.

00:33:13.060 So we'll see.

00:33:14.040 I saw the Coutts III trial

00:33:15.920 and two of the men

00:33:16.860 got discharged.

00:33:19.900 You know,

00:33:20.760 just they're free to go.

00:33:22.320 One of them,

00:33:22.980 who didn't show any remorse,

00:33:26.160 spent some time in jail.

00:33:29.700 Tamera Leach didn't say anything.

00:33:31.320 She didn't,

00:33:33.000 I don't think she said a word

00:33:34.280 in the entire trial.

00:33:35.180 It'll be interesting

00:33:35.560 to see what happens.

00:33:36.440 Listen, thanks to you

00:33:37.240 and the TDF crew.

00:33:38.100 for helping.

00:33:39.120 Thanks to our lawyer,

00:33:40.020 Alan Greenspan and his team.

00:33:41.420 We haven't got the final bill yet.

00:33:44.100 And I'm sort of bracing for that.

00:33:46.820 But if folks want to help,

00:33:48.300 you can go to

00:33:48.940 helptamera.com.

00:33:53.080 If we,

00:33:54.480 and by we,

00:33:55.520 I'm not an officer

00:33:56.960 or a director

00:33:57.600 of the Democracy Fund,

00:33:58.400 but we're the chief fundraisers

00:34:00.360 for it through

00:34:00.900 our Rebel News viewers.

00:34:02.980 If Tamera Leach 0.90

00:34:05.240 did not have this lawyer,

00:34:06.800 she would have been steamrolled. 0.93

00:34:08.620 She would have been 0.88

00:34:09.180 ground into powder.

00:34:10.620 She would have been treated

00:34:11.600 like the J6,

00:34:12.660 like the January 6th

00:34:14.160 prisoners in the United States

00:34:15.820 where she would have been

00:34:16.540 in jail

00:34:17.400 for an enormous period of time.

00:34:19.040 She's always in jail 0.99

00:34:19.940 for too much.

00:34:21.320 And I think that this is a case

00:34:22.760 where crowdfunding a lawyer

00:34:24.980 made a real difference.

00:34:25.880 So thanks to you and the team.

00:34:27.640 You're welcome.

00:34:28.720 All right, folks.

00:34:29.240 There you have it.

00:34:29.920 We're going to,

00:34:30.400 you're going to be there

00:34:31.100 for the ruling on Thursday?

00:34:33.440 I will be there live tweeting.

00:34:34.580 That's correct.

00:34:34.840 It's Thursday, right?

00:34:35.660 It's Thursday.

00:34:36.140 All right.

00:34:36.420 I'll be there for sure.

00:34:37.600 I'll be there too.

00:34:38.320 I'll be there live tweeting

00:34:39.120 and I'll give you a report

00:34:39.980 the moment we know.

00:34:41.960 In the meantime,

00:34:42.320 if you want to help us

00:34:43.240 with the legal fees,

00:34:44.780 go to helptamera.com.

00:34:46.260 The money goes straight

00:34:47.040 to the Democracy Fund.

00:34:47.880 It does not go to Rebel News.

00:34:49.380 And by the way,

00:34:49.820 you also get a charitable tax receipt,

00:34:51.660 which is helpful too.

00:34:53.640 All right.

00:34:54.160 Stay with us.

00:34:54.740 More ahead.

00:35:03.660 Hey, welcome back.

00:35:04.640 Your letters to me.

00:35:06.540 Paul Lung says,

00:35:07.660 in my opinion,

00:35:08.460 comments by Ching

00:35:09.440 are a direct reflection

00:35:10.920 of his core values

00:35:11.740 and his political ideology.

00:35:13.260 Does it matter how many years

00:35:14.400 he's been in law enforcement

00:35:15.420 in Canada?

00:35:16.280 The fact that Carney

00:35:17.220 used Ching's years of service

00:35:18.440 in law enforcement

00:35:19.220 to justify his decision

00:35:20.920 of allowing Ching 1.00

00:35:21.540 to remain as a liberal MP

00:35:22.660 showed Carney is okay

00:35:24.100 with that sort of behavior.

00:35:25.520 May God bless the future

00:35:26.540 of this country.

00:35:27.720 Yeah, I mean,

00:35:29.500 talking about that guy

00:35:30.740 being a cop for 25 years,

00:35:32.400 my first response was,

00:35:33.880 oh, so he perfectly well knows

00:35:35.800 about kidnapping

00:35:36.620 and the crime he's committing

00:35:38.940 by inciting kidnapping.

00:35:41.440 Like he,

00:35:41.800 so he can't plead ignorance.

00:35:43.420 And my second thought was,

00:35:45.560 what was he like

00:35:46.380 on the streets for 25 years?

00:35:48.020 Did he meet out police justice

00:35:51.000 based on your ethnicity

00:35:52.740 or your political loyalties?

00:35:54.520 It terrifies me

00:35:55.460 that he was a cop for 25 years.

00:35:56.940 It doesn't reassure me.

00:35:59.840 Next letter is from David Hines

00:36:01.360 who says,

00:36:02.380 a police officer's job

00:36:03.520 is to serve and protect.

00:36:04.900 They should know something

00:36:05.840 about our rights and freedoms.

00:36:07.260 They should also be trained

00:36:08.180 to de-escalate a situation,

00:36:09.600 not to create one

00:36:10.460 or encourage a crime.

00:36:11.520 So I ask,

00:36:12.240 what kind of an officer was he?

00:36:13.780 Was he one who looks forward

00:36:14.940 on trampling people's rights?

00:36:16.460 I can see why Carney,

00:36:18.080 who encouraged the use

00:36:19.020 of the Emergency Act

00:36:19.980 and says he will use it

00:36:21.120 to get his way,

00:36:22.280 would be supportive

00:36:23.000 of this candidate.

00:36:24.160 Yeah, like I said,

00:36:25.080 I mean,

00:36:25.460 it did not make me feel better

00:36:26.940 to know this guy

00:36:27.700 was a cop for 25 years.

00:36:29.480 And what does he have over Carney

00:36:31.460 that Carney would hold on to him

00:36:33.580 for nearly a week?

00:36:35.420 I mean,

00:36:36.600 I think sometimes in politics,

00:36:38.000 people are too risk averse.

00:36:39.380 They fire or cancel

00:36:40.740 a de-platform people

00:36:41.880 at the merest whiff of conflict.

00:36:44.600 But this was crazy.

00:36:46.460 And Carney held on

00:36:47.860 for almost a week.

00:36:49.160 Why?

00:36:49.740 Why?

00:36:51.400 Next letter,

00:36:52.740 on my interview

00:36:53.560 with Kian Bexty,

00:36:54.500 local patriot says,

00:36:55.940 prosecute for making

00:36:56.740 a false police report.

00:36:58.180 He should offer to pay

00:36:59.020 for the police time

00:36:59.780 and defamation.

00:37:01.600 You're right.

00:37:02.300 I mean,

00:37:02.540 if you or I made

00:37:03.500 a false report to police,

00:37:05.660 you think we'd get away with it?

00:37:06.820 If a truck or convoy

00:37:08.100 made a false report to police,

00:37:10.040 do you doubt they would be

00:37:10.760 charged with mischief

00:37:11.640 or perjury

00:37:12.860 or something like that?

00:37:13.920 Why does a liberal candidate

00:37:14.900 get to get away with it?

00:37:17.160 And one more letter

00:37:18.140 from Bob Loblaw

00:37:19.520 who says, 1.00

00:37:20.060 what a coward. 1.00

00:37:20.700 Typical liberal behavior. 1.00

00:37:22.700 Good for Kian. 1.00

00:37:23.900 And as I mentioned to Kian

00:37:25.320 in that interview,

00:37:26.360 the CBC copied his story

00:37:27.840 and didn't give him credit.

00:37:29.100 Why?

00:37:29.960 That's so weird, isn't it?

00:37:31.260 The CBC are as partisan

00:37:32.900 as any political party.

00:37:34.820 Well, that's our show for today.

00:37:36.480 Until next time,

00:37:37.340 on behalf of all of us

00:37:38.220 here at Rebel World Headquarters,

00:37:39.720 to you at home,

00:37:40.420 good night.

00:37:41.340 And keep fighting for freedom.

00:37:42.320 Thank you.

00:37:43.380 Thank you.

00:37:53.700 Bye.

00:37:55.740 Bye.

00:37:56.860 Bye.

00:37:57.440 Bye.

00:37:58.160 Bye.

00:38:00.280 Bye.

00:38:01.340 Bye.

00:38:01.440 Bye.

Rebel News Podcast - April 01, 2025

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Alberta’s premier opens the door just a crack towards independence — It’s no April Fool’s Day joke

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript