Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Danielle Smith concedes to teachers' union — here's why that's bad for Conservatives

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. In Alberta, the labor union there is on the back foot. They were ordered

00:00:05.500 to go back to work and not strike. And now they're talking about a general strike. When was the last

00:00:10.860 time there was a general strike in Canada? Would you believe me if I told you it was in 1976,

00:00:15.880 a one-day general strike against Pierre Trudeau? Do you think that's going to happen in 2025 in

00:00:21.740 Alberta? I'll give you my thoughts and I'll explain what Danielle Smith, the premier, could do 0.99

00:00:25.760 to make sure that these union radicals do not have power over the government. I'll give you my

00:00:32.020 thoughts on that. But first, let me invite you to get a subscription to what we call Rebel News Plus.

00:00:36.340 That's the video version of this podcast. Just go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe,

00:00:41.460 eight bucks a month. And in addition to the great video content that you can only get this way,

00:00:46.980 you'll have the satisfaction of keeping Rebel News strong because we take no money from the government

00:00:50.920 and it shows.

00:00:55.760 Tonight, tips for Alberta in fighting against the deep state. It's October 30th and this is

00:01:12.260 the Ezra LeVant show.

00:01:16.260 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:01:28.400 Alberta just offered its teachers a double-digit pay raise that would make them the highest paid

00:01:36.020 in Western Canada, more even than in the costly city of Vancouver. There's quite something. It's

00:01:42.000 weird to me. The teachers are unionized as if it's some factory jobs, dangerous work or something like

00:01:48.760 a coal miner. In Canada, the bulk of unions are in fact in the public sector, not blue-collar workers,

00:01:56.020 not even white-collar workers, pink-collar workers, they call it, including nurses and teachers,

00:02:01.540 not just civil servants.

00:02:02.960 The problem with government unions, though, is that they typically have a monopoly in their

00:02:07.520 workforce, as in you have to pay, you have to be either a member of the union or even pay union

00:02:13.720 dues if you're not a member of the union in order to even work. And the government has a monopoly in

00:02:20.060 its own way too. So neither side is really using its own money in these negotiations. The taxpayer's

00:02:26.580 interests are usually subverted. Even conservative governments are tempted just to throw money at a

00:02:32.580 government union just to avert a strike. Now, Donald Trump is different. In some ways, I think he's

00:02:38.060 enjoying the current government shutdown in the United States. I think he means to use it to make

00:02:44.360 some deep permanent spending cuts to sort of trap the Democrats in their shutdown. Here's his director

00:02:53.180 of management and budget proposing to permanently let go around 10,000 staff. Now, that's a drop in

00:03:00.400 the bucket in the size of the U.S. workforce. But still, they're talking about shutting down the bulk

00:03:05.380 of the health department and the education department and using the shutdown as the opportunity

00:03:10.520 to do so. But in Canada, I think most conservatives are far more timid. Anyways, Alberta has made this

00:03:16.340 super generous offer to government teachers, which in its own way is outrageous. Why should government

00:03:21.200 workers with pretty much guaranteed job security get a double digit pay raise at the expense of the

00:03:26.240 rest of the workers in the province? But the teachers union, which really has become an extension

00:03:30.460 of the NDP opposition, has made radicalized, has radicalized the teachers over the extremist issue

00:03:36.740 of transgender policy in the schools. What I mean by that is the provincial government wants age

00:03:43.020 appropriate books in young classes, not extreme sex content. And there's been a lot of books just

00:03:49.860 just crazy. I'd even call them pornographic for really young kids. So the government wants to

00:03:55.760 stop that. They also want to end the secrecy of many of these transgender sex student clubs,

00:04:01.120 where kids were encouraged to change their names from a boy to a girl and to identify

00:04:06.420 as the other sex. And teachers promised to keep all that a secret from their parents. So these were 0.96

00:04:11.420 secret clubs where kids would transition and the school would promise to keep the parents out of it.

00:04:18.860 Just crazy, crazy stuff. Smith has taken steps to ensure that parents are kept informed of these

00:04:24.020 things. And she's also taken steps to ban men and boys from competing in women's and girls sports and

00:04:30.720 going into their changing rooms. By the way, these are enormously popular positions, far broader than

00:04:37.400 just the conservative party base. I haven't seen a poll in recent months, but I'd hazard a guess that 80%

00:04:42.020 of Albertans support these common sense moves on transgenderism, but not the union or at least the union

00:04:47.800 leadership. So anyways, the teachers were threatening a strike. Smith ordered them back to work and

00:04:52.960 Smith preemptively used the notwithstanding clause to preempt leftist judge shopping, where the unions

00:05:00.500 would find some NDP judge who would agree to throw everything that the government did out. That's

00:05:04.860 basically the problem that Donald Trump has, doesn't he? So the unions are big mad and they're talking

00:05:09.880 about a general strike. Now, a general strike, you know, that is where everybody just goes on strike

00:05:14.800 across the economy. That has not happened in Canada, according to my research, since 1976.

00:05:22.160 Actually, a protest against Pierre Trudeau, if you can believe it. That was a one-day general strike.

00:05:27.740 Actually included some private sector unions too. Now, of course, most government sector unions would

00:05:34.480 probably be radicalized enough to join a general strike, though I think they would be punished by the

00:05:39.920 courts if they did so in violation of their contracts. That's the thing about contracts. You have to abide

00:05:45.380 them. But I think it's unbelievable or unlikely or even unthinkable that hardworking private sector

00:05:51.700 union members would strike out of sympathy for government teachers, not over any money issue, but

00:05:58.760 you know, I mean, typically teachers work eight months a year and are the highest paid in Western

00:06:03.580 Canada now. And I just don't see it that, what, some hardworking oil and gas union member is going

00:06:09.100 to go on strike to support government workers. I just don't see it, especially if the real issue

00:06:14.060 is political ideology, especially on transgender issues. So I think the unions will blink here, 0.92

00:06:19.500 but they're obviously seething. And the problem for Alberta Premier Daniel Smith and her United Conservative

00:06:25.100 Party is that they may win, they may have won the election last time, and they may represent the bulk of the

00:06:32.140 province, which I believe they do, especially on things like transgenderism. But they are sitting atop a 0.99

00:06:37.820 mountain of civil servants, many of whom are neutral, but many of whom are radicalized, and will do anything to

00:06:44.460 undermine the government despite its democratic mandate. I think a lot of civil servants consider themselves the

00:06:50.620 permanent government, the keepers of the province, the deep state, if you will. And they're sort of

00:06:57.900 resenting the fact that a conservative is in power. And so I've been thinking, what can Premier Smith do to

00:07:04.780 reign in the rogue deep state? How can she take power away from extremists who haven't won elections, but 1.00

00:07:11.900 are burrowing into the government and thwarting her plans? Now, I used to think the best politician in

00:07:17.500 North America doing this sort of thing was Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. When he won his election

00:07:23.100 in Florida, it was just by a few thousand votes. Oh my God, it was so close. But now it's not even

00:07:28.540 close. Florida is so firmly in the Republican camp, and it's largely due to the fact that DeSantis

00:07:34.060 has used every lever, pushed every button, used every power, every tool, every staffing appointment

00:07:41.100 he can to purge the permanent ruling class from the state and replace them with his own men and women.

00:07:47.980 In short, he governs like a Democrat in that he wasn't meek. But wow, has Donald Trump ever eclipsed

00:07:56.380 that? Starting from his very first day in office, actually starting before he was inaugurated with

00:08:01.580 pronouncements, but literally on day one of him being officially the president, he started issuing

00:08:07.020 executive orders. I think he must have issued 20 on the first day. And he has also sacked entire

00:08:12.540 boards and commissions, firing people who aren't on board with his mission. Like I say, acting like

00:08:18.220 a Democrat, but in pursuit of his own Republican agenda. Now that's how Canadian liberals and NDPers

00:08:24.460 act in power. They spend everything, tax everything, they appoint every one of their friends, politicize

00:08:29.900 everything. I gave the example of the debates commission the other day, where Trudeau just put his

00:08:34.940 personal friends. But that's the least of it. I mean, one of my main criticisms of Stephen Harper's

00:08:39.580 term is that he didn't make any permanent changes. The CBC being an example, the unfilled Senate seats

00:08:45.980 being another example. You could add to that the Human Rights Commission. Why didn't he shut that down?

00:08:50.620 Or at least stack it. So many government NGOs, entire bureaucracies. So back to Alberta, Premier Daniel

00:08:58.140 Smith surely knows that the government bureaucracy she runs would fire her in a second if they could find a 1.00

00:09:03.420 way and they'll leak against her and they'll slow walk her policies that they hate and they'll push 1.00

00:09:08.060 back and they'll they'll basically work to rule as any union would do in resistance. Basically, the

00:09:15.500 Trump's like Trump's first term before he realized that personal loyalty wasn't about vanity. It was

00:09:21.580 about stopping unelected bureaucrats from thwarting the democratic will of the people as expressed in

00:09:27.100 their vote for the elected government. So what might Daniel Smith do not only to survive

00:09:33.020 this latest eruption by the NDP, but also future attempts to undermine her.

00:09:38.140 Now, Florida's Ron DeSantis did a few dramatic things. For example, he replaced state attorneys,

00:09:43.340 that is prosecutors who work for the state, who had made the foolish mistake of publicly announcing

00:09:49.340 their decision not to enforce state laws that they thought were too right-wing, even though they were

00:09:54.940 passed by the legislature. For example, Florida has rules against transgender surgery for minors,

00:10:00.620 et cetera. And prosecutors who said they were above the law, they weren't going to prosecute,

00:10:05.340 DeSantis sacked them. And that stopped the prosecutors rebelling. Now, I'm not sure if that's a major

00:10:11.420 problem in Alberta. I don't think the problem is individual prosecutors going rogue. I don't know.

00:10:15.820 I think it said the Justice Department could and should more powerfully communicate the government's

00:10:21.260 priorities, say, as opposed to, you know, massive trials against the truckers at the Coutts-Alberta

00:10:28.380 border. I give Alberta's Justice Department some credit, though. They've done pretty well on firearms

00:10:36.220 laws, basically telegraphing that the province just isn't going to waste their time and money pursuing Mark

00:10:41.420 Carney's gun grabs. And they've also said similar things about castle law. You know what I'm talking

00:10:46.860 about? When someone breaks into your home and you defend your home and you hurt the break-and-enterer,

00:10:52.540 you don't get charged. I understand that the province has basically said,

00:10:56.140 we will not prosecute. So that's good. But I think there's so much that Smith can go further. For

00:11:02.060 example, DeSantis in Florida suspended members of school boards that were acting contrary to law,

00:11:08.700 something that was actually done to the Calgary school board on which Danielle Smith sat as a

00:11:14.220 trustee more than 20 years ago. If there are school boards that are not getting with the program,

00:11:19.420 that are breaking the law, that are too radical, that are slow walking Danielle Smith's policies,

00:11:24.460 Smith should just take them over, put them under direct control from the ministry as happened to her 20 1.00

00:11:31.660 years ago. Florida's Ron DeSantis enacted some stop woke legislation. In fact, I think that's what it's

00:11:38.700 called. Stop woke act limiting teaching of race, race and gender Marxism in schools, basically getting

00:11:45.900 those BLM flags and transgender flags out of school. What are they doing in primary schools? Why are you 1.00

00:11:51.260 propagandizing children? So DeSantis did that at the lower like children's school level, but he also did that

00:11:58.060 at the university level banning DEI initiatives and basically saying to the universities, if you want

00:12:04.300 funding, you will stop promoting racial division. Now this isn't just important in terms of neutralizing

00:12:12.060 radicalism in those schools and in those universities. It cuts off funding and personnel for the broader woke

00:12:19.180 movement. There are thousands of people in Canada who for a living are racist, who are for a living

00:12:26.780 transgenderist. They are paid six figures to be part of this department or that department in 0.86

00:12:33.500 a lot of government institutions, actually in private companies too. Ron DeSantis said we're

00:12:38.700 going to cut that off and he has. Another thing Florida did under DeSantis is to demand that no state

00:12:45.020 investment funds were invested in companies that promoted DEI or other woke policies like a lot of

00:12:51.900 black rocks programs. Alberta has massive investments. I don't know if you know this,

00:12:57.340 more than a hundred billion dollars in pension funds for its workers and the massive heritage fund.

00:13:02.460 Now it's important that those funds are invested in the fiduciary interests of Albertans, that is to

00:13:08.620 make money. But just as those funds wouldn't be invested in, say, slave labor companies operating in

00:13:15.180 Xinjiang province in communist China, maybe they shouldn't invest in companies that take a

00:13:20.460 radical view on race either that promote racism or sexism or transgenderism. I'm just brainstorming

00:13:26.380 here. But this is all about thinking about, well, what would a Democrat do to get rid of any Republican

00:13:33.420 moles that were blocking their agenda? I think it's time our side started acting this way, the way Trump

00:13:40.220 did. Look at Trump. Look at DeSantis. One of the reasons both are successful is because they act and they

00:13:48.140 cause others to react. They're not just drifting. They choose their controversies. They're hyperkinetic,

00:13:55.660 in fact. They spent a lot of time thinking about what underlying conditions have just been accepted

00:14:02.380 because we always do things that way. And then they decide just not to continue to do things that

00:14:07.340 way out of inertia. Sometimes it looks symbolic only. Here's a funny example, like when Trump fired the

00:14:13.420 board of the Kennedy Center for the Arts. I mean, you think, well, what does that have to do with

00:14:17.660 anything? I don't know if you know what the Kennedy Center is. It's basically a gorgeous building

00:14:20.940 with a huge budget and they put on concerts and theaters. It's basically the major house for the

00:14:28.700 arts in Washington, D.C. It's a government institution. Yeah. And it was totally politicized by

00:14:34.940 the left. It was an enormous pot of money for all these cronies to hire each other and pay each other. 0.78

00:14:41.180 But more than that, it was funding a political elite that blackballed conservatives in the arts

00:14:46.460 and weaponized the arts against any Republicans or any government initiative. Go do that on your own

00:14:52.380 dime, Trump said. Trump appointed, fired them all and appointed his allies to that board. Very symbolic

00:14:59.260 of what he is doing in the rest of the government. Trump and DeSantis are the two leaders in actually

00:15:05.260 using the powers they were elected to use. For some reason, our side doesn't like to do that.

00:15:12.940 One last example, and you might think this is the goofiest yet. Trump renamed

00:15:19.100 the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. Now, you may say that's goofy or quirky or trivial.

00:15:25.580 Okay. But just think about it for one second. Why is renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America?

00:15:34.140 Why is that silly? But, I mean, I'm here in Toronto. How about renaming Toronto's big,

00:15:39.820 young Dundas Square? It's like the Times Square in Toronto. Renaming it Sankofa Square after some

00:15:45.980 obscure African tribe. Why is that not goofy? So many places are being renamed in Canada too, 1.00

00:15:52.300 to purge any trace of history and to replace it with a new fake history. Heck, they're doing that

00:15:57.980 to Sir John A. Macdonald. They've torn down Sir John A. Macdonald's statues, Queen Victoria statue.

00:16:02.380 They've purged Sir John A. Macdonald from the $10 bill. So don't tell me about defacing historical

00:16:08.700 things. Why can't our side strengthen historical things and rename things in a positive way? I think

00:16:14.940 Trump was making that point there. Why not go on a spree of our own, rebuilding our real history instead

00:16:20.380 of the fake revisionism? If the left can do it, I think the right can also. By the way,

00:16:26.380 this is the only way to have a chance of making permanent changes, purging things, shutting down

00:16:31.500 whole boards and commissions. Everything else can be undone the morning after Alberta's conservatives

00:16:38.300 lose an election, whether that's in 2027 or 2031 or whenever. Just some thoughts. Stay with us for more.

00:16:50.380 In 2021, you said that Richmond couldn't engage in land acknowledgements because of the cases,

00:17:02.140 the claims involved. So how come citizens didn't find out then about their property's title being

00:17:07.980 at risk if you were aware? Well, the reason that we don't do a land acknowledgement is mostly because of

00:17:14.380 the lawsuit by the Musqueam over the Garden City lands. That's the biggest factor. This case was a factor

00:17:23.900 as well. But just remember that at the beginning, before the trial, the court was asked to make an

00:17:31.660 order saying that all the landowners in the area had to be notified. And they said no. And then application

00:17:40.700 was made at a later stage, the very same asking that all the landowners be notified. And the answer

00:17:48.940 was again, no. So that's why all these people woke up one day and found that there was their property

00:17:55.900 was subject to the Aboriginal title. They don't know what it is. They don't know what it means,

00:18:00.220 what the implications are. They didn't know how it got there and they don't know where it's going

00:18:05.260 from here. So it's really a disaster. You know, a lot of public meetings used to start with

00:18:10.140 the singing of the anthem. Some would start with the Lord's Prayer. These were things that united us

00:18:15.420 all and had a reference to our history, where we came from. These days, those are typically banned

00:18:21.660 or at least replaced by ever more progressive sounding land acknowledgements. At my own kids' school,

00:18:29.740 there was a land acknowledgement that went so deep and heavy, it felt like a prayer in itself. It felt

00:18:35.820 semi-religious. I was the only person, by the way, in the entire auditorium who did not stand for this

00:18:42.460 quasi-religious ceremony. And the reason for that is because I don't think it's honest. If you really

00:18:48.380 think you are standing on stolen land, then shouldn't you do something about it? Shouldn't you give it up?

00:18:54.460 Shouldn't you return it? It's a bit much to say, I've stolen this land. I acknowledge that. Now,

00:19:00.060 let me keep on going. Now, I don't believe that the land is stolen. I think that the vast majority

00:19:06.300 of land in Canada was properly ceded. And I hate to use the word, but through conquest,

00:19:12.140 it's a terrible sounding word when we're talking about our First Nations brothers and sisters,

00:19:16.060 but that is historically what happened. And many of the treaties, the very first words are,

00:19:21.420 you know, that the First Nation representatives surrendered the land. I don't mean to

00:19:29.580 be rough in my language, but if you actually read any of the treaties are fairly blunt

00:19:34.300 in their description of what happened. There are some places in Canada where treaties did not happen.

00:19:39.580 And so a question arises, if you built a house in Canada somewhere and you thought you owned your

00:19:47.580 house and the bank thought you owned your house because they gave you a mortgage that was secured

00:19:52.140 against your house. And if for your entire life and for your entire memory of our history,

00:19:57.260 you own that land. But then suddenly activist judges said, well, hang on a second.

00:20:03.580 And amorphous claim might be made to your land that no, it's not yours. There's a preexisting

00:20:10.300 aboriginal title that someone else, some Indian band, some aboriginal activist may actually own

00:20:18.860 your land. If not outright, at least some of it, what would that make you say or do?

00:20:24.860 Suddenly it's not just about being politically correct, like putting your pronouns in your email

00:20:29.820 signature. Now it's actually put up or shut up time. Well, that's what's happening in British 0.81

00:20:35.020 Columbia when a court case suggested that indigenous title or aboriginal title could in fact impose

00:20:41.100 itself on millions of people who think that they own their property. This is a shocking

00:20:46.540 thing. And it led to a very rambunctious town hall meeting two nights ago in Richmond,

00:20:52.540 a suburb of Vancouver. Joining us now to talk about this is our BC bureau chief,

00:20:56.620 Drea Humphrey, who was there in Richmond at the meeting. Drea, great to see you again. Thanks for

00:21:01.580 being there. Good to see you. Thanks for having me. Did I properly describe what's going on?

00:21:07.180 Help me out. Cause I acknowledge I didn't read the full court ruling myself, but it seems serious

00:21:12.860 enough that mayors of BC cities are writing to their landowners saying, Hey, heads up

00:21:21.100 this just in, you might not own your land. Like they really are sending out those letters on mass,

00:21:25.740 aren't they? Well, it's an 800 page decision. So don't feel bad about not getting through

00:21:31.420 it yet. And it was handed down in August. That is the Cowichan tribe versus Canada, a G case. And for 0.95

00:21:39.980 the first time in Canada's history, we saw aboriginal title be granted over private fee, simple property

00:21:50.300 lands. So that's never happened in Canada before. There have been other aboriginal title claims before.

00:21:57.020 So this is very unprecedented. And so the shocking part, in addition to that is that the private land

00:22:05.420 owners who are affected, it's not millions of people in Richmond, I would say probably hundreds

00:22:11.660 of landowners because it's a certain strip at this moment. Okay. Thank you.

00:22:15.660 No worries. They were not told anything about this case. It was filed originally back in 2013.

00:22:23.500 And then of course, it was argued over the last five years or so. And they didn't get a knock on

00:22:30.140 the door. They didn't get a letter. They didn't get a phone call and tell aboriginal title was already

00:22:35.900 deemed over their land and their own title was deemed defective and invalid by the B.C. Supreme Court.

00:22:46.220 Oh, my goodness. So first of all, thank you for the correction that this doesn't apply everywhere.

00:22:50.780 It's just on certain parcels of land that I guess did not have a treaty. And the bulk of those are in

00:22:55.580 British Columbia, in Ontario and Eastern Canada, even in Alberta. I think all the land was covered by

00:23:01.900 treaty. So just to be clear, is the property in question the places where there is no

00:23:08.220 treaty? Is that why you say it's hundreds as opposed to millions?

00:23:12.220 It's just a certain section. So, so far, aboriginal title has been given over approximately 7.5

00:23:18.780 kilometers of land. Now, here's the thing. The case is an appeal by all parties, which again,

00:23:25.020 are not the property owners. And that includes being appealed by the Cowichan tribes, which is saying,

00:23:30.380 no, we should have more, much more than what you've given us, because we picked blueberries and we fished

00:23:37.260 back there, according to oral stories. So everybody is concerned about what this actually means. And may

00:23:45.180 I remind you, in 2023, we saw something similar happened in Haida Gwaii, where David Evey didn't even

00:23:54.460 wait for the courts. He just made a deal with the Haida Gwaii nation and gave them aboriginal title.

00:24:00.780 And the promise was there, there was, don't worry, it's not going to affect private owned lands. But

00:24:05.820 the fact of the matter is, even though that was not over private property title, it means that people

00:24:14.380 who live there are now ruled under a government that they can't elect close to half of that, you know,

00:24:20.700 those islands population. Wow. You know, the fact that people who weren't in that small lawsuit were

00:24:29.180 not advised of it. I was reading that one of the reasons is that the courts didn't want all these

00:24:34.700 interveners. The courts didn't want all these severely normal British Columbians to say, hey,

00:24:40.140 you're talking about my house. I have an interest here. Can I be an intervener? I got something to say,

00:24:45.980 judge. And it sounds to me like the judges purposefully did not ring the alarm. And like

00:24:52.860 you say, the decision went ahead and the people who were affected by it weren't even

00:24:58.380 given notice. Am I accurately reflecting what happened? Absolutely. Both the province as well

00:25:04.700 as the city of Richmond said, hey, we should probably tell these homeowners and the judge, Judge Young,

00:25:10.540 Justice Young ruled, no, we're not going to do that. Or it's normally it would be Cowichan

00:25:16.940 tries responsibility. And she ruled that they do not have to notify. But here's the thing,

00:25:21.420 the citizens understandably are not happy with the fact that the city didn't let them know anyways.

00:25:26.780 It wasn't unlawful for them to send a letter and let them know so that they could start advocating

00:25:33.340 on their behalf. Wow. Now, I understand that. First of all, tell me a little bit about the

00:25:39.500 town hall meeting a couple of nights ago, because I saw your Twitter feed. It looked huge. And

00:25:44.540 Richmond is a very diverse place, ethnically speaking, large Chinese community, large South

00:25:50.300 Asian community. What's interesting about that is that these folks, you know, I mean,

00:25:54.860 there's been a large multicultural community in Vancouver for, I'd say, 50 years,

00:25:58.780 50 years, certainly since the 1980s. This pits newcomers who thought they were coming to like, 0.65

00:26:06.700 I saw one speaker say this is reminds me of Hong Kong, where the communist government says you don't

00:26:12.380 really have title to your land. And I, and all these folks who believed in the Canadian dream,

00:26:17.900 the Canadian system, poured their life savings, bought a house. Now they're, they're terrible. It's

00:26:22.860 just very strange to see. Tell me a little bit about what the meeting was like, who was there?

00:26:27.340 What were the sentiments? Who was there on behalf of the government? What kind of questions were,

00:26:31.660 but give us a little bit of background and then maybe we'll show some clips.

00:26:35.420 Well, first we'll start with the fact that the meeting had to be relocated. It was originally

00:26:40.140 planned for Richmond city hall, but because so many people wanted to attend, they had to move it to the

00:26:46.380 Vancouver Sheraton hotel, which is located inside of Richmond. And so that alone was probably different

00:26:53.660 for them. And there was hundreds who showed up. At one point, there were many people standing as

00:26:57.900 there were no seats available. And it began with Mayor Brody, Malcolm Brody, addressing them and

00:27:05.740 saying, here's what's happened. We have a lawyer here today. We'll also have the attorney general,

00:27:11.260 Nikki Sharma speaking today as well. And so everybody sort of waited and heard the spiel from the lawyer.

00:27:17.740 What stood out to me about what the lawyer said is because of course, everybody there is going,

00:27:22.140 what does this mean to us? Not even just the owners, but tenants too. Also businesses. There's

00:27:28.620 a couple of golf courses that are being claimed as well. And so one of the things that stood out to me,

00:27:35.580 and I had actually spoken and interviewed a realtor, Matt Brevner, our Rebel News alumni before,

00:27:41.580 and he had raised this as well, was that because it has been ruled that the Aboriginal title is outside

00:27:50.220 of BC's Land Title Act, which was supposed to be our most secure property rights. That means the

00:27:57.100 provisions that are inside of that to normally protect you from having your land taken, perhaps

00:28:02.700 there's a scam somehow, which apparently can happen to take your title. Those are, you know,

00:28:08.780 not within that ruling. The title goes over and that's called your indefeasibility protections.

00:28:16.540 So that is raising a huge unknown. The lawyer confirmed that and said, you know what? You

00:28:22.460 don't have those protections. The other thing the lawyer raised, and you know, it was interesting

00:28:27.980 because I had already caught Nikki Sharma, our attorney general with the NDP,

00:28:32.140 on her way in and asked her, why on earth is it that your government has blocked government lawyers

00:28:42.860 from arguing for extinguishment of Aboriginal title? They were actually blocked by the NDP from bringing

00:28:50.380 up that argument. I had asked her about that. Then when we got into the meeting, Richmond's lawyer brought

00:28:55.740 that up several times. He was really calling on the public to demand from the NDP government that they

00:29:04.300 remove whatever barrier they've put on as the attorney general and allow the province to go ahead and

00:29:11.820 pursue that argument in the appeal, which apparently they suspiciously, in my opinion, did not do during

00:29:17.660 the case. But the city of Richmond, of course, wanted to. Ms Sharma, the BC Conservatives say that the NDP was

00:29:25.260 involved in making it, making our government lawyers unable to argue against Aboriginal title extinguishment.

00:29:33.980 What is your response to that claim? Yeah, it's simply wrong. And I would ask the Conservative leader what his

00:29:42.540 position was in 2014 when he was in government and received the first claim that was filed in this

00:29:50.940 matter and what his arguments were when he was in government. Ms Sharma, in 2021, Mayor Brody said that

00:29:56.700 they were unable to engage as a city in land acknowledgements because of the legal implications

00:30:01.740 that the Musqueam Ban is claiming. What is your response? Are there any legal implications to land

00:30:07.260 acknowledgments that see that we are on unceded territory? I think I want to say very clearly

00:30:12.940 that the work of reconciliation is very important. We work with First Nations across this province

00:30:19.100 and we work with cities and we work with people across this province to lift all boats, to come up

00:30:23.740 with resolutions to sort through past wrongs and move forward in a way that respects all people. And I

00:30:30.780 think that's an important way to look at this. What about the Indigenous people who think land 1.00

00:30:34.060 acknowledgments are empty, like people don't actually want to give up the land when they

00:30:37.180 say that? You know, I think this is a question that is a little bit not related to the issue

00:30:44.620 that we're speaking today, but I will say that it's our position as a government that reconciliation

00:30:49.980 is an important part of the work of the province. And I think all British companies expect us to sit

00:30:55.260 down at a table together and try to resolve issues that are important to them. Well, boy, she doesn't

00:31:00.460 want to answer any questions at all. Look, either it's merely symbolic and it's like being polite and

00:31:06.780 being, you know, sensitive. And we could all be polite. We could all be sensitive and maybe that

00:31:11.820 makes for a happier and harmonious world. And British Columbia is a very diverse place,

00:31:16.380 especially the greater Vancouver area. Yeah, I get it. But all of a sudden, a judge is saying,

00:31:20.300 no, it's not just about symbolism. It's not just about a nicety. It means something real.

00:31:26.700 And it means you may not actually own your house, your business, your golf course. So I think Nikki

00:31:32.460 Sharma is trying to have it both ways. I mean, when she says reconciliation, what is it to reconcile?

00:31:37.340 Everyone loves to reconcile with someone with whom they've fallen out. There's nothing sweeter than

00:31:42.300 making up with an old friend that you split from. I get it. But that's not what we're talking about

00:31:47.100 here. We're talking about billions of dollars worth of property being given to people who

00:31:52.460 suddenly have been given the rights to it. Absolutely. My first report against land

00:31:59.020 acknowledgement was years ago here on Rebel News. But what I said there at the beginning

00:32:03.260 of that question is very important. The mayor of Richmond in 2021, after the false claims of

00:32:09.820 discovering bodies at residential schools spread the country, he was being pressured for his city to

00:32:16.060 engage in land acknowledgements. And he responded to that pressure by saying the city could not

00:32:21.180 because, we now know, he said, because of legal cases that the city was wrapped up in.

00:32:27.500 Now, I've also since learned that Port Coquitlam also does not do land acknowledgements for the exact

00:32:33.740 same reason. They are also in the courts over Aboriginal title. So there is a very real legal implication to

00:32:42.140 doing these land acknowledgement mantras where your elected officials are claiming on behalf that you live

00:32:48.940 on unceded and stolen territory, especially now when we know that you don't even find out

00:32:54.780 if your property, your land is at stake. So the other thing I would add to that is, of all people,

00:33:01.660 First Nation banned governments should know that reconciliation doesn't come from taking land.

00:33:09.260 No, that causes resentment today. Wow. Isn't that the truth? And I see that

00:33:14.780 based on this breakthrough in British Columbia, there are now people talking about a similar

00:33:19.660 litigation in Quebec. And I tell you, when you start giving property rights and other rights based

00:33:26.460 on race and things like that, you remove certainty. We are in for all sorts of trouble, economic trouble,

00:33:34.300 because who would invest in land that they don't own? And I believe you're going to have cultural

00:33:38.780 trouble. And frankly, I think this will build resentment towards Indigenous people. It will

00:33:46.460 not reconcile. It'll make people more hostile. I think this is a terrible path. Now, this is the

00:33:52.380 kind of thing that Rebel News reports on. And I'm really glad you were right in there in that press

00:33:57.340 conference. And it makes me feel great to see Rebel News and our microphone. And you were asking the best

00:34:02.860 questions. So thank you. So we're reporting the facts. We're giving our opinions. But this feels

00:34:08.860 like the kind of thing where Rebel News every once in a while, we don't just tell the story,

00:34:12.380 we stop and get involved. Tell me what's on your mind about maybe a petition or maybe even,

00:34:18.300 I don't know if it's possible, participating in some way to give British Columbians some access to

00:34:25.740 the courts, because it sounds like they've been kept out of the courts deliberately.

00:34:29.180 Well, absolutely. I am, you know, watching this very closely. I found out in August,

00:34:34.620 like most people did. And I've been on it ever since. So of course, journalistically,

00:34:39.820 we're going to bring that to you. But we also at times like this, when there is a great risk to the

00:34:45.100 freedoms of Canadians, we take action. So we actually have a petition that I strongly encourage you to sign

00:34:51.580 and share. It's at a website called endlandgrab.com. And in there, I go through some of the three

00:34:59.500 factors that I think have influenced where we are at now. One is, of course, land acknowledgements,

00:35:05.260 as we've discussed. The other is a UN aspirational framework. It's called the United Nations Declaration

00:35:12.620 on Rights for Indigenous Peoples, not all people. And British Columbia was the first jurisdiction in the

00:35:19.020 entire world to adopt that aspirational framework, and commit to conforming all of our laws to it,

00:35:29.660 that put 5% over and above 95%. So that needs to be addressed. And of course, we need to call

00:35:36.620 on our legislatures, our city officials, all of them to bring forth security for property rights. We

00:35:46.220 thought we had that. We're learning. We don't. That needs to change. So again, that is at

00:35:51.820 endlandgrabs.com. Great. Well, I'm so glad to see you on this. There's so much news out of British

00:35:58.220 Columbia. Boy, you're covering it, whether it's sort of dissident news with the ostrich farm or serious

00:36:04.220 constitutional challenges to property rights in Vancouver. You're there. It's great to see,

00:36:08.620 Dre. Keep up the good work. Thank you.

00:36:10.860 All right. There you have it. Dre Humphrey, our BC Bureau boss. Stay with us. Your letters to me next.

00:36:26.460 Hey, welcome back. Your letters to me about Sudan and the massacre that the left suddenly doesn't

00:36:32.620 really care about. Frank Uxbridge says, our foreign minister is a disgusting disgrace to this nation. 0.98

00:36:38.860 Well, it's not just the foreign minister. Where's the CBC? Where is the media party? Where are the 0.91

00:36:43.900 college clubs? Where are the boycott this and sanction that people? Like the whole

00:36:51.180 political industrial complex, the media, the professors, where are they? They couldn't care

00:36:57.820 less. It's what I said when I quoted that Haviv Retigur. It's an unusual name he has. The guy who says,

00:37:04.380 look, no other violence, no other horrific crimes or wars have ever or will ever be protested in this

00:37:12.780 way. Like what is Russia doing in Ukraine without even taking sides on that? Like the death toll there

00:37:18.220 is so much larger than what happened in Gaza. Sudan's death toll is a multiple, but no one cares because 0.96

00:37:25.420 Israel isn't involved. I just think it just, I mean, it's a shame what's happening in Sudan. Now,

00:37:30.620 of course I'm against it, but I'm not the guy who's been marching against for a ceasefire for two

00:37:36.700 years. Where are those people? Next letter is from Hiker X who says, what about supporting the 0.91

00:37:43.020 people of Canada from violent immigrants? You know, I saw an amazing thing today. At first, I didn't even 1.00

00:37:47.580 believe it till I checked the source. According to the Federal Register, which is basically where

00:37:51.900 Trump announces regulations, the United States has announced that it will take 7,500 refugees

00:37:58.380 this year, not 75,000, not 750,000, but 7,500 grand total. And they will take primarily from white

00:38:08.700 South African farmers who are being victimized by the black political extremists in South Africa, 0.69

00:38:15.180 who have basically declared war on these white farmers. Very interesting, isn't it? And just 0.59

00:38:20.780 causing such a tizzy on the left, but you can't deny that those farmers are being discriminated based

00:38:26.380 on race. They're being ethnically cleansed. And you know that those farmers would adapt immediately 1.00

00:38:32.540 and perfectly to America, and you know none of them would go on welfare, and you know none of them

00:38:37.100 would commit crimes. I'm not saying none, but I just think that that clarity of purpose, I mean,

00:38:45.500 thank God for Trump. Our next letter is from R.T. Missia who says, those millions, referring to the

00:38:53.260 millions Canada's giving Sudan, are going to be pocketed by the terrorists. We could use that money 0.99

00:38:57.900 in Canada. Yeah, if you look at the structure of that tweet yesterday from Anita Anand, the foreign

00:39:03.740 minister, it was almost perfunctory. Oh, we're really sad to see 2,000 people killed. Yeah, that's

00:39:09.340 not good for Sudan. But, and then the bulk of the tweet was boasting about how much money she was 0.99

00:39:15.020 spending. She didn't even say who the terrorists were. It was such a weird tweet. And it was so

00:39:19.420 obviously about pandering to people of different diaspora groups in Canada by talking about how much

00:39:25.660 money will be spent. It's really crazy. Well, it's our show for the day. Until tomorrow, on behalf of all

00:39:31.260 of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night, and keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - October 31, 2025

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Danielle Smith concedes to teachers' union — here's why that's bad for Conservatives

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