Rebel News Podcast - November 05, 2026


EZRA LEVANT ｜ Danielle Smith put Section 3 repeal on the table, but her justice ministry says no changes are coming

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Carney takes a swipe at Musk and Starlink, while his government writes seven speech and surveillance bills

Episode Stats


Length

24 minutes

Words per minute

174.49

Word count

4,301

Sentence count

241

Harmful content

Misogyny

8

sentences flagged

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. I don't think I've told you about my interview with Danielle Smith,
00:00:04.320 the Premier of Alberta, and I asked her a couple of questions. A few of them were about immigration,
00:00:09.080 but a lot of them were about freedom of speech. And she gave me some good answers
00:00:12.920 in the room, but over the last couple of days, the government has been backing away from them.
00:00:19.040 And I want to know which is the real Premier. Is it the one who said she's concerned
00:00:23.660 with censorship, or is it the one who says, yeah, we're not reviewing it at all? I want to know.
00:00:28.720 So that's what I'm going to talk about in today's monologue.
00:00:31.520 But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus.
00:00:34.800 It's the video version of this podcast.
00:00:36.740 And I want you to see, not just hear, my videoed questions to the Premier.
00:00:41.980 So go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe, and you're one of us.
00:00:46.680 And we need the help because we take no government money and it shows.
00:00:50.600 Tonight, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith told 300 of our supporters
00:00:54.620 she's working on repealing Alberta's censorship law.
00:00:57.680 But her own Justice Department told the Edmonton Journal that she's not.
00:01:02.860 It's November 5th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
00:01:08.620 Let me set the scene.
00:01:21.580 It was Saturday in Calgary.
00:01:23.600 Rebel News Live.
00:01:24.620 I love those events.
00:01:25.700 300 people in a room at the Carriage House Hotel. Half of them or more voted yes on the October 19th
00:01:31.940 independence referendum. Half probably voted no, I didn't check. I told the premier at the top that
00:01:37.180 I wasn't going to relitigate the referendum, and I didn't. I just wanted to talk to her about
00:01:41.300 Alberta's future. My plan was to find the most conservative things she could do right now with 1.00
00:01:47.100 the majority she's got that would also make most Albertans cheer, that would still keep her 1.00
00:01:52.520 electable to the broader population, the sweet spots. That was the whole premise. And on one
00:01:58.540 question, she gave me an interesting answer. They're persecuting some grandma out there who 1.00
00:02:03.600 won't talk about the case, but it's awful. This is something that's another winner, and it's a way
00:02:08.940 of saying to conservatives, Danielle Smith is the best freedom-loving pro-Western, pro-Alberta person
00:02:15.940 out there. I want to challenge you to do what Stephen Harper did successfully. I want to
00:02:21.900 challenge you to repeal section three of the Alberta Human Rights Act. I asked her about
00:02:29.600 section three of the Alberta Human Rights Act, the censorship section. By the way, I was charged
00:02:35.420 under that a couple of decades ago for publishing the Danish cartoons of Mohammed. That section is
00:02:41.480 the part that can have you hauled before a tribunal, not for what you did, but for what
00:02:45.880 you published if someone decides it's, quote, likely to expose a group to hatred or contempt.
00:02:52.460 It's a very fuzzy law, and truth, as you can see, is not a defense. Believe me, I know I was
00:02:58.720 subject to it for 900 days for publishing a magazine. Now, it's being used again today on
00:03:05.120 Benita Peterson, a grandmother from Westlock, Alberta, a DJ. Her crime was a flyer she handed
00:03:12.180 out three years ago, opposing a rainbow themed crosswalk in her town. Three years later, she's
00:03:18.500 still before the tribunal. The closing arguments are December 8th and 9th. This is very important
00:03:24.060 work the taxpayers need to do. You know, what are you doing going after a grandma who didn't like
00:03:30.020 the rainbow crosswalk? It's crazy. Anyway, so I asked the premier what she thought, because her
00:03:36.900 own wild rose platform when she was at the wild rose party in 2012 promised to repeal that section
00:03:42.480 stephen harper who was not a reckless man repealed the federal version back in 2013
00:03:48.780 and nothing bad happened to him she has a majority what's stopping her
00:03:54.580 well here's what she said i'm going to show it in full because i think it's interesting
00:03:58.780 I am having an active conversation with my justice minister about prioritizing that.
00:04:07.380 We had thought that by making some of the changes that we were around woke, ideology,
00:04:13.660 cancel culture, DEI, we thought we were sending a message to all of our entities that we want
00:04:18.240 them to focus on real issues and I'm watching the case with great dismay that you make reference
00:04:24.460 to. Of course, I'm not allowed to comment on it because it's before an independent tribunal.
00:04:29.160 But we had thought that we were sending a signal and that we were appointing people
00:04:33.660 to the commission where they would drop frivolous cases. And it turns out that maybe we need
00:04:39.400 to be a bit more direct. So I'm having an active conversation with my justice minister
00:04:42.760 about that.
00:04:43.420 And then this about the Peterson case.
00:04:45.560 I'm watching the case with great dismay that you make reference to. Of course, I'm not
00:04:49.800 allowed to comment on it because it's before an independent tribunal. But we had thought
00:04:54.440 that we were sending a signal and that we were appointing people to the commission where they
00:04:59.600 would drop frivolous cases. And it turns out that maybe we need to be a bit more direct. So I'm
00:05:05.120 having an active conversation with my justice minister about that. And on the broader point
00:05:09.040 about DEI and cancel culture across the whole public sector. We had thought that by making
00:05:15.700 some of the changes that we were around woke, ideology, cancel culture, DEI, we thought we
00:05:21.560 we're sending a message to all of our entities that we want them to focus on real issues.
00:05:26.440 Now, the room cheered. I'll be honest with you, I was pleased. That's a premier saying in public,
00:05:31.100 in her own words, that the law is being abused, that her fix didn't work, and that
00:05:35.240 she's talking to her justice minister about prioritizing repeal. That's not a slip. That's
00:05:40.920 a sentence with the subject and the verb. Now, look what happened next, because what happened
00:05:46.380 next, I think, is actually this story. Monday, a left-wing website called The Watchdog writes it
00:05:52.820 up. They find a law professor at the University of Alberta, Florence Ashley, who says repeal has
00:05:58.840 quote, less to do with protecting freedom of expression than it has to do with empowering
00:06:04.060 hatred. What? And then the professor compares Benita Peterson's flyer to signs in post-war
00:06:11.420 britain that said no irish no blacks no dogs i'm serious here law professors say what are you going
00:06:18.320 to do so tuesday morning my friend lauren gunter who is conservative writes that danielle smith's
00:06:24.660 appearance at our event was fine but what she had said was the problem his column is mostly about
00:06:31.120 her comparing her trace spending review to doge but the message to the premier's office is the
00:06:37.740 same. You went to the rebel thing, and now you're in trouble with the normies. So Tuesday afternoon,
00:06:43.760 Naheed Nenshi, the NDP leader, he says Smith was making things up to satisfy an interviewer. That's
00:06:51.000 me he's talking about. And he says more than that, it's going to cost money to repeal it?
00:06:58.620 Taxpayer money. Hold that thought. We'll come back to it. And that brings us to the papers yesterday.
00:07:05.040 that's the headline this morning in the edmonton journal johnny wakefield story post media picked
00:07:10.920 up across the country by yahoo news read the first word of that headline ministry not the premier
00:07:16.500 the ministry here's how it happened tuesday post media sends a question to the premier's office
00:07:23.060 about what she told us on saturday the premier's office didn't answer they forwarded the question
00:07:28.720 to the justice minister's office and on tuesday evening a press secretary named heather jenkins
00:07:34.180 replies by email, not contemplating any changes, not Section 3, not anything. The whole act is off
00:07:41.540 the table, according to an email. Now, here's the part of the story that no one seems to have
00:07:46.800 noticed. Mickey Amory himself, the Justice Minister, the man the Premier said she was having
00:07:53.740 an active conversation with, was scrummed by reporters on the legislature on Tuesday afternoon
00:07:58.840 before the email, and here's what he said. And the journal reports he went further. His ministry,
00:08:06.240 quote, would be reviewing the Human Rights Act to make sure it does not infringe on Albertans
00:08:10.780 constitutionally protected free speech rights. Okay, so read those two things together.
00:08:16.560 Tuesday afternoon, the minister, on the record, in person, we are reviewing the act for free speech.
00:08:23.240 Tuesday evening, the minister's own press secretary, by email, were not contemplating
00:08:29.980 any changes to the act. Those are not the same thing. You cannot review a law for free speech
00:08:36.300 problems and also promise the same day that you won't change it unless the review is just for show
00:08:44.000 or the email is. Let's count. Saturday at around 11 a.m., the premier on a stage to 300 of her own
00:08:51.540 voters said, I'm prioritizing this with my justice minister. Tuesday at 3 p.m., the justice minister
00:08:57.800 says, we're reviewing it. Tuesday at 6 p.m., his press secretary says, we're not contemplating it.
00:09:07.020 Wednesday morning, the journal headline walked back. 72 hours, three positions. But here's the
00:09:16.080 thing. She didn't walk it back. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has not said a word since Saturday
00:09:22.200 about it. A press secretary walked it back by email to a newspaper after the NDP leader had
00:09:28.740 mocked her and a columnist had told her to lay off the MAGA vibe. I guess freedom of speech isn't for
00:09:35.340 Canadians. So who's the premier? Who's the decider? Who's the one for whom the buck stops?
00:09:42.260 was it the woman on stage on saturday or the email on tuesday let me switch gears for a moment
00:09:48.280 albertans voted on nine questions three weeks ago five immigration questions passed a fee for
00:09:54.520 temporary residents to use health care in schools a 12-month wait before newcomers get social
00:09:59.040 supports proof of citizenship to vote which passed for with 58 by the way mark carney came to alberta
00:10:06.520 and campaigned against all of it and he lost and what did the premier say the day after our
00:10:11.880 angelica toy astor the bills come in the spring details in a few months time carney she said is
00:10:19.040 accepting the will of albertans thank you and you said that you lacked on the immigration results
00:10:23.440 over the coming months and years the house sits october 27th will there be a bill this session
00:10:29.160 on proof of citizenship to vote or on fees for temporary residents or does it all wait until
00:10:33.860 after the 2027 election i would say that what the um first of all i've already had a chance to talk
00:10:39.200 with the Prime Minister, we talked yesterday morning, and he is accepting that Albertans
00:10:45.160 want to have a more collaborative approach between his government and ours on issues
00:10:50.000 of immigration. And so I told him that we would be working on putting a proposal together.
00:10:55.280 I'm just, I'm pleased that he's accepting the will of Albertans on that. Section 95
00:11:00.100 of the Constitution, as you know, allows for immigration to be managed as an area of concurrent
00:11:07.000 jurisdiction joint jurisdiction so we have been looking for some inspiration from quebec's 1991
00:11:13.400 uh canada quebec accord they have had this kind of authority over economic migrants for some time
00:11:20.760 we know that we have something like 30 000 different applications for provincial nominee
00:11:27.960 status and we know that we have a an absolute need for a lot of the skilled professions to
00:11:33.640 to help continue to build the the incredible amount of investment that we're having in this
00:11:38.760 province so those are the areas that i think you can expect to see some results and some mapping
00:11:44.520 around in the spring legislative session we've got to do a little bit of work to see what that
00:11:49.320 would look like but the conversations have already begun and we'll we'll have a lot more to say about 0.79
00:11:55.320 what the details of that might like might look like in a few months time the health premium she 1.00
00:11:59.160 She floated at $1,900 a head in September.
00:12:02.400 Her finance minister says, after consultations and after the election.
00:12:08.480 So the move is always the same.
00:12:10.560 Say the conservative thing to the conservative room.
00:12:13.940 Let the office soften it to the press.
00:12:16.680 Let the timeline slide past the next election.
00:12:20.360 And count on the people in the room to vote for you anyways,
00:12:23.080 because where else are they going to go?
00:12:24.820 well the thing is they could stay at home if they were demoralized or felt hoodwinked and really how
00:12:31.420 could anyone be against freedom of speech now nancy's nancy's taxpayer money comment let's talk
00:12:38.500 about taxpayer money repealing a section of a statute costs nothing it's a one-line bill
00:12:47.200 stephen harper did it federally with a private members bill you know what costs money a three-year
00:12:52.960 Human Rights Tribunal over a grandmother's flyer. Lawyers, adjudicators, hearing rooms,
00:12:58.480 eight days of hearings, closing arguments in December. And if my notes from Saturday are
00:13:02.820 right, the Attorney General of Alberta intervening in that case with government lawyers on taxpayers'
00:13:07.920 money to defend the censorship law against their charter challenge. That's the taxpayer money need.
00:13:14.080 It's being spent prosecuting Benita Peterson. And it was being spent on me for 900 days
00:13:19.180 when you were the mayor of Calgary.
00:13:22.420 Here's the number the other side keeps using against repeal.
00:13:25.040 The commission's own figures say Section 3 complaints
00:13:27.800 are under 1% of its caseload.
00:13:30.760 Barely used, they say.
00:13:32.620 So why bother?
00:13:34.840 Think about that for a second.
00:13:35.920 If it's barely used, why is it on the books?
00:13:40.120 Repealing it costs nothing and protects no one less.
00:13:43.160 What's it for?
00:13:44.980 That's for the one case in 100, the political one,
00:13:47.040 the pastor, the grandmother, the magazine publisher. That's not a human rights law. That
00:13:50.820 is a weapon they keep in the drawer until they find a political enemy they want to go after.
00:13:56.100 Let's be clear about what repeal does and doesn't do, because the journal story doesn't say and the
00:14:00.360 professor won't. John Carpet at the Justice Center laid it out in September. Sections 4 through 10
00:14:05.620 of the act state, a landlord still can't refuse you for your race. An employer still can't post
00:14:11.740 a sign saying who they won't hire. Repealing Section 3 doesn't legalize discrimination.
00:14:17.060 It just means you can't be prosecuted for an opinion. Ask Stephen Bazan. He's passed away now,
00:14:23.940 but he was a pastor in Red Deer. He wrote a letter to the editor in 2002, a letter to the editor,
00:14:29.080 and a tribunal ordered him to pay $5,000 and banned him from speaking on the subject.
00:14:36.000 the court of appeal threw it out in 2012 10 years in court for a letter to the editor
00:14:43.500 the process is the punishment who wants to defend that if naheed nenshi wants to defend that law
00:14:50.100 let him that's what section three is all about so here's what happens next and it's not up to
00:14:56.580 heather jenkins or some other press staffer the ucp's annual general meeting is in calgary
00:15:03.420 at the end of this month, November 27th to 29th. There's a resolution on the floor number WG 2026
00:15:10.320 P22, if you want to know. It's to scrap Section 3. Party members rank the resolutions. If the
00:15:17.780 Premier's office won't prioritize it, her members can. And then December 8th, Benita Peterson walks
00:15:24.460 back into that tribunal for closing arguments. The government's lawyers are either in that room
00:15:30.200 defending the censorship law or they're not. That's not a press release. That's a fact you can
00:15:34.380 see. So I'll leave you with the question I asked her on Saturday because she answered it and then
00:15:39.880 someone else unanswered it. Premier, you have a majority. Your platform promises 14 years ago.
00:15:45.840 You said on Saturday you're prioritizing. Your office said on Tuesday you're not.
00:15:51.780 Which one is the real you? Because the 300 people in that room believed you and next October you're
00:15:58.440 going to need them to believe in you again stay with us for more for instance i have no idea
00:16:08.060 what mark carney's plan is around associate membership for the european union i have no
00:16:13.720 idea what that means and then it was on and then it was off and then it was on and then
00:16:17.280 friends and germany said it was off and now it appears to be on again and none of us
00:16:21.040 have any idea of what it means now if he's talking to them about arctic security and national defense
00:16:27.800 Those are his areas of jurisdiction, and he's talking to them about immigration, about health care, about
00:16:35.160 energy policy, about admissions regulations, about student visas. This is our area of jurisdiction.
00:16:42.120 And so I take very much the same view that I will monitor, I will watch, but we will not,
00:16:47.980 I'm not interested. We just thought the federal government to respect our area of jurisdiction.
00:16:54.700 there's no way I'm going to now allow Brussels to be creating policy for us here in Alberta.
00:16:59.540 So just have some confidence.
00:17:04.260 We have the International Agreements Act to make sure that anything that the federal government
00:17:09.260 negotiates internationally, if it applies to our areas of jurisdiction,
00:17:12.880 it does not become a course of law in Alberta unless we pass it.
00:17:24.700 Well, look who we got here. Andrew Lawton, Member of Parliament from Elgin, St. Thomas, London, South. Great to see you.
00:17:30.580 Yes, likewise. Good to have you on the Hill.
00:17:32.340 Well, we were talking a little bit about a freedom of speech issues.
00:17:35.540 Tell us the kind of stuff you're working on, because we don't get a lot of news about the Conservative opposition through the mainstream media.
00:17:42.320 No, this is just a big problem that we're having here.
00:17:45.040 I mean, we've known that there is a left-wing bias in the media, but increasingly they don't even want to cover that there is another perspective.
00:17:51.820 This love affair with with Mark Carney is quite something. But listen, I'm working on a lot of files right now. And one of the big ones that I know a lot of people are paying attention to is the latest iteration of the Liberal government's online harms act, which has gone through a few versions in the last few years. Now it's called C34. And look, there's some stuff in there about child protection that I think a lot of people would agree with. But there's a lot in the bill that is very concerning.
00:18:17.380 It goes back to fights that you were having 20 years ago on the way the government weaponizes so-called hate speech definitions against people online.
00:18:26.540 And in this case, a bill that would give a government power to create a new bureaucracy called the Digital Safety Commission and use that to force social media companies to take things offline that are classified as harmful content.
00:18:40.940 And who gets to decide, right?
00:18:42.520 Well, we'll figure that out later.
00:18:44.720 Boy, you know, I remember when I was a kid, there were some liberals who believed in civil liberties.
00:18:50.320 In fact, it was sort of something that the Liberal Party of Canada claimed is theirs.
00:18:54.780 You might remember they used to boast about being the party of the Charter of Rights.
00:18:58.680 Are there any civil liberties loving liberals?
00:19:02.560 Or is that just a different era?
00:19:04.660 If there are, they certainly don't have the confidence to speak up about it.
00:19:08.460 Like, I was leading the charge for the Conservatives on Bill C-9 back, which is the bill that, again, Mark Miller, the minister responsible for Canadian identity and culture, said you should be criminally charged if you quote scripture verses he doesn't like.
00:19:21.680 And they were using this bill in the end to remove longstanding protections for religious speech.
00:19:26.700 And you had all of these Liberal MPs that were saying, oh, this is ridiculous.
00:19:29.420 I'm a person of faith.
00:19:30.360 I would never support a bill that is an incursion on religious freedom. 0.61
00:19:34.280 But when push comes to shove, they shut up, they fall in line and vote.
00:19:37.240 So the idea of, like, the pro-free speech liberal crusader for civil liberties just does not exist now.
00:19:44.320 Yeah, and I'm guessing the Bloc Québécois and the NDP are no different.
00:19:49.000 I mean, the Bloc Québécois on Bill C9 was one of the reasons the bill was as bad as it was.
00:19:54.340 The NDP, it's a mixed bag.
00:19:56.180 I mean, a lot of them do support fundamentally free speech.
00:19:59.780 I mean, we saw with Jagmeet Singh, it was only free speech for people that he agreed with, which defeats the purpose of it.
00:20:05.320 I mean, there have been some in that caucus that have been very principled on this, but
00:20:08.880 ultimately my view is that when push comes to shove, only the Conservatives are the party
00:20:12.500 of free speech.
00:20:13.600 Who knows?
00:20:14.000 Maybe the courts are a better route to defend freedom than Parliament, but I don't know
00:20:18.100 if we can even count on that.
00:20:19.720 Well, I mean, look, we had a case a couple of months ago where the Supreme Court ruled
00:20:23.740 that a one-year mandatory minimum sentence for child pornography possession is cruel
00:20:28.600 and unusual punishment.
00:20:29.720 So there are a lot of bad court rulings out there.
00:20:32.600 I think we need to fire on all cylinders.
00:20:34.120 We need to make these cases in the courts, we need to make them in Parliament, and we also need to make them in culture.
00:20:39.120 And that's why independent media plays such a vital role.
00:20:42.280 Thanks for letting me pop in to catch up with you.
00:20:44.120 I have one last question, and it's a political question.
00:20:47.220 For months, I've observed what I consider bad faith criticisms of Pierre Polyev.
00:20:54.220 And they're often by people who obviously don't want the Conservative Party to succeed,
00:20:59.380 but they think they can sort of denormalize Polyev and wobble him.
00:21:02.980 And I think they were in cahoots with Mark Carney, who was bribing some conservatives to cross the floor.
00:21:08.700 What's the spirit or what's the mood in the caucus?
00:21:12.540 Because if you were to read it through the mainstream media, it would have looked very dark.
00:21:18.780 And maybe it was.
00:21:19.700 What's it like being a Pierre Pagliou MP today?
00:21:23.120 Look, I have such tremendous confidence in Pierre.
00:21:25.980 And despite the fact that we didn't win the last election, we had a stronger showing in terms of vote percentage than even Stephen Harper got when he won a majority.
00:21:35.580 Like, just to put in context how a lot of this is really the result of the NDP just collapsing.
00:21:40.600 But at the end of the day, like, he's been a consistent fighter on the economy, on freedom, on immigration, which has been really one of the defining issues.
00:21:48.180 And it's one of the reasons that a lot of Canadians are getting so fed up with the job market, the wait times for hospitals.
00:21:53.940 and then you look at the numbers of how many temporary residents continue to come into Canada.
00:21:59.280 So all of these are things that Pierre is absolutely fighting on,
00:22:02.640 is asking all of us as MPs to fight on.
00:22:05.700 But you're right on the broader point when you turn on the TV
00:22:08.500 and all of these people who do not like the Conservatives,
00:22:10.920 who've never liked the Conservatives,
00:22:12.280 are trying to give us advice on what we really need to do.
00:22:15.580 And, I mean, generally speaking, never take advice from people who hate you is a good idea.
00:22:19.420 Yeah. Hey, great to see you.
00:22:20.640 Thanks a lot, Ezra.
00:22:21.260 There he is, Andrew Lawton, one of the good guys.
00:22:23.940 i really like danielle smith i've actually known her for most of my life i met her
00:22:36.140 in university when i was an undergrad i was the head of the reform party student society
00:22:41.760 and she was the head of the conservative party students isn't that funny and we we've been
00:22:47.280 friends and acquaintances for i guess that's 30 years more than 30 years and you know i don't
00:22:53.880 agree with everything she's done but i support her i think she's the best premier in canada
00:22:58.000 i think she should be tougher in dealing with mark carney and i don't think she had to take
00:23:03.580 sides in the referendum but she did but i think that she's an incredibly important bulwark
00:23:09.680 against the nvp coming back into power but she needs to keep her base motivated not by doing
00:23:15.580 crazy things but by doing conservative things like repealing section three that's what i was 1.00
00:23:21.260 prosecuted under. If Nahid Nenshi or the media, I don't even think the media would support Section
00:23:27.960 3. They didn't when I was prosecuted under. It's such an obscure, rare law. I really don't, I can't
00:23:36.140 even think of people who would be against repealing it other than the kind of, you know, rent seekers
00:23:42.880 who latch on to any government program. So complaining lawyers, grievance hustlers,
00:23:50.620 no real person thinks that law is a good idea. And believe me, Stephen Harper was a very cautious
00:23:56.500 man. He wouldn't have repealed it federally if he thought there would be any blowback,
00:24:00.260 and there wasn't. This is such an easy win for Danielle Smith, and she shouldn't bow down to 0.97
00:24:06.920 some junior staffer. She should make this part of her platform. And by the way, I think Mickey 0.98
00:24:14.580 Amory, the justice minister, I think he should clarify, is he the justice minister or the
00:24:20.320 premier? That's our show for the day. Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel
00:24:25.980 World Headquarters to you at home, good night and keep fighting for freedom.
00:24:36.920 You