Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Deadly crash hijacked by elites obsessed with optics

00:00:00.080 Hello, my friends. I'm so grossed out by the reaction to the terrible and tragic accident

00:00:06.180 when a Air Canada jet smashed into a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York.

00:00:11.860 Two pilots were killed, many others injured.

00:00:14.240 And the number one thing on the minds of Ottawa politicians and pundits is,

00:00:19.100 why did the Air Canada CEO only give his remarks in English?

00:00:23.760 How dare he? And they're summoning him to Ottawa.

00:00:26.160 I'll give you my thoughts on that super gross reaction, as if that is the tragedy of this crash.

00:00:34.360 It's just so awful.

00:00:37.140 But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus.

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00:01:28.600 tonight the ottawa elite attacks a grieving manager for not speaking french

00:01:49.520 it's march 25th and this is the ezra levant show 0.91

00:01:52.840 shame on you you sensorious bug

00:01:59.040 a few days ago there was a terrible tragedy in new york city at the la guardia airport 0.88

00:02:13.480 uh here i'll let you listen to the terrible recording of the air traffic control agent

00:02:20.480 directing a large fire truck to enter a runway

00:02:25.780 and then realizing that an Air Canada plane

00:02:29.600 was landing on that same runway

00:02:31.380 and desperately trying to get the truck

00:02:33.940 to stop entering the runway.

00:02:37.180 Here, take a look.

00:02:38.080 Stop, truck one, stop. 0.62

00:02:40.280 Grounded at 2384 is declaring an emergency.

00:02:42.600 Flight attendants in the back are feeling ill.

00:02:44.460 Because of the odor,

00:02:45.800 we will need to go into any available gate at this time.

00:02:49.460 Okay, roger that.

00:02:50.480 Hey, there's that again. Do you guys have any gate for United?

00:02:54.880 Because now they're declaring an emergency, they want to get out.

00:02:57.480 Yeah.

00:02:58.480 Let me ask them. I'll call you right back.

00:03:01.480 Okay, right at that.

00:03:02.480 Chat 646, the water.

00:03:04.480 4 for chat 646.

00:03:08.480 646 number 2, close to line 4.

00:03:10.480 Close to line number 2, for chat 646.

00:03:12.480 And 2384, do you have a gate available at this time? Otherwise we will be probably requesting your service.

00:03:18.480 Give me one second.

00:03:20.480 2384.

00:03:22.480 Standby United.

00:03:24.480 Who's the vehicle that needs to cross the runway?

00:03:26.480 Emergency vehicles calling on ground or are you calling on tower?

00:03:30.480 Truck 1 & Co. LaGuardia Tower.

00:03:33.480 Truck 1 & Co.

00:03:35.480 Truck 1 & Co. LaGuardia Tower requesting to cross 4 at Delta.

00:03:39.480 Truck 1 & Co. Cross 4 at Delta.

00:03:42.480 Truck 1 & Co. Crossing 4 at Delta.

00:03:45.480 Frontier 4195 to stop there please.

00:03:49.480 Stop, stop, stop, stop, truck one, stop, stop, stop, sorry, truck one, stop, truck one, stop, stop, truck one, stop

00:03:58.280 4195, we're staying here

00:04:02.600 Del 2603, go around, runway heading 2000, shot 646

00:04:08.440 Shot 646, I see you, I have a vehicle, I just hold position, I know you can't move, the vehicles are responding to you now

00:04:15.580 Is the runway closed?

00:04:17.860 oh just so terrible absolutely terrible and i'm going to show you something you may wish to look

00:04:37.780 away here's a video of the actual impact of the plane traveling very quickly on the ground

00:04:44.020 smashing into the large firetruck as you can still see by this still photo the whole front

00:04:49.620 of the plane was destroyed and the pilots obviously died immediately many others were

00:04:55.160 injured one flight attendant who was strapped into a seat was flown or thrown hundreds of feet away

00:05:01.540 absolute shocking um and it happened very late at night and i actually was boarding a plane and

00:05:07.980 uh you may recall i went to fredereton very briefly and i was getting on the plane at around

00:05:13.360 5 a.m. so all the staff had just heard about what had happened and it was funereal on the plane

00:05:21.860 everyone was just ashes the pilots the crew everyone had by that time heard what was going

00:05:28.600 on in new york city just absolutely devastating i can imagine that the air canada ceo was woken

00:05:36.960 from his sleep if this accident happened i think it was around 11 30 p.m at night i don't doubt

00:05:43.360 that someone would have called the ceo probably by midnight or 1 a.m not at any later than that

00:05:50.420 so he would have been woken up to get on starting to do things the horrible job of informing the

00:05:57.940 families figuring out who was on the plane what medical help what other help do they need letting

00:06:03.920 you can imagine there's so many things that would need to be done so uh he probably only had one

00:06:10.340 hours of sleep and one of the things that he was told to do obviously by his communication staff

00:06:16.740 was to put out a statement which he did on twitter and he gave the statement and i don't know i

00:06:22.500 watched it almost immediately when it went to live and you can tell that he's not a showboat

00:06:29.160 He's not, you know, a type A personality, big guy.

00:06:33.400 I mean, in fact, I'd never seen him before.

00:06:34.700 I didn't even know his name.

00:06:36.340 He's low key compared to past CEOs of airlines or other CEOs of airlines who sometimes attract

00:06:42.240 real personalities.

00:06:43.500 This guy seems to be very modest by comparison.

00:06:47.020 I want you to watch this.

00:06:47.920 It's a couple minutes long.

00:06:49.640 I watched it and I thought it was heartfelt.

00:06:52.180 I thought he showed, he was obviously tired and sad.

00:06:56.700 It was very genuine.

00:06:57.620 He wasn't a showboat at all.

00:07:01.200 I found it a little bit touching.

00:07:03.220 I mean, the content was fairly dry.

00:07:05.320 See for yourself.

00:07:06.020 This is the CEO of Air Canada.

00:07:07.860 Michael Russo is his name.

00:07:08.980 Take a look.

00:07:09.520 Hello.

00:07:10.160 Bonjour.

00:07:11.620 I'm Michael Russo, President and CEO of Air Canada.

00:07:16.740 Today is a very somber day at Air Canada.

00:07:21.020 I'm here to provide information on an accident that occurred involving an Air Canada Express

00:07:27.160 aircraft. The aircraft was operated by Jazz Aviation LP, which operates flights on behalf

00:07:34.860 of Air Canada. First, and most importantly, I want to express our deepest sorrow for everyone

00:07:42.560 affected. Our efforts are focused on the needs of our passengers and crew members, along

00:07:49.620 with their families and loved ones. We know this is a difficult day for everyone, including

00:07:55.760 all of us at Air Canada. We know that there are many questions, but at this early stage we do not

00:08:04.000 have all the answers, as the circumstances are still being assessed. However, I do want to share

00:08:11.280 the information I have at this time. The event happened at LaGuardia Airport after Air Canada

00:08:18.480 flight AC-8646 operated by Jazz Aviation, a CRJ-900 aircraft traveling from Montreal

00:08:27.440 to New York had landed. Flight AC-8646 was carrying 72 passengers and 4 crew members,

00:08:38.640 for a total of 76 people on board. We now know that the captain and the first officer were

00:08:45.840 killed in this accident. We are deeply saddened by the loss of two Jazz employees and our deepest

00:08:52.480 condolences go out to the entire Jazz community and their families. We are working with the

00:08:58.800 authorities to confirm the number of injuries and if there are any other fatalities.

00:09:05.520 We are actively working with all relevant authorities on emergency response efforts.

00:09:09.920 The Air Canada Special Assistance Team has been activated to assist our customers and their families.

00:09:16.920 We're fully supporting the relevant investigative authorities in their investigation to learn everything we can about these events.

00:09:24.920 While that work will take time, anything we can do now, we're doing.

00:09:29.920 And right now, that means focusing on taking care of those impacted by this incident, including their families.

00:09:36.920 Members of our specialized team will be on their way to New York.

00:09:40.920 We know that many people are concerned about the welfare of their loved ones,

00:09:45.920 and we've set up a special helpline.

00:09:48.920 Friends and family can call 1-800-961-7099.

00:09:55.920 That's 1-800-961-7099.

00:10:01.920 if you believe you've had friends or family on board Air Canada Flight 8646.

00:10:08.920 We understand and appreciate that people are seeking information.

00:10:13.920 Please know that we will provide information as it is verified and cleared by the authorities for release.

00:10:20.920 All our official statements and updates will be posted to our website, aircanada.com,

00:10:27.920 and to Air Canada's official social media channels.

00:10:31.760 Our team of highly trained professionals will work around the clock

00:10:35.780 to support our customers, their families, and our crew and their families

00:10:41.040 in every way we can, and we'll update you regularly

00:10:44.320 as soon as information becomes available.

00:10:47.720 Thank you. Merci.

00:10:49.440 Well, as you can see, despite his name Rousseau, he is not French,

00:10:53.560 And so what they did is they had French subtitles underneath, which obviously does the job, but it was not translated.

00:11:05.320 There was, I mean, Rousseau himself did not attempt to speak it in French and they didn't have someone else doing it in French.

00:11:12.360 And I think, frankly, either would have been a bad idea.

00:11:15.900 Having someone else do it in French doesn't quite make sense because there were French subtitles and you want it to come from the CEO.

00:11:21.600 And apparently his French is very weak, and it would have been a disaster had he tried.

00:11:26.400 But let me say the obvious.

00:11:28.920 That's not what was going through his mind at the time.

00:11:31.620 He was thinking of a plane where two pilots are dead, many more were injured, and he didn't

00:11:36.820 have all the facts, and he had to do his job.

00:11:39.260 That was what's on his mind.

00:11:41.160 And the U.S. Department of Transportation, they were shocked by this as well.

00:11:44.760 They weighed in.

00:11:45.820 The Secretary of Transport immediately said he was getting involved.

00:11:48.920 They actually shut down LaGuardia Airport, which is one of the largest airports in New York City.

00:11:54.320 It was shut down for quite a while.

00:11:56.900 There's going to be lots of questions, mainly for the U.S. side, because as you heard in the audio, it sounds certainly like an air traffic control error.

00:12:05.140 There may have been other errors as well.

00:12:07.020 I heard that there may have been some transponder issue, as in some identifier where the truck was.

00:12:13.460 There may have been other problems.

00:12:15.100 i understand that there was another aircraft a united aircraft that had a possible emergency

00:12:20.680 that they were responding to um the whole airport system has been under strain because of a budget

00:12:26.420 dispute in washington washington so the tsa had huge lineups obviously that's irrelevant here

00:12:35.900 they say there's an air traffic control shortage in america i believe it but uh i don't know if

00:12:41.580 that was a factor here it sounds like the man who was on duty was overtaxed and i i uh i'm sure

00:12:48.260 we'll get a exhaustive report of what happened in due course but from what we can see already

00:12:54.440 this is a tragedy it's an accident maybe it's more than that maybe it's negligence

00:12:59.660 but it's pretty obvious that it's not air canada's fault and it's certainly obviously it's not the

00:13:06.340 fault of air canada's ceo but look at this reaction look at who is using this tragedy

00:13:13.860 to swan for the cameras look at melanie jolie it's always about her isn't it she can't stand

00:13:20.900 the fact that there's an emotional moment where she's not at the center of it look at her just

00:13:25.780 making this all about her melanie jolie but when it comes also to uh the fact that the president

00:13:33.780 of Air Canada didn't speak French, at the time where we know that a lot of the victims

00:13:40.100 and their families are francophones, knowing also that Air Canada has duties, obligations

00:13:46.700 under the Official Languages Act, I just thought it showed a lack of empathy and a lack of

00:13:53.900 sensitivity. And in that sense, I think it's a question of moral leadership. And I think that

00:14:02.500 in those circumstances, the president of Air Canada needs to show that he understood the

00:14:12.620 message and that he needs to make sure that himself and also the entire company abides by

00:14:19.040 its obligation on the reaction. Just disgusting. She really is a disgusting woman. Imagine trying 1.00

00:14:26.040 to get headlines off of this personal tragedy. Here's Mark Carney, who obviously was told that

00:14:32.900 this would be a good chance to shore up his support in Quebec, especially with that one

00:14:38.220 Quebec by-election coming up in a few weeks. Here's Mark Carney. We live, as I just said,

00:14:45.080 in a bilingual country.

00:14:47.580 We proudly live in a bilingual country.

00:14:50.300 And companies like Air Canada particularly have a responsibility

00:14:54.180 to always communicate in both official languages,

00:14:57.340 regardless of the situation.

00:15:00.700 I'm very disappointed in, as others are, rightly so,

00:15:04.900 in this unilingual message of the CEO of Air Canada.

00:15:12.600 It doesn't matter the circumstance,

00:15:13.840 but particularly in these circumstances, lack of judgment and lack of compassion, lack of compassion.

00:15:21.720 And as you know, the Committee of Official Languages has summoned the CEO to appear before it.

00:15:30.100 I will follow his comments closely and comments which I would expect in due course from the board of directors.

00:15:36.760 His French is not much better than mine or, let's say, Preston Manning's.

00:15:41.420 um if i had friends as bad as his i'm not sure if i would be pointing fingers at someone else

00:15:45.980 and um what was that he said the other day uh when he was asked about um uh the fact that uh he hid

00:15:54.500 iran's attack on our soldiers in kuwait what was that again here take a look well uh i mean i'm not

00:16:01.600 the only spokesperson for the government uh oh right he had himself said he's not the only

00:16:07.240 spokesman for Canada. I guess that works to get him off the hook, but he wouldn't let that apply

00:16:12.920 to the Air Canada CEO. Carney said that there was a lack of compassion on the part of the CEO. Do

00:16:19.920 you think that's true? Do you think that CEO was showing a lack of compassion? Didn't sound like

00:16:25.160 it to me. I think it's outrageous. I think that Mark Carney and Melanie Jolie and a lot of other

00:16:30.840 politicians, and I even saw one conservative do it too, they were effectively standing on the dead

00:16:36.360 bodies to score points in quebec it reminded me a little bit remember that thing it was a bigger

00:16:41.960 deal about 20 years ago the westboro baptist church it was sort of a very extremist uh splinter

00:16:49.020 group church and they had this belief and i don't really understand it they would have protests

00:16:54.660 at funerals against the family at the funeral especially if there was a military casualty

00:17:01.540 They would go to the military funerals with placards, with big signs, denouncing the soldiers and saying crazy things. 0.99

00:17:13.280 I mean, I'm just going to say one of their lines was, God hates fags. 1.00

00:17:16.280 That's one of the things they said in their posters. 0.99

00:17:19.260 Like, it's just shocking behavior, turning funerals into a political moment for themselves.

00:17:24.080 how is Melanie Jolie and Mark Carney doing anything different than a Westboro Baptist church

00:17:30.300 turning someone else's grief into a political moment for themselves? Super gross. I see the 0.90

00:17:35.820 Montreal Gazette. Montreal is the headquarters for Air Canada. They had a story about this.

00:17:41.640 Let me quote a little bit. Christophe Annabelle, vice president of corporate communications at

00:17:47.240 Air Canada, said despite many hours of courses, Rousseau's proficiency in French did not allow

00:17:52.420 him to convey such a sense of measures to customers and employees and those affected

00:17:57.280 by the tragedy. In French, obviously, quote, unfortunately, he has not reached the level

00:18:03.740 of French he would like, Annabelle said, adding Rousseau has taken 350 hours of language courses

00:18:12.660 and spent another 250 hours in practice situations to improve his skills since taking the job.

00:18:20.680 600 hours that is an astonishing commitment of time to learn french and obviously he has

00:18:29.620 french staff including hannabelle himself i can't believe that the ceo has spent that much time on

00:18:37.300 it hannabelle said of course rousseau isn't resigning that's what a politician might demand

00:18:42.540 could you imagine in the middle of a crisis demanding that the chief executive the chief

00:18:48.600 decider the chief doer just quit because some politician is mad at him russo is actually

00:18:55.840 quarterbacking air canna's entire response he's the man who knows all the assets and the strengths

00:19:02.740 and the personnel in the company knows all the systems and he's the one calling the shots imagine

00:19:07.600 taking him out because he didn't try and speak broken french how unserious is our country and 0.99

00:19:17.320 And how gross is the fact that politicians know they can do this and be praised by the media, including the CBC itself.

00:19:26.340 You know, this bilingualist extremism seeps into everything in Canada. 0.79

00:19:32.340 You know, you can't get a job as a senior RCMP officer if you're not bilingual.

00:19:40.100 Don't bother aiming to be a senior brass in the Canadian military if you're not bilingual.

00:19:44.800 or a senior person really in any government bureaucracy,

00:19:47.720 once you're past a certain point,

00:19:49.420 if you're not bilingual French-English, you have no chance.

00:19:52.940 That's how it is effectively for our Supreme Court now.

00:19:55.640 Even though they have the finest interpreters in the world,

00:19:58.020 if you are not part of the only part of Canada

00:20:00.840 that builds bilingual people,

00:20:03.860 namely some parts of Montreal, the Montreal elite,

00:20:06.940 no one else in this country has the ability to learn French naturally.

00:20:11.520 I mean, listen, this CEO tried 600 hours and he just couldn't get it.

00:20:16.240 It's only if you grow up at a truly bilingual place and there's only a very few places like that.

00:20:21.520 It is a form of DEI protection just for one particular group.

00:20:28.060 No one else has a chance to be bilingual, including, by the way, foreign immigrants to Canada.

00:20:34.280 If you come to Canada from China or India or anywhere else, learning your first language, whether it's French or English, is tough enough to learn your second extra language.

00:20:46.120 So now three languages at a level enough to be considered bilingual.

00:20:51.060 It's almost impossible.

00:20:52.720 It really is a way to keep up foreign migrants, isn't it? 1.00

00:20:55.640 This demand for extreme bilingualism.

00:20:57.280 and i think it's just so gross all these people standing on dead bodies mugging for the cameras

00:21:05.580 the only thing grosser is the media that loves it stay with us more ahead including uh for my

00:21:14.100 discussion with two leading alberta independence activists two lawyers at that that's next

00:21:27.280 Right. When we have two of the most prominent faces of the independence movement sitting with us for at least the next, let's just say, 20 minutes or so, we should pick their brains.

00:21:36.840 So before we came on air, Jeffrey was hinting to us that he was going through some 400-ish pages of documents that are being leveled at the independence movement from the indigenous bands.

00:21:52.580 Yeah, and it's pretty remarkable when you read what their lawyers are doing.

00:21:56.140 They're effectively applying for an injunction or a stay by way of judicial review of the decision of the chief electoral officer to certify Mitch Sylvester's petition to go forward.

00:22:09.960 So, in effect, they're trying to undo, you know, months and months of very hard work by hundreds of thousands of Albertans who are interested in independence.

00:22:19.060 And these briefs, like hundreds of pages of briefs, and it's based on a complete misconception of the law.

00:22:25.840 I think, as most people know, like Keith knows, I've spent 34 years of my life pioneering the law in and around Indigenous consultation in Canada.

00:22:35.300 And these lawyers seem to think that you can just wave the word treaty rights and wave the word consultation in the air.

00:22:41.320 like some sort of magical invocation or magical wand and somehow or other it'll force citizens

00:22:48.560 or stop citizens from being able to communicate with their elected representatives in a manner

00:22:54.880 prescribed by the legislature i mean these briefs are some of the most ludicrous things that i've

00:23:00.000 ever read and they ignore i mean the early consultation cases dealt with actual infringements

00:23:06.100 of actual rights like somebody tying a surveying ribbon on somebody's corral rail marked center

00:23:13.120 of road and they're going to come in with bulldozers and bulldoze you know a road through

00:23:17.820 the middle of a hundred year old indigenous hunting camp that you know that has been there

00:23:22.560 basically since time immemorial you know that's a clear infringement of an existing right that

00:23:28.620 could easily be addressed by moving the road a kilometer or two down the road or you know down

00:23:32.920 you know you know east or west or whatever it is i mean there's solutions to these these problems

00:23:37.560 that can be addressed through consultation but these lawyers and these chiefs i think have been

00:23:42.640 misadvised by these lawyers to think that all they have to do is the government has an obligation to

00:23:47.100 consult with us and therefore the government wanting to consult with its own citizens by way

00:23:52.880 of a legislatively mandated process should stop because we have a veto and we say so i mean it's

00:23:59.600 like, none of these people went to law school. I'm just baffled when I read these briefs to try

00:24:03.600 to figure out where the hell they're coming from. Keith, I want to ask, sorry, Ezra, you go ahead.

00:24:09.300 No, you're going to go ahead. I was going to, I know that Keith has spent a lot of time addressing

00:24:14.100 Indigenous concerns and I'd love to hear his reaction. I'm not sure what written documents

00:24:20.880 you're referring to, Jeff, if these are a legal factum or affidavits, but I don't know, Keith,

00:24:26.860 These are legal briefs that have been filed in these judicial review applications, and then a very misconceived injunction application being brought by a lawyer by the name of Orla O'Kelly in Edmonton.

00:24:40.800 Everybody should remember that Orla O'Kelly was the same lawyer along with another lawyer by the name of Sharon Robert, who thought it was a good idea to run into court to get a court order re-masking children in Alberta after the pandemic emergency had been declared to an end.

00:24:56.440 And, you know, the Alberta Teachers Association and lawyers thought it was a good idea to try to have every child in the province ordered by a judge against their parents' will to be re-masked in the schools.

00:25:08.100 And, of course, that injunction was round for rejected by the court.

00:25:11.380 And, you know, we're hoping, you know, this is headed in the same direction.

00:25:14.860 well what i would say ezra is that um jeff and i have a great deal of respect for one another and

00:25:23.000 uh we decided that only one of us was going to have to suffer through reading these things

00:25:27.980 there was no point in uh but what i can say with confidence is that every level this application

00:25:38.840 by a few of the chiefs is frivolous and vexatious and politically motivated there is no fact pattern

00:25:44.600 under which that's before the court or that's contemplated where either treaty rights or

00:25:50.420 traditional first nation aboriginal rights would be in any way abrogated in any way breached in

00:25:56.500 any way compromised um the the idea of citizens engaging in the process of petition is the oldest

00:26:04.700 form of democracy it is it is it's an essential element of democracy that citizens are able to

00:26:12.920 petition their government and as jeff's pointed out if the court gets an injunction it would be

00:26:20.400 equivalent to getting an issues an injunction it would be equivalent of issuing injunction to

00:26:24.960 citizens saying you can't write to your mla it's a perfect analogy this is absolutely outrageous 0.83

00:26:31.280 if we vote you know the each first nation citizen gets the right to sign the petition just like

00:26:37.860 anyone else they have nothing special there each first nation uh after the vote for independence

00:26:43.400 on october 19th if we're successful each first nation will have a decision to make do they want

00:26:48.380 the status quo where their treaty is respected and their treaty lands uh are continue to be

00:26:53.580 administered just like they are today there's no requirement there's no necessity for change if

00:26:57.440 they want the status quo if that's what they decide they can have it if they want alberta 0.63

00:27:01.280 to step into the shoes of the federal government and administer the treaties they can ask for that

00:27:06.400 And the parties can agree only if the First Nations agree and ask or some of the First Nations, I suspect, are going to say these are really old documents.

00:27:14.000 We want a more modern relationship. So there's nothing threatening here.

00:27:17.760 This is pure politics. And I certainly hope the court realizes how improper it would be for a court to interfere in the democratic process of petition.

00:27:31.080 I got one more question. Oh, sorry. Go ahead.

00:27:33.820 No, I just wanted to add to that. You know, one of the things I'd like all of the chiefs to internalize is why do they think that they're going to be so much worse off when Alberta is no longer sending $15 billion a year to Quebec and that that money could be staying in Alberta, you know, to assist in coming to a renewed relationship with the Indigenous communities of Alberta to help lift them out of the poverty that, you know, that Ottawa has left them in.

00:28:01.040 You know, and then the other thing is, too, getting back to these court applications and following up on a piece point.

00:28:05.960 That's what's been bothering me about this whole application.

00:28:08.860 It's this idea that somehow, and again, it's just bad lawyering as far as I'm concerned, that lawyers would suggest to a client that, you know, that they could succeed in getting an injunction to prevent a citizen from communicating with their elected representative.

00:28:23.880 And again, the judge actually said in a case management meeting, she said, look, the odds of me stopping the gathering of petition signatures is slim to none.

00:28:33.620 So, you know, we should be focusing on what happens after, you know, the chief electoral officer, you know, receives the petition and the petition signature.

00:28:43.720 But now at this point, it's almost the equivalence of saying, oh, yeah, we're not going to stop citizens from mailing a letter to their MLA or to the premier.

00:28:51.700 But we want a mandatory injunction to place censors in all of the MLA's office and the premier's office to open all of the mail.

00:29:00.480 And if there's any communication coming in in the mail that's offensive to the chiefs, it should not be forwarded on to the MLA or the premier.

00:29:08.580 It's an absolute abrogation of the democratic process.

00:29:12.340 And quite frankly, one of the most nonsensical court applications that I've ever witnessed is a lawyer going on 35 years of practice.

00:29:19.940 Keith, what is the nature of this?

00:29:24.900 Is it an emergency application before a judge?

00:29:28.560 Has the judge been chosen yet?

00:29:30.420 Do we know which judge is going to hear this?

00:29:32.780 Is there room for interveners to come in?

00:29:35.920 because I would be curious if other people would want to give a representation as a friend of the

00:29:41.580 court to the judge. It's a, it's an ordinary course, judicial review, um, with the, it's a

00:29:49.580 special chambers application. Um, you know, this is, it's the normal process you follow when you're

00:29:55.640 challenging a governmental decision. Uh, the parties are pretty much established, uh, um,

00:30:01.820 and it's subject to case management. So it's a going to hearing, uh, I believe, um, I think

00:30:08.500 there's a, a first hearing on the 7th of April and then there's the main, uh, two day hearing.

00:30:13.460 No, it's a four day, it's a four day hearing, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th in Edmonton. And, uh, uh,

00:30:19.780 so there's no, no interveners. I mean, that you have, uh, two separate judicial review applications,

00:30:25.100 one by the chiefs of the Blackfoot Confederacy, one by the Athabasca Chippewa and First Nation.

00:30:30.560 And then we have this bizarre lawsuit filed by Orla O'Kelly seeking the injunction, which has been filed on behalf of Sturgeon Lake, Cree Nation, where in effect, you know, they're seeking declarations and seeking court orders to say that the legislature of Alberta, by mandating a process by which citizens can communicate their wishes to the government by petition,

00:30:56.920 has somehow infringed or abrogated treaty and aboriginal rights and you know and i have to say

00:31:03.880 is you know a lawyer who's you know the only lawyer in that courtroom and quite frankly a

00:31:08.040 lawyer in canada who's won more treaty and aboriginal rights cases than any other lawyer

00:31:12.100 in the country um that you know this whole notion that they're pursuing makes absolutely no sense i

00:31:18.660 know the alberta treaties backwards and forwards the micasoo case i won at the supreme court of

00:31:23.860 canada i want the point that even the oral promises actually form part of the treaty not

00:31:29.900 an interpretive aid of the treaties i know the oral promises of all of these treaties backwards

00:31:34.580 and forwards i've won consultation cases under every treaty in alberta and you know there's

00:31:40.840 nothing in any of those treaties or oral promises that says i you know the first nations will have

00:31:45.640 a treaty right to prevent citizens of alberta from communicating with their government you know

00:31:51.920 it's ridiculous keith let me go to you about the politics because it sounds like this case

00:31:58.280 um well i i tell you one thing if these injunctions are granted and albertans are told they can't have

00:32:05.580 a referendum quebec had two referendums but if alberta is not allowed to have its referendum

00:32:11.380 because of a judge i think that will actually make independence ferocious especially if the

00:32:17.600 judge is a federal appointee. But can I ask about my old friend, Jason Kenney, who I think has

00:32:25.420 fallen into being the advocate for the remain side of this referendum. I'd like your thoughts

00:32:35.360 on him, Keith. First of all, I understand that you may have been invited to debate him. Has that

00:32:40.500 invitation happened as a think tank or something asked you to go head to head with him? What do

00:32:45.660 you make of his energetic activism for the remain side well i'm glad there's someone trying to make

00:32:53.000 the case for staying in canada because it's one of the things jeff and i have struggles with is

00:32:58.480 finding someone who can at least make a cogent argument as to why there's even one reason

00:33:03.180 that it would be in my kids and grandkids best interest to do that uh yes i did receive two

00:33:09.420 invitations uh been negotiating the details over the last month um so i have agreed to two public

00:33:16.200 debates uh with mr kenny the former premier one will be at the civitas conference in early may

00:33:22.900 in edmonton and the second one will be a wide open public event put on by the aristotle society

00:33:30.140 mark milkey's group in calgary i think around the 21st of may i think there'll be some public

00:33:36.300 announcements coming out um you know and the the what i keep coming back to is each time i ask

00:33:44.800 myself you know why am i doing this uh why am i so supportive of independence it's because by

00:33:52.360 every single measure that i can think of every practical aspect every economic viewpoint social

00:34:00.980 political it just makes sense there's no good reason for alberta to stay in canada

00:34:08.680 um you know right now we have this mou controversy the mou you know i try to think of an analogy

00:34:17.720 imagine you and i are trying to get out of a room and there's and there's a person holding there's

00:34:25.400 there's two people in a room and one person's holding the door closed from the inside and

00:34:31.280 you're both standing there and we're and and then they look at you go we need to do an mou so we can

00:34:37.040 get out of this room and i'm like well why don't you just move away from the door what am i getting

00:34:42.340 at the the mou is to get around the tanker ban that the same people impose the mou is to get

00:34:51.300 around Bill C-69 approved no project law that they imposed. The MOU is to see whether or not

00:35:01.560 the oil industry can afford to spend 10 or 15 or more dollars a barrel on green fairy dust.

00:35:09.720 And so the people who are responsible for creating these barriers to our growth and

00:35:18.760 our prosperity and releasing to the world that which we're now seeing because the straight-of-home

00:35:23.800 use they desperately need are the same people we're negotiating the mou with it's just baffling

00:35:30.080 to me it makes no sense by every measure uh albertans will be better off um to to to move

00:35:38.440 forward through independence and and more and more albertans are waking up to that reality

00:35:41.980 uh gentlemen i know that we probably only have you for a few more minutes i think that was the

00:35:48.000 deal that we made with you. But before we let you go, I need an update. Either one of you can jump

00:35:54.300 in on the status of great separatist leader Thomas Lukaszek's Forever Canada efforts to get his

00:36:01.820 question approved onto the potential referendum ballot. Well, I guess it's a done deal in October.

00:36:11.000 I know that he was crying and moaning about, you know, a panel not being convened quickly enough to address his question.

00:36:20.740 What do we know about where they're at?

00:36:24.900 My understanding is it's still stuck in committee and, you know, and Mr. Nenshi is beating his breast and, you know, is most upset that the UCP aren't moving, you know, Mr. Lukasik's question, you know, forward quickly enough.

00:36:39.200 But, I mean, there's still a huge amount of confusion arising because the question went to the legislature and Mr. Lukasik said that he didn't want a referendum and he just wanted the question dealt with by the legislature.

00:36:51.660 So, you know, and then we have the other issue, too, that Mr. Lukasik's question is merely a policy question that wouldn't actually pass the smell test with the Clarity Act.

00:37:02.920 So I don't know why the government of Alberta would be spending a bunch of money to put Mr. LeCassek's question on the ballot when his question, as Justice Feesby explained in court, was a pure nothing burger.

00:37:15.400 And those were, you know, nothing burger, to remind everybody, those were the judge's words for that, you know, for that question, not mine.

00:37:23.800 Keith?

00:37:25.020 Well, it's either that or it means something.

00:37:28.180 And what the actual wording of the actual form that I've reposted many times, including I think yesterday, that Lukasik signed and filled out himself, was calling on the Alberta government to hold a referendum.

00:37:44.400 not it doesn't say i want the alberta government the legislature to decide anything it says it

00:37:51.560 he wants a province-wide referendum it says by signing this petition his petition you are calling

00:37:58.260 on the alberta government to hold a province-wide referendum on whether or not alberta should stay

00:38:03.820 or leave canada so yeah there's a procedural defect there but that's a pretty strong signal

00:38:09.740 to the premier and to her government that Albertans want to vote on this. I expect what's

00:38:15.780 going to happen. She's been pretty clear that there will be an independence question on the ballot

00:38:22.060 on October 19th. It'll be a separate ballot. It will be the first in the stack and it'll have a

00:38:28.860 standalone independence question on it. I think clearly Stay Free Alberta and Mitch Sylvester's

00:38:35.220 petition is going to be successful. It's going to hit the target and exceed it. And then that

00:38:41.120 will give the mandate to Premier Smith in her cabinet to formulate which precise wording they're

00:38:47.960 going to use. And hopefully they'll use ours because Jeff and I were very careful to mimic

00:38:52.320 the actual legal test from the Clarity Act right into the question. So we're going to be voting

00:38:59.840 on independence in october and it's an exciting time because i think we can actually achieve this

00:39:05.480 and i don't see the negotiations that would follow as being drawn out my expectation is that we could

00:39:13.080 complete the negotiation process and know where the party stand within 90 days the limited functions

00:39:19.740 that alberta needs to take over from the federal government are all known there's no mystery here

00:39:24.260 it's like a passport office yeah we think we can do better oh we'll need border guards at the

00:39:28.520 airports and the borders okay yeah we'll just hire those guys like it's really actually when

00:39:32.980 compared to some of the other complex agreements i've been involved in and mergers and acquisitions

00:39:37.700 this one's actually pretty straightforward i think we can lay out a term sheet and get the

00:39:41.940 deal done and have alberta a free independent country in january and more more important more

00:39:47.060 importantly too in accordance with the secession reference the federal government and the other

00:39:51.220 provinces have an obligation to negotiate in good faith and as keith as keith says we'll have a term

00:39:56.620 sheet form we'll put it on the table here's you know here are our proposed terms if they don't

00:40:00.880 want to negotiate in good faith that then takes alberta directly into paragraph 155 of the

00:40:07.120 secession reference which would allow alberta in good conscience with good reason to unilaterally

00:40:13.040 declare independence from canada and seek international recognition which i am very

00:40:17.840 confident would be forthcoming very quickly from the united states and a number of other u.s western

00:40:23.260 allies that want to see alberta freed from the clutches of communist chinese ottawa okay gentlemen 0.75

00:40:29.800 i know we agreed to keep you for just half an hour and we're over that but i have one more

00:40:33.720 question for you that came up repeatedly on our independence tour and that is okay so let's say

00:40:41.440 that the referendum passes albertans vote to leave the negotiations start guys who does those

00:40:49.100 negotiations? Well, what I would expect would happen is this, and I've talked about this publicly,

00:40:55.520 is, you know, there is work going on behind the scenes and no announcements have been made,

00:41:00.400 but they'll be coming soon by a group to detail the transition plan and the term sheets for both

00:41:08.900 Ottawa and Washington, um, and to have all that ready to go and briefed on and presented to the

00:41:19.240 premier and her group and her team in advance of the vote so that it's go time. Once the votes are

00:41:26.540 counted, you know, which would probably come out on the 20th or the 21st of October, uh, because

00:41:31.780 it will take a day or two because we do manual counts here in Alberta. We don't trust machines

00:41:35.660 anymore. And I support that. And so the Premier is going to have two choices. She's going to either 1.00

00:41:45.460 have to agree to lead the province into independence and lead those negotiations, or she's going to 1.00

00:41:52.400 have to resign and say she just can't do it and have someone take over who can. And the reason I

00:41:59.500 say that is the supreme court of canada was clear uh in the 1998 reference case that if a clear

00:42:06.620 majority of albertans vote on a clear question the party shall enter into good faith negotiations as

00:42:12.580 the terms of of independence it the supreme court of canada didn't say unless the sitting premier

00:42:19.000 doesn't want to do it okay so uh the premier's hands will be tied by law that if she continues 0.99

00:42:28.420 to be premier she will lead those negotiations with ottawa towards alberta becoming independent

00:42:35.660 you know and let's let's be clear too i mean danielle's in a very hard spot right now 1.00

00:42:41.040 because a super majority of the ucp membership support independence and you know so you know

00:42:47.120 she's a leader of a party continuing to you know put forward federalist noises you know and trying 1.00

00:42:52.720 to pretend to continue to be a federalist when her entire party is heading in a separate direction 0.97

00:42:58.200 So, you know, she's either going to have to get to the head of this parade and internalize the fact that she's going to have to lead Alberta independence or, as Keith says, she's going to have to go the route of David Cameron and resign. 0.98

00:43:10.300 I got one more question for you guys. And if you've got to run, don't be shy.

00:43:14.700 I mean, studying the rules of these campaigns and there's the first period, which expires on May 2nd, that's sort of the petition gathering phase.

00:43:25.160 And then I guess on May 3rd, if it's successful, then it's the campaign that goes until October 19th.

00:43:32.960 And I mean, Rebel News is very interested in this.

00:43:36.800 And I think we might actually register as a third party because we want to be our typical rambunctious selves.

00:43:42.720 And we don't want to have to worry that Elections Alberta will say we're being too political.

00:43:47.900 But in my research, I've spent some time on the Elections Alberta website.

00:43:52.280 and i'm surprised at how few groups there are putting their oar in the water on what i think

00:43:59.120 is going to be the most important issue of 2026 just like the trucker convoy was by far

00:44:04.160 the biggest political and news story of 2022 alberta independence how could that not be the

00:44:11.200 biggest story of not just of the year but if i mean imagine if it were to succeed biggest story

00:44:16.940 of the century and yet i see very few groups that are weighing in yet is that just people waiting

00:44:23.620 till may 3rd before they pop up and and declare themselves and show their colors because i don't

00:44:29.620 see the pro and the con engaging in debate yet it seems pretty calm before the storm any thoughts

00:44:35.700 am i maybe i'm getting this wrong i think i'll go first jeff i think they're going to show up

00:44:42.720 I mean, it's early, right?

00:44:46.400 I know of, I was at a meeting last night

00:44:49.840 and there was a number of people there

00:44:51.820 that talked about the third party groups

00:44:53.980 they're organizing.

00:44:55.220 And that was the first I'd heard of it.

00:44:56.660 So I think there's going to be a whole multitude of them.

00:45:01.080 Albertans realize this is an existential decision.

00:45:06.660 They see it that way.

00:45:08.140 It's an existential decision for the future

00:45:10.280 of uh where they want to spend the rest of their lives the for where for the future of their

00:45:16.960 children and their grandchildren um so no i think we're gonna have no shortage of uh um a third

00:45:25.140 party groups the the rules as all of the four of us will know and the listeners or watchers probably

00:45:31.060 don't the viewers the rules are so convoluted and awkward and difficult uh to to navigate

00:45:38.260 for third party advertisers and the fact that they even have to be one to take a position

00:45:43.460 on a policy or a political issue is disappointing in my view but those that's the reality we'll all

00:45:49.960 play by the rules and and and i think many many groups are going to come forward uh coming at

00:45:55.360 this from multiple different angles because it's so important and it's such a huge opportunity

00:45:59.900 you know i just want to point this out look what's happening in australia right now

00:46:05.140 they're running out of fuel they're running out of food the farmers aren't going to be able to

00:46:10.780 get their crops off right um uh and remember their season um they have three refineries

00:46:21.080 alberta has five alberta produces twice as much refined product diesel bunker aircraft fuel

00:46:32.440 um uh gasoline than australia because we haven't shut down our refineries we've grown them

00:46:40.540 uh the farmers in the u.s are worried about their ability to seed their crops because of

00:46:46.140 all the fertilizers that's tied up um uh tied up in the ships research the number of ships stuck

00:46:54.960 behind the the uh the strata hormuz right now it will blow your mind how many ships i think it's

00:47:01.440 1200 ships are stuck and so all the shipments of urea uh nitrogen fertilizer are not going to make

00:47:10.900 it to the mississippi and so guess one of the places in the world that's a net exporter of

00:47:19.640 urea fertilizer alberta i could keep going all of these different things that there's a shortage of

00:47:26.220 right now and going to bring economies to a halt. Sulfuric acid and so on. We are net exporters of

00:47:34.080 this stuff. The acute shortages that are occurring around the world really demonstrate the superpower

00:47:40.800 of Alberta. And so I'm optimistic we're going to win this.

00:47:48.680 Sorry, I know Ezra said one last question, but what happens if we don't?

00:47:52.700 well i don't think we want to contemplate that i think at that point sir you know you know we're

00:47:57.880 going you know we're into plan b territory but one thing you know one thing i wanted to jump back to

00:48:03.000 and this sort of gets into plan plan b was you know this whole the whole discussion of third

00:48:07.860 party advertisers why do you think elections canada shut down that independence party that

00:48:14.100 was trying to register from alberta as an independence party the reason is under the

00:48:19.960 third-party advertising uh statute in alberta federal political parties are exempt from the

00:48:28.220 third-party advertising requirements they can raise as much money as they want they can advertise as

00:48:33.660 much as they want so what i actually predict is that we could see a whole bunch of different

00:48:37.740 federal political parties popping up in and around alberta independence which is going to give pierre

00:48:43.760 pauliev absolute fits because of course pierre pauliev has already said on rogan that he's going

00:48:49.560 basically going to be campaigning against alberta independence he doesn't believe it's going to

00:48:54.440 happen i've been saying repeatedly he's suffering from aids alberta independence denial syndrome

00:49:00.120 right and uh you know and he's not going to be on our side danielle you know we'll see whether

00:49:05.640 she's going to be on our side or not that remains to be seen i personally believe that she's you

00:49:10.340 know going to stay on the federalist side so you know we're going to have a whole bunch of

00:49:14.200 potentially federal political parties now forming it's not that hard to do and you know it's with a

00:49:20.260 view towards getting around the third party advertising rules so i think that's something

00:49:24.180 that's you know a potential you know for this summer um you know that it's going to be it's

00:49:29.060 going to become pretty interesting on the alberta landscape

00:49:31.340 hey welcome back your letters to me on the live stream that we did today satellite says yes

00:49:47.800 peer poly was against alberta separation because after separation it becomes pm he will have no

00:49:53.120 income to fix the canadian deficit and really a divided canada will not be able to borrow because

00:49:57.560 there's no revenue coming from alberta well there's a whole bunch of reasons why pierre

00:50:01.580 pauliev would be a federalist i mean that is the nature of the party uh he got into politics really

00:50:08.460 when preston manning was still the dominant political force in conservative movement with

00:50:13.960 his motto the west wants in i mean i'm not sure if preston manning is a separatist these days but

00:50:19.880 he certainly was the anti-separatist 30 years ago and if you took out those alberta votes that tend

00:50:26.380 to go conservative what are the odds that a conservative mp is going to become a prime

00:50:31.640 minister in the future with the uh on alberta ridings out of the country jim allen says i

00:50:38.420 wouldn't be surprised if trump tries to force canada's hand to start producing the resources

00:50:42.360 the world desperately needs alberta needs to leave as soon as possible well um i wrote a short book

00:50:50.200 about this called the deal of the century let me see i think it's um on the shelf behind me there

00:50:56.220 Oh, there it is. I think that's it. My point, I'm looking at it backwards. My point is that

00:51:02.240 under our Canada-U.S. free trade agreement, the United States has really preferential access to

00:51:07.920 our oil sands. And Canada actually sort of has to sell it to the U.S. at the most favorable basis.

00:51:14.800 It cannot keep some for ourselves if we don't sell to the Americans at the same basis. So

00:51:19.200 they have full access to our oil sands. Many of the Canadian companies working in the oil sands

00:51:24.860 have been American investors.

00:51:26.800 And then there's some outright American companies

00:51:28.860 in the oil set.

00:51:29.600 So they are in a de facto kind of way,

00:51:33.220 American already. 0.72

00:51:34.880 And the trouble is that they don't have enough pipelines.

00:51:38.820 The Keystone XL pipeline was canceled by Barack Obama.

00:51:42.160 And all the pipelines that could go to other customers

00:51:44.620 were canceled by Justin Trudeau.

00:51:46.580 And Mark Carney isn't particularly proponing pipelines now, is he?

00:51:51.060 Next letter from Annette Valstar, who says,

00:51:54.080 i'm not for separation i think it's a cowardly thing to run when things are tough

00:51:57.680 if we are in such a strong position we should just declare what we will do for the good of

00:52:02.260 our province and do it we will have just as much trouble with corruption and foreign interference 0.80

00:52:06.740 one way or the other where is the reassurance that the separatist groups aren't influenced

00:52:10.360 wrongly there are too many foreign groups trying to divide canadians we are living in too much 1.00

00:52:14.880 certainty and chaos now i'm okay with the referendum but what's the short and long-term

00:52:19.160 plan if we separate or if we don't you know those are fair questions every single one of them

00:52:23.420 actually one of the things sheila did and sheila gonna read in her new book was looked at a quebec

00:52:28.460 commission that tried to answer some of these questions what happens the day after a referendum

00:52:33.260 everything from currency to stamps to passports to airport to who gets the military bases who gets

00:52:40.520 the military equipment not that we have much anymore um how would it work for embassies how

00:52:46.800 would the pension plan work how would the debt work uh and it just calmly and methodically set

00:52:51.920 about answering all those questions

00:52:53.460 in the form of a province-wide consultation.

00:52:57.400 So every one of those questions could be answered.

00:52:59.860 Yes, you're right, it would be chaotic,

00:53:01.520 but I put it to you that the number one source of chaos

00:53:03.920 in Alberta was Justin Trudeau and now Mark Carney.

00:53:07.560 And after a while, you have to say,

00:53:08.580 you know, it's been going on for a while like this.

00:53:10.220 Maybe it's the system itself.

00:53:12.800 Well, that's our show for the day.

00:53:14.760 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here

00:53:16.680 at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home,

00:53:18.440 good night and keep fighting for freedom.

00:53:21.920 We'll be right back.

Rebel News Podcast - March 25, 2026

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Deadly crash hijacked by elites obsessed with optics

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