Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Documents reveal why the Canadian military was asking soldiers about 'extremist' hats

00:00:00.000 hey folks do you love a good cup of coffee are you like me banned for life from visiting

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00:01:22.860 Rebel News.

00:01:25.220 Tonight, the Canadian military spent three and a half years,

00:01:29.160 40 bureaucrats, and 2,688 pages of paperwork

00:01:34.360 asking soldiers if they've ever bought a make can of the grain again.

00:01:38.160 that. It's September 2nd and this is the Ezra LeBant Show. Shame on you, you sensorious bug.

00:01:56.740 Oh, hi, everybody. Forgive me. I'm actually at home. Our office had a power outage. There's a 0.97

00:02:02.660 huge rain storm, hailstorm in Toronto. They actually had the emergency alerts go off on the

00:02:08.320 phones, power outages, and really the biggest hail I've seen in Toronto. So I am at my house and I'm

00:02:15.720 in my casual clothes that I'm recording here because there's power here. Hopefully we'll get

00:02:19.600 this video up to you because it's actually sort of an exciting story. Back in December 3rd, 2024,

00:02:27.860 you might remember this story by harrison faulkner who was with true north back then a questionnaire

00:02:34.140 went out to canadian soldiers have you in the last two to five years liked an extremist group post

00:02:42.460 on social media have you donated to an extremist cause did you purchase extremist merchandise

00:02:50.580 such as a make canada great again hat make canada great again it that's actually what happened a hat

00:02:58.640 a hat with a slogan that's the example the researchers chose for extremist merchandise

00:03:04.540 by the way not to brag but i actually own the trademark to make canada great again the day

00:03:11.000 this story went viral and that's almost two years ago our team filed an access to information

00:03:18.240 requests. What did National Defense know and when? Who paid for this? I was curious because it was

00:03:24.940 news and also because they're calling my hat racist. Anyways, that was back in December 3rd,

00:03:29.920 2024. Last week, 21 months later, no explanation, the answer finally came back with 2,688 pages.

00:03:40.660 I've read it. Well, I've skimmed it. And I've read what they let me read because they blacked out so

00:03:47.020 much. I'll show you what's in it that's interesting, though. First thing you need to know,

00:03:50.800 the actual survey questions themselves, you can't see them. They've censored those. Every

00:03:56.800 single question. 2,000 pages of emails about a questionnaire, and the questionnaire itself is

00:04:02.560 redacted. That's crazy. On what grounds? Well, they say Section 20 of the Access to Information

00:04:08.560 Act, which is third-party commercial information, trade secrets. The question,

00:04:14.000 did you buy a make Canada great again hat is considered a trade secret that national defense

00:04:19.400 pushed to every soldier in the country so let's talk about what national defense told you when

00:04:24.740 this story blew up department of dnd is department of national defense canadian forces is not funding

00:04:32.160 this research nor has it contracted this research so they say on page 26 that was the line approved

00:04:38.620 by the assistant deputy minister for public affairs approved by the minister's office sent

00:04:43.400 every reporter who asked not our study they said independent academics they said nothing to do with

00:04:48.760 us but here's what's in the 2688 pages take a look at that that's the consent form every soldier had

00:04:57.720 to sign before taking the survey top of the page external funder or sponsor department of national

00:05:05.480 defense and this is the letter that went to the troops my name is dr barbara perry and i along

00:05:11.320 with dr david hoffman and conducting research for the department of national defense through the

00:05:15.800 mobilizing insights in defense and security minds program conducting research for the department of

00:05:23.400 national defense so which is it not funded not contracted nothing to do with us or funder and

00:05:30.760 sponsor research for the dnd follow the money it's in there if you dig look at this october 20th 2020

00:05:37.800 National Defense signs a funding agreement with Ontario Tech University, $49,995.

00:05:46.680 The cap on that grant program is $50,000, by the way.

00:05:50.720 $5 under the line, don't you love that?

00:05:52.960 There's different reasons for that.

00:05:54.300 To hide it from public disclosure and competitive bids is one reason.

00:05:58.440 And what was the money for?

00:06:00.180 D&D's own disclosure says it, quote,

00:06:02.080 to support a survey and analysis of the policies that govern hateful conduct and right-wing extremism in the Canadian Armed Forces.

00:06:11.020 A survey, their word.

00:06:12.340 You know, I'm more worried about left-wing violence in Canada, especially at the Armed Forces,

00:06:17.640 like Gabriel Lepage, an Antifa extremist who threw incendiary devices in a crowded church in Montreal.

00:06:25.080 While he worked for the Canadian Forces at their base, our reporter Alexa Lavoie blew the lid off that story.

00:06:32.080 Monsieur Lepage, est-ce que vous pouvez me confirmer

00:06:34.140 si c'est vous sur cette machine, Monsieur Lepage?

00:06:36.160 Avez-vous des liens avec les antifas?

00:06:38.220 Juste ce que je resserve à quelqu'un, puis que j'ai

00:06:41.280 l'air d'une enquête citoyenne, quelque chose de même, mais...

00:06:45.260 ...

00:06:51.940 Aller, décollez! Décollez, petite fille! 0.87

00:06:54.440 Décollez!

00:06:55.900 Hey, c'est quoi ton problème?

00:06:57.100 We found the thug who allegedly smoke-bombed

00:07:00.240 a christian worship service and he appears to be linked to an antifa cell operating within

00:07:07.040 canada's department of national defense so that's what they were doing but now watch the bureaucrats

00:07:12.720 try to walk that back this is december 2024 when reporters started asking the description that

00:07:20.160 funding will support a survey and analysis is used in context of conducting an examination

00:07:25.680 and analysis, rather than the act of surveying Canadian Armed Forces members, they say.

00:07:32.580 So survey doesn't mean a survey. They're liars! And that 50 grand was the small money. Here's 0.93

00:07:38.880 the Director of Research at the Chief of Professional Conduct and Culture. That's

00:07:43.940 the Diversity Department at the Department of National Defense, briefing his boss in March 2024.

00:07:49.080 Let me read. It was requested during a time in which the network would have received 250

00:07:55.660 $50,000 over two years, a quarter of a million bucks, to Barbara Perry's Network for Research

00:08:03.220 on Hateful Conduct and Right-Wing Extremism in the Canadian Armed Forces, funded by the

00:08:08.540 DND from 2020 to 2023.

00:08:10.840 She is getting rich off of calling our soldiers racist. 0.98

00:08:16.080 I can think of nothing lower.

00:08:18.040 But who started this? 0.98

00:08:19.540 Well, not some loser professor in Oshawa cold-calling the Army.

00:08:23.480 here's the chief of operations of the dnd's military personnel research branch writing to

00:08:29.140 the chief of defense staff's office the night the tweet went viral quote this work was initiated by

00:08:35.680 general vance as chief of defense staff back in 2019 jonathan vance the general who resigned over

00:08:44.080 his own conduct scandal he met the professors he gave him they gave him a proposal he told them to

00:08:50.100 apply for the money. It's in DND's own background notes. So Vance ordered it. The DND funded it.

00:08:57.520 DND signed on as a sponsor. I'll show you what sponsor means. The sponsor's job in DND's own

00:09:03.420 form says, quote, obtaining research participants, sending invitation emails, signing and distributing

00:09:08.980 invitation letters, approve all resulting reports, papers, theses, presentations, respond to any

00:09:15.720 access to information requests dnd even rewrote the questions in july 2024 let me quote my team

00:09:23.640 has reviewed and proposed changes to the questions for the online survey they edited the survey

00:09:30.760 that they claimed had nothing to do with them why would they lie what human was and then they

00:09:36.360 used the chain and command to push it this is from september 2024 we will need each command

00:09:41.720 research officer to distribute the invitation for interview and survey to your subordinates

00:09:46.120 in the military when it comes down the chain of command from your commanding officer that's not

00:09:50.520 a flyer that is an order but you know who didn't want to do this the navy let me quote unfortunately

00:09:57.160 the rcn royal canadian navy will not be able to participate in this research project our population

00:10:02.360 is dealing with severe shortages and survey fatigue severe staff shortages the navy can't

00:10:09.080 crew at ships and they're being asked to spend sailors time on a hat questionnaire so the

00:10:14.600 diversity department leaned on them quote since you are the only l1 not currently participating

00:10:20.200 this might generate a misleading impression dr perry is a highly reputable researcher

00:10:26.840 misleading impression a meaning if the navy says no to this bs people might think the navy has

00:10:31.480 something to hide the navy cave three to three weeks later the air force fought against this too

00:10:37.320 They asked a question nobody else in the building thought to ask, quote,

00:10:41.200 what will be done with any incriminating information that is received as a part of the data collection?

00:10:48.280 That's a really good question.

00:10:49.580 Let's say someone is a really, really bad boy and they bought a Make Canada Great Again hat.

00:10:54.840 What would happen?

00:10:56.420 Well, here's the answer from the consent form the soldiers signed.

00:10:59.120 Quote, the researcher is obliged to report that to military police.

00:11:05.100 Depending on the type of information disclosed, the military police may be required to liaise with your respective chain of command.

00:11:10.880 An anonymous survey where the professor can call the MPs on you, the military police, and the MPs can call your commanding officer,

00:11:19.660 a DND reviewer actually asked for that last sentence to be added.

00:11:23.640 Quote, given the potential risk to one's career, I feel this connection should be made.

00:11:29.900 Imagine that, some left-wing grievance monger professor, Barbara Perry, going to interview for a survey soldiers, and if they give the wrong answer in her scientific questionnaire, their career's over for a hat, because they liked our hats.

00:11:46.880 Now, when this all went public, what did the Department of National Defense do?

00:11:50.040 And again, kudos to Harrison Faulkner for breaking the story two years ago.

00:11:54.880 The government did what they always do.

00:11:56.300 They watched the media.

00:11:57.520 That's how they decide what's right or wrong.

00:11:59.020 did they do okay in the press clippings?

00:12:01.800 This is from D&D's Public Environment Monitoring Unit.

00:12:05.360 That's where they scan the media.

00:12:06.860 The manager reporting up to a brigadier general

00:12:09.340 and the ADM's office,

00:12:11.820 Assistant Deputy Minister's office.

00:12:13.320 And here's how a public government department

00:12:15.380 grades journalists now.

00:12:18.240 True North, remember that's where Harrison Calkner was,

00:12:20.520 quote,

00:12:21.200 True North is rated mixed for factual reporting

00:12:24.580 with a lower credibility

00:12:26.020 due to a questionable reasoning

00:12:28.180 and credibility of sources part of the right ideology perspective media bias fact check dot

00:12:34.900 com media bias fact check dot com it's some some website some left-wing website that's the

00:12:41.480 intelligence product at national national defense and then the line i'd put on a t-shirt or maybe a

00:12:47.300 hat quote we have not observed any articles from mainstream media we will keep an eye

00:12:52.160 Yeah, nothing from the CBC yet. Could happen any moment.

00:12:56.440 They countered the comments, too.

00:12:58.040 2,100 mentions in a day. That's a lot.

00:13:00.100 Their social media theme summary, quote,

00:13:02.260 the majority of these mentions included users arguing that

00:13:05.600 make Canada great again is not an extremist slogan, unquote.

00:13:10.160 15% said that the Canadian Armed Forces had gone woke.

00:13:13.680 5% said it was a waste of money. Sentiment negative.

00:13:17.460 And when a reporter asked the obvious question,

00:13:19.440 does the Canadian Armed Forces think a Make Canada Great Again or Make America Great Again

00:13:25.660 hat is extremist? Here's the approved answer signed off by the Assistant Deputy Minister

00:13:30.960 and the Minister's Office. Quote, DND, Canadian Armed Forces has no stance on the slogans in

00:13:36.860 question. Don't lie. Don't lie to me. They put it in the survey. They pushed it to every soldier.

00:13:42.580 They have no stance. When the reporter came back, quote, the two professors were given 50 grand by

00:13:48.520 the DND in 2020. Are you sure the survey wasn't at least in part funded by the DND? Here's the

00:13:54.020 head of media relations for the military internally. Quote, we already responded. I do not wish to

00:13:59.840 entertain any further, unquote. As in, we told a lie. Let's stick with our lie. And when one of

00:14:06.440 our own colleagues, the director general, said the funding history, quote, should have been provided

00:14:10.240 in the media response, the head of conduct and culture communications shut it down. So this is

00:14:15.880 the culture people for how do we want to be as soldiers? Lie. These are the lie enforcers.

00:14:22.140 Quote, I think introducing information about funding will add to complexity at this point.

00:14:27.460 And on Teams, that's a Microsoft chat program two days later. I don't think we touch it at

00:14:34.300 this point. As in, we told the lie and it would seem to be working for us. Let's not touch that

00:14:39.440 lie. They knew. They decided not to tell you. I love that phrase, though. Telling the truth

00:14:44.180 makes things more complex. That's very true, I can testify. Meanwhile, Dr. Perry, the UNESCO Chair

00:14:50.200 in Hate Studies, self-described key authority on right-wing extremism in Canada, more than 200

00:14:57.140 media interviews, writes to the Department of Defense with the subject line Survey Disruption,

00:15:02.340 quote, we've run into yet another challenge with our survey. Please see the screenshot below and

00:15:06.740 the article at True North News. Was that another challenge with the survey? Articles in question

00:15:13.160 mark a journalist reported what her survey said and that's a disruption weird the department of

00:15:19.600 national defense's reply came from a director general like i say this was at the highest heights

00:15:23.700 thank you so much for keeping us up to date warmly laura within a week they'd booked a meeting new

00:15:29.840 survey strategy and changes perry wanted control questions safeguards so it doesn't leak next time

00:15:36.440 they were looking to trick and trap the soldiers here's the thing that gets me the studies home

00:15:40.980 website, the one the D&D vetted, says this. Although the number of known cases of Canadian

00:15:47.260 Armed Forces members holding right-wing extremist beliefs is comparable to the general population,

00:15:53.060 there is public concern over soldiers who embrace extremist beliefs. Comparable to the general

00:15:58.840 population. They admit it. There's no hate epidemic. There's no public concern. Oh, sorry,

00:16:04.920 that's all there is. Some people said they're concerned, meaning a headline. Oh, and a professor

00:16:11.400 out to get grants. She gets paid more by accusing the military of racism. Never forget that, 1.00

00:16:19.200 what she's motivated by. And for that three and a half years, 40 odd officials across six

00:16:24.120 departments, an ethics board that called it in its own emails, the poster child of projects

00:16:29.760 that can't find anyone to own them. A recruitment article that needed the personal sign off of

00:16:34.900 the deputy minister and the chief of defense staff, a defense social media team that flatly

00:16:40.440 refused to post it. We don't see this as a topic that's a fit, a wrong survey link that sent soldiers

00:16:46.300 to a cafeteria survey. When the ethics board found out it was on a podcast, the entire official

00:16:52.520 reaction, one word, sigh. It's just, I can't even believe I'm talking about this. What percentage

00:17:03.260 of money that the Department of Defense gets 1.00

00:17:05.900 is for bureaucrats to do stuff like this.

00:17:08.660 I don't even understand half of this.

00:17:11.720 But I do understand this.

00:17:13.160 This was not a real survey.

00:17:14.280 It was a loyalty test.

00:17:15.700 2,688 pages.

00:17:18.080 Hunting soldiers because they like the wrong hats.

00:17:21.660 I'd love to see the access to information

00:17:23.380 on how many pages they spent on,

00:17:25.420 oh, I don't know, ammunition or housing

00:17:28.300 or why the Navy has severe staff shortages

00:17:31.140 in the first place.

00:17:31.920 not this BS. Holy cow. Because that's, here's what a soldier learned from this. I mean, 0.98

00:17:38.840 in my view, I think the lesson here is that the chain of command will forward a questionnaire

00:17:43.560 from a professor who thinks a hat is a hate crime. The department will pay for it, sponsor it, edit

00:17:51.880 it, push it, but then tell reporters it never had anything to do with it because it's such a

00:17:56.960 disgrace. They don't want to be associated with it. And if you push back though, you'll be

00:18:01.700 counted, sorted, graded by a website, and maybe reported to the military police.

00:18:06.640 If you were a 19-year-old thinking about enlisting and you saw this, what would you do?

00:18:15.680 Stay with us for more.

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00:18:47.480 Open to the public.

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00:18:55.260 Hey everybody, the storm is still going full guns.

00:18:58.360 I don't know if you can hear it in the background.

00:18:59.620 sort of a dull roar, but I want to show you a new video from someone who we met at the student

00:19:05.540 journalism conference just last weekend. Every year, the Democracy Fund sponsors a conference

00:19:09.880 for young journalists to teach them how to be independent. Well, this next talent, her name is

00:19:15.900 Anastasia Zorcinski. She's very talented as it is. I mean, she's professional level journalist,

00:19:24.020 even though she's just in school. So she made her first video for us. Take a look at this.

00:19:28.580 do you think? When I tell you that I literally didn't think my university could get more radical,

00:19:35.300 I was wrong and I have to show you what's going on here.

00:19:40.900 If you went to university, you would know that being a first-year Frosh participant is one of

00:19:45.380 the best things ever. You go, you meet new people before classes even begin, you have a bunch of

00:19:50.020 activities, partying all night and it's so much fun. But unfortunately at Concordia for the Arts

00:19:57.060 and science students faculty which is by the way i go to that university and it is my faculty but i'm

00:20:01.860 entering my final year their frosh is not the same at all before students even sit through

00:20:09.540 one class in university their frosh orientation activities include from academia activism to

00:20:17.140 grassroots militancy queer anti-fascist resistance solidarity with palestinian human rights at

00:20:23.860 Concordia with ASPHR Concordia, which stands for Students for Palestine Honor and Resistance.

00:20:29.940 This group was banned from our university for supporting terrorism, however somehow they're

00:20:35.700 able to lead activities for first-year students entering our university. A guide to student

00:20:40.740 strikes by CSU campaigns. So instead of teaching students how they can study better, learn better,

00:20:46.900 make more friends, they're actually just being presented here an opportunity to become an activist

00:20:53.140 and not a real student.

00:20:55.340 Stella 101, another workshop that first-year students are going to be exposed to

00:20:59.440 that is about, literally about, sex work.

00:21:02.560 It's about prostitution.

00:21:04.140 It's going to address the myths and realities of sex work.

00:21:07.400 I'm sorry, but I don't understand why first-year students, 18-year-olds,

00:21:13.440 usually have to learn about sex work.

00:21:16.720 Harm Reduction 101, Life Under Capitalism and the War on Drugs.

00:21:22.220 yeah sure maybe some people could find this interesting but i find it quite weird that

00:21:26.380 this is the topic that they chose the war on drugs even the frosh poster is explicitly political

00:21:33.180 showing a palestinian flag land back no cops on campus and a raised fist protest imagery

00:21:40.300 and other activist symbols so before students even sign up or look at the schedule the whole flyer

00:21:47.020 itself is explicitly political besides all those crazy activities i just talked about they also

00:21:51.980 have a movie night and you guessed it there's not going to be a disney movie screening at this frosh

00:21:58.940 there's going to be a screening of discordia which is about when pro-hamas protesters rioted outside

00:22:05.900 of concordia in 2002 when netanyahu was supposed to come speak and actually they called it on the

00:22:12.300 poster efforts to keep war criminals from being welcomed at our university in solidarity with

00:22:18.540 Palestine. The organization hosting the orientation part is called Quping and they are actually

00:22:25.180 calling orientation this orientation. Their own website says that this orientation is your

00:22:31.340 introduction to organizing on campus and beyond. Actually Concordia's own website says in their

00:22:38.460 policies that orientation is supposed to be open inclusive and diverse and I'm going to tell you

00:22:44.220 when I entered university for the first time, I didn't know how my university worked, I didn't

00:22:48.620 know what groups it had, I didn't know the structure, the political structure of the university,

00:22:52.940 I didn't know what political activities are happening on the university, I didn't know

00:22:56.220 what side it was on, I honestly didn't even know exactly what my political opinion was.

00:23:02.060 So I know how vulnerable it is to be a first-year student and the problem here is that the

00:23:07.580 organizations planning the frosh and the orientation are seizing the moment and using the fact that

00:23:12.860 first-year students are especially vulnerable and they are only showing them one side of the

00:23:18.380 political spectrum and one side of the activist network. I reviewed the whole schedule for the

00:23:23.100 arts and science frosh that they're planning and most of the things that they're going to be

00:23:27.340 presenting are very controversial and unfortunately there's no other side being presented to the

00:23:32.860 students and additionally students only have one choice of which frosh to attend there's

00:23:37.420 no alternative frosh for students who do not agree with these political views. So my question here is

00:23:42.460 since when did trash become a political tool to target first-year students just entering

00:23:48.060 university? Why do first-year students have to learn about prostitution before even entering 1.00

00:23:54.140 their first university class? Why do first-year students at all have to learn about Palestinian 1.00

00:23:59.980 resistance in a Canadian university through a group that was literally banned from our campus

00:24:05.180 for supporting a designated terrorist group? Why do students have to learn about grassroots,

00:24:10.380 queer anti-fascist militancy and a guide on how to strike instead of a guide on how to learn a

00:24:18.060 guide on how to navigate university so please if any student or parent is watching this please be

00:24:25.100 aware be careful and know that this is what is happening on Canadian campuses today

00:24:33.260 thank you for listening my name is Anastasia Zorczynski please like share and subscribe

00:24:37.980 for more videos like this.

00:24:40.360 Well, I thought that was pretty great.

00:24:41.920 I'm going to talk to her.

00:24:42.620 Hopefully we can convince her

00:24:43.580 to do a lot more with Rebel News.

00:24:46.020 Anyways, forgive me for recording this

00:24:47.960 in my Rebel hoodie at home.

00:24:50.780 The power went off at the office,

00:24:52.540 as I mentioned.

00:24:53.620 But hopefully you got something

00:24:55.260 out of the Access to Information report.

00:24:57.860 I'd like to say a big thanks

00:24:58.980 to our research team for getting that.

00:25:01.020 And tip of the hat to Harrison Faulkner

00:25:02.880 for breaking the story two years ago.

00:25:04.860 Tip of the Make Canada Great Again hat.

00:25:07.580 that's our show for today. Until tomorrow, when hopefully the power is back on. On behalf of all

00:25:12.420 of us at Rebel News, to you at home, good night. And keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - September 03, 2026

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Documents reveal why the Canadian military was asking soldiers about 'extremist' hats

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