Rebel News Podcast - September 03, 2026


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


Episode Stats


Length

25 minutes

Words per minute

155.43

Word count

3,929

Sentence count

193


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
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
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!
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
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.
00:08:16.080 I can think of nothing lower.
00:08:18.040 But who started this?
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,
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
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,
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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00:18:55.260 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
00:23:54.140 their first university class? Why do first-year students at all have to learn about Palestinian
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.