Tonight, you'll hear what Ezra had to say from our town hall on Western Separation in Red Deer over the weekend, and then journalist Sue Ann Levy takes down Netflix's unfair and one-sided documentary about troubled Toronto mayor Rob Ford.
00:00:00.000Tonight, you'll hear what Ezra had to say from our town hall on Western separation in Red Deer over the weekend.
00:00:21.420And then journalist Sue Ann Levy takes down Netflix's unfair and one-sided documentary about troubled Toronto mayor, the dearly departed Rob Ford.
00:01:21.500But while Ezra's working the starboard side of the free speech fight, I'm here at the helm with a stacked show.
00:01:28.740First, we're going to take you back to Red Deer for a powerful clip from Ezra's address at our Rebel News Live Western Independence Town Hall.
00:01:37.500It was a nearly sold-out crowd in some places, I think, standing room only.
00:01:43.120And Ezra delivered a message about the future of the West and why it is time to stand up to Ottawa now.
00:01:49.300Then I'll be joined by journalist and author Sue Ann Levy to break down Netflix's so-called documentary about former Toronto mayor Rob Ford.
00:01:57.700Let's be honest, it's less about telling the truth and more about dragging his name through the mud one more time.
00:02:04.820But Sue Ann knew Rob, she covered his career, and tonight she's setting the record straight.
00:02:10.340All that and more coming up right here on The Ezra Levant Show.
00:02:14.440My name is Ezra Levant, and I'm the founder of the Rebel News Network, which is a team of more than 30 people dedicated to telling the other side of the story.
00:02:31.320And that's what we're here to do today.
00:02:40.820I went to school in Calgary and then to law school in Edmonton.
00:02:45.100And I grew up when Preston Manning was trying to fix Canada from within.
00:02:50.040He named the party the Reform Party, and his motto was the West wants in.
00:02:56.200And he had a thesis, which was instead of trying to leave, can we fix it and put that same energy into adjusting the structures and fixing the problems that was pushing Alberta out?
00:03:12.540And he gave his life to that project, and millions of people followed him.
00:03:18.440I was the head of the Reform Party Student Society at the University of Calgary more than 30 years ago.
00:03:27.120And here we are today, and did we move the ball forward?
00:03:31.160Did we fix anything, or have all those essential problems remained the same despite his good faith efforts?
00:03:40.220And despite, for example, the nine years that an Albertan, Stephen Harper, was the prime minister?
00:03:46.480Are things fundamentally different with how Alberta and the West are represented, not just politically, but culturally and financially?
00:03:56.960Is anything actually different, or are things the same or worse?
00:04:03.160Well, we're going to talk about those things today.
00:04:11.700And to me, the highlight of the day is going to be a featured debate between two Albertans who love this place very much.
00:04:19.920I'll introduce them more properly later.
00:04:22.880On the one hand, Keith Wilson, the lawyer for the Freedom Convoy.
00:04:27.760And on the other hand, David Legge, the man who was deputized to go out to the world's financial markets after Rachel Notley was kicked out to tell them that Alberta is back.
00:04:48.140These two men, who I've known for more than 30 years, love this province very much, and have two very different strategies for how to achieve Alberta's goals.
00:05:00.000Keith Wilson will be making the case for independence.
00:05:02.940David Legge will be making the case for fixing the country from within.
00:05:06.400And I really think that's going to be an illuminating debate.
00:05:10.080And I can't think of two better people evenly matched in their love of this place and their smarts.
00:05:16.580That's going to be, to me, an amazing debate.
00:05:51.740I try and learn things from wherever I travel for Rebel about how other battles are fought and won and lost, and can we learn from them here at home?
00:06:03.180And one of the things that I think I've learned is that you don't get what you don't ask for.
00:06:16.180And I think that, from my own point of view, having grown up in Alberta, went to school west of Calgary, and then, you know, spent the first third of my life in this province, the first half of my life, is that I think that Albertans generally love Canada.
00:06:35.520We grew up in Canada, and the Canada that we loved was the Canada that respected the things that we loved.
00:06:41.300And patriotism, standing up to tyranny, freedom, the pioneer spirit.
00:06:48.560And so, if I were to compare any independence movement in Alberta to those around the world, I would say ours in Alberta in the West is not motivated by rage or anger,
00:07:04.060so much as disappointment and resignation, and the realization that we tried so hard, and we sent our best, and we went with an open hand, and we were slapped away, and we were mocked.
00:07:17.060I was Preston Manning's assistant, and I'll never forget the way he was derided.
00:07:26.440That's just the standard playbook of the mainstream media and the mainstream political media industrial complex.
00:07:35.000But I think what I'm sensing is it's like that movie Groundhog Day, just over and over and over again.
00:07:43.140And how many times, how many generations of Albertans would say, it's not fair, can we fix it, before people say, it ain't fixing.
00:07:52.100We're knocking on the door so much, but our knuckles are bloody.
00:07:56.460It's a different spirit of rebellion than, let's say, a violent rebellion that you might have seen in Cork a hundred-odd years ago.
00:08:04.920It's a rebellion of steely determination, I think.
00:08:09.660And our job as Rebel News is to tell the story honestly.
00:08:12.960Because what I'm seeing already is that central Canada and the voices of the media industrial complex will be condescending, will be abusive, will be accusatory, will be contemptuous of Alberta's goals and ambitions in a way that they have not been for Quebec's demands.
00:08:37.600Whenever Quebec asks for something, there's a good cop, bad cop dynamic with a Quebecer in Quebec negotiating with a Quebecer in Ottawa how best to handle Quebec.
00:08:50.540And it's an inside job. It's a stitch-up.
00:14:11.400But I immediately thought, when was the last time any Canadian prime minister actually said to Alberta, we cherish you?
00:14:17.460I mean, I don't know if Donald Trump means it, but he said it, which is more than anything Mark Carney or Justin Trudeau or the rest of them have ever said.
00:14:29.720And Donald Trump's comments, which I think unfortunately scared a million Ontario centrists into the loving arms of Mark Carney,
00:14:38.920Donald Trump's comments, which I think helped install a liberal prime minister,
00:14:43.080I think they hit people's ears a different way depending on where they were in their minds and their hearts.
00:21:04.760We have a little bit of a kind of trade show at the back.
00:21:07.620Please make sure you check out the vendors here today.
00:21:12.240And I think the further you can look into the future,
00:21:19.560the sharper your decisions today will be.
00:21:24.500Realize that the referendum is coming.
00:21:26.680It's a fact, even if Andrew Coyne doesn't like it.
00:21:29.220Realize that when central Canada finally wakes up to the fact that the milk cow of confederation might find Donald Trump's offer enticing,
00:21:40.640or if not Donald Trump, maybe just wants to be single for a bit.
00:21:44.140And one of the things I think our panelists will discuss are the differences between being independent, between having some sort of sovereignty association, becoming a 51st state.
00:22:19.940If I were to look ahead, I would say that central Canada is going to wake up startled one day and realize that that referendum is coming.
00:22:36.440And they're going to realize that they're late to the game.
00:22:40.980And they're going to reach into their bag of tricks for what they normally do.
00:22:43.960They're going to try and cancel and defame and deplatform and demonize and denormalize and defund and alienate and smear anyone who says we can do better than this current arrangement.
00:23:00.240It's going to be like the Brexit campaign in the United Kingdom just over a decade ago.
00:23:06.200I don't know if you know this, but the establishment campaign against Brexit, which was a referendum separating from the European Union, everyone was for the European Union.
00:23:18.420Everyone was for Remain except the people.
00:23:21.820So the official campaign to Remain, they literally internally used the name Project Fear.
00:26:28.800Now, someone I know and trust does not describe it as worth a watch.
00:26:35.920She describes it as Netflix trash that made her want to cry.
00:26:40.880And it sourced the vipers who drove Rob Ford into an early grave.
00:26:47.340Joining me now to discuss Netflix trashy documentary and her recent op-ed in Juneau News is Sue Ann Levy.
00:26:56.220Sue Ann, thanks for coming on the show as I fill in for Ezra over the next few days.
00:27:00.780Please tell us, you watched the documentary so we don't have to break it down for us.
00:27:07.740Well, I forced myself to because I knew it was coming and then I saw it on my own Netflix screen being promoted.
00:27:15.820And I forced myself to watch it last night and it was every bit as bad as I expected it would be.
00:27:21.860The director slash producer, who is from England, basically pulled all the most sensational clips of his time in office and interviewed all the people who, like you said, drove him, helped drive him to an early grave.
00:27:41.820And there was actually no attempt made from the looks of it to talk to people who actually thought he'd done a good job for the time he was, you know, before all the, I guess the wheels fell off the bus.
00:28:04.800And to talk to people who had some empathy and compassion for him.
00:28:10.940And I don't mean necessarily myself, but anybody who was right of center, who had been with him and watched him for year upon years upon years, would have a slightly different view.
00:28:24.400Yeah, they sourced a bunch of journalists who mocked him regularly, Katie Simpson, and even people who stabbed him in the back, like Mark Toey.
00:28:36.380It was just the most bizarre bunch of nonsense.
00:28:40.220And they never once told the story of the redemption arc, because really, he had a bit of a redemption arc.
00:28:48.040Like, he swept into City Hall, caused a bunch of chaos, his scandals broke, in the end, he owned them, and then he did his best to get clean and live out the rest of his days as best he could.
00:29:04.140But that part is left right out of it.
00:29:06.400Totally. And the part before he became mayor, because I knew him from the mid-2000s, and the efforts he made as councillor to expose the rot and waste at City Hall was never, ever brought up.
00:29:22.440He just didn't walk into the mayor's chair.
00:29:26.740He had had a history, a track record, of trying to deal with the gravy train.
00:29:32.760And he thought that by becoming mayor, he, of course, would have far more influence.
00:29:39.020And, you know, he had a good year, and he had really good people surrounding him.
00:29:44.100I saw a clip of, for example, Doug Holliday, and they never, I don't know if they ever attempted to talk to him, because he helped try to keep the wheels on the bus.
00:29:57.760And, you know, like I say in my piece, his heart was in the right place.
00:30:04.200He had demons. Who doesn't in this life?
00:30:07.060And I will also add that these are the very people, the people who are quoted in this trashy documentary, who would be the first to wring their hands about allowing drug addicts, crack addicts in particular, to roam the streets of Toronto to get shot up or allowed to smoke at safe injection sites, who have fought reciferously to keep these drug enabling sites going in Toronto.
00:30:34.620And these are the very same people who speak out constantly about bullying.
00:30:47.880One I was going to make to you is, you know, these are the same people who advocate for supervised injection sites, supervised inhalation sites, compassion for the addict.
00:30:57.100And actually, I believe in compassion for the addict.
00:30:59.440I don't want to compassion them right into the grave.
00:31:01.960And it seems as though, in the absence of all of this, whatever their personal beefs were, political beefs were, with Rob Ford, there's zero respect or compassion shown for the family he left behind in any of this.
00:31:15.720No, and I was watching the documentary last night.
00:31:21.280I thought, well, you know, it's nine years ago.
00:31:24.200His daughter must be in her late teens.
00:33:53.540Now, when I did my book Underdog in 2016, I felt it really important to do a chapter to set the record straight.
00:34:01.160And my publisher said it was one of the best chapters ever written about Rob Ford because I showed some empathy and compassion towards him.
00:34:10.280And that's the only reason I say that.
00:34:12.620So, who's missing from this documentary?
00:37:39.460It was disgusting the way they all treated him.
00:37:41.740I have two favorite Rob Ford memories and none of them are of his drama.
00:37:49.880It was Rob Ford, once he got to City Hall in the mayor's chair, going through the list of things like the cards and the freebies that all the politicians get around there.
00:38:01.360And laying it bare, this is what they're getting while they want more money, while they want more raises, while they want to pad their expense accounts.
00:38:10.260And I thought, you know, I've never seen this before.
00:39:11.520I was in the studio, and I literally, literally, the hosts and the other commenters who were all, you know, left-wing legacy media turned white.
00:39:22.300And I'm sitting there going, you're pretty.