Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Letters to Ezra： Your biggest questions from 2025, answered

00:00:00.000 tonight your christmas letters to me ask me anything it's christmas day and you're watching

00:00:21.880 the ezra levant show oh hi everybody merry christmas happy hanukkah as you know every year

00:00:42.620 we do something called letters to ezra sheila does the same thing letters to sheila and you can ask me

00:00:47.960 anything about rebel news about myself about the world i mean i have a lot to say all year round

00:00:54.420 anyways but these are your specific questions and really nothing's off limits there might be

00:00:58.760 something where i say well that's a private matter and i might not answer but i sort of like the

00:01:03.080 personal questions uh if you're curious i'll do my best to answer now normally i wear a santa hat but

00:01:08.600 i i think our one of our elves took it this year i can't find the santa hat but i've got this big

00:01:13.040 santa mail bag i i think it's a bag meant for gifts but in it are your letters i have not looked

00:01:19.740 at these before and these were just randomly selected when we had our website letters to ezra.ca

00:01:26.060 um these are what you wrote so without further ado let me uh read your letters to me i have not seen

00:01:33.220 these before so i'll answer them on the on the fly and uh here we go letter number one it's a long

00:01:39.720 letter from reynold la chance it says thank you very much ezra for rebel news a real media outlet

00:01:44.780 i specifically wanted to say how much i appreciate you for all that you've done for the christian

00:01:49.100 church around the country no one has done anything like you have done to defend pastors from our

00:01:53.220 corrupt government politicians even those who pretend to be conservatives as a christian myself

00:01:57.840 i want to express my sincere gratitude for what you ezra and your great media have done and continue

00:02:02.260 to stand up for freedom in our country god bless you and rebel news media p.s you guys are the best

00:02:06.680 well reynold thank you so much for those words they really mean a lot to me um we do stand up

00:02:12.240 against anti-christian discrimination which we saw a lot of during the covid times whenever there's a

00:02:18.920 church fire uh if possible we report on the scene i traveled with my colleague lincoln jay

00:02:24.740 to rural manitoba to the scene of a burnt down church um i think that it is under reported uh anti-christian

00:02:33.180 discrimination and of course you know that we crowdfunded money a few years back to rescue

00:02:38.640 christians from iraq we managed to get some christians into australia by helping privately

00:02:44.680 sponsor them through glenn vex nazarene fund so it is an important thing for us i'm jewish myself as you

00:02:50.580 know but um most of our staff we have staff from all different backgrounds but this is one of the

00:02:55.920 things we share so i'm i'm very glad that it means a lot to you but i want to say reynold where's the

00:03:00.340 question in there i guess it's a letter to ezra it's not a question to ezra so i accept your

00:03:05.700 friendly letter but it was a pretty softball question let's see if there's some tougher ones

00:03:10.860 in here here's one from carl link letters see if there's a tougher question

00:03:14.160 ezra with so many jewish people heading back to their homeland i'm wondering what is keeping you

00:03:19.840 here instead of to israel don't get me wrong i really appreciate you but i'm wondering do you feel

00:03:24.220 the pull and if so why have you not answered the call to come home okay it's an interesting

00:03:28.160 question i was born in calgary my parents were born in western canada in fact my roots go back

00:03:33.680 to 1903 when my great grandfather came over i don't know if you know the story of the prairies

00:03:39.400 but it was pretty unsettled and 125 years ago 150 years ago there was a real risk that uh american

00:03:46.980 manifest destiny would incorporate british columbia remember they bought alaska from the russians i think

00:03:54.320 that was the 1860s so it's just if you look at the map it was so obvious that they

00:03:58.940 incorporate british columbia that was one of their impetus the main impetus i think for building the

00:04:06.440 canadian pacific railway anyways you build the railway but it's largely empty ground i mean there

00:04:11.780 there were of course some indian bands but there was a deliberate strategy by the government to bring

00:04:17.040 over farmers including from eastern europe that's why there's a lot of ukrainians

00:04:21.980 in western canada in fact my family came from ukraine anyway you build the railway and of course

00:04:28.740 you need to put people in that great hinterland there were of course some um some very small

00:04:34.980 communities and of course some indian bands but they wanted to populate it and to farm it and so

00:04:40.640 they deliberately took out ads in eastern europe inviting people to come over and farm and it was

00:04:45.520 actually a kind of a deal and you can look this up a very interesting to me if you came over you were

00:04:51.360 granted a certain number of acres you had to clear it clear the rocks and farm it and break it and

00:04:58.000 plant it and build a sod house and if you achieve those goals at the end of a few year period you got

00:05:04.620 it so it was it was extremely hard work and they brought over people in groups so they would bring

00:05:10.280 over whole communities together and a very interesting story so i my family 122 years ago was part of that

00:05:19.860 and so we were actually in alberta before alberta became part of confederation alberta joined the

00:05:24.600 country in 1905 so i know in some parts of the world having 122 year history is not very old but in

00:05:31.500 canada especially western canada that's positively primordial so my affiliations are alberta i mean

00:05:38.940 even though i'm in ontario and i'm a canadian i do in my bones feel alberton that's where i went to

00:05:47.500 undergrad and to law school and that's where i got involved with politics with the reform party and i

00:05:52.560 and i believe i absorbed the conservative freedom culture of southern alberta i have been to israel

00:05:59.480 and and i and i love it um and that's sort of the religious roots of jews um and i have some family

00:06:09.500 over there but i've never contemplated moving there canada is my home i enjoyed traveling to other

00:06:15.540 countries too like the united states and the united kingdom and even occasionally to beautiful

00:06:21.520 places like italy so um you know what i mean i i suppose from a religious point of view israel

00:06:29.240 would be home but from a personal point of view every other aspect of my life i'm i'm canadian

00:06:34.880 you know that that's how i feel i in fact if you asked me to really identify myself i would say

00:06:40.860 alberton even though i'm in ontario uh lita says i wonder from time to time how difficult it must be

00:06:46.780 to find a driver willing to drive your amazing tool the jumbotron truck do you have a steady loyal

00:06:53.360 and fearless one happy hanukkah and merry christmas to you and your amazing legendary team you are my

00:06:58.600 heroes lita that is so nice for you to say and that's a really good question i love the truck you

00:07:04.340 know i do and i know david menzies loves it and many of our different reporters have worked with the

00:07:09.140 truck the truck gets people's attention like when we took it up to algoma to this steel mill boy

00:07:14.040 especially we got there before dawn right because the the men started arriving at the factory i think

00:07:19.380 the first shift was 6 30 a.m so we were out there really early and it was still dark out you turn on

00:07:25.200 that truck and it's got a diesel powered generator in it the truck itself is a regular truck like an f350

00:07:30.900 ford or something but then you've got this custom built basically it's you know 100 tv panels

00:07:37.720 and to give it all that juice there's a diesel generator in the back so that thing is blazing

00:07:43.380 like a lighthouse and to have that at 6 30 a.m when those workers came in that algoma was pretty

00:07:48.320 exciting anyways to your question the algoma trip was super fun and easy but sometimes we take the

00:07:54.860 truck with a spicy message like for example we took it to um the university of toronto and they had the

00:08:00.720 hamas encampment i don't know if you saw that and some people actually came up and sort of pounded

00:08:04.540 at the truck someone somewhere else threw a rock at the truck um we have certain things i'm not going

00:08:10.480 to disclose that are sort of security features on the truck uh that make it a little bit safer but

00:08:14.780 you are exactly right our truck driver is very brave he's totally committed to the project he loves the

00:08:20.740 truck and he even enjoys the like for example when we went up to um sussain marina algoma i flew there

00:08:28.340 uh with our our videographer lincoln g simply we just simply didn't have the time to drive there

00:08:34.240 and drive back for the mission uh but the truck obviously has to drive the truck can you can't fly

00:08:39.640 the truck there so our our truck driver has to make big commitments uh to to get going a day early

00:08:46.420 stay in hotels because you can't you have to bring the truck with you right so he's gone to montreal

00:08:51.480 he's gone to ottawa etc so in it's a long answer to your question so we got a great truck driver

00:08:56.880 who is a real believer he's he loves the truck as much as you and i do and he's used to it he's not

00:09:03.880 scared easily and on occasion you may know we actually have security guards to accompany the truck

00:09:10.680 um because it's a beautiful truck and it's very expensive and although we have certain security

00:09:15.840 features on it we we really don't want the truck to be hurt and we've had the truck for a year

00:09:19.600 or more actually and um it's still given and we had to replace the transmission on it once so it's

00:09:27.160 a cost but i'm glad you like the truck um and i sort of wish we could position it in alberta and in

00:09:33.540 british columbia or or in other places too but it's it's just hard to move it around and i wouldn't want

00:09:39.540 the truck to drive all the way across the country um i i just think that it would be difficult for the

00:09:44.520 truck to do that but thank you for your kind words about the truck and the truck driver okay let's get

00:09:48.140 some more letters here from sean what is your main hobby everyone needs a hobby to de-stress and just

00:09:55.140 have some fun i'm curious what your top hobby is oh boy you know what i'm terrible in that i don't

00:10:02.020 really have a hobby i am is reading a hobby that's too boring isn't it um you know i think social media

00:10:10.820 has killed a lot of hobbies um you know i've got kids and i spend some time with them that's more

00:10:18.960 than a hobby um so i guess i'm an uber driver for the kids um they when i'm very well behaved i i do go

00:10:30.280 to the gym but as you can see that's been a while and and there was a while where i actually had a

00:10:35.380 personal trainer who was a great source of motivation and i lost some weight i got to get

00:10:38.740 back on that so uh aspirationally i would say going to the gym uh but that's obviously not the case right

00:10:46.480 now and it's sort of a pitiful thing we have a dog also and a dog will fill up a lot of your time

00:10:52.600 um you know just taking him outside and just you know he's really become one of the family got the

00:10:58.560 dog during the um covid it was a covid dog but it was the best decision we ever made i think together

00:11:05.140 as a family we love that dog so that's my partial answer is the dog what i'm on my best behavior the

00:11:11.480 gym i do try and read i just i just the other day i ordered a book called 1913 which was basically the

00:11:20.340 state of the world right before the first world war i'm very interested in reading it looks very

00:11:24.320 interesting okay here's a very long letter i'm not sure if we're going to read the whole thing

00:11:28.500 it's from kevin it says dear ezra and the entire rebel news media team merry christmas and happy

00:11:34.020 hanukkah to you all thank you for continuing to ask questions many in canadian media won't i want to

00:11:39.100 ask whether you'd ever consider reaching out to the white house or president trump's administration

00:11:42.520 to explore a one-on-one sit-down interview with donald trump either in washington or elsewhere i truly

00:11:48.260 believe a single video of this interview would become rebel news number one most viewed clip of

00:11:51.880 all time creating massive buzz and further cementing rebels mark on the canadian media landscape

00:11:57.460 many canadians feel our federal government under prime minister carney is increasingly disconnected

00:12:02.020 from the public and the letter goes on a little bit more to make the case kevin we've tried um i don't

00:12:10.100 think we've tried recently but there was a point in uh in time where we really tried hard and we

00:12:14.880 we pitched ourselves to the white house by saying we're the only media in canada that are friendly

00:12:21.380 to trump and that's true i don't know if you remember if you've been watching this long enough

00:12:25.020 you'll know that in 2015 when we saw donald trump come down that escalator i i personally watched his

00:12:31.540 speech and gave the first commentary i thought this guy's good he's got some good ideas and i really

00:12:36.140 like the make america great again theme so we endorsed him in 2016 not that a foreign endorsement

00:12:42.280 really means anything and again in 2020 and again in 2024 and we're the only canadian media to do so

00:12:48.440 conrad black has been a fan of his too but other than that um i think we are the most trumpy and it's

00:12:53.980 tough to be a trumpy canadian especially during the age of tariffs but um i don't think that cut any

00:13:00.180 ice with the trump white house really they they unless you have a personal connection with trump

00:13:05.900 he doesn't tend to do interviews with foreign media in the uk he would talk to pierce morgan

00:13:11.860 sometimes has he done an interview with any canadian journalist i don't think he has um i'm not saying

00:13:20.460 it's not possible because i know there's some british another foreign media in the white house and on

00:13:25.820 occasion they're allowed to put questions to the president but it's very rare that a foreign journalist

00:13:31.600 gets a full sit down with trump but i obviously agree with you if we were ever to get that it

00:13:37.000 would probably become our most watched video ever uh we there was a point in time when we tried very

00:13:41.260 hard is what i'm saying next letter from freedom jungklaus dear ezra i want to thank you for your

00:13:49.480 courageous and consistent voice with addresses serious problems and developments in canada particularly

00:13:54.260 in the political arena i thank you also for your support of tommy robinson in england where the

00:13:58.620 country seems to border on disintegration keep up the important work you are doing it will not be in

00:14:03.080 vain freedom thank you very much for that letter and again there's no questions here that's there's a

00:14:08.960 couple questions here i thought there'd be a lot more questions maybe i maybe i should say questions

00:14:13.980 for ezra or ask me anything as opposed to just letters to ezra thank you for that and yeah tommy

00:14:19.240 robinson is funny i got to know him a little bit uh more than 10 years ago when i was at the sun news

00:14:23.840 network and i just heard of this guy and i saw him on youtube i interviewed him again when we

00:14:28.740 started rebel news and then i remember just saying to him what are you doing why don't you make videos

00:14:32.580 for us i'll pay you x amount per pop and and a star was born you know he you may not remember this but

00:14:41.140 tommy back then had a fairly quiet life in fact i don't think it's telling tales out of school to say

00:14:47.120 that when i reached out to tommy he was doing home renovations like he would buy a house fix it up

00:14:52.080 and flip it that's sort of how he was earning a living um construction and construction is a very

00:14:58.060 noble uh trade and frankly i wish i had more uh skills like that but i said to him i said you have a

00:15:08.960 different destiny the world needs tommy robinson to do something else uh no disrespect to construction

00:15:15.180 but put down your hammer and your saw and pick up a microphone you have work to do and we helped

00:15:21.060 him and we sort of taught him some of our ways and he was with us for a period of time i don't know

00:15:24.900 exactly how long he's tough to be the boss of you could probably guess that right uh as in if you

00:15:32.380 ever say no i don't know if it takes a note for an answer and it was hard because we're on this side

00:15:38.680 of the atlantic and there he is in london and we're on the phone saying don't do this tommy no bad

00:15:42.800 idea you'll get in trouble well try to keep tommy out of trouble i mean i don't know you know wild

00:15:48.520 horses couldn't keep him away from certain trouble so uh it was doomed from a you know employee employer

00:15:55.280 relationship but as you know uh a few months after he left us i mean i stayed on good terms

00:16:00.640 might try to stay on good terms with some of the folks who passed through our doors and when he was

00:16:04.980 arrested and thrown in prison it took me like i wasn't his boss anymore right so when when one of

00:16:11.320 our people gets arrested i'm the boss i know exactly what to do it's expected of me everyone here knows

00:16:16.280 i'm going to make the decisions i'm going to send in a lawyer we're going to do what we do and

00:16:19.940 unfortunately we have practice that it's happened to us many times but i was no longer tommy's boss

00:16:25.200 when he was arrested three months after leaving us so i didn't have the authority to act for him

00:16:29.880 right who am i i'm an ex-employer do i really have the right to represent him to hire lawyers and make

00:16:37.320 decisions for him so it took me about a month to get permission from his family and i because i couldn't

00:16:43.460 communicate with him to sort of lead the charge to have an appeal and so i actually re-engaged with

00:16:50.220 tommy after he left rebel news and um boy he's come a long way since then so i'm talking too too

00:16:59.140 long about tommy i really admire him and look where he is these days he's got he's back he's

00:17:04.580 replatformed on social media he had a huge rally in london on september 13th the minimum police

00:17:11.560 estimate is 150 000 people there but there are credible estimates that put it over a million

00:17:16.420 and um he's a powerhouse in his own right and um elon musk is now paying his legal bills we used to do

00:17:26.360 that we crowdfunded his legal bills now elon musk is covering that so tommy robinson is really on the

00:17:31.760 and let me say this about the uk i just saw a poll today that the reform uk is destined if the

00:17:38.600 election were held today to form a majority government on the backs of their anti-immigration

00:17:43.840 stance which is really tommy's message the labor government which currently has a majority if you

00:17:49.800 can believe it they would be reduced to just four seats so the uk has really turned around or is

00:17:56.180 turning around and hopefully nigel farage will be the next prime minister i know tommy and nigel

00:18:00.920 don't get along but i don't care i see tommy as an activist and a journalist and i see nigel farage

00:18:07.680 as a politician i don't see a contradiction in supporting the vote mike spence from victoria bc

00:18:13.820 says i'd like to see a show or several on the ridiculous inconsistencies in our legal system

00:18:19.800 and the federal government tamara's sentence tamara leach i presume is grossly unfair

00:18:26.380 compare that to how elizabeth may was let off with a warning after she occupied a building in a protest

00:18:33.220 or stephen gilbeau when he broke into the cn tower when he climbed on ralph klein's residence in calgary

00:18:41.820 the truckers protest how it was handled compared with the greater impact the railway blocking by the

00:18:48.880 mohawks two years earlier to the month which has a greater impact on western pq and eastern ontario

00:18:54.920 not just the small point of ottawa why the difference

00:18:57.520 exactly you're so right and i was in the ottawa court i really thought she would be acquitted i was

00:19:09.480 sort of shocked when she wasn't the fact that she got a sentence of house arrest at first i thought

00:19:16.040 oh good she's not being sent back to actual prison but how would you do locked in your house for a

00:19:21.440 year i'm i gotta get out of the house i gotta go and see things and i would go nuts if i was locked

00:19:29.440 in my house for a year she's allowed out for five hours a week for groceries for doctor or dentist

00:19:35.060 appointments i don't know maybe i'd be booking a dentist appointment every month just to get out of

00:19:39.420 the house um she's allowed to go to church and i can't remember there may be a few other minor

00:19:45.280 things like that she's not allowed to go out for dinner she's not allowed to go to see friends she's

00:19:49.540 not allowed to go for a walk um i don't think she's allowed to go to the gym and i saw that sentence and i

00:19:56.680 thought that's so harsh but working carefully with her lawyer and getting the approval of her probation

00:20:07.360 officer we we realized that work is an exemption so that's where we all and i know that's what you're

00:20:14.940 referring to that's when we offered her full-time employment at rebel news which requires her to

00:20:19.660 travel and she had her first official visit here last week and it was excellent and uh you know things

00:20:26.620 are going to be pretty low-key over christmas but we've got big plans for tamera leach and i know

00:20:31.700 that she's well loved from coast to coast i know that because we've worked with her before

00:20:36.160 on similar things like her first book so stand by she's going to be writing another book which i'm

00:20:40.060 excited about but to answer your question you bet there's a double standard between how the truckers

00:20:46.260 were treated versus environmentalists or the hamas protesters matthew writes it's a shame to see the

00:20:54.120 police forces everywhere are working so hard trying to prevent rebel news from reporting on the ground

00:20:57.820 wouldn't it be a good idea to fight them legally or file official complaints whenever they decide

00:21:02.400 to interfere success in court creates useful jurisprudence afterwards also is there any hope of

00:21:07.940 fighting the registered or authorized media list that the federal government are constantly referring

00:21:12.900 to that's a fairly new thing so isn't it time to eliminate it matthew you were exactly right on all

00:21:20.220 of these things and i should tell you that rebel news currently has probably five lawsuits

00:21:26.060 against different police forces we're suing the rcmp for when alexa was shot with a riot gun at the

00:21:32.700 trucker protest we're suing the montreal police called the spvm surete there's something police to

00:21:40.020 ville marie i'm sorry i forget the the french name for their police force we're suing them for for not

00:21:46.180 protecting her um we're suing the toronto police for their attack on david we're suing the rcmp for their

00:21:54.440 attack on david i think not sure we're suing the toronto police for falsely arresting me what am i

00:22:00.680 up to now five six we sued when abhi yamini down in melbourne was arrested five times so sometimes

00:22:07.780 let me talk about abhi's case the police settled they didn't give us any money i'll tell you

00:22:13.020 but they gave us a written apology and a promise not to arrest him again and that's actually all we

00:22:18.660 wanted so you're exactly right that's the way to do it and it worked in australia here in canada

00:22:24.120 so far the police are very intransigent and um we have not had we have not gone all the way in

00:22:31.880 one of these police lawsuits but i expect that may happen in 2026 donna ford says your news team has

00:22:37.900 done a great job of covering important stories but my favorite has to be david menzies relentless

00:22:42.060 pursuit of the truth about the male church teacher with ginormous bazooms in halton kudos also to the new

00:22:49.480 uh go to the new york post for their efforts in pursuing the truth yeah that that was such a crazy

00:22:54.680 story and you know that guy was so weird and to wear those insane artificial breasts those prosthetics

00:23:08.080 in a school with children it seems to me he was using the children as some sort of forced

00:23:16.040 participants or like a forced audience to his bizarre fetish like he could be at home with those

00:23:24.960 prosthetic breasts but that wasn't doing it for him he had to be there in class interacting with the boys

00:23:33.160 interacting with the girls forcing them to deal with him as their teacher instead of as a sexual

00:23:41.520 activist which he was that was such an insane story and the fact that the union and the government

00:23:48.060 and the school boards closed ranks behind him is so crazy and you're right the new york post and rebel

00:23:55.560 news and i think i think the sun news network cover sorry the toronto sun covered it a lot of media are

00:24:02.060 afraid to touch anything trans robert williamson hello ezrin team best wishes and happy new year

00:24:07.540 following you from the beginning and i still have your bobblehead in the original box with your

00:24:11.540 autograph on the box my question is to make clear rebel news political stance for my critical family

00:24:16.480 and friends who say rebel news is extreme right i say no i tell them that ezra levant rebel news is just

00:24:22.240 as much against the extreme right as they are against the extreme left i say that you are believers in

00:24:26.860 small government and separation of powers and believe in individual freedom and personal

00:24:32.060 responsibility libertarian in anything am i correct perhaps you could clear this up and give me a real

00:24:38.500 explanation for me to use in conversations and if i'm wrong then please set me straight many thanks

00:24:43.940 stay safe wishing you and the rebel news team all success yours truly robert charles williamson a 74

00:24:50.700 year old canadian who no longer recognizes as a country not the country i grew up in god bless

00:24:56.020 robert thank you for your letter and uh and uh and your last sentence is very touching i i can sit i

00:25:03.120 used to call myself conservative um i suppose when i was very young i called myself libertarian

00:25:08.420 um things certain things have scrambled a little bit for example during covid times

00:25:14.040 if you wanted people to have the right to say no to a jab did that make him right wing or left wing

00:25:19.200 because you know some of the left would say my body my choice that's sort of a liberal mantra

00:25:25.640 right some on the environmentalist left or the the green party left would say i don't want to take

00:25:31.140 a lot of pharmaceuticals let me have a natural you know immunity and health and things like that

00:25:36.420 so the stances we took during covid which is when actually we really grew a lot a lot of viewers then

00:25:41.940 we were for privacy we were for individual autonomy we were against junk science um privacy was a big

00:25:50.300 thing for us it still is so is that left wing or right wing i mean historically the

00:25:55.620 leftist cared about privacy i think so i mean i suppose on on big government like spending and

00:26:02.180 stuff were for smaller government for lower taxes for lower debt but you know so was paul martin the

00:26:08.700 liberal right so was jean christian those guys actually balanced budget um yeah i don't i don't

00:26:15.080 take extreme right that that to me implies racism and we're not racist we have people of all different

00:26:21.080 backgrounds here and i don't think that would happen if we were racist um i think calling people

00:26:25.480 racist is sort of the left's tactic if they disagree with you especially on things like

00:26:30.180 immigration and multiculturalism i don't think it's racist to say our million people your immigration

00:26:36.840 policy is crazy out of control and it's hurting everybody that's not racist um so yeah i mean i

00:26:44.000 appreciate your point i think a lot of people who call rebel news extreme right they actually don't

00:26:51.040 watch it they just heard about it and you know maybe heard other people describe it i think that

00:26:58.400 if you just show people our twitter feed our youtube channel um and have them watch five videos and say all

00:27:06.240 right here's five videos tell me i mean here's an example i'm just gonna pick one out of the blue

00:27:10.000 because it just popped into my mind remember when i went out to uh western ontario and there was some

00:27:16.620 amish farmers that were getting huge fines from the government because they didn't download the arrive

00:27:22.520 can app on their smartphone because they don't have smartphones because the amish don't use electricity

00:27:27.100 so that was the story we were helping the amish and we we were crowdfunding lawyers for them through

00:27:33.140 the democracy fund is that extreme right wing to help a low like they have very low income

00:27:39.920 very low power these amish they they live they're in anachronism they're living like it's

00:27:44.660 the 1800s or something um is it extreme right wing to help them when they were being bullied by the

00:27:50.600 government like they had hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for not having the arrive can

00:27:56.640 app which was such a dumb thing so how's that so you show people that video or or show i mean

00:28:02.780 some of the work our individual reporters have done like alexa lavois uh reporting on some of the

00:28:10.180 craziness on the streets of montreal that's not far right i i would say the antidote to that is just

00:28:15.940 having people see who we really are by watching what we really do pauline says ezra first a big thank you

00:28:22.800 for standing for truth i would like to ask if you would consider running for office well pauline thank you

00:28:28.640 i don't know if you know my history but i was very involved in the reform party of canada when i was

00:28:35.300 young i joined when i was a teenager um i got to know preston manny way back in the day because i was

00:28:40.720 in calgary that's where he was i became the head of the reform party student society at university of

00:28:46.860 calgary that's actually where i got to know naheed menchi who is now the leader of the ndp in alberta

00:28:51.700 and danielle smith who's now the premier there so there was this little political club house that we

00:28:56.860 were all in there was sort of fun and when i was 29 i threw my hat in the ring i had been preston

00:29:02.640 manning's assistant he retired i threw my hat in the ring i won the nomination i started campaigning

00:29:09.200 there was a special by-election because preston manning had resigned and it was five weeks till

00:29:14.440 the by-election day and this is calgary southwest one of the most conservative places in canada i was

00:29:19.800 fairly well known there i had four generations of my family there i had a really good campaign team

00:29:25.120 my lawn signs were going up but stephen harper needed a quick entry into parliament and after

00:29:30.060 initially resisting him i stepped aside and he went into parliament and that just sort of

00:29:34.740 knocked me off my politics path but it knocked me on to a different path right i wrote a book called

00:29:41.160 fight kyoto i did a little bit of lawyering i uh started the western standard magazine i wrote more

00:29:48.100 books i like i a whole bunch of things came from that i went on sun news i started rebel news we

00:29:55.140 we helped fund the democracy fund charity so i did have plans to be an mp when i was in my 20s

00:30:02.700 i thought about it a lot and every i'd say once a year i i think well what if what would have happened

00:30:09.060 if i had if if things have been different and i had become an mp sometimes i think would i have been

00:30:14.960 able to tow the party line let me give you two examples there was a part there was a time under

00:30:20.180 erin o'toole's leadership where conservative mps if you can believe it had to support the carbon tax

00:30:26.180 he called it a carbon levy would i really i mean i wrote a book called fight kyoto i wrote a book called

00:30:31.560 ethical oil would i really have been able to bite my tongue and support that guy i don't know i know

00:30:38.380 myself and i'm pretty stubborn or how about during covet times again aaron o'toole he was totally

00:30:44.040 indistinguishable from the other parties would i have been able to bite my tongue to be a good and

00:30:50.240 that's the thing because when you're a member of parliament you have to be a team player um

00:30:55.440 the leader gets i suppose a little more leeway but being an mp from calgary

00:31:02.160 would i really have been would i have survived those ideological crises i don't know maybe um

00:31:09.660 maybe i would be super duper there but i you know we'll never know but what we will know is that

00:31:15.860 you know i the other projects i've worked on have been fairly political and i don't know i feel like

00:31:23.140 i've managed to make a difference and build a bit of a team that's one of the things i'm proudest about

00:31:27.400 rebel news is we put together an interesting team don't you think like what a what a collection

00:31:31.660 of people we put together not just our current staff but our alumni over the years it's been

00:31:36.800 amazing it's been a great way to meet uh unusual and wonderful people so in other words uh i did

00:31:44.100 consider running for politics pauline i threw my hat in the ring i was five weeks away from winning

00:31:49.060 in calgary southwest but i was knocked off course i suppose never say never but it's certainly not on my

00:31:55.180 mind i feel like i have a daily duty at rebel news and i and i'm doing it every day i'm doing

00:32:00.360 journalism i'm crowdfunding i try to run the company so uh i don't see myself in politics um in in the

00:32:07.940 foreseeable future i'm not saying never never never ever ever but um i mean i got stuff i'm doing

00:32:14.040 john phillips says considering all the new laws the liberals are bringing in are you considering moving

00:32:20.220 west well john that's an interesting question that you pose because of course the liberals i presume

00:32:25.860 you're referring to are mark carney's federal liberals so moving west wouldn't really save me

00:32:31.860 if the laws are in uh are promulgated nationally so all these laws we're talking about bill c8 bill c9

00:32:41.240 what used to be called c63 i won't bore you with the alphabet soup of what they're called

00:32:45.140 all these different censorship bills they may be passed in ottawa's parliament but they are binding

00:32:51.960 on all 10 provinces and three territories so moving west there's a freer spirit in the air that's for

00:32:58.620 sure but you would not be immune or exempt from mark carney's censorship by virtue of being in alberta

00:33:05.800 now of course if alberta is separated that changes everything but um running to alberta would not

00:33:13.260 uh find a refuge for us from these censorship laws calvin arndt says hey ezra you shouldn't worry

00:33:21.840 about the weight loss challenge life is meant to be lived and enjoyed and balanced with other

00:33:24.840 considerations with that in mind when you are in the uk or island what's your go-to meal that you

00:33:29.820 always want to enjoy there and have you found a place in canada makes it as good over there

00:33:34.080 well calvin first of all thanks for your friendly words i need to lose some weight i know i do not just

00:33:41.620 for aesthetic reasons but to be healthy and i love feeling better when i when i was working there

00:33:46.360 was a time i was working on six days a week and um and it showed and i felt a lot better about things

00:33:52.740 so i'm gonna try to get you know i travel so much that's one excuse i have um but uh you know i'm

00:33:59.540 gonna try you know let me let me recommit to my 2026 new year's resolution but to your question

00:34:05.140 um the funny thing is my trips to ireland are often so quick i'm not kidding when i say half the time

00:34:13.940 i go to ireland it's for 24 hours so we land we like grab a bite at the airport we go to our thing

00:34:20.760 we work all day and then we go to a pub and we have pub for food i mean of course um uh

00:34:27.140 you know pub i'm just trying to think is there a particular pub i honestly can't remember

00:34:32.660 particular things i order but you go to a pub uh you know actually last time i was in ireland i went

00:34:37.660 to a japanese restaurant uh and another time i you know i i don't know i'm not seeking out

00:34:43.620 very particular irish cuisine um and unfortunately i'm i'm not there for a long time of course i have

00:34:50.300 the guinness um i'm not a big drinker but when you're in ireland you gotta have some guinness

00:34:54.560 in the uk uh i i'm usually in london which has just so many amazing restaurants

00:35:00.700 restaurants of all different varieties um i know i'm not giving you good answers here

00:35:05.760 but um i i guess in in in closing i don't really have a favorite food over there because there's

00:35:15.580 just so much so many restaurants and and actually they have a ton of like they call them tesco or

00:35:21.900 marks and spencer's like just little places where you can go in for a sandwich or a snack that's

00:35:26.280 actually because we're always running around right so i actually it's rare that i have time

00:35:31.540 to go to a sit-down dinner i mean sometimes when i land to cover a tommy trial i'll land at 6 30 in

00:35:37.640 the morning it'll take me to like 8 30 to get into town i get to the court i live tweet and then i turn

00:35:45.140 around and i'm on the 6 p.m flight home you know i'd say about a third of the time i go to the uk i'm just

00:35:51.020 not even staying the night anyhow thank you for the personal question i don't think i answered it

00:35:56.840 well martin yates says all of you rebel news have done an incredible job this year however i was

00:36:04.500 wondering if you and or your team would consider coming up with some sort of an award like a rebel

00:36:07.920 news pellets surprise and present it to drea humphrey for her incredible work on covering all the chaos

00:36:12.620 that happened at the universal ostrich farm she covered the entire situation for several months

00:36:17.580 and even drove directly there one night to cover the arrival of the canadian food inspection agency

00:36:22.380 and rcmp and having nothing but a tent to rest in she even spent many days there leaving her family

00:36:28.140 incredible dedication of journalism to show the world the truth martin it's it's like you read my

00:36:34.780 mind she did such a great job there i visited twice i didn't stay very long but i was able to visit

00:36:40.460 and to see the respect and the gratitude and the love that the people there felt for drea she truly

00:36:47.360 was their voice by the end there were other voices too but i think drea's tenacity helped make it possible

00:36:52.900 and you're so right about her i mean you know that she's a mom right and she's i mean being a mom is so

00:36:58.340 busy i don't want to give away any personal details but um we had an rv there i i can't i think we have

00:37:06.100 said that she had her family sort of with her you know talk about incredible it wasn't just her

00:37:12.240 commitment her family um so that's why we had to crowdfund the rv for her to stay there so she wasn't

00:37:18.300 in a tent for a month no she did great and the answer your question is yes um every year in december

00:37:25.980 we have internal awards here we called the rebbees and we have sort of a award ceremony and we hand out

00:37:33.600 a variety of rebbees um sheila won for hardest worker won't surprise you to hear and alexa and

00:37:41.860 guillaume won for the bravery on the streets drea won for her coverage of um the ostrich and

00:37:49.640 my favorite remy is the viewer's choice award where viewers vote and i presume you voted that we

00:37:58.520 and i hope you you got our email about that everyone's allowed one vote and every one of

00:38:04.920 the rebel journalists except for me has their name on the ballot and the top three at our viewers choice

00:38:11.860 awards get a rebbe award and this year avi was in third if i'm going from memory uh david menzies was

00:38:18.040 in second and drea came in first and my theory i mean i don't know this because you don't have to

00:38:23.060 give a reason reason for your vote my theory is that it was her great work um during the ostrich

00:38:29.260 situation this is from sean barrett hi ezra and team i would like to say thank you for all the hard

00:38:35.220 work you do to provide unbiased reporting recently i had a phone call to my mp's office of dominic

00:38:39.940 leblanc it was not him i was talking to but his minister he was trying to defend the government for

00:38:45.360 the convoy and arguing the peaceful protests of the truckers by saying they were blocking roads

00:38:50.120 and businesses extra i told him i don't believe all that and when i asked if the government not

00:38:55.060 doing anything about the palestine protest blocking roads in toronto and other places he was saying

00:38:59.300 that's not happening he's not seen it on the news so i guess it's not happening if cbc doesn't report

00:39:04.180 on it my question is how can i get involved in my province of new brunswick to actually help make

00:39:08.720 changes i am tired of the liberals gaslighting thanks so much rebel team sean you have some very

00:39:14.900 interesting points in there that you make uh the first is as you know we just hired tamara leach

00:39:20.800 um the trucker queen i would call her to be a full-time rebel news staffer which i'm very excited

00:39:27.940 about so um you'll find that good news because i you support the truckers second of all i think you're

00:39:34.700 very keen to point out the double uh double standard with how the truckers worked out with with other

00:39:39.860 protests and um you know it's not just the um palestinian protesters it's i don't know if you

00:39:48.920 remember a few years ago they were the i don't know more they called them the aboriginal protests

00:39:52.480 the blocked railways of course you have environmentalist protests all the time especially

00:39:56.980 mining roads and logging roads so um one of the important things about a justice system

00:40:03.080 is that it's equal justice under law people have to feel like they're going to get a fair hearing and

00:40:09.520 not be judged based on their ideology i think in canada we're at risk of losing that ask your

00:40:16.220 question what to do about it i mean there's a lot of things you could do depends on your talent and

00:40:21.500 your taste and how much time you have and your your personal style some people are very conflict

00:40:26.140 averse some people are extremely busy some people have more money than time some people have more time

00:40:33.100 than money some people like talking some people like reading or writing so i i suppose the answer is

00:40:38.300 very personal but here's a i'm just going to come up with a list of a few things anyone could do if it

00:40:45.000 suited them um i i think that actually running a social media account if you have interesting and

00:40:54.140 thoughtful things to say can make a difference i mean you have to have thoughtful things to say

00:40:59.760 you're competing against millions of people but if you have a twitter account or x is now called

00:41:04.520 and if you try and be thoughtful and smart or funny funny is the best you can build a following

00:41:10.020 and i think that can really move hearts and minds you can bring news to people's attention that they might

00:41:16.020 have otherwise missed you can make arguments rebut people and to me the the best part of x or twitter

00:41:21.600 is you can engage directly with big shots with presidents and prime ministers and premiers and other

00:41:27.720 politicians so that's one way of doing it i mean i know a lot of people think social media is just

00:41:32.900 moving around wasting time and it can be but it can actually be a force also you don't want to have

00:41:39.580 all your whole life consumed by it though another thing is i mean depending if you have money you could

00:41:44.320 theoretically donate to a political campaign that that reflects your views and um one of the reasons

00:41:51.760 people donate is not just they want their party to win but it typically brings you into contact with

00:41:58.300 the politician where you can give them a peace of your mind where you can tell them what you care

00:42:02.160 about that's another thing going to a town hall meeting you mentioned dominic leblanc um my guess

00:42:08.660 is maybe it's only once a year but he probably has a town hall meeting public meeting where you could go

00:42:13.660 and and have a say um there's not a ton of talk radio left in canada anymore but there still is some

00:42:19.700 that's something you could do is to call in i'm just coming up with things that uh that an ordinary

00:42:25.160 person might do or could do if you're active you could become a door knocker for a candidate i mean

00:42:31.020 that's a partisan approach but anyway there's a there's a lot of things to do sending uh emails or

00:42:38.380 even making phone calls to politicians they do notice those things um a phone call to an mp's office

00:42:45.360 where you give them your address proving you're in the district that'll that probably is more about

00:42:50.900 more important to that politician than an email or a tweet or most other things because they say oh

00:42:55.760 an actual resident of my district actually took the time to phone i better phone him back you never

00:43:02.680 know you might get dominic leblanc himself on the line well that's all the questions i thought there

00:43:07.980 was going to be some more tough questions or more personal questions maybe i didn't uh clearly call for

00:43:15.280 those i thought people were going to put me that were going to grill me a bit but everything was pretty

00:43:19.660 friendly anyways thank you so much for your letters today and i know there were a couple other

00:43:24.060 letters that um olivia uh mentioned were on some similar topics so we didn't double up um i've enjoyed

00:43:32.440 the year very much and i i think we're ending the year in an interesting way with two new staff i should

00:43:37.580 i mentioned of course tamara leach and maybe you've seen we've had another reporter named scarlet grace

00:43:43.480 who's done about three or four reports with us i haven't formally introduced her to you i thought

00:43:48.080 we'd test her out in the field a little bit so we've got two heroes of freedom who are i think

00:43:54.040 going to be great rebels and i'll introduce them to you over probably in the new year i wish you a

00:44:00.440 happy new year and a merry christmas and i wish you a new year of peace and justice and freedom

00:44:09.220 and prosperity and i hope that we can take our country and put it on the right path and i think rebel

00:44:16.440 news is a part of that it's not the whole part but it's a part of it and i think we have a role of

00:44:21.960 encouraging politicians to be better and criticizing those who aren't and every once in a while we make

00:44:28.280 a difference like i think we we did with our you know so many of our legal crowdfunding campaigns

00:44:34.000 including for tamara leach whose appeal we're funding anyways i'm feeling a little bit nostalgic

00:44:39.720 with the end of the year thanks everybody for being part of our team as you know rebel news takes

00:44:44.880 no money at all from any level of government and because of that we rely 100 on you our viewers so

00:44:50.000 the fact that we're still here after 10 years that's a testament to your faith in us and i thank you for

00:44:55.000 that on behalf of all of us here at rebel world headquarters to you at home good night and keep

00:45:01.440 fighting for freedom

00:45:02.240 fighting for freedom

Rebel News Podcast - December 26, 2025

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Letters to Ezra： Your biggest questions from 2025, answered

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