Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Mark Carney somehow found an even worse Governor General

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. Big show today. We're going to talk all about our new Governor General,

00:00:04.080 Louise Arbour, and how radical she is. It'll make you miss Mary Simon, the outgoing Governor

00:00:09.880 General, and a feature interview with Keith Wilson, the lawyer for the Freedom Convoy,

00:00:14.760 who's watching the Alberta independence movement quite carefully. That's all ahead. But first,

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00:00:58.920 tonight believe it or not mark carney found a worse person to be our next governor general

00:01:10.820 it's may 5th and this is the ezra levant show

00:01:13.340 shame on you you sensorism bug

00:01:19.600 well mary simon is retiring as the governor general and mark carney picked the ultimate

00:01:35.480 woke ottawa insider to succeed her an activist a far left-wing judge a third worldist we're

00:01:45.520 going to come to miss mary simon the incumbent governor general who was merely financially

00:01:52.380 profligate and the odd i suppose anti-canadian jab but holy smokes louise r boor is the new 0.68

00:01:59.520 governor general for those my vintage and older you'll recall that she was a supreme court of

00:02:04.600 canada judge for about five years which is the apex of most people's career but she actually

00:02:10.200 quit. She resigned as a Supreme Court of Canada judge for what she considered a better and bigger

00:02:16.900 offer. For most people, being the ultimate shaper of laws for the country you were born in

00:02:22.660 would be the tip top. I suppose the only thing more appealing might be to be prime minister

00:02:29.100 itself. But of course, prime ministers come and go, but judges stay till age 75. Louise Arbour

00:02:36.680 acquit the Supreme Court for something she thought was more important. She, of course, is a globalist. 0.90

00:02:41.940 She doesn't really believe in borders. So she joined the UN as a High Commissioner on Human

00:02:47.140 Rights. Now, before you laugh, that is a thing. The United Nations is probably the most human

00:02:53.180 rights abusing group of nations in the world. Countries like Iran, North Korea, they sit on

00:02:59.400 the UN commissions or councils for human rights. So the High Commissioner on Human Rights has a

00:03:06.200 choice to make very early on. To succeed in the job, to be successful, to have a happy and long

00:03:14.480 career there, means you must go through the fiction of blessing and absolving North Korea, 0.64

00:03:21.420 China, Russia, and the world's worst human rights abusers. Or, and this has never been tried before, 0.54

00:03:28.840 actually be a high commissioner for human rights and promote human rights. But that wouldn't last

00:03:33.760 long at all. You wouldn't get the appointment because, of course, appointments would have to

00:03:37.980 win the approval of, let's say, China, which would never allow someone who would criticize

00:03:43.260 their treatment, say, of Uyghur Muslims. Really, the only countries that you're free to criticize 0.91

00:03:48.720 at the United Nations are Israel, the United States, and Taiwan. South Africa used to be on

00:03:54.580 that list, too, until the end of apartheid. So, yeah, Louise Arbour was a perfect fit,

00:04:00.540 and now she's the governor general she's the ultimate ottawa insider who doesn't think ottawa

00:04:06.220 is as important as important as geneva i haven't thought about louise arbor in a long time frankly

00:04:12.900 if you would have asked me i wouldn't have known she was still around she's 79 good for her

00:04:16.860 graham hamilton wrote an interesting piece in the national post about her some 18 years ago

00:04:23.420 she had a massive career even by then what was so interesting is even then it was so

00:04:30.120 clear what she stood for and the fact that it's so clear and so public i mean she's not a private

00:04:34.480 person everything she did was in the public scrutiny um mark carney knows exactly who he's

00:04:40.000 getting for example she praised cuba and this was again in 2008 there was no inkling of reforms this

00:04:48.960 was the most repressive regime in the western hemisphere but she praised cuba publicly saying

00:04:55.020 it, quote, showed unprecedented positive engagement on human rights after it invited a UN official

00:05:02.340 to visit and signed a few PR papers on civil rights. So, of course, that fits right in. You

00:05:09.100 would think, I mean, by any objective measure, Cuba is the most repressive regime in the Western

00:05:14.620 Hemisphere. I mean, Venezuela was perhaps closing in on it, but that's over. And she praised them.

00:05:20.760 Like I say, she knew how to succeed at the UN. At the same moment, of course, she called the United States a torturing country for its use of waterboarding, even though the procedure was approved on two occasions by the U.S. Supreme Court under two different governments, under a Republican and a Democrat government.

00:05:41.160 So, again, the perfect Mark Carney candidate, blessing Cuba, praising Cuba, but accusing America of torture.

00:05:50.860 Of course, the Middle East has always been hot, not as hot as it is now, but she praised an Arab human rights charter.

00:05:59.160 Now, I think Arab Arabia needs some human rights charters.

00:06:03.280 But again, like I say, just a piece of paper is meaningless. 0.90

00:06:05.800 But I think the reason this was particularly odious and not just a joke is because it called Zionism, which is the belief that Israel can have a nation, called that racism. 0.62

00:06:15.520 And she praised that document. 0.60

00:06:17.780 No surprise there.

00:06:19.160 Mark Carney has gone on to declare Palestine a sovereign state to be carved out of Israel with no preconditions at all. 0.96

00:06:26.680 So, yeah, like I say, perfect fit. 0.94

00:06:28.180 In another report in 2007, there was a report by UN Watch on anti-Semitism and the UN.

00:06:35.800 And UN Watch found that other than one passing reference in a speech about attacks on synagogues, churches and mosques, there wasn't a single mention or reference of anti-Semitism in the world, even though it's by far the leading focus of discrimination.

00:06:53.860 I mean, now it's that way even in Canada, the United States, the UK, and Britain too.

00:06:59.160 But she couldn't find any.

00:07:01.440 She was like Mr. Magoo with the big magnifying glass and only one passing reference in her entire career.

00:07:11.120 And, you know, it's just, like I say, perfect fit for Mark Carney.

00:07:16.100 Like I said, we're going to miss Mary Simon because other than spending $100,000 per flight on food, I'm not kidding when I say that.

00:07:23.060 she really kept to herself and knew that the job of a governor, you know, the job of a governor 0.92

00:07:28.320 general is right. It's, it's not to be the head of government. That's Mark Carney. He was elected

00:07:33.520 in an election. The governor general is not the head of state either. That's the King,

00:07:39.580 King Charles, but King Charles is busy. He's the King of Australia. Also, he's the King of the

00:07:45.340 Commonwealth. He's a busy guy and he lives overseas. So he deputizes someone he would have

00:07:52.080 had to have approved uh louise arbour's selection to be his eyes and ears on the ground here to be 0.97

00:07:57.660 his servants so louise arbour is the agent for the king here she was not elected to anything and 0.64

00:08:04.920 she's not a political personality in her own right i predict that she will not be able to keep it 1.00

00:08:11.040 corked that she will mouth off on everything and consider herself to be a political actor rather

00:08:17.660 than the quiet uh member of the uh really the court of king charles um you know what's the

00:08:26.920 funny thing is iran is in the news now very hotly well iran was in the news when she was um human

00:08:33.840 rights commissioner as well and she actually attended a conference in iran and praised it

00:08:40.840 And while the president of Iran spoke and said that Israel needed to be, quote, wiped off the map. 0.53

00:08:48.100 So imagine going to Iran, like being so comfortable with that totalitarian regime and knowing absolutely that they would take good care of you because you were on their side and they knew.

00:08:59.400 Not just in Iran, in the UK.

00:09:01.580 I mean, this is early days when there was an academic boycott of Israel proposed.

00:09:05.800 I mean, that's just the way it is now.

00:09:07.640 But she was a very early adopter.

00:09:09.380 she didn't criticize it she said that quote public debate particularly coming from informed

00:09:16.020 communities is from a human rights perspective a good thing so she said banning israeli academics

00:09:22.980 is public debate but not all public debate you might recall that the danish cartoons were

00:09:29.040 published in a newspaper in denmark called the jillens posted and i republished them in canada

00:09:34.240 So debating anti-Semitism is free speech.

00:09:37.660 But she said, quote, I find alarming any behaviors that disregard the beliefs of others. 0.83

00:09:44.260 So she's fine with banning Jews from coming to academic conferences in the UK.

00:09:49.420 But she didn't have any time for people like myself publishing the Danish cartoons of Mohammed.

00:09:54.740 So, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you your new Governor General.

00:09:58.960 And it's a reminder that things can always get worse. 1.00

00:10:03.340 Mary Simon was atrocious. Is atrocious-er a word? Stay with us. More ahead with Keith Wilson.

00:10:14.520 All right, so let me read you the letter that I have for Peter Smith.

00:10:25.640 Dear Peter Smith, on behalf of the Stay Free Alberta campaign, I'm pleased to advise you today

00:10:31.600 that we delivered to Elections Alberta

00:10:33.900 301,456

00:10:36.980 from the Alberta Independence Commission

00:10:42.120 initiated under the Citizens Initiative Act

00:10:44.740 while surpassing the required threshold

00:10:47.700 set by Elections Alberta.

00:10:50.040 This process shows that Albertans are engaged

00:10:54.080 and this is an issue people want to have a say on.

00:10:56.320 From all perspectives,

00:10:58.300 there has been significant interest in discussion

00:11:00.540 and participation, demonstrating that this is a matter of province-wide importance.

00:11:06.340 It also reflects the role of direct democracy with citizens engaging the legislative process

00:11:12.460 in a lawful and meaningful way.

00:11:15.420 This effort was about participation in democracy, plain and simple.

00:11:19.680 It was not easy.

00:11:22.380 As you are aware, there were significant administrative and legal hurdles

00:11:26.900 that delayed the process and increased the cost.

00:11:30.540 Despite these obstacles, we remain focused on the goal and continue to push ahead in good faith.

00:11:36.500 This effort would not have been possible without the dedication of thousands of volunteers, including over 7,000 campuses.

00:11:46.020 Many stood for hours in harsh Alberta weather, in freezing temperatures, rain, snow, and

00:11:57.600 blizzard conditions to give their fellow citizens the opportunity to sign.

00:12:03.580 At the same time, we must bring to your attention one of the most common concerns we heard.

00:12:10.460 Across the province, many Albertans expressed support for the petition and in many cases

00:12:15.280 wanted to sign, but they said they could not out of fear of repercussions.

00:12:24.060 Some were concerned that having their names recorded could expose them to government penalties

00:12:27.940 or financial consequences such as frozen bank accounts.

00:12:32.400 In addition, canvases frequently faced harassment while carrying out this lawful activity, often

00:12:38.580 without any meaningful consequence.

00:12:42.080 In the darkness of one's position, hesitation to participate in a lawful democratic process

00:12:46.980 raises serious concerns about confidence in civic freedoms.

00:12:52.000 No Albertan should feel intimidated or at risk for engaging in a lawful process.

00:13:01.120 While the Court has, for now, directed that the formal signature count be delayed, we

00:13:07.260 trust the government understands a significant effort, time and cost incurred by everyday

00:13:11.000 Albertans simply to have their voices heard. That is the purpose of this

00:13:16.100 process, why we participated and why we have prepared the statutory declaration

00:13:20.880 confirming the final signature count. We understand approximately 1,500 extra

00:13:26.120 signatures remain in transit due to delays that we have opposed. We look

00:13:31.100 forward to your government receiving this clear expression of the Democratic

00:13:34.640 will of Albertans and advancing the next steps to include this important question

00:13:38.960 on the referendum ballot on October 19th, 2027.

00:13:46.460 It's definitely Mitch Sylvester.

00:13:51.200 There he is, Mitch Sylvester.

00:13:53.160 He's the boss of Stay Free Alberta,

00:13:55.280 which is the new structure.

00:13:58.080 It used to be an entity called Alberta Prosperity Project.

00:14:00.860 And Mitch Sylvester was really the chief organizer

00:14:03.760 of the petition.

00:14:04.840 You heard him describe it.

00:14:06.080 7,000 volunteers going out and canvassing and it was brutally cold I have to say they had no

00:14:13.300 political party supporting them no large institutions of any sort and I did see plenty

00:14:19.020 of homemade video on cell phones of the canvassers being abused and I did hear myself when I was on

00:14:26.520 part of Sheila Gunn-Reed and Tamara Leach's book tour Cory Morgan's book tour that people were

00:14:31.280 afraid because they remember what happened when they signed up in any way for the trucker convoy

00:14:37.120 four years ago that list when they signed up in that case to donate that list was hacked by an

00:14:43.220 rcmp adjacent hacker who then published the names and that is how the government seized and froze

00:14:50.940 bank accounts illegally and unconstitutionally and so when he says people are afraid of signing

00:14:56.940 because of repercussions he's not saying it lightly and he's not saying it without a basis

00:15:02.460 you heard his statistic slightly more than 300,000 people signed whereas the legal requirement was

00:15:09.600 just over 177,000 so almost double and I happened to look up the number of Albertans who voted for

00:15:17.080 Mark Carney in the last general election and it was just less it was about 299,000 by coincidence

00:15:23.120 very interesting times and you heard a letter mitch sylvester was actually reading a letter

00:15:31.640 that he filed or rather served on the alberta government saying essentially this was a very

00:15:38.980 challenging democratic effort but it was a success it's up to you now premier which i think

00:15:44.580 is a way of saying look there is some lawfare going on by some extremist indian chiefs

00:15:51.640 bankrolled by whatever ngos um don't let them stop this process that's what i interpreted that

00:15:58.180 comment to me joining me now via zoom from northern alberta is keith wilson king's council

00:16:03.620 a lawyer who has focused on this campaign he also has experience with the truckers as their lawyer

00:16:11.000 keith great to see you again thanks for having me on ezra well it really uh was an enormous effort

00:16:18.400 and it was in many ways new uh elections alberta i have to say from dealing with them with our own

00:16:25.220 third party uh campaign they're atrocious they are disorganized they have extreme rules like

00:16:32.360 weekly filings um their laws are vague and make no sense so for mitch sylvester who is not a lawyer

00:16:39.560 to muster 7 000 volunteers get 300 000 names and do it all on deadline that is an enormous effort

00:16:47.160 which I think shows us substantial support for his project.

00:16:52.440 Agreed.

00:16:53.040 And, you know, under one of the worst, harshest winters we've had in several years,

00:16:59.580 record snowfall, you know, even the first two weeks of April,

00:17:03.580 or the last two weeks of April, rather,

00:17:06.420 there was hope that we would have the spring weather that we get here

00:17:10.040 where people are out cleaning up their lawns and getting ready for flowers

00:17:14.780 and farmers are getting ready to seed their crops.

00:17:17.040 and then we got two blizzards you know uh one of our highways was shut down for 20 hours with

00:17:21.820 people stranded so incredibly different conditions and and as you pointed out I had so many people

00:17:27.700 talk to me Ezra and it's just disturbing about how afraid they were to sign they said I want to sign

00:17:33.880 and but I'm afraid that you know my name's going to get out that I signed and then the government

00:17:40.660 is going to in Ottawa is going to freeze freeze their bank account or interfere with their business

00:17:46.220 like happened to so many of my clients in the freedom convoy and they would then immediately

00:17:52.080 follow that up with um uh with with with shame and sadness shame that they felt afraid and and

00:18:03.420 that it was influencing their decision making and their actions and sadness that canada is so lost

00:18:11.480 and has changed so much that you have to fear your government well let me say one more thing on that

00:18:17.980 the federal court ruled that the seizing and freezing of bank accounts was illegal and

00:18:24.760 unconstitutional the government appealed that to the federal court of appeal where three more

00:18:29.340 judges unanimously upheld it so now four judges in a row at the federal court so these are ottawa

00:18:35.080 appointed judges these are these are fairly senior judges um four judges in a row said no that

00:18:41.100 seizing and freezing was illegal. And yet, the Liberal government is appealing,

00:18:46.100 which means they insist that what they did was actually lawful.

00:18:50.100 Think of how terrifying that is. And I don't know if you remember, I was in January,

00:18:54.100 I was in Davos, and by chance I bumped into both Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland,

00:19:00.100 and one of my questions I put to each of them was,

00:19:04.100 do you have any regrets on seizing and freezing bank accounts,

00:19:08.100 accounts, especially Chrystia Freeland. And she had the honesty, at least, to say, no. Here,

00:19:14.180 take a quick look at me accosting the former deputy prime minister on the streets of Davos.

00:19:19.620 And it was a slow motion chase. Neither of us was particularly fit, Keith, as we waddled down

00:19:25.460 the streets, me asking her questions. But I did get an answer from here. Here, take a listen.

00:19:30.660 Why did you freeze bank accounts of Canadians?

00:19:32.880 Well, that's a good question that I don't think you've ever answered. The Federal Court of Appeal

00:19:36.440 recently ruled 3-0 that your decision was unconstitutional.

00:19:40.600 Do you regret that?

00:19:42.800 You seized and froze bank accounts.

00:19:45.240 The Federal Court of Appeals said that was unconstitutional.

00:19:48.220 Any regrets?

00:19:51.140 No regrets?

00:19:52.780 Do you have an apology for the people whose bank accounts you illegally seized?

00:19:58.060 Are you still happy about it?

00:19:59.300 I'm proud of standing up for Canadians.

00:20:00.940 Are you proud of breaking the law?

00:20:03.820 That's the charter you broke, ma'am.

00:20:05.580 that's not just any old law four judges in a row have agreed you broke the law

00:20:11.380 you're a law breaker that's weird

00:20:17.000 i've answered your question you should be really you should be really proud and i think you should

00:20:26.740 be ashamed of yourself for what for doing coaching's work you froze canadians bank accounts

00:20:32.140 Well, I think the point of Chrystia Freeland and Justin Trudeau saying they did nothing wrong, the appeal to the Supreme Court, which implies they believe they did nothing wrong and they think the Supreme Court will say they did nothing wrong, that is a very good reason for people to be afraid.

00:20:48.120 Now, I'm glad 300,000 were not, but it is not an irrational fear to think there will be punishments coming from Mark Carney, and I shouldn't propagate that, I shouldn't whip that up, but I can't take any other meaning apart from the fact they're appealing, they're obstinate, and they think they did nothing wrong.

00:21:04.660 Well, there's a whole nother layer to this, which just happened this week as well, Ezra, which is one of the parties in that appeal wrote a formal and properly framed application that Chief Justice Wagner recused himself.

00:21:25.160 because, as you may recall, he made several public remarks on two different occasions

00:21:31.620 during the Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa in February 2022,

00:21:36.900 quite alarmist comments, which were clear that he'd formulated an opinion.

00:21:45.960 And not only that, it was also clear from his comments that he was relying on CBC

00:21:52.480 or other legacy media reports that were subsequently debunked as completely false so it's very

00:21:58.680 concerning for me as a citizen as a father but also especially as a lawyer and a lawyer who

00:22:06.720 has been representing freedom convoy participants including in lawsuits for the illegal freezing of

00:22:14.260 their bank accounts that this week the chief justice decided not to recuse himself um and

00:22:21.960 cited as a reason that the cases about the emergencies act or something was kind of obscure

00:22:30.600 but no the case is about whether or not the federal government uh had the requisite factual

00:22:38.540 circumstance on the ground in the protest in ottawa to justify the invocation and at that

00:22:43.900 time uh the majority of the the residential areas in downtown had been cleared out there was a deal

00:22:49.920 with the mayor to move the remaining trucks onto wellington and sir john a um all of the borders

00:22:55.960 were reopened across the country and uh instead on the monday uh the prime minister then trudeau

00:23:03.140 and his cabinet decided to invoke the emergencies act so the question before the court as it was

00:23:08.800 before the previous ones the federal court and the federal court of appeals said the the factual

00:23:13.840 situation on the ground in canada was not requisite did not meet the legal threshold to justify

00:23:19.880 invoking martial law against canadians freezing their bank accounts and doing all the other

00:23:25.740 terrible things i want to bring it back to the to the referendum although theoretically you know i

00:23:31.000 remember one of the tests of uh um is it in the csesis act is that is that where the test for if

00:23:38.300 there's a national crisis uh tantamount to a war um there's a definition of an emergency

00:23:44.880 it's in a different law yeah there's a cross reference in the emergencies act to the cesus

00:23:51.640 act that's right and how this relates to the to the independence movement is when albertans see

00:23:58.760 the chief justice not recusing himself um when they see the federal government uh barreling full

00:24:06.180 steam ahead and not acknowledging their tyrannical authoritarian action it's unsettling it causes fear

00:24:14.360 like people not wanting to sign a petition and it it just reaffirms in people's minds why the

00:24:21.560 proper thing for alberta to do is to to leave canada to recognize its institutions are failing

00:24:28.380 and that albertans need to chart their own path through an independent country and and what i was

00:24:34.840 alluding to is i don't think that the regime has ruled out using the emergencies act again

00:24:40.720 because actually uh a cry it would be a crisis that i suppose could be called an emergency

00:24:47.240 if alberta were to secede now it's completely lawful it's not an unlawful secession it's not a

00:24:53.700 war it's not a civil war but it would not shock me um if mark carney uh who is appealing

00:25:01.860 the emergencies act case if he would apply it again and i don't think he's ruled it out but

00:25:07.320 let's bring it back to next steps here um i mean i don't want to go too far down that road of fear

00:25:12.620 because i don't want to magnify the fear but people are afraid um i think one of the meanings

00:25:19.580 of mitch sylvester's letter that he read out there was he was saying to the premier we did the work

00:25:23.880 we followed the law we exceeded the the quota by almost 100 percent we did it in an uphill way

00:25:30.080 um and he sort of nudge nudge wink wink was suggesting that she officially called the

00:25:37.520 by-election rather than having the vote counted these petitions counted in elections alberta

00:25:43.280 process it because they are tied up in a court case is that what you take away from the letter

00:25:49.800 was that what he meant by his letter i think so and and but i just don't want to leave the fear

00:25:55.500 thing hanging and i'll just say something about the emergencies act and how it could apply and

00:25:59.180 then I'll answer your question head on if I might, which is I'm not afraid of the federal

00:26:05.560 government invoking the Emergencies Act against Albertans exercising their rights because there's

00:26:10.060 no functional tool they can use. It's just not how it works. Albertans will carry on with their

00:26:16.380 ordinary day, the day after the vote, and they will carry on with their ordinary day, a life

00:26:22.100 and business and, and, uh, um, uh, as the steps unfold, um, I think it's a bluff and it's a fear

00:26:29.040 bluff. So I'm not, I'm not afraid in this context. It's very different than the context of what we

00:26:33.940 had, where we had protesters on the ground in Ottawa, uh, the last time it was invoked. So,

00:26:38.880 but, but what I really liked about what Mitch Sylvester had to say in his letter to the premier

00:26:43.640 is it affirms the current state of the law of Alberta and Canada, which is, uh, the Supreme

00:26:50.820 Court of Canada was clear that if a provincial government decides to hold a referendum on a

00:26:55.820 clear question for separation, and there's a majority, clear majority that votes in favor of

00:27:00.500 it, that creates a positive legal duty for the federal government and the other provinces to

00:27:06.000 negotiate the separation. What Mr. Sylvester's letter to the Premier, and I read the

00:27:14.920 statutory declaration is it confirms for the Premier and gives her evidence that over 300

00:27:21.620 Albertans have signed this petition. We also have another petition from Thomas Lukasik,

00:27:26.720 which was in the other direction about staying in Alberta. So now we're in a situation where in

00:27:32.160 Alberta, regardless of what happens with the court on this really obscure legal challenge from a

00:27:38.060 couple of first nations chiefs is the premier has a clear signal from voters in alberta that this is

00:27:45.780 an issue they want to have a referendum on and there's no prerequisite that there be first a

00:27:52.560 petition it's just one pathway right uh even the first nations lawyers in the court case were clear

00:27:58.800 that there's nothing precluding the alberta government from whenever it wants or the

00:28:02.920 Saskatchewan government or the Quebec government from holding a referendum on independence so I

00:28:08.760 think this clears the way for Premier Smith to soon announce that there will be what the

00:28:14.120 independence question will be and confirm that it will be on the referendum ballot on the 19th of

00:28:19.200 October yeah one of the interesting things and I think you and I have talked about this before is

00:28:24.380 in the United Kingdom when they had their Brexit referendum there clearly was a boss of the pro

00:28:29.900 Brexit side. Nadja Farage had been the leader of the UKIP party, the UK

00:28:33.980 Independence Party, for years. He had sat in the European Union, the European

00:28:40.160 Parliament in Brussels. So there was no doubt whatsoever that he was the guy who

00:28:44.960 caused it. He was the spokesman. He was, he spoke with great authority and now he

00:28:50.060 leads a party called Reform UK that will go to the next phase. Here in Alberta, I

00:28:56.900 guess i'm not in alberta right now but in alberta there's no such thing there's no part there's a

00:29:03.580 there's something called the republican party but it's very minor it's never won an election or a

00:29:07.240 seat there are other small parties uh but none of the parties with seats in the legislature are

00:29:13.040 for independence uh the reigning united conservative party is pretty neutral the

00:29:18.060 ndp are harshly against it i think those are the only two parties with seats um federally

00:29:23.920 both the federal conservatives and the federal liberals and the federal ndp are against it and

00:29:28.940 the bloc doesn't really care so who is going to be the i don't know if that person has identified

00:29:36.880 themselves yet who will be the authoritative speaker i mean mitch sylvester is very well

00:29:41.500 spoken um jeffrey rath i think has probably done more media than anyone else though i think he

00:29:47.820 comes across as harsh and may not appeal to all markets i think the base is already on side but

00:29:53.000 you've got to grow that thing by 20 percent um last point and then i'd love your answer

00:29:57.920 there are these different registered third parties but none of them are allowed to spend

00:30:03.060 or operate in the same way as a registered political party can so i'm just wondering how

00:30:08.440 this vote is going to happen when you have no boss of the yes side and even the most successful

00:30:14.860 yes side third party group can only raise and spend a fraction of the no side political parties

00:30:21.020 So I'm just trying to think about how the mechanics of this referendum will go.

00:30:25.720 So let's start with the last point first that you make.

00:30:29.640 We just concluded.

00:30:30.720 So Alberta has extremely restrictive, complex, convoluted, onerous campaign type laws that apply not only to political campaigns, but referendum campaigns and petition campaigns.

00:30:47.440 Well, we just finished the petition campaign as of Saturday night, and there is no cabinet order setting down under the Referendum Act an independence question yet.

00:30:58.460 So that puts us in an in-between period for the next number of weeks, potentially months, where there are no restrictions. We're in a period of free political expression and free political advocacy, which is remarkable that we even have to have these restrictions, but we do.

00:31:17.440 Um, and so over the next number of weeks, it's open to any groups to do whatever they want or any individuals to do whatever they want, because there are no restrictions on free expression and, and free political advocacy.

00:31:31.380 So I, I think it's important that all Albertans and all the different groups take advantage of that legal opportunity and, and express themselves and organize themselves.

00:31:40.940 But I do not believe that success will necessarily follow. Actually, I'm stronger than that. I think it would be a bad idea for the independence movement to rally around a political party. I really believe that this needs to be a grassroots initiative.

00:31:57.700 I've been involved in a number of grassroots initiatives over the years, including the freedom movement coming out of the government overreach of the COVID mandates.

00:32:07.460 And I think it's very important that it be citizen initiated and it be grassroots, it not become partisan through a political party.

00:32:15.400 I think it just changes the dynamics fundamentally.

00:32:18.740 I think in time in Alberta, voices will become more prominent than others.

00:32:24.880 I think voices will become just like we saw with Tamera Leach and the Freedom Convoy.

00:32:29.460 There was many voices, but the crowd, the Canadians gravitated to her voice.

00:32:36.760 And I think that same dynamic is likely to occur here.

00:32:39.340 But it's going to be really important because as your pollings revealed, Ezra, this idea that there was a big, soft, mushy middle is not the truth.

00:32:47.520 And it's a wake-up call for the independence movement in Alberta that they're going to have to get much more sophisticated and use much more sophisticated approaches to reach those who are strongly opposed to independence to cause them to see the importance of a yes vote to improve the future for their kids and grandkids.

00:33:07.020 Yeah, I mean, I think the most striking divide in Alberta is rural versus urban. If it was just the rural parts, Alberta would be independent in a heartbeat. It's overwhelming. But it's less so in the cities, even in Calgary. And it's less so with women. And there's different demographics that have to be reached. And I think perhaps with different messages and different messengers.

00:33:31.080 I want to play for you a clip of Jason Kenney and this is him speaking at a Globe and Mail conference a couple weeks ago. Jason Kenney along with disgraced former cabinet minister Thomas Lukashik have become the two, I think, leading Remain in Canada spokesmen with Naheed Nenshi probably trailing in third.

00:33:49.320 Let me play for you a clip of Jason Kenney where he where I mean, he's taken to calling independence supporters kooks like he's fallen back to what he did during COVID times when he was premier.

00:34:01.260 He started to name call Albertans, Yahoo's, kooks, fringe, wackadoodles like whatever.

00:34:08.640 Like I don't know if that works.

00:34:11.640 I know that would work at a Globe and Mail forum, which is what he was speaking at. 0.98

00:34:14.960 It's delightful to them to see an Albertan crap all over other Albertans.

00:34:19.940 I just don't know if that message works as well on the ground in Alberta. 0.98

00:34:22.840 But here's a clip of Jason Kenney.

00:34:25.080 And I think he gets his polling correct so far.

00:34:29.900 But listen to what he says about if the independence vote gets both 30 or 35 percent, which is where it would come out now, I think, if the vote were held.

00:34:40.600 Just take a listen for a second.

00:34:42.000 The hardcore separatists in Alberta are in the single digits, but you'll see in some polls, sympathy for separation at a possible separatist yes vote could be in the 30 to 40 percent range.

00:34:55.500 So how do you account for that huge difference?

00:34:58.300 Well, the balance is made up.

00:34:59.820 The increment is made up of what I call frustrated federalists.

00:35:03.040 Generally, traditional Tory voters, center-right Albertans, who are still patriotically Canadian.

00:35:08.780 and they single Canada at the hockey games, and many of them move from other provinces,

00:35:13.560 and someone in their family has been in the Mounties or the military,

00:35:15.880 and they know rationally that it's no solution to the problem of coastal access for pipelines

00:35:21.780 to become a landlocked statelet, and that our problems really won't be solved through separation.

00:35:26.560 But their observation is that Quebec has successfully secured everything,

00:35:33.880 asymmetric federalism, $13 billion of equalization, and virtually zero interference from Ottawa

00:35:40.780 through a six-decade-long knife-to-the-throat strategy. So my message to Albertans is,

00:35:47.020 is this really what we want to emulate? Is this impoverishment becoming a have-not province,

00:35:53.440 becoming a net recipient of equalization? Is that the model we want to follow? Because that's what

00:35:58.600 this sterile, pointless political civil war has created in Quebec. And here's my concern.

00:36:04.400 If they get enough of these like frustrated federalist voting for leverage and you get,

00:36:09.180 I don't know, 20, 30, 35 percent yes, that creates a permanent divisive fact in our politics. It will

00:36:16.240 turn the separatist movement from a marginal fringe into a real factor in our politics that

00:36:21.360 will be disruptive for a long time to come. And I think that's bad for investor confidence and

00:36:25.740 sorts of other things so i i think he's totally incorrect where he says an independence oriented

00:36:31.400 a permanent independence movement in alberta would be whiny and a beggar that makes no sense

00:36:37.360 because alberta is a is a super surplus province that's being held back by ottawa's restrictions

00:36:44.540 so alberta would not become a beggar province it's it's not rent seeking like quebec politics

00:36:51.320 has become. But it's interesting to me that he is worried about a perpetual independence movement

00:36:56.620 being born here. And that gives me a flicker of hope that even if it's a no vote, there could be

00:37:04.100 a permanent vanguard of Alberta firsts that command Ottawa's attention in a way that Alberta

00:37:11.660 has never had before. I mean, there is no denying that the Quebec separatist movement has been an

00:37:17.880 enormous success even though they have not got a yes vote they have transferred a hundred billion

00:37:23.200 dollars worth of wealth to them they have three out of nine supreme court judges they have their

00:37:26.840 own immigration policy their own pension their own police force their own you know it they they rule

00:37:32.640 the school and they haven't won a vote and and i think jason kenny who is disparaging and and i

00:37:39.520 think some of what he says can be discounted i think he's spot on that even if it's a no if

00:37:45.020 there's a perpetual independence movement it could be a tremendous boon to alberta and a hound dog

00:37:51.780 uh growling in ottawa what do you think well you know i i am struck by the number of albertans

00:38:00.800 who i've met in the last year who were never politically active who had never imagined

00:38:08.200 in their wildest dreams that they would support alberta independence but the more they looked at

00:38:15.420 what's happening in canada what's happening in alberta where the more they understood and have

00:38:21.420 come to reach conclusions on their own how how dysfunctional canadian institutions have become

00:38:26.960 from our courts to our police to our political parties and so on and um uh they you can't put

00:38:35.120 that genie back in the bottle so there's going to be a large segment of the Alberta population

00:38:41.900 regardless of what happens in October that is not going to take it anymore and is going to say no

00:38:47.380 we're not playing like this anymore you're taking advantage of us you're exploiting us you're

00:38:51.980 holding us back you're harming the future of our children and our grandchildren and so I think

00:38:57.540 we're in a whole new era in Canada Albertans are tired of being shackled by Ottawa and even if

00:39:05.100 they don't fully support independence they're going to be more proactive and more politically

00:39:09.900 engaged in sending a message to ottawa that things have to change yeah let me give you one last

00:39:14.940 thought i was meeting with an oil man in alberta a couple weeks ago and you know the mark carney

00:39:22.620 and tim hodge and their memorandum of understanding their mou to the oil patch which said hey pay a

00:39:28.040 bunch of taxes right now and maybe by the year 2040 uh you can have a pipeline like it's just 0.81

00:39:33.800 such a crazy deal and i know danielle smith tried to get some constructive things happening but it

00:39:38.420 there's there's no company that's going to invest with those risks and uncertainties afoot

00:39:44.400 and and this oil man i'm not going to name him was really excited about doing business in

00:39:51.160 venezuela venezuela that's a it's a it's as close as a communist regime comes other than cuba i

00:39:59.360 guess in the western hemisphere and it's still the bulk of the people working the machine are

00:40:05.820 from the old regime like trump knocked out maduro and he sort of colonized the executive but that

00:40:12.260 is still a very wild place i mean and it's still like it's not rock solid yet and this oil man

00:40:19.740 was so excited about doing business in venezuela with his investments and he laughed at the idea

00:40:27.720 he would put any money into anything under mark carney's supervision if you have oil men who love

00:40:33.340 alberta who are based in alberta we're saying i'm not expanding in this province i'm going to

00:40:37.240 expand in venezuela there's a better risk adjusted rate of return i don't know i think there i i think

00:40:43.580 that when the price of oil comes back down after this iran thing is over i think it's going to

00:40:47.760 reveal some of the inequalities again and i i think the anger level is going to go back up i

00:40:52.180 think a hundred dollar oil has made Albertans happier for the last few months. But I think

00:40:57.020 the reality is Mark Carney will not allow Alberta to thrive. Something occurred to me the other day

00:41:02.800 that I hadn't thought of, which is that here's the deal that's currently before Alberta. It's,

00:41:10.100 it's not agree to 15 to $25 a barrel added cost for carbon sequestration and pathways project

00:41:20.540 and net zero and carbon taxes in return for getting oil to Asia and through a new pipeline

00:41:32.860 to the Pacific and only applying that increased cost to that oil.

00:41:38.060 The deal is the federal government will bless and allow a pipeline to go in concept to the

00:41:46.680 Pacific if Alberta agrees to impose that increased cost on all of our production, including the

00:41:53.680 existing massive amount of daily production that flows to the United States. So the complaint is

00:42:00.780 we need to get to international markets because we have a discount on the huge volumes that we

00:42:06.100 sell to the US every day. Well, this proposal will make that discount greater by a very significant

00:42:13.660 amount so significant that cnrl a month ago canceled an eight billion dollar upgrade to

00:42:21.560 their oil sands production all of the other companies have said recently and even all the

00:42:27.260 oil sands group we cannot afford to increase production if all of our production is going

00:42:33.580 to be subject to a a 10 or 15 or even 20 additional cost in addition to our costs getting out of the

00:42:41.480 ground. So the fear of many and the fear that I have is that by agreeing to carbon taxes, net zero

00:42:49.500 pathways project, we're actually condemning the future of our production. And as some experts

00:42:56.380 have recently written in reports that reported on in the legacy media, that Alberta's third

00:43:01.840 largest reserve of oil in the world will actually become a stranded asset. And the cynic in me

00:43:06.960 believes that that's Carney's goal that's what he wrote in his book of values and more and more

00:43:11.980 Albertans are waking up the oil companies are finally waking up that this net zero stuff is

00:43:17.020 dangerous and bad so we're in interesting times we'll never forget that Mark Carney's last job

00:43:23.300 besides his official job at Brookfield was to be the head of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for

00:43:30.100 net zero which basically tried to get a capital strike on oil and his goal was always to phase

00:43:37.280 out oil so a guy does that for a decade and then suddenly he says oh to become prime minister i

00:43:43.320 gotta nix the retail carbon tax sure yeah i'll i'll do anything say anything but the man is

00:43:49.180 inherently more of an enemy to the oil sands than david suzuki because david suzuki was a showboat

00:43:55.600 He was a storyteller.

00:43:58.760 He was an entertainer as much as anything.

00:44:01.640 But Mark Carney is the silent, never-see-him-coming killer.

00:44:05.020 He's wearing a suit like a capitalist,

00:44:06.900 but he's actually a kind of eco-communist underneath it.

00:44:11.020 That hasn't changed, and we'll see that in the months ahead.

00:44:14.220 Mr. Keith, great to catch up with you.

00:44:15.840 Hopefully the Premier will help clear the path

00:44:21.160 to letting Albertans speak.

00:44:22.940 And any Canadian who doesn't want this referendum should reexamine their own beliefs about democracy, because every once in a while, Canadians get to speak.

00:44:33.000 I remember the Charlottetown Accord of some 30 odd years ago.

00:44:37.020 That was a wonderful moment where severely normal people told the political class to get stopped.

00:44:42.060 And I think that that's at the very least giving Albertans the right to speak and maybe someone in Ottawa actually listening, even if it's not a successful vote.

00:44:51.940 I think that'll be the most healthy thing for democracy in years.

00:44:55.080 Last word to you, Keith.

00:44:56.760 Well, just today, the Prime Minister held a press conference that I saw first on Rebel News

00:45:02.280 with the appointment of the new Governor-General,

00:45:06.160 and he was asked about independence in Alberta and separation.

00:45:10.420 He made some cryptic comments, but he did talk about the rule of law

00:45:14.800 and the Clarity Act and the Supreme Court of Canada decision.

00:45:17.340 Alberta separatists say they have more than 300,000 signatures

00:45:20.840 to potentially trigger a referendum vote.

00:45:23.240 What will you do to stop that referendum from winning?

00:45:26.180 Well, there's a couple of things.

00:45:27.500 One is there's, again, keeping with the discussion today,

00:45:31.980 there is the rule of law, there's the Clarity Act,

00:45:35.700 which has been opined upon by the Supreme Court,

00:45:39.280 not the same time when Madame Arbour was sitting on the Supreme Court,

00:45:42.960 but has been the judgment passed there.

00:45:45.600 and any referenda in any part of Canada need to be consistent with that.

00:45:51.860 As you know as well, there's a judicial, you may know,

00:45:54.180 there's a judicial challenge separately but relatedly

00:45:58.320 by indigenous nations in Alberta regarding the question.

00:46:04.000 So those processes have to be followed through.

00:46:08.320 But if you bring it into, so I'm observing that

00:46:11.580 because of the solemnity of the moment that we're observing today

00:46:14.880 and celebrating today, but if you bring it into my day-to-day responsibilities and those of the

00:46:20.080 government, it's to continue to act as we have from the start, which is in the spirit of cooperative

00:46:25.340 federalism, making the country work, making it work for Albertans, making it work for Indigenous

00:46:31.280 peoples, making it work for all Canadians. My fear is that the Prime Minister is not going to

00:46:36.520 follow the rule of law. The rule of law in Canada is clear. The Supreme Court of Canada said when a

00:46:42.400 clear majority vote on a clear question in a province. The federal government has a duty to

00:46:46.560 enter into good faith negotiations, not to run interference through the courts, not to obstruct

00:46:51.440 negotiations, but good faith duty and failure of which the Supreme Court of Canada recognized that

00:46:57.140 a province may have the right to a unilateral declaration of independence. I hope that Albertans

00:47:02.560 vote for independence and I hope that the prime minister follows the rule of law and the direction

00:47:07.240 from the Supreme Court of Canada enters into good faith negotiations. And if he doesn't, Alberta has

00:47:11.940 options yeah well i mean remember mark carney set the precedent for unilaterally declaring

00:47:16.960 the state of palisine exists so uh i'm if it's good for the palestinians it's good for the

00:47:22.780 albertans keith keep in touch thanks for your time thank you very much there he is keith wilson

00:47:28.080 kc lawyer for the freedom convoy in ottawa and a lawyer following this independence movement

00:47:33.920 quite closely stay with us your letters to me next

00:47:37.260 hey welcome back your letters to me on king charles arlene irving says anyone remember when

00:47:52.400 carney was elected and charles flew in for the throne speech canada flew a plane to britain

00:47:57.260 flew him to canada flew back to britain and flew back to canada four fledged in total they are so

00:48:01.700 full of it. You know, I think that was sort of an attempt to warn off Donald Trump and his talk

00:48:07.960 about annexing Canada. I don't know. I don't know what that was about. Mark Carney, I don't think

00:48:14.540 he's a booster of the monarchy, but we do know he's a British citizen. Then again, he's also an

00:48:20.700 Irish citizen and they don't have a king over there. Jerry John says many of the elites and

00:48:25.680 tech billionaires have been retreating from their climate doomsaying agenda over the past couple

00:48:29.740 years. I guess they're moving on to the next scam. Or maybe it's more like repackaging the current

00:48:34.760 scams. Yeah, I think some of them believed in it. Some of them it was virtue signaling. Some of them

00:48:40.740 it was sort of a luxury belief. But for others, it was just a way to make money. I mean, I think

00:48:45.820 for Bill Gates, it was a way to make money. And they found other ways, including AI data centers.

00:48:51.100 So they moved on. Well, that's our show for the day. Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here

00:48:56.840 at Rebel World Headquarters to you at home.

00:48:58.900 Good night, and keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - May 05, 2026

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Mark Carney somehow found an even worse Governor General

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