Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Rebel News has been on the road — and I've got an update

00:00:00.000 hello my friends today i have a special show for you heart to heart chats with sheila gunreed and

00:00:05.200 tamara leach while on tour the both of them have been on tour i i want you to see not just hear

00:00:12.240 today's show so please go to rebelnewsplus.com click subscribe it's only eight bucks a month

00:00:16.760 which might not sound like a lot to you but it's a lot to us when enough people chips in chip in

00:00:21.160 that really helps us pay the bill so go to rebelnewsplus.com for the video version of this

00:00:26.500 podcast all right here's the audio version

00:00:29.040 tonight rebel news has been on the road i'll give you an update it's august 11th and this is the

00:00:48.740 azure levant show shame on you you censorious bug

00:00:56.280 well hi there i'm in beautiful british columbia oh it's such a pretty province um the reason i'm here

00:01:12.300 is because rebel news is on tour we've been doing events maybe you've come to them the other day we

00:01:18.920 were down in surrey which is a suburb of vancouver absolutely packed we had an event at the seventh

00:01:25.960 day adventist church although it was not a religious event even though the pastor there was a very

00:01:30.980 generous and warm host to us and i myself am not even christian as you know we have people of every

00:01:35.860 religion at rebel news our commonality is that we believe in freedom including freedom of religion

00:01:41.120 freedom of association the kind of things that were steamrolled during the lockdowns and the vaccine

00:01:47.100 mandates so we met allies including brave churches that refused to close one of the things about our

00:01:55.000 tour is that we have to beware of cancel culture some venues simply will not take anything controversial

00:02:01.620 they're so afraid of being attacked either attacked in the press or physically attacked

00:02:08.100 as you may know i was recently in portland oregon just for one day to cover the trial of andy no an

00:02:15.480 independent citizen journalist who was brutally attacked by antifa he sued them and uh incredibly

00:02:23.900 the jury acquitted and it's my belief that the jury acquitted him because they were terrified

00:02:29.400 and terrorized by antifa one of the lawyers for antifa said i am antifa and i'm going to remember the

00:02:36.580 face of you jurors it's like a mafia trial where the mafia boss looks at the jurors and say i hope

00:02:42.580 nothing happens to you like it was absolutely terrifying my point of referring to this as you

00:02:47.760 can see here in the footage of andy no literally being beaten on camera there is footage of him being

00:02:54.080 beaten by antifa there's no doubt about it but yet a jury acquitted or dismissed the case against antifa

00:03:01.760 that's extreme cancel culture i don't think we're that far down the road in canada but it's clear

00:03:08.000 that policing in canada takes a different approach depending on your politics anyhow my point is even

00:03:14.360 to do events for rebel news we face a little bit of cancel culture imagine how hard it would be to have

00:03:20.720 a rebel news event in portland oregon we're not planning to we don't have a big support base there but

00:03:25.820 my point is cancel culture at the end starts to look like portland oregon anyways so we've been

00:03:32.420 doing events across canada sometimes in churches sometimes in regular venues we had a wonderful

00:03:37.620 event in toronto recently sold out in the eglinton grand theater which is a a proper venue so it was

00:03:44.520 very nice of them to host us my point is we're getting back into the events business because i believe

00:03:49.440 the rebel news isn't just watching videos or podcasts or reading written articles it's also

00:03:56.060 campaigns as you know we sometimes get involved we crowdfund a lawyer to fight a battle we we send

00:04:02.260 people on a journalistic mission we like to go to davos to cover the world economic forum we like to go

00:04:07.500 to global warming conferences as you know we even managed to scrum greta tunberg in january which was a

00:04:13.800 very interesting thing and we only did that because that's how rebel works we put together the budget for

00:04:18.780 that trip based on crowdfunding here's a flashback to that scrum that walking interview with greta

00:04:24.620 tunberg greta who was filming your arrest in germany because it looked like you did that in several

00:04:29.920 takes didn't you you were posing with the police

00:04:32.920 he's answering for you he's he's answering for you he said you had an agency what sometimes i wish i had

00:04:44.560 one it would be much simpler than well who was filming you then i don't know media you don't know

00:04:50.800 who was filming you in germany he said he knows he says it was an agency 1.00

00:04:55.020 news agency you idiot 1.00

00:04:56.900 do you normally have reporters defending you 1.00

00:05:02.900 yeah it's very likely that the german police and rwf fossil fuel company would stage

00:05:09.680 how many how many times did you were you arrested because you posed for several times didn't you

00:05:17.100 sure yeah i think that's part of what rebel does too we don't just do regular journalism

00:05:24.520 we do adventurous travel journalism for special projects that our people really believe in

00:05:29.840 uh but i think events is an important piece of the puzzle too oh i don't want to forget books

00:05:36.200 which we've recently published a ton of books tamara leach's book on the amini's biography we published

00:05:42.320 an illustrated version of 1984 we even have two more books in the pipeline so books is part of what we do

00:05:48.660 merch merchandise is part of what we do i think we've got some really great clothes and i see them

00:05:54.960 more and more some are very subtle like just the ball cap with the megaphone on them but some of them

00:06:00.940 are are really audacious uh as you know our number one best-selling shirt is justin castro where the two

00:06:08.580 faces are side by side people get a real kick out of that so we've got a lot going on but i think

00:06:14.120 events are probably our most intensive thing and we've recently been on tour across canada and i

00:06:20.000 mean from vancouver island on the west all the way out to the atlantic provinces i think the furthest

00:06:25.040 north we went was edmonton and the furthest south well ottawa and toronto and vancouver

00:06:30.240 i like doing events personally i like to get out of the studio and meet with real people and

00:06:36.080 just look them in the eye and say thanks to people for their support and and people are sort of excited

00:06:40.660 too because they see their rebel stars on the internet on tv on their phone whatever but to

00:06:45.460 meet them in person i think people get a kick out of it and i do too it's a way of staying grounded

00:06:49.720 when there's so much online twitter hate towards rebel it's good to be reminded that actually don't

00:06:55.720 take twitter as real life we used to do more of these things we used to do big annual conventions

00:07:00.860 called rebel live we started those again and we're going to do more of them we used to do annual

00:07:06.200 cruises and we're going to start those again in fact we haven't announced it yet but i'll give you

00:07:10.940 a sneak announcement right now in march of 2024 which is only about six months away just over six

00:07:16.960 months away we're going to relaunch the rebel cruises we're going to cruise through the caribbean

00:07:22.920 for one week so we start in florida cruise the caribbean fellow rebels and we'll have about half a

00:07:29.300 dozen on air talent from rebel to be there spending time with you having panel discussions it is a

00:07:35.500 fundraiser for rebel news as you know we have to you know the old saying you can't save the world if

00:07:40.220 you can't pay the rent but i think it's super fun people like to spend time with like-minded people

00:07:45.500 one of the ways they tried to get us during the lockdowns was to cut us off from our communities

00:07:50.720 to say you couldn't go to church or synagogue to say you couldn't go to your gym which is a source of

00:07:56.060 community for many people as well as a source of fitness and health they even said we couldn't have

00:08:02.060 family over for christmas dinner they even said you had to limit the number of people going to weddings

00:08:07.200 and even funerals they tried to cut us off from each other if you know anything about cults you know

00:08:12.880 that one of the things cults do when they're trying to recruit a new member is to cut them off from their

00:08:17.780 old friends and family so they have no ballast in their ship and i think that's what they tried to do

00:08:23.820 to us on purpose they said oh no no just watch netflix just watch disney plus you can be atomized

00:08:30.100 living at home consuming what the media industrial complex pumps to you so no i think having in-person

00:08:36.780 meetups is so important and it's really the basis for social life so we're going to get back into that

00:08:43.340 so today i'm going to have conversations with sheila gun reed who has been on tour event after event

00:08:50.760 with our hit documentary church under fire and if i can pin her down tamara leach the trucker 1.00

00:08:58.520 inspirer and leader and the author of the best-selling autobiography hold the line so that's today's show

00:09:04.540 thanks for joining

00:09:05.520 well i am feeling very serene because as you can see i'm in a very serene place namely the temperate

00:09:22.140 rainforest between vancouver and whistler it's along the sea to sky highway which i just love saying

00:09:28.240 that's one of the best parts of canada by the way and i say this is a torontonian many people think that

00:09:34.300 toronto is the absolutely most scenic scenic part of the country but they may be i'm making a joke

00:09:40.680 in fact i've never heard anyone say that i'm with my friend sheila gun reed our chief reporter great to

00:09:44.760 see you hey edzer thanks for having me well um i'm here and you're here because we are on what's been

00:09:53.600 going on for more than a month two tours of events that rebel news is involved with one of them

00:10:00.260 the church under fire documentary series you're the host of that the narrator and host of that

00:10:08.060 documentary we have been in many cities sold out crowds and then we started a second tour

00:10:14.020 tamara leach and her book hold the line and tonight here in this beautiful part of the world we're having

00:10:21.280 two joint events i just thought i'd take a second tell people about what we're doing and ask you to

00:10:28.060 maybe summarize your thoughts because we've probably done a dozen events on the on the church

00:10:33.960 under fire side tell me what you we're getting out into the field again after basically being on

00:10:39.060 under house arrest like the rest of the country for two years during the pandemic how's it been

00:10:43.960 you know our even just to collect the interviews for the documentary that was grueling but then taking

00:10:51.500 the documentary on the road back to back crisscrossing the country and when i say crisscrossing i mean

00:10:56.860 crisscrossing the country and i didn't do that as long with church under fire as tamara leach has 0.90

00:11:03.940 done it with her book tour it was exhausting our first leg of the church under fire tour but it was

00:11:12.200 then we got to go home for a little bit tamara leach has been just given her every night back to back 1.00

00:11:19.760 she's as kind and happy and grateful and gracious as ever night after night after night as she takes

00:11:28.720 her book signing tour on the road it's astounding for me to watch having experienced just a little bit

00:11:34.720 of it yeah i saw that yesterday we were in surrey which is a suburb of vancouver she stayed later than

00:11:41.300 i did she shook everyone's hand took selfie with everybody signed everyone's book and i think she's a

00:11:47.380 very genuine person what you see is what you get she's very humble and she's quite an unlikely

00:11:53.440 hero i mean i like to joke she's five foot nothing you know and she's a grandma and you wouldn't think 0.77

00:11:59.840 what's going to be what will the demographics be of the woman who emerges to help break the fever

00:12:07.880 of the lockdowns and the and the mandatory vaccines you wouldn't have chosen you wouldn't have guessed

00:12:14.760 that but it it was actually perfect and her temperament her control of her emotions and her

00:12:21.460 thoughts is incredible i always say and i always think of it and i always mean it 49 days in jail much

00:12:29.180 of it's solitary confinement and to still be a positive force i think most people would be either

00:12:37.040 broken or turned sour or bitter by such an unjust treatment at the hands of the law you know you say

00:12:45.080 she's unlikely but when you sort of draw back and you look at it she's not all that unlikely because

00:12:51.980 she's the perfect foil for justin trudeau who is erratic out of control of his emotions she reaches

00:12:58.420 across the aisle to the other side she's ecumenical she's the opposite of justin trudeau that's why she was

00:13:05.480 public enemy number one she was a strong-willed calm woman who spoke truth to power and we know 1.00

00:13:12.260 how justin trudeau feels about people like that yeah and you know what uh it's not a big factor but

00:13:18.260 she is a metis woman and by the way the media tried to they went obama birth certificate on her they

00:13:27.080 tried to say no no she's not really indian because in canada uh that comes with a sort of moral authority

00:13:34.740 and the left certainly plays that card and by the way tamera leach does not lead with that card 1.00

00:13:39.360 not at all um but the the fact they tried to deracinate her to try and take away her identity

00:13:45.800 and and justin trudeau has sort of a history of being a fake friend to first nations um you know he

00:13:53.360 didn't do well when jody wilson raybold actually had an opinion uh an ethical opinion uh you know i one

00:14:00.040 of my favorite little video clips in the last month was seeing trudeau speak and i think it was

00:14:04.360 an indigenous games and just getting booed i don't know if you saw this video take a look

00:14:07.960 hello my friends we have been waiting for this moment

00:14:17.640 we've been waiting for this moment a long time after the 2020 edition of the north american

00:14:25.860 indigenous games had to be postponed because of the pandemic you know he he's got that fake 1.00

00:14:32.600 tattoo and i'm talking too much about it but there is something about the realness of tamera leach 0.58

00:14:39.800 versus the the fakeness trudeau a fake feminist trudeau a fake egalitarian who wears blackface a fake 0.98

00:14:47.040 friend of first nations he's fake in every way and i think he he panicked when he couldn't control

00:14:53.480 the narrative he panicked and that little lady started this big fight back if i may you know one of 0.84

00:15:00.540 the most amazing books i've ever read in my life sheila was called uncle tom's cabin life among the

00:15:05.900 lowly it was an anti-slavery book uh written by harriet beecher stow and i recommend that book to

00:15:12.840 everyone it's funny it's heartbreaking it's beautiful and it is a clever political book there

00:15:19.180 was a while it was selling it was such a staggering bestseller was second only to the bible

00:15:23.840 in america and when abraham lincoln finally met her he said so this is the little lady who started

00:15:32.440 this big war that's what he said about the civil war and it's quite something he was remarking on

00:15:38.260 the implausibility of it and tamera leach is this little lady who started this big uprising and there's 0.98

00:15:45.840 something endlessly poetic about that we'll talk with her a little bit later in the interview but you

00:15:50.580 have been on tour while you've been doing your full-time day job as the chief reporter rebel news

00:15:56.280 yeah well as a mom too i mean i don't know how you do it you you run your household which is also

00:16:02.700 happens to be a farm you're a mom including uh when your daughter's very very busy in in sports

00:16:08.980 traveling everywhere plus you the narrator this documentary plus you were traveling cross country

00:16:14.320 and then p.s on top of that just doing your day job being a chief reporter but you went to some

00:16:19.220 interesting places was there a was there a place on your journey that stands out that maybe you

00:16:24.820 hadn't been to before or that maybe surprised you or you just got a kick out of it because

00:16:29.300 you explored some of canada yeah you know it's um all of the places that we travel to are very

00:16:35.040 different and all of the pastors that we spoke to are also very different and i think that

00:16:40.060 is was really the story of the documentary it did not matter your style your theology for example

00:16:47.560 you could be like pastor art and fiery or you could be like pastor tobias tisson and gentle like

00:16:53.720 a lamb it didn't matter because their crimes were standing up to the state and honoring god but for me

00:17:01.420 one of the places i had never had the opportunity to go to was the church of god in aylmer

00:17:06.180 the nicest kindest people you know they put on a big spread for the entire community when we went

00:17:16.640 to show the documentary they had all the time in the world for us when we went to collect

00:17:20.820 the uh interview from the pastor henry hildebrand there and to see these gentle kind people who sang

00:17:29.100 hymns as the police barged into their church to have these people treated like public enemy number

00:17:37.120 one it was so totalitarian and you know i'll never forget the images of the women singing peacefully

00:17:45.320 as the police came in it it's one of those standout things from the crackdown on the churches that is

00:17:51.960 akin to pastor tim stevens being ripped away from the clutches of his crying children by the calgary police

00:17:58.100 you know i i don't want to overtax the analogy but seeing armed police with their sidearm walk into

00:18:07.820 a church while the women and children are praying and singing i couldn't help but remember images from

00:18:16.860 schindler's list when uh nazis came into jewish places schools synagogues homes whatever and i'm not

00:18:25.800 saying that those police led to death camps and an extermination of people but it's pretty chilling

00:18:33.780 in canada to see in color as opposed to in black and white the images of police walking in with guns

00:18:40.620 you go in with guns because it's your way of saying and you send in such a large group it's your way of

00:18:46.880 saying if you do not do what i say and eventually i will use this gun that's that's the implication there

00:18:53.240 during a church service which by the way in my opinion violates the criminal code there's a criminal

00:18:58.040 code provision that makes it a crime to quote disturb any religious gathering

00:19:05.480 well the cops uh you know laws are for the little people very very frustrating uh yeah i i was there

00:19:14.320 in aylmer when we showed the film church under fire and the church was amazing how about um in the

00:19:20.380 atlantic because rebel news is we're strong in alberta uh in part due to your um efforts there

00:19:27.960 you're a chief reporter you're based in alberta and i think alberta is a conservative place politically

00:19:32.020 awake we're strong in ontario just because there's so much action there and there's so many people

00:19:38.760 you're going to have a number of conservatives even if they're not proportionate as big but the

00:19:43.700 atlantic i feel that for a variety of historic reasons we just haven't been strong on the ground there

00:19:48.100 and i regret that um so you went out there uh to do the story and and with the tour what was it like

00:19:57.340 in atlantic canada where we are not as strong when we were in atlantic canada you know we heard from

00:20:03.820 the people who came to see the documentary and the reason we went to atlantic canada is because pastor

00:20:08.740 phil hutchins uh previously of our tabernacle family church he spent seven days in solitary confinement

00:20:16.840 ripped away from his family for the crime of not turning away his congregants he refused to vax pass

00:20:23.620 the congregants at his church and they barged in and arrested him and his associate pastor cody butler

00:20:30.140 they had guns and in fact if i recall they had a hand on a firearm so i mean it's one thing to wear a firearm

00:20:35.240 but to put your hand on the gun you're touching your gun what why are you doing that are you afraid

00:20:40.820 or are you trying to make them afraid that was the most infuriating part of the documentary to me i'm

00:20:45.940 you know what and i said this to henry hildebrandt when i was in elmer i said you know christians talk

00:20:51.180 about turning the other cheek love love uh your enemy forgive them pray for them you know that's new

00:20:59.240 testament talk i mean i i'm not a particularly religious man but when i saw that footage of that cop going

00:21:04.660 into the church with a hand on a gun it was not love it was not love your enemy and pray for them

00:21:09.740 that came to mind it was fury and vengeance and that's a little bit old testimony

00:21:13.640 you know i believe in forgiveness and redemption and people coming back to the path but first i think

00:21:21.580 there has to be some sort of a recognition reconciliation truth and reconciliation as they

00:21:27.340 would say and that's my fear is there were some political casualties from the lockdowns jason kenny

00:21:35.140 erin o'toole and that's conservatives doing some internal political hygiene but i don't think any 1.00

00:21:43.560 premier or the certainly not the prime minister was politically punished for what they did in fact

00:21:49.320 trudeau ramped it up for the 2021 election that's when he went extra hard it was after his election

00:21:56.080 that he felt confident to invoke the emergencies act i think that other than erin o'toole and jason kenny

00:22:01.180 there has not been a comeuppance there has not been um a balancing of justice on this i think

00:22:08.640 that there are loose ends there there should be no closure here because it's not closed

00:22:14.560 i just want to go back for a second to our trip to new brunswick uh because one of the most moving

00:22:21.600 parts and uh kian's behind the camera so he can attest to this when we showed our documentary to

00:22:27.240 pastor phil's family his littlest one was too young to remember greeting her father at the door when he got

00:22:36.980 home from uh seven days in solitary confinement and as she watched it she understood and she

00:22:45.380 experienced for the first time what happened to her family and her older sister started to cry

00:22:51.020 because she realized that her her younger sister was experiencing this for the first time that's why

00:22:56.880 our documentary is so important it details it chronicles the damage that these politicians who are

00:23:03.380 as you say never been held accountable what they did to the canadian public and they there must

00:23:09.580 be some sort of reckoning for this country to heal on your point with justin trudeau that ramping up

00:23:15.900 of his out of control divisive rhetoric uh treating certain sections of the canadian population like

00:23:22.640 dirty people that was actually focused grouped out of the privy council office they basically said 0.98

00:23:29.840 let's pull the canadian public about how much of this garbage we can get away with and then let's 0.92

00:23:36.660 do it as a campaign strategy so canadians paid for the liberal part for the liberal party's campaign 0.94

00:23:44.900 strategy of demonizing at least six million canadian friends and neighbors

00:23:49.220 you know i've watched the movie church under fire i think four times now and um if i'm

00:23:58.660 sometimes i take a break from it because i've seen it now i don't need to watch the whole thing again

00:24:03.040 if i am in the room in the theater when those police actions are underfoot

00:24:09.480 i am angry for quite a while maybe that speaks to my own emotional state but i think i think you should

00:24:18.720 be angry about things like that if you don't then you're numb and i don't want to go numb to that kind

00:24:25.000 of stuff well um let me pull let me pull back a little bit because we were getting a little heavy

00:24:30.280 there but it's on my mind i think the movie church under fire is one of the if not the best things

00:24:37.000 rebel news has ever produced i think it's it touches on civil liberties which we believe in

00:24:42.000 standing up for christians and many people don't um i i think it was uh we were helping to set the

00:24:50.040 record straight it was sort of uh the the other side of the story we were making sure history was

00:24:57.360 accurate but i also really like the fact that we've been out in the field because we were we used to do

00:25:03.540 a lot more events and then like everyone we were shut down so it's good to be out there i i really

00:25:08.260 enjoyed suri yesterday i tried to even just say hello to everybody again i feel that is part of

00:25:14.500 rebel news's mission is to give people a place to go to see like-minded people uh a sense of

00:25:21.280 community um a lot of our events are in churches not just because churches believe in freedom but

00:25:27.780 also because those are places where we won't be canceled um i think it's important that rebel news

00:25:34.880 build a sense of identity amongst our supporters because they're not just viewers so many of them are

00:25:40.980 supporters when you're viewer funded like we are i mean someone introduced himself to me yesterday in

00:25:47.600 suri and said i was your 25th supporter you told me that eight years ago i had sort of forgotten but

00:25:54.340 he was really proud of that he was the 25th guy to chip in to help us get born and he's obviously

00:26:00.380 carried that memory with him which is wonderful um i mean i hear that i hear that people people tell me

00:26:06.180 what they sponsored i remember once someone said i crowdfunded a microphone for you or he there's some

00:26:12.040 device and so it's good to be out amongst the people not just in our studio and i mean i'm trying

00:26:18.440 to get out and about and do news out there too but i really like the fact that we're not just

00:26:22.500 online i like doing real life events too this is just me reflecting on my own participation in some of

00:26:29.060 these events um what what's what's ahead i mean you're you're going to be coming on our trip to

00:26:34.380 israel and again we're inviting our supporters on that in the new year we're going to start up our

00:26:40.120 seminar cruises again which is a way for people to hang out and get a sort of a weeks-long vacation but

00:26:44.980 also to hang out with other rebels and it's a fundraiser it's not just for fun these things do put

00:26:49.780 money in in our coffers to help us pay for our journalism do you have any thoughts on that or or what

00:26:55.480 events you might want to do in the future or i mean it is time away from home and you've got a

00:27:00.120 busy household what are your thoughts on the event side of rebel you know i look at the event side as

00:27:05.140 not only fundraisers for us but i look at them for selfish reasons you know when we are in sort of the

00:27:10.900 thick of things and we have all the arrows pointing at us on social media you can sort of get in a weird

00:27:16.700 headspace where you feel like well nobody likes us or whatever but then when you get out into the

00:27:23.300 field and you meet these people it really fills up your sort of moral tank when they say thank you

00:27:29.800 so much for telling our story when we we kian and i hear from the churches who say

00:27:37.100 you told our story properly and for some of the churches i wasn't there but to hear them say that

00:27:44.320 is exactly what happened thank you so much for getting it right because the mainstream media got it

00:27:48.880 wrong that gives me the energy to continue to fight and that's why i think selfishly for kian and i we

00:27:56.840 booked more documentary showings in alberta at the end of the month so if you'll allow me um and we're in

00:28:05.000 lethbridge on the 23rd august we're in red deer on the 24th we're back in edmonton at church in the

00:28:13.580 vine so they are not only featured in the documentary they are clients of the democracy fund

00:28:18.020 uh we're in mirror alberta the site of the whistle stop oh that's that's great you know i i finally

00:28:24.180 made it to the whistle stop and i had a delicious burger there i met some of the family and and

00:28:29.160 that's wonderful what's the date on that again wow and then uh from there we go to westlock alberta on

00:28:37.540 the 27th and then kian behind the camera we did we book grand prairie we did book grand prairie so

00:28:43.840 for that date time and location you can go to churchunderfiremovie.com all right well i'm really

00:28:52.400 glad you and i know it's tough to be on the road like that because you got a family and you've got

00:28:56.640 other stuff but um i think you're right it is encouraging to get that one-on-one feedback because

00:29:03.120 even though we know that twitter is not real life if you over over consume it like i do you can start

00:29:10.180 to believe the haters so it's good to talk to people in real life and ashila thank you again for

00:29:14.840 holding the uh the torch so high for taking the movie to the people for being the narrator and and the

00:29:21.320 the anchor of the movie but also for your role as chief editor which includes helping to bring our

00:29:26.940 citizen journalists along because there is sort of a way to do journalism even of the amateur you know

00:29:33.060 citizen variety and you know as we come up we're approaching our nine-year birthday and uh you've

00:29:39.860 you've certainly helped mold rebel news in your image as a journalist which is excellent i thank you

00:29:45.320 and i know our viewers do too oh thanks boss and i just wanted to take the opportunity to thank

00:29:50.000 everybody who comes out to our showings um because what an opportunity for us here at rebel news to be

00:29:56.500 able to thank our supporters and the people who cheer for us every day to continue on

00:30:00.720 there you have it stay with us more ahead

00:30:03.580 as i mentioned we have two tours going on at once at rebel news sometimes we have joint events

00:30:21.360 sheila gun reed was the host of the movie church under fire and tamara leach is the author of the

00:30:29.000 number one best-selling book hold the line what a pleasure to catch up with her now tamara it's nice

00:30:33.640 to see you again here in such a gorgeous setting we're on tour for your book how's it going it's been

00:30:40.480 amazing the support has been almost overwhelming i never expected to see so many people coming out but

00:30:46.360 it's been unreal you know i find that heartening because it's been more than a year about a year

00:30:54.420 and a half and you think well maybe people have forgotten or maybe people have moved on or maybe

00:30:58.940 people were propagandized by the raising media but no like sold out credit last night you and i were in

00:31:06.600 surrey packed there was people in overfloor rooms there was upstairs is like it was they couldn't

00:31:14.420 shoehorn any more people into the venue to me that's very exciting it's very encouraging yes i

00:31:19.980 think i think with the evidence that came out at the poec and the more evidence that that's a

00:31:25.480 trucker commission of inquiry yes sorry thank you um i think more people are waking up and becoming

00:31:30.460 more aware as to what's really going on i love to to brag that your book went to number one on the

00:31:37.040 bestseller list the day it was released even though it wasn't we weren't even really ready for it

00:31:41.400 yet it just sort of popped up and we didn't even we weren't ready and it went to number one the reason

00:31:45.320 i mentioned that is that normally a book about the public interest i mean this was the number one

00:31:52.620 news story of the year the trucker convoy and the reverberations from it and trudeau invoking the

00:31:58.080 emergencies act that was the story of the generation and you were in the heart of it whether people love

00:32:03.780 you or hate you you have a story to tell i still can't believe that the cbc globe and mail toronto star

00:32:10.980 even the national post have not even mentioned your book even to criticize it like they have

00:32:16.640 book sections why won't they talk about your book even to disparage it well i don't think they want

00:32:23.620 to bring any attention to it primarily speaking if they talk about it they have to acknowledge the

00:32:29.000 existence not only of me and my book but of also the freedom convoy in general the counter narrative

00:32:35.940 i mean our model rebel news is telling the other side of the story and i i think that's really why

00:32:41.400 um the the pandemic and the lockdowns and the convoy was our time to shine

00:32:46.100 you don't people don't necessarily look for the contrary and take all the time on anything

00:32:51.200 but during that era of fake uniformity of fake unanimity people said no no no there's got to be another

00:32:59.240 side i think there's still sort of a blacklisting of any sources that counter the regime narrative i i

00:33:07.600 and i don't think that's paranoia on my part i think it's just an observation i think it's obvious

00:33:11.720 actually i mean i'm not on social media anymore obviously till my conditions are gone but um

00:33:19.240 you won't see that in the mainstream media they just won't they won't talk about it

00:33:23.780 your trial is coming up and i want to be very careful not to get you to weigh in because i don't

00:33:29.600 want you to prejudice your case and obviously we don't want to violate your bail conditions we were

00:33:34.580 careful with your book your book was lawyered in advance not that there was anything wrong with it but

00:33:39.460 we just didn't want to take the chance because the government i think they have a vendetta against

00:33:43.520 you and again we'll never be able to know all their motivations but i think the government

00:33:49.220 didn't like the fact that you challenged their narrative and they didn't if i may they didn't

00:33:54.600 like you personally because you you broke their caricature their caricature of the trucker convoy was

00:34:03.640 angry male shouting maybe a little verbally abusive you are i like to say a five foot nothing

00:34:11.560 metis grandma from alberta who answers hate with love in fact you turn the other cheek more than i ever

00:34:18.260 could i think that's why they had to go after you is because they said we can't let tamara leach be 1.00

00:34:24.820 the foil for justin trudeau and they wanted to punish you because you were effective that's my personal

00:34:33.060 theory you can call that paranoia but i don't think so i think it's just they they wanted to take you

00:34:40.020 out of the public conversation i think you're right and i think what really scared them the most was

00:34:46.020 the unity that happened across canada it was very obvious and still is to me that this they were

00:34:52.320 dividing people by every label they could think of for the last few years and i think that's what

00:34:57.620 really scared them the most was seeing canadians just drop those labels and just be so proud to be

00:35:02.540 canadian i want to ask you a personal question i i have never been to prison as a prisoner i've visited

00:35:09.160 people in prison and i can sense how stressful it is how uh it makes you feel completely helpless that

00:35:18.140 was the chief feeling i had when i would sometimes visit people in prison you were treated roughly

00:35:27.700 in my view you were you were put in isolation you were you were arrested in jail for ridiculous reasons

00:35:38.840 that judges later said but still 49 days i just want to ask you how how did you keep

00:35:48.120 your sanity when all around you were losing theirs it's like that poem by kipling if to keep your

00:35:56.840 wetswold all those around you how where did you reach into was it religion was it family was it

00:36:03.480 a code like a personal philosophical code i don't know if i could have held out and being as positive

00:36:14.240 as you are i think i might have cracked i think i might have turned bitter or sour can you tell me

00:36:21.920 where you went in your heart or your mind to survive what i think was an abusive detention

00:36:31.040 that's a great question um i often talk about how for me a lot of this has been like a divine journey

00:36:39.640 a divine adventure and i just recognized the things that were inadvertently exposed by products of the

00:36:48.780 convoy you know like the mainstream media the banking systems the corruption and corporations

00:36:53.420 like gofundme uh government all levels of government and i i just felt like that was

00:37:00.200 a divine you know and so when i got arrested i just felt like okay you have more work for me to do

00:37:06.700 and you know i i prayed a lot uh my mantra was thy will not my will and christian yeah i was raised

00:37:13.380 christian i also um have my native spirituality and yes and i've done energy healing and stuff like

00:37:20.560 that so i have a really nice hybrid of beliefs that that really work for me a kind of a combination of

00:37:26.340 all of them and and all at the core of all of them is love and i truly believe that that's how we win

00:37:32.380 you know in your book and i heard you tell this story the other day that some police officers some

00:37:40.040 prison guards were actually supportive of you and they said that it must be hard i mean for those

00:37:48.800 that would have felt like a secret friend but i think you were kind even to the cops who were not

00:37:56.780 nice even to the cops who were abusive i'm not i don't want to overstate their abuse but they were

00:38:02.060 cruel how how should anyone how do you meet hate with love like how do you do that how do you don't

00:38:12.780 people take advantage of you when you do that if you meet and and henry hildebrandt was the same way

00:38:17.760 he's he's the pastor in aylmer who who talked about loving and praying for the officers who shut

00:38:23.640 him down don't where do you come up with that like like i know that's what you're supposed to do i

00:38:29.620 know turn the other cheek that's jesus would say that but it's easy to read that but how do you do

00:38:35.440 that well fundamentally for me it just comes down to being respectful i i mean when you're being

00:38:41.900 disrespected how do you fight disrespect with respect well then i i guess because it's not taking

00:38:49.780 up space in my head and that's what's important for me is to stay focused and stay positive you know

00:38:56.520 of course there's been you know lots of terrible things written about me and i've been called

00:39:01.040 horrible horrible names and when we were coming across canada i remember a friend of mine kept

00:39:06.040 sending me these articles these terrible articles when they were calling me horrible names and

00:39:10.620 tweets and hate tweets and stuff like that and i just had to say to her one day you know please stop

00:39:16.400 i'm not going to read them i need to stay focused and i need to stay positive and this is not going

00:39:21.400 to help my mental health and so i just have to let that stuff fall away and if there's one thing i've

00:39:27.240 i've learned out of this whole thing is that i've developed very thick skin so you know i i to me it

00:39:35.280 just comes down to being respectful and even if they're not going to respect me in return i can say

00:39:40.380 that i've done my best in the book you quote a poem called invictus i remember reading that

00:39:46.780 in school and it's it's a very dramatic poem and it ends i am the captain of my fate i am the master

00:39:56.380 of my soul if i is that did i get that right or the other way i am the master of my fate i'm the

00:40:00.220 captain of my soul so part of that is you know being religious and thinking of god's plan but part of

00:40:07.980 that is like how it ends i am the captain of my fate maybe i got the wrong words but i mean when you are

00:40:16.340 in someone else's jail to still believe you're the captain of your fate that takes a confidence i

00:40:24.620 just i know i'm asking a lot of questions but i just don't i just don't know how you do that and

00:40:29.700 if there's a secret i want to learn it because uh i wouldn't think by looking at you that you are

00:40:37.480 so powerful you could make the prime minister of a country blink you don't look that powerful no

00:40:43.680 disrespect you look like a regular grandma you know a very young grandma i should say i mean i'm

00:40:49.000 i'm saying that because you're you're not i wouldn't think you're built for fighting but your

00:40:54.020 style of fighting made the the giants collapse how do you when you're in shackles still say i am the

00:41:01.420 captain of my fate well because i still i i still own me they can i mean and that's the whole thing with

00:41:09.160 all of this experience too you know how the narrative that against the convoy but i know what

00:41:16.120 it really was and they can never take that away from me you know that's inside of me and they can

00:41:21.580 put me in jail but they still don't own me and i and this is still belongs to me and god you know

00:41:27.760 i met once a soviet dissident uh named anatoly sharansky who was sent to the gulag for

00:41:37.040 contradicting the communist party of the soviet union and he was in prison for longer than you

00:41:43.600 obviously and i think his treatment was worse but i still found it miraculous that he within him like

00:41:51.520 he he did things just to keep his mind sane but i think it was just like what you said he always knew

00:41:58.000 he was the master of who he was there's a similarity between you and him and again i'm not comparing

00:42:03.500 the the soviet gulag era with canada but but you were jailed for a political crime you were

00:42:12.580 you were abused and and the way you responded reminds me of anatoly sharansky by the way

00:42:20.000 when he was finally let out of prison he made his way to israel and he ran for parliament and he was

00:42:28.740 elected to the israeli knesset so his moral example i think led the way let me close with this listen i

00:42:35.420 wanted to talk to you about the book tour but i just i'm just asking these questions that i've been

00:42:38.480 thinking about so let me ask you the sharansky question would you ever consider i'm not saying

00:42:44.720 make the decision now but would you ever consider once we're through the trial once god willing you're

00:42:52.580 acquitted once your life sort of goes back to normal and you're no longer being hunted would you

00:42:57.480 ever consider doing what sharansky did and seeking a public role in public office or something or do you

00:43:06.460 just want to go back to normal life normal life um you know what i i won't rule it out i definitely

00:43:15.780 won't rule it out it's never been something that i really wanted to do because i've i think that when

00:43:21.780 you get into politics there's so many rules and restrictions that you're so hobbled so but i

00:43:27.700 definitely won't rule it out i guess we'll see what happens in the next year or so and you know how

00:43:32.340 everything is after it shakes out but uh i certainly won't be afraid to if that's what's necessary

00:43:37.880 well for folks who who want to know how they can connect with tamara uh we have a website called

00:43:44.620 theconvoybook.com there's obviously a link there to the book itself but there's also a link there to

00:43:51.080 the democracy fund crowdfunding page which is covering tamara's uh legal fees for the battle that's 0.99

00:43:58.520 about to come in auto and we didn't talk at length about that but but but we will cover that very

00:44:02.660 intensively when it happens let me put one last idea on the table and you don't have to respond to it but

00:44:08.100 i just want to put an idea down and sort of memorialize it on camera every once in a while

00:44:15.840 alberta has a senate election where the whole province votes so it's not just medicine hat or calgary

00:44:21.940 it's the whole province so people with name recognition have a real bonus because you have to be known

00:44:27.860 in calgary and edmonton and the rural parts and medicine hat and you know trudeau does not respect

00:44:35.100 those senate elections but whenever a conservative prime minister is in office he typically appoints

00:44:40.860 those people for example stephen harper appointed elected senators from alberta into the senate

00:44:45.920 and i just want to float the idea there that tamara leach as a candidate for the canadian senate 0.99

00:44:53.600 running for the whole province of alberta would have a real chance of winning in my view

00:44:59.620 because it's every albertan so you're going to have name recognition you're going to have

00:45:06.540 touched people all across the province but the biggest reason i want to plant that seed of an idea

00:45:11.940 with you i just want the idea to germinate is because the things you just mentioned all the ways

00:45:18.620 the politicians are hobbled being a senator in our system you're not under the same strict party

00:45:25.160 discipline as the mps because you don't have to continuously suck up to the party leader

00:45:29.540 to be renominated because you're you're if you're in the senate you're there till you're 75

00:45:34.840 so i just want to put on the record now i have an idea and i'm going to try and you know let's see

00:45:41.740 how things go i think you're going to be acquitted god willing in ottawa i think i think the world is

00:45:49.440 not done with you you might say god is not done with you fate karma whatever people want to say

00:45:54.620 i think you there is more there are more chapters in your story to be written and i think that one way

00:46:03.380 to do it would be to go back to that city of ottawa the city where you were arrested and abused

00:46:11.740 to go back to that city not as a grandma from medicine had in a truck but to go back as the

00:46:18.260 honorable senator from alberta with a mandate for freedom and a and a democratic legitimate mandate

00:46:26.320 i just want to plant that idea i'll tell you one thing i would be a supporter and i think many

00:46:32.540 rebels would be so i just threw this at you i gave you no notice of this idea do you have any

00:46:38.300 reaction or you just want to cogitate on it i will definitely think about that that hadn't crossed my

00:46:43.500 mind before yeah well i i mean you've already served your country more than most um not in military

00:46:50.540 service which we have to give tremendous respect to those who actually serve but to serve in the in

00:46:56.320 in the public square and you've suffered uh for that and i and i think there's something christ-like

00:47:03.020 about suffering for your fellow man this is turning into a love and not even an interview

00:47:08.460 but i've but uh it's been fun hanging out with you a little bit i've attended some of your events and

00:47:14.100 it's a it's remarkable to see so thanks for working so hard on these tours you're you stay till the end

00:47:20.540 you sign everyone's books you pose for selfies that's hard work i know to be as friendly to the last

00:47:25.240 person as to the first person so thanks for doing it and thanks for working with rebel news and the

00:47:29.240 democracy fund it's i've got a real kick on hanging out with you lately it's been great and what it's

00:47:34.080 been a great experience for me and thank you guys so much for all your help and all your support and

00:47:38.840 you know as i said last night making the whole process with the book so seamless and easy and

00:47:44.620 therapeutic i'm glad you feel that way because uh you know we've got a whole whole team and i'm proud

00:47:50.500 of the work they've done well folks there you have it tamir leach one of my favorite people and

00:47:54.200 yeah i know i was a little bit i was a fan boy there but but that's how i honestly feel and i feel

00:48:01.360 like um sometimes people really do extraordinary things they rise to the occasion and maybe they're

00:48:08.040 not the central casting image of who you might think a freedom fighter would look like but that makes

00:48:13.200 it all the more wonderful and let me go on the record right now that if there is a senate campaign

00:48:18.020 for senator leach i'm going to be a volunteer and i'm going to break my rule against donations i never

00:48:23.040 make political donations but i would make a donation for a tamara for senate campaign i'm just having a

00:48:29.440 chuckle but let me tell you let me look you in the eye and tell you i mean it stay with us some final

00:48:35.680 thoughts are next well there you have it from all of us here at rebel news on the road to you at home

00:48:54.860 until next time good night and keep fighting for freedom

00:48:59.100 you

00:49:04.120 you

00:49:08.120 you

00:49:10.120 you

00:49:12.120 you

00:49:14.120 you

Rebel News Podcast - August 12, 2023

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Rebel News has been on the road — and I've got an update

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