Rebel News Podcast - Ezra Levant Show May 10 2018

00:00:00.000 Tonight, you know that thug who hit Sheila Gunn-Reed in the face last year?

00:00:04.100 We finally beat him in court, and I'll give you the details.

00:00:07.440 It's May 10th, and you're watching The Ezra Levant Show.

00:00:15.660 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:00:19.420 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.

00:00:23.160 You come here once a year with a sign, and you feel morally superior.

00:00:26.140 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:00:36.920 We got him. We finally got him.

00:00:39.240 That thug who hit our reporter, Sheila Gunn-Reed, in the face at the Women's March last year.

00:00:44.500 This guy. His name is Dion Buse.

00:00:46.660 We sued him for assault and battery, and this week we won.

00:00:50.140 And the judge was scathing in his comments.

00:00:52.500 I'll read you some excerpts from the judgment in a moment, but first, just a reminder.

00:00:56.720 In January 2017, our Alberta Bureau Chief, Sheila Gunn-Reed, went to report on the Women's March at the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton.

00:01:04.280 And this male feminist, an NDP activist with a lip ring named Dion Buse, was there at a Women's March.

00:01:10.700 And when he saw Sheila was there, he swore at her, then he said he was going to hit her, and then he did hit her.

00:01:15.840 But that's what NDP activists, that's what male feminists seem to do, even at a Women's March. 1.00

00:01:21.640 And he's so stupid, he did it all on tape. Here's the clip. 1.00

00:01:25.380 Ezra LeVant. 1.00

00:01:29.180 F*** you. 1.00

00:01:30.500 Okay, so, wouldn't you say that it would be feminine? 1.00

00:01:33.860 No, no, no, I'm just asking you a question. Do I seem unreasonable to you?

00:01:37.000 Yes, you seem unreasonable.

00:01:37.760 Because they seem really pleasant.

00:01:39.500 I think, am I coming across as pleasant right now?

00:01:41.540 Yeah, absolutely.

00:01:42.560 We're just trying to have a conversation here.

00:01:44.040 I'm having, I'm trying to have a conversation with you.

00:01:46.240 Go away. 1.00

00:01:46.960 Get out of my f***ing face. 1.00

00:01:48.240 I will break your camera. 1.00

00:01:49.120 You don't have the right to.

00:01:51.020 Whoa.

00:01:52.060 Let's calm down.

00:01:53.000 Calm down.

00:01:53.480 You don't have the right to film everywhere you go.

00:01:55.680 What she does.

00:01:56.480 Yeah, dude, you just hit me in the face.

00:01:58.940 Guys, guys.

00:02:00.380 No, don't.

00:02:01.400 Hey, don't tell me to calm down.

00:02:03.220 That guy can't.

00:02:03.840 You guys should move away.

00:02:04.940 You deserve to be angry.

00:02:06.020 You deserve to be angry.

00:02:07.060 Yeah.

00:02:07.640 What is your dream?

00:02:10.300 No, don't get it between me.

00:02:11.820 Get it between me.

00:02:12.580 That guy is feminists. 1.00

00:02:14.040 That guy just hit me in the face. 0.65

00:02:15.400 What do you want?

00:02:17.180 Does it matter?

00:02:18.300 Do I deserve it?

00:02:19.320 Do I deserve it?

00:02:20.540 I don't know.

00:02:21.420 I'm fixing to remember.

00:02:23.120 I'm fixing to remember.

00:02:23.620 I'm fixing to remember.

00:02:24.120 Yeah, I'm the problem, you victim-blader.

00:02:27.640 That guy just hit me in the face.

00:02:29.260 You have footage of it?

00:02:30.280 Yeah, exactly.

00:02:31.640 And I'm going to security next.

00:02:32.820 Good.

00:02:33.240 Go do that, okay?

00:02:34.400 I'm just trying to make sure nothing happens and it doesn't escalate, okay?

00:02:37.780 Let's take a minute.

00:02:40.220 Get security.

00:02:41.020 By the way, did you notice that not a single so-called feminist objected to that thug punching 1.00

00:02:47.380 a woman at a women's march.

00:02:49.820 In fact, as you saw, they patted him.

00:02:51.860 They put their hands on him to console him.

00:02:54.720 And they helped him get away.

00:02:56.240 They blocked Sheila and told her she was the one who needed to calm down. 0.97

00:03:00.520 Well, Dion Buse punched a woman at a women's march and all the feminists with their little 1.00

00:03:05.900 pink hats helped the abuser because the woman he punched was a conservative. 0.99

00:03:12.880 We offered a $1,000 reward for anyone who could identify him.

00:03:16.180 By the way, it was his friends who gave him up.

00:03:18.860 They have a low opinion of him too.

00:03:20.340 We gave that info to the police and they charged him and he was convicted of a crime.

00:03:25.220 Of course, he's a criminal.

00:03:26.620 But Sheila was not informed about that criminal court date.

00:03:29.760 So she was not allowed to give testimony or to give a victim impact statement, which is

00:03:34.720 her legal right to do so.

00:03:36.080 So that shocking video of Dion Buse threatening and then punching her was never shown to the

00:03:41.240 judge in criminal court.

00:03:42.300 Instead, Buse said he was the victim.

00:03:46.280 He said that people were really mean to him on Facebook about the whole thing.

00:03:50.340 So that criminal, Dion Buse, was convicted of a crime, but he got off with just 30 hours

00:03:54.680 of community service.

00:03:57.120 Even worse, the left-wing media went to work immediately turning Dion Buse into the victim,

00:04:01.980 just like the feminists at that women's march did. 1.00

00:04:04.380 So much for the whole Me Too movement.

00:04:06.480 It obviously only applies to liberal women who are hit, not conservatives. 0.98

00:04:10.760 I think this story in the CBC was the worst.

00:04:13.060 They hate Sheila at the CBC because she's a better reporter than any of them. 1.00

00:04:16.900 She breaks more stories than they do. 0.65

00:04:18.680 She's independent.

00:04:19.320 She doesn't work for the state broadcaster, but mainly because she's not a leftist feminist.

00:04:24.820 So the CBC actually published a conspiracy theory in that story that claimed Sheila wasn't

00:04:30.100 actually hit in the face by Dion Buse. 0.88

00:04:32.800 Don't believe your lying eyes. 0.99

00:04:34.280 Sure, you saw the tape. 0.97

00:04:35.360 But the CBC went full fake news, full conspiracy theory, full truther.

00:04:42.860 No, it just didn't happen.

00:04:43.980 Let me quote from that story.

00:04:46.980 Supporters of Buse, Tiana Barnes and Ezra James, say they were at the rally and witnessed what

00:04:53.080 happened.

00:04:53.820 There's an innocent guy who's being hunted down for something he didn't do.

00:04:58.260 They said in a post on Facebook attached to a video statement.

00:05:01.260 They argue the man did not hit Gunn Reed, but that he hit the camera off the tripod.

00:05:08.520 Even after Dion Buse was convicted in criminal court, Buse himself would not accept responsibility.

00:05:14.040 He kept blaming the victim.

00:05:16.620 So we sued him in civil court.

00:05:18.300 So Sheila would finally be able to have her day in court to show a judge the videotape, 0.98

00:05:22.800 to tell her side of the story, which did not happen at the criminal trial.

00:05:25.480 We didn't sue Dion Buse for a lot of money.

00:05:28.540 It's obviously not about the money.

00:05:30.900 It's about Dion Buse admitting, confessing that what he did was wrong and immoral and

00:05:35.720 violent and a disgrace and unmanly and that he needed to apologize, which he has never

00:05:42.280 done to date.

00:05:44.280 Here's an offer that we sent him.

00:05:46.360 I want to show you this, where we would drop the lawsuit if he just admitted that he

00:05:53.640 hit Sheila and apologized to her.

00:05:55.480 Oh, and then can you give $1,000 to the battered women's shelter?

00:05:57.960 Nothing for Sheila.

00:05:59.420 Just admit that he hit Sheila, say sorry, and give $1,000 to a charity.

00:06:06.160 And he refused.

00:06:08.800 That thug, Dion Buse, who, by the way, was already convicted of the crime for this, who

00:06:13.960 was caught on tape, he literally refuses to this day to apologize to Sheila.

00:06:18.500 And why should he?

00:06:19.620 The left-wing mob said he was the hero.

00:06:22.040 The CBC, Canada's state broadcaster, is doing PR for him, just like they did for Jean

00:06:27.200 Gomeschi.

00:06:27.680 They like men who beat women over there. 1.00

00:06:30.040 They're painting Dion Buse as the victim.

00:06:31.820 They're questioning whether he even hit her.

00:06:34.500 So it did go to trial.

00:06:36.060 And this time, Sheila was there.

00:06:38.540 And she won.

00:06:40.880 Here, let me quote from Judge Gordon Sherrick.

00:06:43.720 First, as to the CBC's conspiracy theory, that Dion Buse didn't actually hit Sheila.

00:06:48.580 And Buse tried that theory out on the judge, believe me.

00:06:52.000 Here's what the judge said after watching the video and listening to, what, five or six

00:06:55.860 witnesses under oath.

00:06:57.040 Here's what the judge said.

00:06:58.860 Based on all the evidence, I find that Mr. Buse struck the camera with his left hand,

00:07:03.320 straight on, causing the camera to move backwards, striking Miss Gunn. 1.00

00:07:07.540 He struck the camera intentionally, as he had threatened to do.

00:07:10.920 And he did so, not caring whether the camera struck Miss Gunn.

00:07:13.580 Hence, I have concluded that Mr. Buse committed a battery upon Miss Gunn.

00:07:19.600 Yeah, the CBC published fake news.

00:07:21.620 They literally indulged a conspiracy theory that is still on their website today.

00:07:26.440 All right, back to the judgment.

00:07:28.480 The assault and battery of Miss Gunn by Mr. Buse were unprovoked.

00:07:33.060 There is no evidence, either on the video or of the independent witnesses, to support the

00:07:37.420 notion that Miss Gunn in any way antagonized or provoked Mr. Buse.

00:07:41.500 I do not accept the evidence of Mr. Buse that he feared for his safety. 0.98

00:07:46.880 I mean, yeah, he's a coward. 0.99

00:07:48.400 He's a beta male with a lip ring. 0.99

00:07:50.500 He's an NDP lefty.

00:07:52.640 But he was just lying when he said even he was scared of a 100-pound woman with a video

00:07:58.060 camera.

00:07:58.500 Here's the judge.

00:08:00.480 Someone who fears for their safety, in my view, does not face a camera, he believes

00:08:04.820 correctly, to be recording and say obscenities.

00:08:07.560 And someone who fears for their safety does not, seconds later, after having had a chance

00:08:12.040 to leave the scene, return to strike the camera he believes to be recording him.

00:08:17.580 Now, this was never about money, our lawsuit.

00:08:20.440 Being punched in the face if you suffer no serious harm.

00:08:24.160 It doesn't get you a huge award.

00:08:26.080 Judge Sherrick ordered Dion Buse to pay Sheila $1,000 for the punch. 0.99

00:08:30.620 That's pretty normal in civil court cases for one punch.

00:08:33.440 And interestingly, that's exactly what Sheila offered to Buse, remember, to settle this

00:08:38.260 case.

00:08:38.600 If he just paid the $1,000 to a battered women's shelter, she would have dropped the case. 0.82

00:08:42.620 But he refused.

00:08:44.260 But the judge did something very unusual in his ruling.

00:08:48.240 He awarded punitive damages in a civil suit.

00:08:51.420 And it's important to know why.

00:08:52.840 Here, I'm going to quote him because I know you won't hear this on the CBC.

00:08:56.920 In short, Judge Sherrick said Dion Buse was not properly punished in his criminal trial

00:09:02.780 because the trial judge did not see the evidence.

00:09:06.020 Here.

00:09:07.300 With respect to the criminal proceedings against Mr. Buse, I am satisfied that Judge Groves

00:09:11.640 did not have a complete picture of the events.

00:09:14.400 The record of the criminal proceedings, Exhibit 7, and the evidence in this matter disclosed

00:09:18.540 that Judge Groves did not have the benefit of viewing the video, which is Exhibit 1A.

00:09:23.140 Nor did she have the benefit, which I did, of two days of testimony from the plaintiff

00:09:27.800 and defendant plus four other witnesses.

00:09:30.240 Furthermore, and significantly, Judge Groves did not have the benefit of a victim impact

00:09:34.780 statement from the plaintiff who was unaware that the criminal proceedings were taking place.

00:09:38.760 Unquote.

00:09:40.860 That is total vindication, isn't it?

00:09:44.060 Vindication of Sheila.

00:09:45.640 Condemnation of Dion Buse, the criminal, who I should point out again, still has not apologized

00:09:51.780 to Sheila, still does not admit he did anything wrong.

00:09:57.420 But the judge had one more thing to say, and it's about Sheila as a journalist. 0.76

00:10:01.340 You'd think other media would say this, or journalistic organizations, or women's organizations,

00:10:07.140 but they won't, because they actually don't care about the safety of conservative women

00:10:11.460 or conservative journalists.

00:10:13.300 Here, last word to the judge.

00:10:14.580 In a free and democratic society, people, including media, should be able to attend public events,

00:10:20.720 say what they wish, with certain limited exceptions, without the fear of having themselves or their

00:10:24.900 property threatened or physically abused.

00:10:27.580 The fundamental freedom of the media, as provided for the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, guarantees

00:10:31.800 that the media shall have the freedom to report and provide opinion with respect to such public

00:10:36.660 events as the 2017 Women's March, to seek to curtail the media's right to report and opine 0.73

00:10:42.880 on the event, such as the defendant Buse did here, was unacceptable, and his resort to physical

00:10:48.500 violence against a member of the media qualifies as high-handed, malicious, arbitrary, or highly

00:10:54.100 reprehensible conduct that departs to a marked degree from ordinary standards of decent behavior.

00:10:59.640 As stated in another case, it is conduct that, quote, by any reasonable standard is deserving

00:11:05.300 of full condemnation and punishment, unquote.

00:11:09.320 So the judge in Edmonton awarded Sheila another $2,500 for punitive damages.

00:11:15.740 Has any journalism organization condemned Dion Buse, who is now being convicted first by a

00:11:20.800 criminal court and now condemned by a civil court?

00:11:24.520 No.

00:11:25.520 In fact, the opposite.

00:11:26.460 The Edmonton Journal scoffed at Sheila, refusing to even call her a journalist.

00:11:33.040 They called her a staffer.

00:11:35.120 Nothing from the CBC.

00:11:36.500 Their conspiracy theory is still online, though.

00:11:39.440 Oh, by the way, this guy, a former Edmonton Sutton photographer, Tom Braid is his name, he

00:11:45.000 actually suggested on Twitter that the public should be raising money to pay to Dion Buse.

00:11:51.540 He later deleted it, but seriously, imagine asking the public to raise money to help someone

00:11:58.580 who batters women. 0.53

00:12:00.500 That's Tom Braid of Edmonton.

00:12:03.460 And here's a tweet from last year from Alison Post.

00:12:06.920 The woman who organized the Women's March just denying that Sheila was hit at all, despite

00:12:13.680 the videotape evidence.

00:12:14.720 Imagine being a women's rights activist who literally sees a videotape of a man punching

00:12:20.460 a woman, but because the man is a leftist and the woman is a conservative, tries to gaslight 0.78

00:12:25.320 the woman, calling her a faker. 0.89

00:12:27.700 Well, tell it to the judge. 1.00

00:12:30.160 To hell with the media party and to hell with the fake defenders of journalists. 0.99

00:12:33.700 To hell with all the politicians complaining about mean tweets and left-wing journalists 0.99

00:12:38.520 who write endless columns about online bullying.

00:12:41.260 Oh, did you know that someone was mean to Rachel Notley or Catherine McKenna?

00:12:45.500 Those same complainers are completely silent on actual punching women in the face, including

00:12:52.840 Rachel Notley.

00:12:54.040 This happened on the steps of her office by one of her NDP supporters.

00:12:58.120 Now, we finally got our justice.

00:13:00.260 No thanks to those fancy people.

00:13:03.360 We were the ones who found the criminal.

00:13:05.720 Or more to the point, you were our viewers.

00:13:07.460 You got him charged and convicted, even if Sheila wasn't allowed to testify in the criminal

00:13:12.000 court.

00:13:12.580 We sued him in civil court.

00:13:14.100 And though it took too long, we finally got a judge to call Dion Buse what he is. 0.91

00:13:18.780 He is a reprehensible disgrace to society, a beater of women, and someone who deserves more 1.00

00:13:25.260 punishment than he got, because he attacked a function of democracy itself. 0.95

00:13:30.660 Now, Sheila got $3,500 in damages all told. 1.00

00:13:33.940 I really don't even know if Dion Buse has the money to pay it, but it was never about

00:13:39.460 the money.

00:13:39.960 It was about setting things right, since no one else would.

00:13:44.300 We had a great lawyer who was very conscientious and kept his fees reasonable, but we still

00:13:48.760 spent $36,000 all told on the lawsuit because justice demanded it.

00:13:55.320 If you think it was a good idea to sue him, if you want to help us cover that legal bill,

00:13:59.600 I'd be grateful.

00:14:00.260 Go to DionBuse.com.

00:14:03.200 That's right, D-I-O-N-B-E-W-S dot com. 1.00

00:14:08.480 Yeah, that's the website we've set up to remind him and the world for the rest of his

00:14:13.660 life of what he's done, or at least until he finally apologizes.

00:14:18.740 He has not.

00:14:20.840 Please go to DionBuse.com and help us cover the legal fees for getting a small slice of

00:14:26.600 justice.

00:14:26.960 And the next time a feminist, especially a male feminist, talks about mean tweets or journalists 1.00

00:14:33.080 having a tough time, ask them about DionBuse and why the political media establishment thinks

00:14:39.340 it's just fine to hit a woman if she's a conservative. 0.59

00:14:42.940 They can learn all about it and read the entire court case at DionBuse.com.

00:14:49.220 Stay with us.

00:14:50.620 We've got an interesting show today.

00:14:52.100 White Pride Worldwide T-shirts.

00:15:10.380 Make it a great T-shirt.

00:15:12.060 It's $10.

00:15:12.300 Support Donald Trump's inauguration.

00:15:15.640 We are selling t-shirts.

00:15:19.420 That was an actual broadcast by the CBC called The Trump Effect, and it's exactly what it

00:15:24.720 looks like.

00:15:25.580 The CBC hired actors to play racists motivated by Donald Trump.

00:15:32.260 The CBC paid to have some provocative and some racist paraphernalia, apparel, shirts, and

00:15:39.440 hats, and they sold it on the streets as if it were real, and they used it to entrap or

00:15:45.340 sting ordinary Canadians who might react to their provocation.

00:15:49.400 That is the literal definition of fake news, but much more than that, they were creating

00:15:54.420 the false news and then reporting on it as if it were true.

00:15:58.320 That is government-approved fake news.

00:16:02.240 And I'm reminded of that when I look at a recent column in the Financial Post called

00:16:06.840 Regulating Fake News Will Only Ensure That We Only See Regulated Fake News.

00:16:13.720 It's written by Professor Herb Grubel, and he joins us now via Skype from North Vancouver.

00:16:18.800 Great to see you again, Professor Grubel.

00:16:20.820 And that's such a good point is that what one person calls fake news, the other person

00:16:25.320 calls the truth.

00:16:26.260 Am I right?

00:16:26.740 I mean, it's always just a matter of opinion and disagreement.

00:16:29.720 And the idea that we can put some people appointed by the government to decide what is fake and 0.78

00:16:43.680 what is not fake is just ludicrous.

00:16:46.660 It's just not going to work.

00:16:48.880 I think we should rely on the common sense of the common people to decide whether they want

00:16:55.180 to believe a story they see or not.

00:16:57.700 Yeah.

00:16:58.140 And that's the thing.

00:16:59.120 The CBC has defended what I thought was an outrageous fake provocation.

00:17:05.640 They're saying, oh, it was just an experiment or it was a talking point or, you know, it was

00:17:11.280 a reenactment.

00:17:12.300 Sometimes you see in journalism a dramatic reenactment.

00:17:15.760 So they would defend it, and they have defended it as journalism.

00:17:19.260 I thought it was an outrageous smear.

00:17:20.980 And I suppose we're both right because we're both entitled to our opinion.

00:17:25.920 It's a matter of opinion.

00:17:27.300 The idea that there could be some agency that would be the final arbiter, that misses the

00:17:32.900 whole point about a public debate, doesn't it?

00:17:35.520 We have public debates, and at the end of the day, the voter or the consumer gets to decide.

00:17:40.500 We don't have a public debate, and then some grand wizard or high priest decide.

00:17:45.420 That's the difference, isn't it?

00:17:46.560 Well, what has upset the apple cart really is initially and in the past, there has always

00:17:56.940 been fake news.

00:17:58.740 And there was no big trouble in the United States because presumably the Republicans and

00:18:05.520 the Democrats both used it, and it was just balanced.

00:18:09.480 But then came this idea that the Russians have imbalanced this.

00:18:15.520 But, you know, it hasn't been proven, and nobody knows how much effect it had.

00:18:21.580 But Ezra, let me tell you with respect to what really happened when I was in Chile on the

00:18:29.360 occasion of giving a lecture there at an institution, a government institution, the School for Diplomats.

00:18:38.480 It's important to mention this, and I wasn't there on the merit of my political views.

00:18:44.400 I gave a lecture on the future of the international monetary policies, institutions for future

00:18:50.860 diplomats.

00:18:52.040 So I walked around town, and to my astonishment, at that time, I could not see any demonstrations

00:19:00.260 that I had seen almost every day on the CBC when I was in Vancouver.

00:19:06.120 Well, somewhat strangely, I went to the Canadian ambassador, put my calling card through a slot,

00:19:14.660 and he came out and he said, well, so nice to see you, Professor Grubel.

00:19:18.940 What can I do for you?

00:19:21.100 And we had a chat, and he said, well, complaint or concerns over the difference between the

00:19:30.140 number and ferocity of demonstrations against Pinochet that you see on the television in Canada

00:19:41.340 and the actual on-the-ground experience here, several people have asked me, why is there this

00:19:49.300 difference?

00:19:50.340 And he said, let me tell you a story.

00:19:52.960 Last week, my spies found out that a television crew from the CBC had arrived in Santiago Airport.

00:20:03.960 We followed them, and the next morning, they went to a poor area of Santiago where they met

00:20:12.200 with 10, 15 people who went to a garage, picked up anti-Pinochet placards, waved them, and arranged

00:20:23.860 themselves in a position where the camera showed as if it was a really large demonstration.

00:20:33.960 And the next day, in Vancouver, in British Columbia, in Canada, the people of Canada were shown

00:20:44.420 a demonstration against Pinochet in Santiago.

00:20:49.840 It never took place.

00:20:52.480 You know what, as you were describing that, it reminds me of when I went into the West Bank,

00:20:58.860 when I went into different towns, including Bethlehem itself.

00:21:03.960 And, you know, there's a phrase, Pallywood, it's a blend of Palestinians and Hollywood.

00:21:10.920 It's so much for the consumption of Western media that, you know, the protesters are there,

00:21:18.500 and then it's almost like lights, camera, action.

00:21:21.340 They have a moment of fake news for the consumption of the West. 0.72

00:21:24.600 When the cameras are gone, they're gone.

00:21:25.980 You don't even have to go overseas to see that professor.

00:21:28.480 You're in Vancouver.

00:21:29.660 Not far away are the propped-up protests against the Kinder Morgan pipeline, where you have paid

00:21:39.320 professional protesters.

00:21:40.640 I see the Vancouver Sun has a picture of a protester, several protesters, but they don't

00:21:46.940 identify them.

00:21:47.620 I happen to know them.

00:21:49.100 They're professional activists.

00:21:50.520 Clayton Thomas Muller is the name of one of them.

00:21:52.320 If you didn't know who they were, you'd say, oh, wow, look at that protest.

00:21:57.580 I actually know their names.

00:21:58.920 I recognize them because they go from protest to protest.

00:22:02.040 You don't even have to go to Chile or the West Bank professor.

00:22:06.040 Fake news is right here in Canada, too.

00:22:09.200 Oh, yes.

00:22:10.040 Yeah.

00:22:10.340 But I mean, it's and it's not just the mass media like television, where everything is

00:22:17.240 very dramatic, but it also occurs in newspapers.

00:22:22.600 Let me tell you one other episode I personally had experience.

00:22:26.600 I was teaching at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and I made friends with two

00:22:32.520 doctors who were learning some advanced medical technology from a famous professor at the famous

00:22:41.040 Scrooge School Hospital.

00:22:43.040 They were from the Netherlands, and almost weekly, they received letters from their parents in

00:22:48.700 the Netherlands, expressing concern over their safety, because they were reading in the newspapers

00:22:58.600 all the time about the riots and the deaths that were caused by the riots in South Africa.

00:23:07.440 And one of the letters included a picture from one of these articles.

00:23:11.880 And they looked at the picture and said, well, this looks awfully familiar.

00:23:19.400 And what it was, was the lawn in the courtyard of the Crude Score Hospital, where people in the typical

00:23:28.000 South African wonderful climate ate their lunch on the grass.

00:23:35.060 And after that, some of them laid down and took a little nap.

00:23:39.200 This was shown as evidence of another riot which led to wounded and killed people in South Africa.

00:23:49.720 They were just having a nap after lunch.

00:23:53.360 Well, you know, and again, I come back, I mean, that's a dramatic example, but we saw news just a few

00:23:58.700 weeks ago that the government of Canada literally writes fake news stories that then they pump out

00:24:04.220 through a PR agency unattributed to, I mean, fake news is as common as real news.

00:24:10.260 And it's in the eye of the beholder.

00:24:12.140 I think the only way to sort it out is to let people rely on their own judgment.

00:24:15.860 It almost reminds me of the purpose of Parliament itself.

00:24:18.280 You have an official opposition who is paid to oppose because you can't trust either side or any party.

00:24:25.840 No one is disinterested.

00:24:27.200 We need checks and balances.

00:24:28.320 It's the idea that there can be some perfect wisdom, some high moral authority that we all defer to,

00:24:35.040 and that high, and that angel has no biases or interests himself is,

00:24:40.280 let me ask you one last question, Professor.

00:24:43.040 Do you think the real threat to free speech from people invoking,

00:24:49.460 oh, fake news, we have to ban that,

00:24:51.120 do you think the real threat comes from government or do you think these days it comes from the crony capitalists

00:24:57.280 at the very, very large social media oligopolies, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google?

00:25:04.860 I'm much more worried these days that a secret deal is just whispered between Justin Trudeau

00:25:12.260 and Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook,

00:25:14.120 and the censorship is outsourced to Facebook, Google, YouTube, Microsoft,

00:25:19.760 and we never even hear about it or see about it like we might if it was a government censorship.

00:25:24.720 That's my fear.

00:25:25.460 What's yours?

00:25:27.620 Well, I was going to say that the troubling thing to me is that it's the propaganda disguised as news

00:25:39.360 that comes from the government itself and government-sponsored agencies.

00:25:44.780 They have huge resources, as you know, to fight anybody who opposes them.

00:25:51.660 I am not worried about Facebook and other agencies that may be the carrier of fake news

00:26:03.740 produced by many different opposing and offsetting public interest groups out there.

00:26:12.060 You know, the communists are planting fake news, but it is typically offset by right-wing extreme libertarians or racists.

00:26:24.120 And, you know, we get bombarded by this and we make our judgment.

00:26:27.920 But when the government can use its sophisticated, very well-endowed resources to add to it,

00:26:36.060 to pursue its own political agenda, that is what scares me.

00:26:41.840 Let me ask one more time in a slightly different way.

00:26:44.240 I agree with you.

00:26:44.800 The government has more resources and it has the legal power behind it.

00:26:49.440 But I'm talking about not so much the production of fake news,

00:26:53.220 but the censorship of dissident voices in the name of stamping out fake news.

00:26:58.140 I'm worried that where once dissident voices, conservative or libertarian voices in particular,

00:27:05.580 would be censored by a human rights commission or a lawsuit,

00:27:10.400 now it's Facebook or YouTube just deleting accounts, suspending or banning people's access.

00:27:19.600 So I'm not saying I'm worried so much about Facebook promoting a leftist agenda or producing fake news.

00:27:27.680 I'm worried about Facebook saying, well, we have a moral obligation to stop fake news.

00:27:33.780 And surprise, surprise, what we call fake news just happens to be Andrew Scheer, Jason Kenney and Donald Trump.

00:27:40.820 And what we think is trustworthy news just happens to be Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau.

00:27:46.520 I'm worried not about the production, but the censorship, the outsourcing of the censorship to Facebook.

00:27:52.320 Do you have a view on that?

00:27:53.120 Oh, yes, I fully agree with you.

00:27:56.160 And I thought that's one of the points I made.

00:27:59.960 You know, we get only 700 words in an article.

00:28:03.660 This is exactly the point I would emphasize.

00:28:09.280 You're absolutely right.

00:28:10.680 Any kind of a censor, but especially censors appointed by politicians who happen to be in power at the time,

00:28:20.360 are not in the interest of a vital democratic system.

00:28:25.220 Well, Professor, it's great to catch up with you again.

00:28:27.440 And I should mention that, of course, you yourself served as a member of parliament.

00:28:30.880 So it's great to have you weighing in on this important public policy issue.

00:28:34.140 Great to see you again.

00:28:36.280 Same here.

00:28:37.140 Goodbye.

00:28:37.400 There you have Professor Herb Grubel talking about his article in the Financial Post.

00:28:42.380 If you haven't seen it, the headline is Regulating Fake News Will Only Ensure That We Only See Regulated Fake News.

00:28:50.020 Stay with us.

00:28:50.980 More ahead on The Rebel.

00:29:03.060 Hey, welcome back.

00:29:04.000 There's a very strange thing going on in the Alberta legislature.

00:29:06.820 The Alberta NDP keeps putting forward bills that are really not on the public policy radar of most Albertans, in my view.

00:29:15.760 But they're doing it for obvious reasons, to distract from the real issues of the province, the economy, the lack of pipelines, the carbon tax,

00:29:25.280 and to provoke the United Conservative Party, and to change the subject.

00:29:30.440 Awful legislation.

00:29:32.060 And one of them is called Bill 9.

00:29:33.500 It's basically a censorship bill that applies to a geographic area, 50 meters, now 150 meters, around any abortion facility.

00:29:42.620 In the name of stopping, I don't know, violence or something.

00:29:46.680 But of course, there is no abortion violence, no violence at abortion clinics, other than, I suppose, critics would say the violence that happens within those abortion clinics.

00:29:54.760 The only evidence that New Democrats have put forward is a videotape of a couple of very quiet Christian grandmas standing with a quiet vigil outside one of them.

00:30:03.760 It's obvious this is designed to rekindle a debate of Jason Kenney and the UCP being extremists.

00:30:09.840 But the extremists are actually the NDP, I believe, by having a total censorship ban, a censorship zone, 150 meters, that's what, 500 feet.

00:30:20.720 No cause for it.

00:30:21.940 But if that's not weird enough, even weirder is the reaction by the United Conservative Party, at least on six occasions.

00:30:30.860 The party has just walked out of the legislature en masse.

00:30:33.880 Instead of putting a principled objection on the record, instead of voting no, they've just sort of ran away.

00:30:41.280 Except for one MLA, who's an independent MLA, even though he was elected as a Wild Roser. 0.97

00:30:48.140 I'm talking about our friend Derek Fildebrandt, the MLA from Strathmore Brooks, who sits as an independent.

00:30:54.140 He joins us now.

00:30:54.900 Derek, great to see you again.

00:30:57.060 Thanks for having me on, Ezra.

00:30:58.300 Derek, have I properly summarized Bill 9?

00:31:00.940 And I haven't read the actual text of it.

00:31:02.840 I'm just going from media reports.

00:31:04.620 Basically, it creates a censorship zone.

00:31:08.520 First, it was going to be 50 meters.

00:31:10.580 Now it's 150 meters around abortion clinics.

00:31:13.680 No protest whatsoever.

00:31:16.760 No political dissent.

00:31:18.060 It's not a rule against violence.

00:31:19.460 It's a rule against speech.

00:31:21.380 Am I right?

00:31:23.120 Yes, because the law is already very clear.

00:31:25.900 Violence is illegal.

00:31:28.100 Intimidation, harassment against people is illegal.

00:31:31.500 So the only thing this bill changes is around protest.

00:31:35.900 And, you know, just today, outside the legislature, as we're speaking, there is a peaceful, and as far as I can tell, I haven't been there for it.

00:31:46.400 But as far as I can tell, respectful protest of pro-lifers, and there's no issue.

00:31:53.020 I would imagine that in the rare circumstance where it could theoretically happen that if someone were to protest outside of the abortion clinic and yell and scream at women going in and out or photographing them, I think that would be inappropriate.

00:32:07.340 But the law and court injunctions already make that illegal.

00:32:12.740 But what this bill does is it makes it illegal to protest, period.

00:32:17.220 And as far as I've ever seen, I've seen a peaceful grandma pray over people.

00:32:22.600 Some people might still not like that, but it certainly doesn't reach the level of intimidation or violence.

00:32:27.260 But this makes it illegal originally for 50 metres.

00:32:30.800 Unfortunately, when the opposition's away, the government will play.

00:32:35.980 And so because I was the only conservative in the legislature for six consecutive votes, really just kind of having to man the whole thing myself, the NDP thought that without more than one MLA opposing them, and they can do anything they want, they decided to triple the size of their no-protest censorship zone.

00:32:54.860 So it's now instead of 50 metres, it's 150 metres, and this is what happens when you don't have any opposition.

00:33:01.320 It's surely unconstitutional.

00:33:03.040 You can't ban people from protesting.

00:33:05.600 You can ban people from violent actions or crimes.

00:33:07.600 You can ban people from trespassing, but that's not what this does according to what I've read.

00:33:12.040 It's absurd because I have – it's not even a thing anymore.

00:33:15.720 It's not even a thing.

00:33:16.540 I mean, like you say, a couple of grannies standing in a peaceful vigil.

00:33:19.820 So it's so clearly designed to bait Jason Kenney, who, of course, for his whole life has been pro-life, including when he was in college.

00:33:27.700 He was a pro-life activist.

00:33:29.140 But the fact that Jason Kenney and the UCP don't want to, quote, give oxygen to this narrative, I don't think that excuses their abandoning their duties as the official opposition.

00:33:40.820 If they oppose this bill, then oppose it.

00:33:44.080 Sure, it's a stunt.

00:33:45.040 We all acknowledge it's a stunt.

00:33:46.360 I think the media acknowledges it's a stunt.

00:33:48.520 But if it's bad public policy, the answer is not to run away.

00:33:52.440 It's to vote against it and come up with a proper response.

00:33:55.360 I think they're the ones playing games, too.

00:33:59.220 If they think it's a bad law, they should speak and vote against it, not – I mean, it's – I'd almost say it's childish just to say, oh, I can't – it's like putting your hands over your ears and saying, I can't hear you, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:34:10.560 No, no, the bill is coming forward anyways.

00:34:12.740 That's my thought.

00:34:14.960 I agree.

00:34:16.080 You know, if the NDP are playing games by simply trying to bring this up to get abortion on – as an issue of public discussion, and it's really not – today's protest exempted, which is an annual event, it's not really an issue that people are talking about.

00:34:34.120 So, yeah, sure, if it's a game by the NDP to try to trap the UCP to talk about this, the appropriate response from the UCP isn't to play games of their own.

00:34:43.640 The government, unfortunately, gets to set 98% of the agenda in the legislature, and the opposition, unfortunately, we have to respond to it.

00:34:52.340 And the appropriate response when the government's playing games or doing something just trying to trap us is not to be just as immature and to play the same kind of games.

00:35:03.540 You know, if Jason Kenney did not believe he was going to get the unanimity of his caucus on this issue, then the appropriate thing is to do what conservatives are supposed to do in theory on controversial social issues and allow a free vote.

00:35:17.380 Yeah.

00:35:17.540 Allow people to vote their own conscience and consult in consultation with their constituents.

00:35:23.200 Instead, they've been told they're not supposed to vote one way or another, which would be bad enough, but they're told you're not even allowed to show up for a debate, and you're not allowed to speak to it, and you're not allowed to vote on it, period.

00:35:34.660 And their attempt to not give this oxygen, I think, is actually giving it more oxygen.

00:35:39.340 Yeah, I think you're exactly right, because it's so bizarre, and it's almost like, you know, the NDP can toy with the government.

00:35:47.240 Imagine mentioning a word.

00:35:49.320 It's like Voldemort, the name of the villain in the Harry Potter series.

00:35:52.840 Oh, you can't mention the name, and all of a sudden all the MLAs jump up and scurry out of the room.

00:35:57.900 It would be like a game.

00:35:59.440 Let me see how quickly I can get them to jump out and run out.

00:36:02.040 Of course, it begs the question.

00:36:03.100 It's actually quite sad.

00:36:04.380 It's like they're playing Red Rover.

00:36:05.840 Yeah, it feels that way.

00:36:07.420 And the thing is, if this law is as improper as I think it is, both constitutionally and in terms of, I mean, there's no problem to be solved here.

00:36:15.300 I think violating free speech is inappropriate.

00:36:18.960 But if this bill passes and becomes law, which it surely will, if the United Conservative Party becomes the government next year, as many polls suggest it will, will they also be afraid to dismantle it then?

00:36:30.500 Will they be afraid to repeal the law?

00:36:33.520 If they're so terrified to even mention its name and its word, does that mean that they won't vote on it when they have a majority?

00:36:40.060 It's so many strange questions, Derek, and I doubt you have an answer to their thinking because you're an independent MLA right now.

00:36:48.760 But have you heard anything?

00:36:50.000 I mean, surely there's got to be some MLAs who don't like this game playing.

00:36:55.740 Oh, yeah.

00:36:56.180 I mean, I know the vast majority of the UCP caucus very well from when I was in the Wild Rose and working to unite with the PCs.

00:37:06.240 There are some very passionate pro-life members of the UCP caucus who build very strongly against the status quo abortion laws.

00:37:15.360 There are also some pro-choice members of the UCP caucus.

00:37:18.460 And then there's many who are on a spectrum in between who might lean one way or another but are a bit more moderate on the scale.

00:37:26.180 And, you know, I feel bad for them.

00:37:29.260 I'm in there every day.

00:37:30.280 I was just in there this morning putting forward amendments to the bill.

00:37:33.620 I've actually had at least one amendment pass to the bill.

00:37:37.700 It was unfortunately not my favorite amendment, but it was at least something.

00:37:41.040 But I'm in there putting forward amendments, debating the bill every day like this morning and late last night.

00:37:47.220 And I see shame in their eyes.

00:37:50.040 They are not proud to be doing what they're doing.

00:37:53.000 I think the vast majority of them don't agree with their strategy on this.

00:37:57.480 And I can see shame in their eyes when they're playing Red Rover, running in and out.

00:38:01.900 They want to be there debating.

00:38:03.100 They want to be there voting.

00:38:03.960 I mean, doing their most fundamental and basic job as MLAs, but they're told they're not allowed to for party leadership and the whip.

00:38:12.340 And, you know, as I can attest, it's not a very good career move to defy what the bosses say.

00:38:20.220 Yeah, I want to talk to you a little bit more about that in a minute.

00:38:21.880 But this reminds me about the United Conservative Party Convention the other day in Red Deer, huge convention, largest from reports in the province's history, over 2,500 people.

00:38:35.880 57% of those delegates said they wanted parents to be notified if the kids go to religious-based or sex-oriented classes or extracurriculars.

00:38:45.880 Very, very normal.

00:38:47.440 I always thought that was standard operating procedure.

00:38:49.420 57% of delegates said, yeah, we just, we're parents.

00:38:52.940 We care about our kids.

00:38:53.700 We want to know what they're up to.

00:38:55.220 And afterwards, Jason Kenney said, no, no, no, I hold the pen, was his phrase, and I'll interpret the will of the people.

00:39:02.240 And I just sensed that this idea that by being not just not pro-life and not pro-parent, but to actually be more NDP than the NDP, to silence,

00:39:16.100 who was able to silence the United Conservative Party MLAs?

00:39:19.420 Not Rachel Notley.

00:39:21.140 Weirdly, pro-life Jason Kenney.

00:39:23.220 Who was able to silence or wants to silence 57% of UCP members on parental notification?

00:39:29.440 Weirdly, not Rachel Notley, but Jason Kenney.

00:39:32.060 And I've known Jason for 20 years.

00:39:33.820 I find it a very bizarre strategy.

00:39:36.140 It doesn't change the law.

00:39:37.760 It doesn't change reality.

00:39:39.120 It's really weird to see Jason Kenney be the enforcer of the other side's point of view.

00:39:45.920 And I think it's just to buy peace with the CBC.

00:39:49.340 And that peace will never come, by the way.

00:39:51.060 The CBC is not going to suddenly stop attacking the UCP or its MLAs because they're not voting their conscience.

00:39:58.040 Everyone knows where Kenney and the UCP stands.

00:40:00.880 The fact that they're doing this weird strategy, I think, only shows they lack courage.

00:40:05.180 It doesn't show anything more.

00:40:06.480 I'm ranting.

00:40:07.000 What's your view, Derek?

00:40:10.540 It was a good rant, I'll give you.

00:40:11.920 You know, if I was at the convention, I have to admit, I would not have voted for that particular resolution.

00:40:19.000 I agree with a lot of it, but I thought it was poorly worded.

00:40:22.820 I think that the NDP's bill, Bill 24, which they put forward and passed in the fall, and which I voted against,

00:40:30.200 which made it illegal for parental notification, is overly rigid.

00:40:36.960 But I also think mandatory notification, without any regard to the circumstances, is also overly rigid.

00:40:44.180 In most cases, I think it's fine if parents know what their kids are up to on religious and sexual matters at school.

00:40:49.940 I'm a parent, and I want to know.

00:40:52.780 But in some cases where the child could actually be put at risk if they have a potentially abusive family,

00:40:57.600 which would kick them onto the streets if they were gay, 1.00

00:41:00.120 I think there's a pretty strong argument to be made that the parents shouldn't be notified automatically in that case.

00:41:07.780 And so I think these overly rigid classifications are not serving well.

00:41:12.480 But I overall agree with the principle of that particular policy resolution,

00:41:16.140 but I couldn't have supported it because I think it was overly rigid.

00:41:18.800 But the broader point here, though, is the grassroots guarantee.

00:41:23.900 And a key condition of my support for unification and for Jason Kenney's leadership was the grassroots guarantee

00:41:31.900 that the grassroots members get to drive unification.

00:41:36.080 The grassroots members get to pick who their candidate for MLA is, not the leader.

00:41:39.960 And the grassroots members get to set the policies of the party.

00:41:43.400 And I remember Jason Kenney signing – he did a big blown-up billboard that he put a signature on,

00:41:50.100 saying that the policies should be developed from the bottom up by the grassroots members,

00:41:54.100 not imposed from the top by its leader.

00:41:56.200 That's almost an exact quote of what that pledge, the grassroots guarantee, said.

00:41:59.860 And I should note –

00:42:00.880 There was no asterisks on it.

00:42:03.700 And so he says the members get to decide.

00:42:05.760 And then the instant they decide something that he didn't want, he says,

00:42:08.940 well, at the end of the day, you shouldn't have believed me.

00:42:12.440 Yeah. You know what?

00:42:14.060 I think I did my show on this on Monday.

00:42:16.380 And I should note that on jasonkenney.ca, his website, the grassroots guarantee website has been deleted.

00:42:23.360 That page has been deleted.

00:42:25.580 So there's a big question mark there.

00:42:26.840 Well, they said it was technical issues that happened minutes after that resolution.

00:42:31.780 I want to ask you – you alluded to grassroots members choosing their MLA.

00:42:37.420 And I know we're almost out of time, but I want to take a minute.

00:42:39.980 You are an independent MLA for various reasons, but you have expressed an interest in running for the nomination in the riding.

00:42:51.360 And I would put it to you that most Albertans, if they had to name a handful of Wildrose MLA –

00:42:58.460 I'm sorry, United Conservative Party MLAs.

00:43:01.080 Other than Jason Kenney and probably Brian Jean, your name would be in the top three for sure, maybe even the top two.

00:43:08.940 I mean, there's some other competent MLAs, no doubt about it.

00:43:12.280 But you've been a vocal advocate.

00:43:15.480 You've fought hard.

00:43:17.260 You were with the Taxpayers Federation.

00:43:19.600 You have your reputation there.

00:43:20.820 You have a very strong riding.

00:43:23.520 Tell me what Jason Kenney has said to you about your desire to have the right to run, not to be appointed, but to put your name to the members of the riding.

00:43:34.760 What's Jason Kenney said to you, and what's his explanation?

00:43:37.140 Well, I met with Jason in November, and he had been saying for some time, just stay quiet.

00:43:47.200 We're going to bring you back.

00:43:48.140 Everything's fine. 0.99

00:43:49.240 He said himself that these controversies were primarily media inventions and that they were, in his words, bullshit. 0.98

00:43:57.960 But just – we'll get over it. 0.99

00:43:59.860 Just keep your head down.

00:44:00.820 It'll be fine.

00:44:01.440 And we had a meeting in either late November or early December and just discussing the details of this.

00:44:10.500 And about 90 percent of that meeting was him telling me that I can't run in my own constituency if I wanted to return to the caucus and run in the next election.

00:44:20.540 He said – and I'll give you a probably near exact quote of what he said.

00:44:27.560 It wasn't recorded or written down, but the near exact quote was – actually, I'll give a bit of context.

00:44:32.720 My current constituency, Strathmore Brooks, was combined with the neighboring constituency of Chestermere-Rockyview.

00:44:40.100 And Chestermere-Rockyview is represented by Lila Ahir, one of the only two female members of the United Conservative Caucus.

00:44:47.960 And the party's pretty lacking in female MLAs, I'll be the first to admit. 1.00

00:44:52.960 But my constituency was combined with her.

00:44:55.660 So either one of us had to run somewhere else or we were going to have to face off against each other in the nomination in advance to determine who the members want to be, the MLA.

00:45:03.920 And Jason Kenney said to me that he would not support my return to the caucus and running the next election unless I decided to – unless I moved to a different constituency to run.

00:45:17.740 And his quote that he said to me was, how would it look if one of our only two women was defeated in the nomination by some bearded, blonde redneck?

00:45:29.260 And – no, I don't take a redneck as a pejorative term, and I don't think he meant it as such.

00:45:35.780 But it was pretty clear because there's only two women in the caucus, of which I am not one, that I would be free to run in any other constituency,

00:45:46.620 including other parts of my constituency that were conjoined with other neighboring constituencies with incumbent male UCP MLAs,

00:45:55.120 but not against female UCP MLAs.

00:45:58.140 And, you know, so it was pretty clear to me that this was a Trudeau-style gender quota, except that the way Trudeau does it is actually probably better, which is hard – very sad to say.

00:46:10.800 He does it at least in the open.

00:46:11.940 He says because it's 2015, we're just going to have quotas, and that's that.

00:46:16.320 But the way things are happening in the United Conservative Party is in public, when we look you in the face, we say no gender quotas, merit only.

00:46:24.660 Let the people, let the members decide.

00:46:27.160 But then when we're behind closed doors, we say, well, we've got to look good, so we're just going to do this through dirty backroom politics.

00:46:36.080 And that's the way things have happened at UCP.

00:46:38.080 So that's why, regardless of any other excuses they've tried to cook up, that is the reason why I'm not allowed – why the members in my constituency have been told they're not allowed to even decide who their candidate for MLA is going to be.

00:46:53.140 They're going to be told who the candidates they're allowed to vote for are, but they're not going to let me run because I think they're afraid of what the result might be.

00:47:00.920 Yeah.

00:47:02.360 We're fans of Leela here.

00:47:04.160 I think she's a great MLA.

00:47:06.520 I would guess that you are a fan of hers as well.

00:47:12.340 It sounds to me you just want a chance to put your name to the vote.

00:47:15.180 By the way, we've sent an invitation to Leela here, inviting her to come on to give her a side of the story.

00:47:20.720 I'm a fan of hers.

00:47:21.600 I think she's fought hard.

00:47:22.560 I think she's fought hard for the oil and gas sector, which is very important to me.

00:47:26.740 Because she is a woman, and I think she's a woman of color, I don't know, she is more effective at rebutting certain politically correct attacks from the NDP than people who look like you and me are.

00:47:41.440 Sure. But that doesn't, in our system of meritocracy and egalitarianism, trump the right, in my view, of the members of your writing to have the say.

00:47:51.840 And obviously, I think I would love it if the both of you were MLAs, and the Constitution and the grassroots guarantee seems to suggest that the members should choose and vote.

00:48:02.380 And you're saying that's not going to happen. Does that mean that you're blackballed from any writing?

00:48:06.480 Does that mean that you are basically ending your days as an independent MLA, and if you run it again, it's as an independent MLA?

00:48:13.340 Is this the last of Derek Fildebrandt in provincial politics?

00:48:18.180 Oh, you haven't seen the end of me. I can assure you that.

00:48:23.740 Yeah, no, what they said is, because we couldn't come to an agreement, I'm not allowed to run in any constituency for the United Conservative Party.

00:48:30.840 You know, and I've got no problem with Lila, other than that, in the later stages, she sought to be protected and not face an open nomination.

00:48:38.540 That's the only problem I've had with her. But, you know, regardless of if we think we need more men, women, or purple, brown, or white MLAs, it should always be up to the local members to make that decision.

00:48:52.280 And it's not like my constituency is a heavily ethnic constituency. It's a predominantly rural and suburban constituency.

00:48:59.820 But it doesn't matter what color the local people are there. It should matter what politics and the person they want to pick for their own MLA.

00:49:09.600 I agree. I'm from meritocracy. I mean, I absolutely agree. I mean, I don't think we should have racial quotas or gender quotas.

00:49:15.880 And I think it's, in fact, a little bit diminishing for the party to suggest that Lila couldn't win on her own merits.

00:49:23.040 So, I mean, I don't know if you've thought of your plan. If Jason Kenney has blackballed your return to the party because you want to run in your home riding,

00:49:31.040 sounds like you're going to go down fighting for the remainder of your term, doing the things in the legislature that the other UCP members won't.

00:49:40.080 It sounds like you're sometimes the only one in there fighting the fight. I know you put forward a motion that MLA should have a pay reduction.

00:49:46.040 You're the only one of anybody who supported it. You're doing great things in your final year there.

00:49:50.280 Is it too early to think about what you're going to do afterwards? Because I think you have a strong voice.

00:49:57.060 I think you come from your taxpayer's background. You've fought like hell for years.

00:50:02.880 It's obvious you're out of sync with Jason Kenney. Then again, so are we here at the Rebels.

00:50:07.820 So maybe that's why we get along so well. Is it too early to brainstorm about what you're going to do next?

00:50:12.840 It would be a shame if you left the world of public policy.

00:50:14.920 I haven't made a decision, but I've had, you know, what really got me moving in was a few weeks ago,

00:50:23.220 I had town halls in Strathmore and in Brooks, and I invited folks to come out and talk in the aftermath of the cancellation of,

00:50:31.860 or the pending cancellation of the Trans Mountain pipeline.

00:50:35.080 And people were very upset that they were being denied the right to pick their own candidate for MLA.

00:50:42.400 And a lot of people encouraged me to either run as an independent conservative or to begin a new conservative party.

00:50:49.600 And I haven't decided what route to go. I believe in grassroots democracy.

00:50:54.860 I don't believe in corporate conservatism. I believe in blue-collar grassroots conservatism.

00:51:00.820 And I don't believe in Ottawa-style conservatism here. I believe our party or our movement should be autonomous.

00:51:09.520 A lot of people in Alberta are talking about independence right now. I'm not there.

00:51:13.760 I still want, I believe in Canada and want Canada to work. But Canada is broken.

00:51:17.840 And I believe the route for Alberta is not continued model of federalism, where we just simply yell back at them, as Jason Kenney proposes.

00:51:29.860 It's not confederalism where we roll over a short belly to them, as Rachel Notley practices.

00:51:34.580 And it's not a full independence, as many people are starting to agitate for.

00:51:38.180 I think it's autonomy. It's demanding a repatriation of the British North America Act, 1867 constitutional powers that run our own business here, remaining a part of Canada.

00:51:50.980 So I'm considering various options. But my heart lies with an autonomous, strong, and conservative Alberta, and a conservatism that is not an old Tory corporate conservatism, but that works for people in the oil patch, that works for farmers, for real people on the ground.

00:52:12.420 Yeah. Well, for what it's worth, I hope you don't start a new party.

00:52:15.220 I think splittism at the party level is something that should be avoided. I think the unification of the parties was a success.

00:52:22.320 I could understand if you ran as an independent, given your roots in the riding and what you're reporting that you hear. I don't know.

00:52:29.180 It's very difficult to run and win as an independent. I hope you continue to contemplate things. I look forward to keeping you in touch.

00:52:34.400 I want to make it clear, because I say this when I was talking to my colleague David Menzies about Doug Ford and his decision to throw a great conservative named Tanya Granik-Allen out as a candidate.

00:52:46.880 And she was the one who made him the kingmaker in the riding. And David's very mad at Doug Ford, and I understand that, and I'm mad also.

00:52:55.140 But I said, look, at the end of the day, Doug Ford has to beat Kathleen Wynne in Ontario. There's just no two ways about it.

00:53:01.820 And my view is, at the end of the day, there's two people who could be premier next year.

00:53:07.580 One is Rachel Notley, one is Jason Kenney. And without any shadow of a doubt, Jason Kenney is going to be a better premier than Rachel Notley, and he must win.

00:53:15.720 But that doesn't mean that we here at The Rebel and grassroots conservatives who care about conservatism shouldn't do our best to maintain the true conservatism and the grassroots democracy.

00:53:27.260 And I believe that's our role here at The Rebel, is to be good faith critics of Jason Kenney and the UCP.

00:53:34.400 And when they fail, not just to give them a free pass because we're conservatives, not to be gotcha, bad faith critics like the rest of the media, but to try and keep them conservative, because there's no point in having an unconservative conservative party.

00:53:47.120 So that's my take on things, Derek. We're fans of yours. I want to see you staying part of the fight, whether it's as an MLA or something else.

00:53:57.080 And I'm sympathetic to your concerns. We have reached out to Leela.

00:53:59.860 As you know, Jason Kenney is blackballed The Rebel. He's not allowing any other MLA's to talk to us.

00:54:05.560 Yeah, that's my take. I'll give you the final word. We've had a good conversation, chewed over a lot of things.

00:54:09.960 If you had one last thing you wanted to tell Rebel viewers, what would it be?

00:54:15.180 Yeah, no, I was the very first conservative in the legislature to call for the unification of the conservative family in Alberta.

00:54:25.700 I'm not as sure that that was the right decision anymore.

00:54:28.360 I really believed it was necessary, but now I'm seeing very dangerous signs that this new party is not looking like the new fresh party that I hoped it would be, living up to the grassroots guarantee.

00:54:43.660 But it is looking dangerously close to the entitlement to power and self-conceit of the Tories of old.

00:54:54.000 Not as bad as it was under the height of Jim Prentice when they thought they would rule the universe, but I'm seeing very dangerous signs.

00:55:00.360 And I really want the United Conservative Party to succeed and be the party that I thought it was that we were founding.

00:55:05.560 But I'm very concerned about the direction it's going right now when grassroots democracy is stamped out on members picking the policy, when grassroots democracy is stamped out on letting local members pick their own candidate, and when basic parliamentary democracy is stamped out, when MLAs are not even allowed to vote freely or even debate things just because someone else says so.

00:55:28.220 Mm-hmm. All right. Well, we'll leave it there. Good conversation went on longer than I had originally thought, but there was so much to cover.

00:55:36.060 Derek, I'm grateful for your time.

00:55:37.420 It's been a while.

00:55:38.040 Yeah, it's been a while. It was great to see you in Calgary at our anti-carbon tax, repeal the carbon tax and pro-pipeline rally a few weeks ago in Calgary. It was great to have you there.

00:55:47.840 Thanks for spending the time with us today. We'll keep in touch.

00:55:50.220 I think you're an important part, an important voice for conservatives in Alberta and in Canada, and I hope that we can find, and you can find, a place that is satisfying and where you can continue to make a difference.

00:56:04.540 So thanks for being here.

00:56:06.800 My pleasure, Ezra. Thanks.

00:56:08.140 There you have it, Derek Fildebrandt. And as I mentioned several times, we have, in fact, reached out to Lila Ahir to have her point of view.

00:56:14.960 I remain a fan of Lila's, no doubt about it. Of course, she is under Jason Kenney's prohibition for MLAs from the UCP to talk to any rebel media journalist.

00:56:27.380 Stay with us. More ahead on The Rebel.

00:56:28.720 Hey, welcome back on my monologue Tuesday about sexual misconduct by powerful feminists in politics. 1.00

00:56:45.360 Jonathan writes, 0.99

00:56:46.420 I truly feel for the victims of these pigs, especially our own soldier. 0.98

00:56:50.080 You know, normally I wouldn't say that a soldier, a tough, strong guy, is a victim if a female MP falls from back to his hotel and sleeps with him. 0.97

00:57:01.220 And I don't think the soldier himself really wants to embrace victimology.

00:57:05.580 But it is a fact that he was on a variety of medications, and she insisted he drink alcohol.

00:57:11.740 And he said he objected, but she said she was a nurse and knew better.

00:57:15.460 So how many ways did she abuse her authority to take advantage of him?

00:57:18.560 I'm a nurse. It's okay to drink when you're on meds.

00:57:21.660 I'm a member of parliament.

00:57:22.980 You know what? She questioned him in the parliamentary committee.

00:57:27.180 She asked him if he was married or engaged, and she sort of styled the questions as if it was a legitimate question.

00:57:33.420 She was using parliament like a Tinder app or some dating app.

00:57:38.840 And so now we know that she's responsible for at least two, maybe three MPs to be kicked out of the parties.

00:57:46.440 Now this soldier, I mean, and everywhere she goes, she cries sexual harassment against her. 1.00

00:57:53.900 She's a sexual predator. 1.00

00:57:56.640 On my interview with John Cardillo, Paul writes, 0.98

00:57:59.340 Pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal was the only thing Trump could do, and I'm thrilled he did so.

00:58:04.740 John Kerry is panicking.

00:58:06.020 The former Obama administration is panicking.

00:58:08.320 It was a horrible deal.

00:58:09.180 I don't doubt they have some nuclear skeletons in their closets that they don't want the world to know about.

00:58:14.280 Wow, that's very interesting.

00:58:16.560 It is quite something to see the vigor with which the old administration is squawking and opposing Trump ripping up their deal.

00:58:23.780 I should remind you that that was not a treaty.

00:58:26.640 Under the U.S. Constitution, the Senate must ratify any foreign treaty.

00:58:30.740 It's why the U.S. Senate, it's why the global warming treaties don't apply to America.

00:58:35.080 The Senate has not ratified them.

00:58:37.460 This wasn't even put to the Senate.

00:58:38.780 It was like a private agreement that Obama signed.

00:58:41.760 So, of course, Trump can rip up a treaty that's not a treaty the same way Obama brought it in, by just saying it's over.

00:58:49.240 Why is John Kerry so desperate to prop it up?

00:58:51.920 Why is Susan Rice, the liar for who claimed Benghazi was because of a YouTube video,

00:58:59.820 why are they so squawky here?

00:59:01.480 I think the plain answer is that this was sort of the centerpiece of the Obama foreign policy legacy, peace with Iran.

00:59:10.360 And Trump said, yeah, no, that's not a real peace.

00:59:12.360 We're going to fix this.

00:59:13.600 So their last piece, I mean, Obamacare is gone.

00:59:17.020 Tax cuts.

00:59:17.980 He's out of the global warming treaty.

00:59:20.120 He's out of this Iran deal.

00:59:21.460 Like, what is left from the Obama years, really?

00:59:24.580 I can't even think of it.

00:59:25.860 Can you think of anything?

00:59:26.720 What's Obama's legacy today, now that Iran is dead and Obamacare is dead?

00:59:33.760 But, yeah, it would not surprise me one bit, especially given that Hillary Clinton was sort of always around and poking around

00:59:40.920 and all the deals she had on the side with her Clinton Global Initiatives and Clinton Foundation.

00:59:45.220 It would not surprise me one bit if all these folks had some investments in Iran.

00:59:50.840 I have no evidence of that whatsoever, other than evidence of the total continuous corruption in the Clinton Foundation.

01:00:00.060 On my interview with Barbara Kaye, Liza writes, Barbara is spot on.

01:00:04.500 Why are they forcing a theory on our kids with this early indoctrination in our public schools?

01:00:09.200 Why does the government think it has the right to be doing this? 0.70

01:00:12.180 Well, that's the thing.

01:00:13.000 My chief objection to the sex ed curriculum in Ontario, which I have read, unlike most of its supporters,

01:00:19.280 my chief objection is that it is so, so, so young.

01:00:24.460 Why are you talking to six-year-olds about that?

01:00:30.000 Even Freud talked about a latency period.

01:00:32.860 Even the most sex-crazed psychologists and theorists out there say,

01:00:38.080 there's a period of time where people are not sexual. 0.53

01:00:41.720 Why are you trying to sexualize them? 1.00

01:00:44.980 Other than, Occam's razor, what's the simplest answer?

01:00:47.720 Well, who was the deputy minister in charge of education when this sex ed curriculum was drafted? 0.71

01:00:53.500 Ben Levin, who was convicted of child pornography, of trying to meet young kids to molest them.

01:01:01.740 I mean, I'm sorry, that is a factor here.

01:01:05.200 You would think that any fruit of that poison tree, any sex ed documents developed under his oversight,

01:01:12.060 would be abandoned as poisoned.

01:01:13.840 But they weren't.

01:01:15.420 My first objection is that the kids are far too young.

01:01:18.360 And my second objection is there's just crazy, kooky theories and politics in there.

01:01:23.460 I say again, and I do this every time we talk about this, name the six genders.

01:01:28.200 You can't.

01:01:29.320 I bet your most liberal MPPs who supported this can't name the six genders.

01:01:33.300 It's just crazy, crazy theory stuff.

01:01:36.120 Yeah, that's my objection.

01:01:38.880 And sorry, putting that on a birth certificate, that's virtue signaling, but it's crazy.

01:01:44.520 It doesn't say gender, it says sex.

01:01:46.940 And there are only two sexes, and you can tell that because you can test if someone has X or a Y chromosome. 0.93

01:01:54.420 All right, it's so crazy, but that's the way the world is going.

01:01:56.680 And there's a lot of things where your gender, your sex actually matters, and more than just virtue signaling,

01:02:04.840 we talked with Barbara about Corrections Canada, which now must let anyone who simply identifies as this or that gender

01:02:12.500 go to the prison of their choice.

01:02:14.920 What man wouldn't say, I want to go to the women's prison? 1.00

01:02:18.860 I mean, what man, not just rapists who want access to women, but what man wouldn't say,

01:02:23.060 yeah, I bet it's nicer in the women's prison, I bet it smells better, I bet it looks better, 1.00

01:02:27.260 I bet the food's better, I bet it's less harsh, I bet the guards are nicer.

01:02:31.100 What man wouldn't say, oh, you know, I'm identifying as a woman today,

01:02:35.940 so I want my constitutional right, you send me to the girls' prison. 1.00

01:02:39.180 I mean, I can't imagine any scenario where I would end up in prison.

01:02:44.140 But yeah, I'd want to go to the girls' prison too. 0.99

01:02:46.640 Probably better in about 10 different ways.

01:02:49.780 That's crazy, but that is the law.

01:02:51.660 That is the law.

01:02:53.060 That's our show for today.

01:02:54.280 You know what, I'm still mad about that Dion Buse.

01:02:56.880 I wasn't at the trial.

01:02:59.340 We had some folks go to the trial.

01:03:01.220 Sheila was there.

01:03:02.140 We had supporters there, and we sent our chief editor there.

01:03:08.160 Dion Buse is still unrepentant.

01:03:10.500 Even though he was convicted in a criminal court,

01:03:12.260 even though he just got smashed by this judge in Edmonton,

01:03:15.580 punitive damages, how often does that happen?

01:03:18.160 He still won't admit he did anything wrong.

01:03:20.040 He's still squawking and whining.

01:03:23.640 He doesn't get it.

01:03:24.820 I wonder if he'll even pay the $3,500 he owes Sheila.

01:03:28.920 I don't know.

01:03:29.620 I wouldn't be surprised if he tried to wriggle his way out of it.

01:03:33.020 He seems like that kind of a guy.

01:03:35.100 If you think it was the right thing to do to sue him,

01:03:37.100 I sure think it was.

01:03:38.720 It wasn't about the dough.

01:03:39.880 We knew.

01:03:40.580 We knew from the law that you punch someone in the face.

01:03:43.320 You know, there's enough cases of a punch going to civil court.

01:03:45.640 A punch in the face is worth $1,000, maybe $1,500.

01:03:48.880 That's just what it's worth in our civil justice system.

01:03:52.240 We knew Sheila wasn't going to get a lot of dough. 1.00

01:03:53.980 Frankly, she tripled what we thought we would get.

01:03:56.460 We thought we'd get $1,000 to $1,500.

01:03:58.300 She got $3,500.

01:04:00.120 It was about a judge saying Dion Buse is reprehensible,

01:04:07.000 and about getting rid of the conspiracy theories on the CBC website,

01:04:10.900 and about bringing justice that the criminal courts did not do

01:04:14.260 because Sheila did not have a chance to testify. 1.00

01:04:16.660 And that video was never seen by the judge in criminal court.

01:04:19.680 If you think it was a good idea to help,

01:04:21.780 or if you just simply want to read the judgment in full,

01:04:23.720 and I recommend you do.

01:04:24.760 It's not very long.

01:04:25.720 It's not a very long judgment.

01:04:26.940 I think, going from memory, it's maybe 10 pages or less.

01:04:30.360 It's a quick read.

01:04:31.620 The judge is very clear.

01:04:34.420 You can go to DionBuse.com.

01:04:36.880 I encourage you to read it to get the facts from the judge

01:04:40.020 who listened to a bunch of witnesses.

01:04:43.140 I think there were six witnesses altogether.

01:04:44.660 I'd have to add it up.

01:04:45.680 And if you want to chip in to help us cover the cost,

01:04:47.720 we spent more than $30,000 on this lawsuit to stand by Sheila. 1.00

01:04:51.220 Wouldn't you?

01:04:51.920 If you would, go to DionBuse.com.

01:04:53.880 If you want to chip in $5 or $500, we could use it

01:04:56.840 because the lawyer did a good job, and we got to pay him.

01:04:59.540 Anyway, that's our show for today.

01:05:00.960 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters,

01:05:04.280 good night.

01:05:04.800 And keep fighting for freedom and justice.

Rebel News Podcast - May 11, 2018

Ezra Levant Show May 10 2018

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