Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Sycamore Gap Tree case lays bare Britain’s two-tier justice system

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. How much should you get in prison for chopping down one of the most beautiful

00:00:06.180 trees in your community? Should it be a prison term? We'll talk about it. We'll compare the

00:00:12.720 prison term that two men got to the prison terms of people who actually commit rape in their

00:00:18.760 community. Sorry to be so heavy, but that's the comparison I make. But first, let me invite you

00:00:23.660 to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. You know why? Because I want to show you the tree.

00:00:27.240 I want to show you the very special tree in question, sort of a famous tree, and two guys

00:00:32.940 chopped it down.

00:00:34.200 So I want you to see it, not just hear me talk about it.

00:00:36.900 Go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe, and it's eight bucks a month, which might

00:00:42.760 not sound like a lot to you, but that sure adds up for us, and we need the money because

00:00:46.280 we don't take any money from the government, and it shows.

00:00:57.240 tonight why did a british court care more about a tree than about people

00:01:10.280 it's june 30th and this is the ezra levant show

00:01:13.700 shame on you you sensorism bug

00:01:27.240 This is the Sycamore Gap Tree. It's got a name. It's in the north of the United Kingdom. It's

00:01:36.580 right alongside an ancient wall called Hadrian's Wall. Maybe you've heard of it. It was built by

00:01:42.640 the Romans when they ruled Britannia. The tree is beautiful. So interesting. So much so that

00:01:51.040 they gave it the name, the Sycamore Gap Tree, and it was made famous in countless photographs

00:01:55.940 became a destination kind of place people would go to for wedding photos or even to actually get

00:02:03.160 engaged to uh for a wedding it was more than a century old and it was a symbol of so many things

00:02:09.760 and the beauty and the history of the uk look at that isn't that nice and that one there and that

00:02:17.820 one but i'm speaking in the present tense i shouldn't be because the tree's gone it was 0.95

00:02:24.040 chopped down by a couple of malicious fools more than that criminals they were uh here it is days 0.95

00:02:32.420 after being chopped down so outrageous uh the two men who did it filmed themselves chopping it down 0.99

00:02:40.260 on their cell phone it was at night this is an enhanced version of that phone call

00:02:45.460 you see the outline of a person here a chainsaw and then the tree topples

00:02:51.820 that act was carried out by two men daniel graham and adam carobas incredibly they were

00:03:03.020 tree surgeons for a living they they cut down trees is what they did but this they did as a

00:03:08.660 lark as a as a prank as a horrible act of vandalism as a crime and in the days that followed

00:03:15.440 they delighted in what they did they bantered back and forth with each other so excited about

00:03:21.180 the news coverage their crime received, national news, even international news. Maybe you heard

00:03:26.460 about it. A teenager was briefly wrongfully accused of doing it. It was a scandal. And

00:03:32.820 then they were caught. Now, all this happened three years ago, actually. I came across it

00:03:38.220 again today because, and this is so infuriating, someone stole a sapling that had been planted

00:03:46.040 from the original tree after it was cut down. Here's the headline today, sycamore gap sapling

00:03:52.440 stolen from castle grounds. Happened just today. Quote, one of the saplings grown from the felled

00:04:00.080 sycamore gap tree has been stolen from a castle's grounds. The young tree, which was believed to

00:04:05.340 have been stolen earlier this month, was planted at Ray Castle near Ambleside, Cumbria in April of

00:04:11.060 2026 it was one of 49 grown from seeds taken from the tree which was illegally felled in september

00:04:19.820 2023 the national trust runs the estate and general manager laura lee said the tree's loss

00:04:25.520 would be deeply felt adding that tree belongs to everyone so i saw that story and i refreshed my

00:04:33.540 memory about the original attack on the tree which i had just seen in passing now these two men who

00:04:39.040 did it sound like awful people but i'm going to point out a couple of things that are maybe sort

00:04:44.400 of obvious um the two criminals are are white they're they're indigenous brits they're the

00:04:50.720 british ethnicity it's a white part of the world up there in the countryside in northern england

00:04:56.320 so the judge was white british everyone in this story is british there were no migrants no

00:05:04.160 Pakistani nationals. It was Britain as it used to be a century ago. And on trial were feelings

00:05:13.180 about Britain and the countryside and nature and history and community and symbols. So it was a

00:05:20.120 very British trial, wasn't it? Here, let me play a few clips for you from the judge, Justice

00:05:25.860 Christina Lambert. Here she is talking about the aesthetic value, the poetic value of that tree to

00:05:33.240 britain listen to her describe it as she is about to give these men their sentence for those who

00:05:39.640 live in northumberland or who love this county the tree had become a landmark a symbol of the

00:05:46.920 beauty of its untamed landscape featuring prominently in local art and local tourism

00:05:52.660 for others the tree had become a place of special personal significance where marriages were

00:06:00.000 proposed and personal tributes to loved ones were left. It was as Mr Pogue observes a place of peace

00:06:08.060 and tranquillity to which people returned year after year but the public reaction has extended

00:06:15.280 far beyond those who had visited the tree or for whom it had a personal resonance. Mr Pogue describes

00:06:22.900 the outpouring of emotion as unprecedented in the experience of the National Trust. He describes the

00:06:29.240 sense of loss and confusion across the world when the news broke that a thing of natural beauty

00:06:35.120 had been destroyed and a mindless act of vandalism. She talked about how the men had no excuse, how

00:06:41.100 they reveled in their crime, how it was planned, how their excuses about being drunk didn't wash,

00:06:46.500 given their joy in the project days later. She talked about the cost of the crime financially.

00:06:50.920 It was almost a million dollars Canadian when all was said and done. And in the end, she talked

00:06:55.540 about the prison sentence for the men more than four years each. Following the guidelines the

00:07:01.820 first step that I must take is to identify the offence category. It is common ground between

00:07:07.720 your barristers and the crown that the offence in count one falls into the highest categories for

00:07:13.640 both culpability and harm. It falls into the highest culpability category for two reasons.

00:07:20.360 First because the decision to fell the tree involved a high degree of planning

00:07:24.080 and premeditation. And second, because you intended to destroy the tree and thus intended

00:07:30.540 to cause very serious damage to property. It falls into the highest harm category because

00:07:37.440 of the social impact of the offense, causing serious distress to many people. This yields

00:07:44.100 a sentence range of six months to four years custody with a starting point of one and a

00:07:50.500 half years custody you know what i i agree with her i agree with every word she said and i'm not

00:07:56.380 from there i've never seen this tree apparently it was in the movie robin hood with kevin costner

00:08:02.580 here's a scene you can see the tree and they're walking on hadrian's wall take a look am i not

00:08:09.680 the infidel it seems safer to appear as your slave rather than your equal you know for an 0.84

00:08:16.720 infidel you have uncommon clarity of thinking that you tell me nothing of yourself for instance 0.96

00:08:21.500 your name azim what does it mean it means great one great one really did you give yourself this

00:08:27.760 name it's a joke azim the great one i am home now i don't really care about the movie but just know

00:08:43.580 that that was no movie set that's not some studio lot in anaheim that's england itself or what it

00:08:50.440 once was and here's my point a four-year sentence in prison for chopping down a tree a beautiful

00:08:57.580 tree a meaningful tree but it was just a tree i agree with that sentence but it wasn't murder

00:09:05.240 and it wasn't rape it wasn't the systematic rape of girls night after night by migrant

00:09:12.820 rape gangs like the 1400 girls raped in that one northern city of rotherham i've been following

00:09:19.900 those rape gang cases ever since i first heard about them through tommy robinson more than a

00:09:24.460 decade ago a typical rape gang rapist in the uk by my anecdotal observation gets around six years

00:09:31.780 in prison that's their sentence of course they're out much earlier than that sometimes their

00:09:36.340 sentences or less for raping and torturing and degrading actual women actual young girls

00:09:43.820 repeatedly over years and i think that's my point i agree with the british judge

00:09:49.760 sentencing two british men in a british court to prison for chopping down a british tree absolutely

00:09:55.700 why is that same legal system political system police system media system so averse to punishment

00:10:03.700 when it's something so much more horrific but if the criminals invoke political correctness if the

00:10:11.260 criminals are foreign and this tree hooray it was beautiful but it was an act of random nature

00:10:18.880 really it became iconic by chance no one no one specifically planted it there that we know of

00:10:24.700 It wasn't like a statue that was created as a significant cultural meme in some way.

00:10:34.160 Because in the United Kingdom, as in the United States and as in Canada, we are tumbling down our planned icons all the time.

00:10:43.380 And we're not doing it at night drunk and recording it on cell phone cameras.

00:10:48.160 We're tumbling down our own icons in the daylight.

00:10:52.400 Here's a statue of Winston Churchill, literally across the street from the UK Parliament buildings, vandalized.

00:10:59.120 Now, at least that was just paint.

00:11:01.920 Here's a statue toppled and thrown in the river, broad daylight.

00:11:06.140 Statues across the UK, Canada, US, toppled, not just by rioters, but often by city councils.

00:11:11.960 They actually melted one down in the UK.

00:11:14.540 in canada a so-called conservative government put a box around the statue of sir john a mcdonald

00:11:21.840 outside the ontario legislature for years they didn't quite have the courage to take it down

00:11:26.660 but neither did they have the courage to leave it up so they put a box around it like a coffin

00:11:31.240 chopped down a tree four years in prison topple a statue of someone from 200 years ago

00:11:37.000 who wasn't politically correct no charges in fact the police will help you 0.96

00:11:40.780 oh and the rape of britain don't talk about that you racist stay with us for more 0.87

00:11:48.820 oh one of the grossest things in regime journalism and there's a lot of gross things 0.85

00:12:02.100 is when journalists suddenly passionately take up the cause of the prime minister or senior

00:12:08.820 cabinet ministers in one of two ways. They often say, oh, we need to have a new corporate jet

00:12:14.860 for our prime minister. The jet that's being used now is not up to snuff. It's outdated. It needs

00:12:21.120 renovation. We need a new jet. And the second thing just revealed is when they say we need a

00:12:27.920 total multimillion dollar, billion dollar renovation of 24 Sussex Drive. Suddenly,

00:12:34.380 these journalists have stopped even the pretense of doing journalism and they become cheerleaders

00:12:40.740 and the whole time it's like they're looking over their shoulder to say hey is the prime minister

00:12:44.620 noticing i hope he's noticing me i hope he's watching me go to bat for him lobbying for a

00:12:50.280 more luxurious plane for himself and a more luxurious home in 24 seconds drive and indeed

00:12:55.900 it has happened not only have we've seen staggering amounts of money spent on airfare

00:13:01.880 But now Mark Carney has announced that there will indeed be a nine-figure renovation of 24 Sussex Drive.

00:13:10.960 Joining us with all the details is our friend Franco Terrizano.

00:13:13.900 He's with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:13:16.180 And I'll tell you one thing.

00:13:17.460 He's not one of the guys cheering for the $100,000 airplane meals or the $100 million renovations.

00:13:25.960 Franco I just get you know there's do you ever notice that when these journalists sort of flip

00:13:31.780 into I'll be your white knight Mark Carney mode you ever see that I think you bring up two very

00:13:39.100 good examples both the airplane food or maybe even some other extravagant international travel

00:13:44.320 or anytime there's a conversation about the official residences okay and look I've been 0.92

00:13:49.320 spending years trying to bust what might be the dumbest myth in all of ottawa that politicians are 0.99

00:13:56.300 too cheap to spend other people's money fixing up their mansions right that is the dumbest piece 0.97

00:14:01.760 of prevailing wisdom in ottawa okay i wish people would actually dive into the numbers and look at 0.93

00:14:07.960 how much money the national capital commission is wasting okay that is the government's you know

00:14:13.820 parks and recs board on steroids okay the ncc spent 135 million bucks maintaining and renovating

00:14:21.440 the official residences over a what 16 year period so they're spending about eight and a

00:14:27.440 half million bucks every year maintaining and renovating these things eight and a half million

00:14:31.600 bucks a year okay you could buy a mansion in ottawa every year and still have money left over

00:14:37.400 and yet for some reason there's this myth that oh the government's too cheap to fix up these

00:14:42.280 mansions give me a break yeah i don't know if you know the number offhand i don't want to put you on

00:14:46.680 the spot but right now they're renovating the center block of parliament that's the pretty uh

00:14:52.380 it's like right on parliament hill it's one with the peace tower everyone knows it and in the

00:14:57.300 meantime the house of commons is sitting in another building what is the rough estimate for

00:15:03.080 the amount of money that's going to be spent renovating that office do you know the number

00:15:07.700 I think it's in the billions, isn't it?

00:15:10.200 Sir, I don't have that number offhand,

00:15:12.100 but what I do know is that the National Capital Commission

00:15:14.820 might be the most incompetent agency in all of Ottawa.

00:15:18.340 And Ezra, that's saying a lot

00:15:19.740 because there is stiff competition in that, okay?

00:15:23.280 Like, look, the NCC is the same agency, okay,

00:15:26.880 that spent 8 million bucks building a barn at Rideau Hall.

00:15:30.840 $8 million on a barn, okay?

00:15:33.240 Spent 140,000 bucks studying and designing

00:15:36.560 a staircase at Rideau Hall that they never built.

00:15:39.840 Ezra, call me crazy, but I think most Canadians spend $0

00:15:42.620 studying a staircase that they never built.

00:15:46.580 The NCC, okay, spent $2.5 million on a backup cottage

00:15:50.800 at Harrington Lake.

00:15:51.900 They spent over $700,000 renovating the kitchen

00:15:56.520 at Harrington Lake.

00:15:58.540 The price of a home.

00:15:59.720 Gold taps or something.

00:16:00.980 You know, I just Googled it while you were talking there.

00:16:03.020 I just typed in cost of parliament reno. 0.78

00:16:05.340 Hold on to your seat, Franco. The National Capital Commission is estimating between four point five and five billion dollars to renovate parliament. Five billion. How are they literally using like stacking hundred dollar bills as bricks or something?

00:16:29.140 So, you know, it reminds me, I mean, whatever people think of Donald Trump, the guy knows how to build things.

00:16:34.060 And one of the, I don't know if you know the story about Trump, but one of the moments that really made him famous was Central Park in New York, which is a lovely park.

00:16:42.060 They couldn't get a skating rink done and they could, you know, no one could do it.

00:16:46.840 And they wanted hundreds of millions of dollars.

00:16:48.420 Trump said, no, you know what?

00:16:49.360 I'll just do it.

00:16:50.460 And in a matter of months, he just, he got his crew in and he just made this skating rink.

00:16:55.540 And it's awesome. And it was quick. And it was like less than one tenth the cost of what he is. He is the ultimate builder and doer. We don't have anyone or anything like that. I mean, I don't know how you spend five billion dollars on parliament. But you say that the National Capital Commission wanted one hundred and seventy five million dollars for major renos in in that same period of time. Is that what you're saying? Do I understand your press release?

00:17:23.860 Ezra, you understand it correctly. And these aren't our numbers. These are numbers right from the NCC. Okay, so after a decade and a half where they spent $135 million, $135 million in 16 years, maintaining and renovating the official residences. Okay, after that, the NCC still cried broke, right? And they wanted like $175 million over 10 years, let me just get these numbers right, to restore all six properties.

00:17:49.180 and then they wanted what 26 million dollars every year ongoing for maintenance okay i don't even get

00:17:56.420 it i don't even they're so out of touch you know um once a year the prime minister invites journalists

00:18:03.060 for a hobnobby kind of cocktails reception and i think that's what this is all about i think when

00:18:09.160 you see journalists out there white knighting as they say for this vast expenditure it's their way

00:18:15.040 of paying back the boss

00:18:16.860 so he'll smile at them

00:18:18.300 because he can't advocate

00:18:20.060 for his own super reno.

00:18:22.180 So it's sort of,

00:18:23.100 here's the deal.

00:18:24.020 It's pretty obvious.

00:18:25.400 Mark Carney will advocate

00:18:26.660 for more money,

00:18:28.340 more media bailouts,

00:18:30.620 and the journalists will advocate

00:18:32.700 for billions of dollars

00:18:35.160 in renos of Parliament

00:18:36.600 and 24 Sussex Drive.

00:18:38.260 That way, neither can be said

00:18:39.780 to be advocating

00:18:43.540 for their own enrichment but they've each got each other's back it is such a a symbiosis as

00:18:50.680 they would say in biology they each require the other to get away with it franco well and ezra

00:18:56.260 you know i don't know much of a louder voice uh outside of the media because the ctf we're not

00:19:00.860 the media but i don't know of a you know a larger group than ours outside of media who's calling for

00:19:06.540 the end of all media subsidies and the defunding of the cbc right they should not get one single

00:19:11.420 sent from canadian taxpayers okay but look this whole housing situation is gross ezra okay you've

00:19:18.700 got bailouts for developers you've got bureaucrats taking bonuses you've got mansions for politicians

00:19:24.720 and what do canadian taxpayers get out of all this the bill that's what we're left with the bill

00:19:30.620 yeah it's crazy and there's just a certain look in the eye of these journalists when they're on

00:19:36.220 this issue where you can see there it's as if they're doing a little story or they're doing

00:19:42.040 a video and then they're going to personally email it to mark carney just to make sure he

00:19:46.540 sees them working for him frank i'm glad you're out there fighting the good fight on behalf of

00:19:51.880 taxpayers keep up keep it up my friend keep in touch hey thank you so much all right there is

00:19:56.720 franco teresano of the canadian taxpayers federation stay with us more ahead

00:20:06.220 hey welcome back your letters to me including about my trip to regina the queen city ron

00:20:15.820 priest says imagine saying you are not welcome in our community that's definitely not a christian

00:20:19.700 attitude that's a muslim attitude it was so weird i was not aggressive or hostile to him he just

00:20:25.920 started out that way to me the funniest part about that is his worst insult he could say about me

00:20:31.780 was that i was scottish or irish first of all how can you say that it's so evident i'm not

00:20:39.180 but second of all that's one of the finest compliments and and you know it's such a nice 0.99

00:20:45.000 thing to say i don't think anyone's ever said such a nice thing to me before what an idiot he was 0.98

00:20:49.880 bacon lover says if that priest was a leader of my church i would be finding a new church these 0.99

00:20:54.540 leaders are weak yeah it i thought about the trip and we were only on the ground for uh it was

00:20:59.820 measured in hours but i thought about a lot on the plane ride home and i think this imam like all

00:21:07.300 imams is evangelical he wants to spread islam everywhere he goes it's sort of his job and i

00:21:12.380 don't think he's shy about it but i think the real enthusiasts the ones who are really weaponizing

00:21:16.980 what he's doing are the liberal white christian institutions that priest across the street the

00:21:23.280 city police the media none of whom are muslim there was that muslim reporter from global news

00:21:28.740 But for them, this is proof to show the world that they're so enlightened. 0.74

00:21:34.500 Make George Orwell Fiction again says, church bells are so light compared to an amplified

00:21:39.240 call to prayer. 0.93

00:21:40.720 If that was their only idea, the first thing is, well, Canada is a Christian country.

00:21:44.480 It just is.

00:21:45.640 And it doesn't, Canada is not an empty or void country.

00:21:49.520 It's Christian.

00:21:50.700 But the second thing is, anyone who says the occasional chime of a bell, which is really

00:21:55.360 more like a clock chime is equivalent to a three minute long muslim prayer haranguing on loud

00:22:03.300 speakers in arabic saying allah is supreme there's no god but allah um yeah no those aren't the same 0.81

00:22:11.200 thing and um i think they know they're doing something that would be wrong legally or politically

00:22:18.220 in the eyes of any other group i was doing some research and saskatchewan schools had the lord's

00:22:24.880 prayer banned in the 90s in fact a judge was called in to sort of arbitrate so they used to

00:22:31.180 say the lord's prayer until the 90s and that was banned you can't say that in the public square

00:22:35.840 but now you've got this islamic call to prayer in the public square really that's sort of the point

00:22:41.220 here isn't it well that's our show for the day until tomorrow on behalf of all of us here at

00:22:47.200 rebel world headquarters to you at home good night and keep fighting for freedom

00:22:51.300 David Menzies for Rebel News here in Markham Ontario and you know folks there's an old saying

00:22:58.920 you can't fight City Hall but Martin Ross standing next to me he's sure gonna try to fight City Hall

00:23:08.180 in fact even though Martin Ross has no political background he is running for mayor of Markham

00:23:16.740 Ontario. And what's that saying from Jaws 4? This time it's personal. You see, Martin Ross

00:23:24.460 endured the city going to war against his beloved backyard hockey rink, a hockey rink that does not

00:23:34.440 exist. So Martin, he's put his name in the hat. He's going to run for mayor of this city. It

00:23:41.980 should prove fascinating now martin to begin with for those who haven't seen our previous reports

00:23:48.300 of your odyssey and trying to save your backyard rink can you briefly recap what the issue was all

00:23:55.700 about well i still don't even know what the issue was about they just came after me and they stuck

00:24:00.460 it in under my heritage easement agreement saying i didn't have permits and whatnot you don't need

00:24:04.240 permits to put in a backyard rink so you're gonna have a few people all he didn't have his permits

00:24:08.060 You don't need permits for a backyard rink.

00:24:10.120 It was approved by the Heritage Department or supported by the Heritage Department,

00:24:13.740 turned down by the Development Services Committee, which is the councillors and the mayor and whatnot.

00:24:18.600 And it was a long legal battle.

00:24:20.760 They probably spent, I'm going to say about $300,000, $400,000 fighting me against taking this rink out in legal fees.

00:24:28.080 I don't have the exact number, but you can get the request from Freedom of Information

00:24:31.600 to force me to take out my backyard rink in my own personal property.

00:24:36.000 I was a pretty nicely done rink. They had nice boards. We had a chiller system and whatnot.

00:24:41.100 It's a company that's called My Backyard Rink that sells these and makes these.

00:24:44.400 And they forced me to take it out. They took me through court.

00:24:47.580 They dragged me through a four-year process that was very stressful on me and my family, me and my kids.

00:24:53.900 I'm a single dad with two kids.

00:24:56.380 And it put us through a lot of stress, a lot of mental anguish.

00:25:00.460 It crippled me financially, and it beat me up.

00:25:04.240 And speaking of six-figure sums, the city really played hardball, Martin.

00:25:09.620 They said, if you don't remove your rink, the original estimate for them to tear down this little backyard rink was, I believe, half a million dollars.

00:25:19.020 It was later reduced to, I think, $350,000.

00:25:22.360 How did they come up with a number like that?

00:25:24.180 I don't know.

00:25:24.720 They don't show me a breakdown.

00:25:25.940 They just sent me a letter.

00:25:27.020 Graham Seaman, as you said on one of your earlier episodes, they just sent me a letter saying we're going to charge you $350,000 to remove it.

00:25:33.820 no breakdown of how they get to that number. But that was far more than what it cost to put the

00:25:37.940 rink up. Yes, yes, most definitely. So they were ready. They were ready to go. They sent their

00:25:42.160 lawyers, sent a letter saying, we're coming tomorrow to start taking it down. Now we have

00:25:46.720 to talk about the unspoken backstory here. It was political and it was favoritism. And by that,

00:25:53.440 I mean your local counselor, Reed McAlpine, he was leading the charge and your next door

00:26:02.860 neighbors, the Gagnons, and this is where it gets interesting. They were allegedly the biggest

00:26:09.960 complainers about your backyard hockey rink. But as I remember, Martin, they had an addition put

00:26:17.400 on their heritage house. They had a guest house built. It dwarfed your rink, but that was okay

00:26:24.500 somehow. And yet your rink wasn't. And then we find out that the Gagnons are allegedly financial

00:26:31.880 supporters, donors of Mr. McAlpine. Do I have that right? You have that 100% right. And this is

00:26:38.060 one of the things that I kind of want to battle when I'm running for mayor of Markham here. I want

00:26:43.240 accountability. I want transparency. And, you know, what's right for one should be right for

00:26:47.840 the other. It shouldn't be a pick and choose what works for one, what works for the other.

00:26:51.760 And Reid McAlpine, who I understand is no longer running, he was behind this and a strong supporter

00:26:57.460 behind this of me taking my rink out. And, you know, he had said to me at one point, I'm a

00:27:01.560 politician, Martin, their votes count as eight, your votes count as one. Regardless of what is

00:27:06.080 right or wrong, he was after the votes. And we brought that up in court and it was never

00:27:10.460 challenged by the city in court. It's amazing. So just eight votes, a seven vote spread was enough

00:27:17.520 to move the day on this. Now, Martin, what do you hope to accomplish running for mayor? Mayor

00:27:26.000 Scarpetti. He is the incumbent. That gives them an automatic advantage. I guess what I'm saying

00:27:32.600 is, do you have a chance here? Well, you know, like they said in Dumb and Dumber, you're saying

00:27:37.680 there's a chance, right? So, I mean, I wouldn't enter it if it wasn't there's a chance. Do I have

00:27:42.460 an uphill battle? I absolutely have an uphill battle. But you know what? I'd like the citizens

00:27:48.160 of Markham to kind of understand that so far in the past, you know, I don't even know how many

00:27:53.600 years it goes back we've all voted for professional politicians I'm a regular guy I'm an average Joe

00:28:00.080 um every time you voted for one of those regular professional politicians you've ended up

00:28:06.180 disappointed try something different for once go a different direction and go with

00:28:10.540 one of you now part of the game in politics Martin of course is money

00:28:15.140 what kind of a war chest do you have in terms of signage uh pamphlets and so forth and so on

00:28:23.580 I have zero war chest because all my money was put into fighting City Hall.

00:28:28.080 So, you know, my war chest is going to be my feet and going door to door

00:28:31.720 and meeting with people and talking to people and just being honest with them.

00:28:35.880 As I mentioned, we want transparency and accountability.

00:28:40.400 And what happened with my rink, I could have sat here and complained about it,

00:28:45.380 bitched about it, moaned about it, been depressed about it.

00:28:48.080 My rink is over and done with.

00:28:49.540 That situation is gone.

00:28:50.660 But I want to make sure bullying like this does never happen to another citizen here in the city of Markham again.

00:28:58.240 And what's happened to me here is just a symptom of what's probably really going on at City Hall.

00:29:05.220 As you know, many politicians, even inside of here, are very close with many developers.

00:29:11.160 That's why their former planning commissioner is now under investigation for bribery and fraud.

00:29:16.940 i can't make this stuff up it's in writing that he's under investigation he's left his he left

00:29:22.600 here once those charges uh came to fruition he went to hamilton he's now had to step away from

00:29:28.260 his job at the city of hamilton under these investigations wow and i mean imagine if the

00:29:33.880 improbable does happen and you win i understand being the mayor of markham it's a really high

00:29:39.720 paying gig isn't it yeah you know that you bring that up i mean and the numbers are a little bit

00:29:45.700 they go back and forth. But yeah, he is one of, if not the highest paid mayor in North America,

00:29:52.140 definitely in Canada. He goes back and forth with your mayor, the mayor of Richmond Hill.

00:29:56.240 The two of them are kind of like a one-two punch, but definitely one of the highest paid

00:29:59.720 mayors in North America. Wow. Incredible. Now I have to point out, Martin, we're just across

00:30:06.340 the street from City Hall. And what is, I think, perversely ironic, right behind us are pickleball

00:30:15.160 courts i think pickleball that's the name of the sport for those who are unable to play tennis

00:30:19.820 anyway and further down there are some beach volleyball courts erected on the property and

00:30:26.980 i personally don't have a problem with that it's great to have people come out and get active but

00:30:32.260 the thing is why is it okay for the city in its parking lot to have pickleball courts volleyball

00:30:38.520 courts and it was totally unacceptable for you to have a backyard hockey rink on your own private

00:30:45.540 property. Well you know these are questions that you know were never answered and I don't even know

00:30:50.400 if you call that a pickleball court because it seems to be made up with construction fencing or

00:30:56.080 I don't even and maybe they use some hockey tape to make the lines they maybe got the netting off

00:31:00.920 of Amazon I mean the city of Markham they're putting up pickleball courts they need to do

00:31:04.520 better they need to do a better job and I'm all for pickleball courts I'm all for beach volleyball

00:31:08.040 courts any anything that gets people outside get them active i'm all for it which is why i was all

00:31:13.080 for my rink and you know it's as you mentioned city hall can have this right in their parking

00:31:18.040 lot right across from all these residents right here but for me to have a rink for kids in the

00:31:22.180 backyard unacceptable and this is where the accountability and the transparency comes in

00:31:27.440 yeah that's my issue too martin not the embracing of sports but the double standard when it came to

00:31:34.180 you and your hockey rink well martin um i'm gonna wish you good luck i think you're gonna need it

00:31:39.920 the you know this is truly a david versus goliath's story um i guess we should end it with this give us

00:31:47.240 your 30 second elevator pitch when you start going door to door and you have a half minute

00:31:52.460 of a person's time why should i vote for martin ross to be the next mayor of markham ontario

00:31:59.960 You know, I mentioned the first part is that I'm not your professional politician.

00:32:04.640 I'm a regular guy, just like everybody else that'll be doing the voting.

00:32:07.420 I'm a regular Joe, just like everybody else will be doing the voting.

00:32:10.000 And you've failed with the regular politicians time and time and time and time again.

00:32:15.600 It's about time that you try something new.

00:32:19.160 You know, I want to be here for the citizens.

00:32:21.760 And I know you've heard politicians say that before, but I think the current people in power over here in Markham,

00:32:27.060 because they've been here for so long have forgot that you know we work for them they don't the

00:32:32.000 city does the citizens of the city don't work for us we work for them I want to be there for them

00:32:36.700 I want to be there to represent them I want to make Markham a city that we put on the map here

00:32:42.880 and I feel that there's a lot of areas where you know we have failed the city of Markham we have

00:32:49.620 failed the citizens of Markham and I want to try and you know turn Markham around

00:32:57.060 You

Rebel News Podcast - June 30, 2026

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Sycamore Gap Tree case lays bare Britain’s two-tier justice system

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