Rebel News Podcast - June 30, 2026


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

Topics
backyard rink legal battle
Mentioned
Martin Ross Mark Carney Franco Teresano Ezra Markham Ontario Reed McAlpine Gagnons Pogue Make George Orwell Fiction My Backyard Rink John A. Macdonald Chris Lambie Kevin Costner David Menzies Graham Seaman Donald Trump Iron Priest Scarpetti Dumber
DAVID MENZIES ｜ Carney says he's tough on crime — but then there's Medhani Yohans EZRA LEVANT ｜ Rebel News on track for one billion views as independent media surges

Episode Stats


Length

32 minutes

Words per minute

169.66

Word count

5,596

Sentence count

212

Harmful content

Toxicity

13

sentences flagged

Hate speech

8

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Two men chopped down one of the most beautiful trees in their community. Should it be a prison term? We'll talk about it, and compare the sentence they got to the prison terms of people who actually commit rape in their communities.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00 Hello, my friends. How much should you get in prison for chopping down one of the most beautiful
00:00:06 trees in your community? Should it be a prison term? We'll talk about it. We'll compare the
00:00:12 prison term that two men got to the prison terms of people who actually commit rape in their
00:00:18 community. Sorry to be so heavy, but that's the comparison I make. But first, let me invite you
00:00:23 to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. You know why? Because I want to show you the tree.
00:00:27 I want to show you the very special tree in question, sort of a famous tree, and two guys
00:00:32 chopped it down.
00:00:34 So I want you to see it, not just hear me talk about it.
00:00:36 Go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe, and it's eight bucks a month, which might
00:00:42 not sound like a lot to you, but that sure adds up for us, and we need the money because
00:00:46 we don't take any money from the government, and it shows.
00:00:57 tonight why did a british court care more about a tree than about people
00:01:10 it's june 30th and this is the ezra levant show
00:01:13 shame on you you sensorism bug
00:01:27 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 right alongside an ancient wall called Hadrian's Wall. Maybe you've heard of it. It was built by
00:01:42 the Romans when they ruled Britannia. The tree is beautiful. So interesting. So much so that
00:01:51 they gave it the name, the Sycamore Gap Tree, and it was made famous in countless photographs
00:01:55 became a destination kind of place people would go to for wedding photos or even to actually get
00:02:03 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 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 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 chopped down by a couple of malicious fools more than that criminals they were uh here it is days 0.95
00:02:32 after being chopped down so outrageous uh the two men who did it filmed themselves chopping it down 0.99
00:02:40 on their cell phone it was at night this is an enhanced version of that phone call
00:02:45 you see the outline of a person here a chainsaw and then the tree topples
00:02:51 that act was carried out by two men daniel graham and adam carobas incredibly they were
00:03:03 tree surgeons for a living they they cut down trees is what they did but this they did as a
00:03:08 lark as a as a prank as a horrible act of vandalism as a crime and in the days that followed
00:03:15 they delighted in what they did they bantered back and forth with each other so excited about
00:03:21 the news coverage their crime received, national news, even international news. Maybe you heard
00:03:26 about it. A teenager was briefly wrongfully accused of doing it. It was a scandal. And
00:03:32 then they were caught. Now, all this happened three years ago, actually. I came across it
00:03:38 again today because, and this is so infuriating, someone stole a sapling that had been planted
00:03:46 from the original tree after it was cut down. Here's the headline today, sycamore gap sapling
00:03:52 stolen from castle grounds. Happened just today. Quote, one of the saplings grown from the felled
00:04:00 sycamore gap tree has been stolen from a castle's grounds. The young tree, which was believed to
00:04:05 have been stolen earlier this month, was planted at Ray Castle near Ambleside, Cumbria in April of
00:04:11 2026 it was one of 49 grown from seeds taken from the tree which was illegally felled in september
00:04:19 2023 the national trust runs the estate and general manager laura lee said the tree's loss
00:04:25 would be deeply felt adding that tree belongs to everyone so i saw that story and i refreshed my
00:04:33 memory about the original attack on the tree which i had just seen in passing now these two men who
00:04:39 did it sound like awful people but i'm going to point out a couple of things that are maybe sort
00:04:44 of obvious um the two criminals are are white they're they're indigenous brits they're the
00:04:50 british ethnicity it's a white part of the world up there in the countryside in northern england
00:04:56 so the judge was white british everyone in this story is british there were no migrants no
00:05:04 Pakistani nationals. It was Britain as it used to be a century ago. And on trial were feelings
00:05:13 about Britain and the countryside and nature and history and community and symbols. So it was a
00:05:20 very British trial, wasn't it? Here, let me play a few clips for you from the judge, Justice
00:05:25 Christina Lambert. Here she is talking about the aesthetic value, the poetic value of that tree to
00:05:33 britain listen to her describe it as she is about to give these men their sentence for those who
00:05:39 live in northumberland or who love this county the tree had become a landmark a symbol of the
00:05:46 beauty of its untamed landscape featuring prominently in local art and local tourism
00:05:52 for others the tree had become a place of special personal significance where marriages were
00:06:00 proposed and personal tributes to loved ones were left. It was as Mr Pogue observes a place of peace
00:06:08 and tranquillity to which people returned year after year but the public reaction has extended
00:06:15 far beyond those who had visited the tree or for whom it had a personal resonance. Mr Pogue describes
00:06:22 the outpouring of emotion as unprecedented in the experience of the National Trust. He describes the
00:06:29 sense of loss and confusion across the world when the news broke that a thing of natural beauty
00:06:35 had been destroyed and a mindless act of vandalism. She talked about how the men had no excuse, how
00:06:41 they reveled in their crime, how it was planned, how their excuses about being drunk didn't wash,
00:06:46 given their joy in the project days later. She talked about the cost of the crime financially.
00:06:50 It was almost a million dollars Canadian when all was said and done. And in the end, she talked
00:06:55 about the prison sentence for the men more than four years each. Following the guidelines the
00:07:01 first step that I must take is to identify the offence category. It is common ground between
00:07:07 your barristers and the crown that the offence in count one falls into the highest categories for
00:07:13 both culpability and harm. It falls into the highest culpability category for two reasons.
00:07:20 First because the decision to fell the tree involved a high degree of planning
00:07:24 and premeditation. And second, because you intended to destroy the tree and thus intended
00:07:30 to cause very serious damage to property. It falls into the highest harm category because
00:07:37 of the social impact of the offense, causing serious distress to many people. This yields
00:07:44 a sentence range of six months to four years custody with a starting point of one and a
00:07:50 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 from there i've never seen this tree apparently it was in the movie robin hood with kevin costner
00:08:02 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 the infidel it seems safer to appear as your slave rather than your equal you know for an 0.84
00:08:16 infidel you have uncommon clarity of thinking that you tell me nothing of yourself for instance 0.96
00:08:21 your name azim what does it mean it means great one great one really did you give yourself this
00:08:27 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 that that was no movie set that's not some studio lot in anaheim that's england itself or what it
00:08:50 once was and here's my point a four-year sentence in prison for chopping down a tree a beautiful
00:08:57 tree a meaningful tree but it was just a tree i agree with that sentence but it wasn't murder
00:09:05 and it wasn't rape it wasn't the systematic rape of girls night after night by migrant
00:09:12 rape gangs like the 1400 girls raped in that one northern city of rotherham i've been following
00:09:19 those rape gang cases ever since i first heard about them through tommy robinson more than a
00:09:24 decade ago a typical rape gang rapist in the uk by my anecdotal observation gets around six years
00:09:31 in prison that's their sentence of course they're out much earlier than that sometimes their
00:09:36 sentences or less for raping and torturing and degrading actual women actual young girls
00:09:43 repeatedly over years and i think that's my point i agree with the british judge
00:09:49 sentencing two british men in a british court to prison for chopping down a british tree absolutely
00:09:55 why is that same legal system political system police system media system so averse to punishment
00:10:03 when it's something so much more horrific but if the criminals invoke political correctness if the
00:10:11 criminals are foreign and this tree hooray it was beautiful but it was an act of random nature
00:10:18 really it became iconic by chance no one no one specifically planted it there that we know of
00:10:24 It wasn't like a statue that was created as a significant cultural meme in some way.
00:10:34 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 And we're not doing it at night drunk and recording it on cell phone cameras.
00:10:48 We're tumbling down our own icons in the daylight.
00:10:52 Here's a statue of Winston Churchill, literally across the street from the UK Parliament buildings, vandalized.
00:10:59 Now, at least that was just paint.
00:11:01 Here's a statue toppled and thrown in the river, broad daylight.
00:11:06 Statues across the UK, Canada, US, toppled, not just by rioters, but often by city councils.
00:11:11 They actually melted one down in the UK.
00:11:14 in canada a so-called conservative government put a box around the statue of sir john a mcdonald
00:11:21 outside the ontario legislature for years they didn't quite have the courage to take it down
00:11:26 but neither did they have the courage to leave it up so they put a box around it like a coffin
00:11:31 chopped down a tree four years in prison topple a statue of someone from 200 years ago
00:11:37 who wasn't politically correct no charges in fact the police will help you 0.96
00:11:40 oh and the rape of britain don't talk about that you racist stay with us for more 0.87
00:11:48 oh one of the grossest things in regime journalism and there's a lot of gross things 0.85
00:12:02 is when journalists suddenly passionately take up the cause of the prime minister or senior
00:12:08 cabinet ministers in one of two ways. They often say, oh, we need to have a new corporate jet
00:12:14 for our prime minister. The jet that's being used now is not up to snuff. It's outdated. It needs
00:12:21 renovation. We need a new jet. And the second thing just revealed is when they say we need a
00:12:27 total multimillion dollar, billion dollar renovation of 24 Sussex Drive. Suddenly,
00:12:34 these journalists have stopped even the pretense of doing journalism and they become cheerleaders
00:12:40 and the whole time it's like they're looking over their shoulder to say hey is the prime minister
00:12:44 noticing i hope he's noticing me i hope he's watching me go to bat for him lobbying for a
00:12:50 more luxurious plane for himself and a more luxurious home in 24 seconds drive and indeed
00:12:55 it has happened not only have we've seen staggering amounts of money spent on airfare
00:13:01 But now Mark Carney has announced that there will indeed be a nine-figure renovation of 24 Sussex Drive.
00:13:10 Joining us with all the details is our friend Franco Terrizano.
00:13:13 He's with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
00:13:16 And I'll tell you one thing.
00:13:17 He's not one of the guys cheering for the $100,000 airplane meals or the $100 million renovations.
00:13:25 Franco I just get you know there's do you ever notice that when these journalists sort of flip
00:13:31 into I'll be your white knight Mark Carney mode you ever see that I think you bring up two very
00:13:39 good examples both the airplane food or maybe even some other extravagant international travel
00:13:44 or anytime there's a conversation about the official residences okay and look I've been 0.92
00:13:49 spending years trying to bust what might be the dumbest myth in all of ottawa that politicians are 0.99
00:13:56 too cheap to spend other people's money fixing up their mansions right that is the dumbest piece 0.97
00:14:01 of prevailing wisdom in ottawa okay i wish people would actually dive into the numbers and look at 0.93
00:14:07 how much money the national capital commission is wasting okay that is the government's you know
00:14:13 parks and recs board on steroids okay the ncc spent 135 million bucks maintaining and renovating
00:14:21 the official residences over a what 16 year period so they're spending about eight and a
00:14:27 half million bucks every year maintaining and renovating these things eight and a half million
00:14:31 bucks a year okay you could buy a mansion in ottawa every year and still have money left over
00:14:37 and yet for some reason there's this myth that oh the government's too cheap to fix up these
00:14:42 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 the spot but right now they're renovating the center block of parliament that's the pretty uh
00:14:52 it's like right on parliament hill it's one with the peace tower everyone knows it and in the
00:14:57 meantime the house of commons is sitting in another building what is the rough estimate for
00:15:03 the amount of money that's going to be spent renovating that office do you know the number
00:15:07 I think it's in the billions, isn't it?
00:15:10 Sir, I don't have that number offhand,
00:15:12 but what I do know is that the National Capital Commission
00:15:14 might be the most incompetent agency in all of Ottawa.
00:15:18 And Ezra, that's saying a lot
00:15:19 because there is stiff competition in that, okay?
00:15:23 Like, look, the NCC is the same agency, okay,
00:15:26 that spent 8 million bucks building a barn at Rideau Hall.
00:15:30 $8 million on a barn, okay?
00:15:33 Spent 140,000 bucks studying and designing
00:15:36 a staircase at Rideau Hall that they never built.
00:15:39 Ezra, call me crazy, but I think most Canadians spend $0
00:15:42 studying a staircase that they never built.
00:15:46 The NCC, okay, spent $2.5 million on a backup cottage
00:15:50 at Harrington Lake.
00:15:51 They spent over $700,000 renovating the kitchen
00:15:56 at Harrington Lake.
00:15:58 The price of a home.
00:15:59 Gold taps or something.
00:16:00 You know, I just Googled it while you were talking there.
00:16:03 I just typed in cost of parliament reno. 0.78
00:16:05 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 So, you know, it reminds me, I mean, whatever people think of Donald Trump, the guy knows how to build things.
00:16:34 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 They couldn't get a skating rink done and they could, you know, no one could do it.
00:16:46 And they wanted hundreds of millions of dollars.
00:16:48 Trump said, no, you know what?
00:16:49 I'll just do it.
00:16:50 And in a matter of months, he just, he got his crew in and he just made this skating rink.
00:16:55 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 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 and then they wanted what 26 million dollars every year ongoing for maintenance okay i don't even get
00:17:56 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 for a hobnobby kind of cocktails reception and i think that's what this is all about i think when
00:18:09 you see journalists out there white knighting as they say for this vast expenditure it's their way
00:18:15 of paying back the boss
00:18:16 so he'll smile at them
00:18:18 because he can't advocate
00:18:20 for his own super reno.
00:18:22 So it's sort of,
00:18:23 here's the deal.
00:18:24 It's pretty obvious.
00:18:25 Mark Carney will advocate
00:18:26 for more money,
00:18:28 more media bailouts,
00:18:30 and the journalists will advocate
00:18:32 for billions of dollars
00:18:35 in renos of Parliament
00:18:36 and 24 Sussex Drive.
00:18:38 That way, neither can be said
00:18:39 to be advocating
00:18:43 for their own enrichment but they've each got each other's back it is such a a symbiosis as
00:18:50 they would say in biology they each require the other to get away with it franco well and ezra
00:18:56 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 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 the end of all media subsidies and the defunding of the cbc right they should not get one single
00:19:11 sent from canadian taxpayers okay but look this whole housing situation is gross ezra okay you've
00:19:18 got bailouts for developers you've got bureaucrats taking bonuses you've got mansions for politicians
00:19:24 and what do canadian taxpayers get out of all this the bill that's what we're left with the bill
00:19:30 yeah it's crazy and there's just a certain look in the eye of these journalists when they're on
00:19:36 this issue where you can see there it's as if they're doing a little story or they're doing
00:19:42 a video and then they're going to personally email it to mark carney just to make sure he
00:19:46 sees them working for him frank i'm glad you're out there fighting the good fight on behalf of
00:19:51 taxpayers keep up keep it up my friend keep in touch hey thank you so much all right there is
00:19:56 franco teresano of the canadian taxpayers federation stay with us more ahead
00:20:06 hey welcome back your letters to me including about my trip to regina the queen city ron
00:20:15 priest says imagine saying you are not welcome in our community that's definitely not a christian
00:20:19 attitude that's a muslim attitude it was so weird i was not aggressive or hostile to him he just
00:20:25 started out that way to me the funniest part about that is his worst insult he could say about me
00:20:31 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 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 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 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 leaders are weak yeah it i thought about the trip and we were only on the ground for uh it was
00:20:59 measured in hours but i thought about a lot on the plane ride home and i think this imam like all
00:21:07 imams is evangelical he wants to spread islam everywhere he goes it's sort of his job and i
00:21:12 don't think he's shy about it but i think the real enthusiasts the ones who are really weaponizing
00:21:16 what he's doing are the liberal white christian institutions that priest across the street the
00:21:23 city police the media none of whom are muslim there was that muslim reporter from global news
00:21:28 But for them, this is proof to show the world that they're so enlightened. 0.74
00:21:34 Make George Orwell Fiction again says, church bells are so light compared to an amplified
00:21:39 call to prayer. 0.93
00:21:40 If that was their only idea, the first thing is, well, Canada is a Christian country.
00:21:44 It just is.
00:21:45 And it doesn't, Canada is not an empty or void country.
00:21:49 It's Christian.
00:21:50 But the second thing is, anyone who says the occasional chime of a bell, which is really
00:21:55 more like a clock chime is equivalent to a three minute long muslim prayer haranguing on loud
00:22:03 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 thing and um i think they know they're doing something that would be wrong legally or politically
00:22:18 in the eyes of any other group i was doing some research and saskatchewan schools had the lord's
00:22:24 prayer banned in the 90s in fact a judge was called in to sort of arbitrate so they used to
00:22:31 say the lord's prayer until the 90s and that was banned you can't say that in the public square
00:22:35 but now you've got this islamic call to prayer in the public square really that's sort of the point
00:22:41 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 rebel world headquarters to you at home good night and keep fighting for freedom
00:22:51 David Menzies for Rebel News here in Markham Ontario and you know folks there's an old saying
00:22:58 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 in fact even though Martin Ross has no political background he is running for mayor of Markham
00:23:16 Ontario. And what's that saying from Jaws 4? This time it's personal. You see, Martin Ross
00:23:24 endured the city going to war against his beloved backyard hockey rink, a hockey rink that does not
00:23:34 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 should prove fascinating now martin to begin with for those who haven't seen our previous reports
00:23:48 of your odyssey and trying to save your backyard rink can you briefly recap what the issue was all
00:23:55 about well i still don't even know what the issue was about they just came after me and they stuck
00:24:00 it in under my heritage easement agreement saying i didn't have permits and whatnot you don't need
00:24:04 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 You don't need permits for a backyard rink.
00:24:10 It was approved by the Heritage Department or supported by the Heritage Department,
00:24:13 turned down by the Development Services Committee, which is the councillors and the mayor and whatnot.
00:24:18 And it was a long legal battle.
00:24:20 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 I don't have the exact number, but you can get the request from Freedom of Information
00:24:31 to force me to take out my backyard rink in my own personal property.
00:24:36 I was a pretty nicely done rink. They had nice boards. We had a chiller system and whatnot.
00:24:41 It's a company that's called My Backyard Rink that sells these and makes these.
00:24:44 And they forced me to take it out. They took me through court.
00:24:47 They dragged me through a four-year process that was very stressful on me and my family, me and my kids.
00:24:53 I'm a single dad with two kids.
00:24:56 And it put us through a lot of stress, a lot of mental anguish.
00:25:00 It crippled me financially, and it beat me up.
00:25:04 And speaking of six-figure sums, the city really played hardball, Martin.
00:25:09 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 It was later reduced to, I think, $350,000.
00:25:22 How did they come up with a number like that?
00:25:24 I don't know.
00:25:24 They don't show me a breakdown.
00:25:25 They just sent me a letter.
00:25:27 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 no breakdown of how they get to that number. But that was far more than what it cost to put the
00:25:37 rink up. Yes, yes, most definitely. So they were ready. They were ready to go. They sent their
00:25:42 lawyers, sent a letter saying, we're coming tomorrow to start taking it down. Now we have
00:25:46 to talk about the unspoken backstory here. It was political and it was favoritism. And by that,
00:25:53 I mean your local counselor, Reed McAlpine, he was leading the charge and your next door
00:26:02 neighbors, the Gagnons, and this is where it gets interesting. They were allegedly the biggest
00:26:09 complainers about your backyard hockey rink. But as I remember, Martin, they had an addition put
00:26:17 on their heritage house. They had a guest house built. It dwarfed your rink, but that was okay
00:26:24 somehow. And yet your rink wasn't. And then we find out that the Gagnons are allegedly financial
00:26:31 supporters, donors of Mr. McAlpine. Do I have that right? You have that 100% right. And this is
00:26:38 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 accountability. I want transparency. And, you know, what's right for one should be right for
00:26:47 the other. It shouldn't be a pick and choose what works for one, what works for the other.
00:26:51 And Reid McAlpine, who I understand is no longer running, he was behind this and a strong supporter
00:26:57 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 politician, Martin, their votes count as eight, your votes count as one. Regardless of what is
00:27:06 right or wrong, he was after the votes. And we brought that up in court and it was never
00:27:10 challenged by the city in court. It's amazing. So just eight votes, a seven vote spread was enough
00:27:17 to move the day on this. Now, Martin, what do you hope to accomplish running for mayor? Mayor
00:27:26 Scarpetti. He is the incumbent. That gives them an automatic advantage. I guess what I'm saying
00:27:32 is, do you have a chance here? Well, you know, like they said in Dumb and Dumber, you're saying
00:27:37 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 an uphill battle? I absolutely have an uphill battle. But you know what? I'd like the citizens
00:27:48 of Markham to kind of understand that so far in the past, you know, I don't even know how many
00:27:53 years it goes back we've all voted for professional politicians I'm a regular guy I'm an average Joe
00:28:00 um every time you voted for one of those regular professional politicians you've ended up
00:28:06 disappointed try something different for once go a different direction and go with
00:28:10 one of you now part of the game in politics Martin of course is money
00:28:15 what kind of a war chest do you have in terms of signage uh pamphlets and so forth and so on
00:28:23 I have zero war chest because all my money was put into fighting City Hall.
00:28:28 So, you know, my war chest is going to be my feet and going door to door
00:28:31 and meeting with people and talking to people and just being honest with them.
00:28:35 As I mentioned, we want transparency and accountability.
00:28:40 And what happened with my rink, I could have sat here and complained about it,
00:28:45 bitched about it, moaned about it, been depressed about it.
00:28:48 My rink is over and done with.
00:28:49 That situation is gone.
00:28:50 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 And what's happened to me here is just a symptom of what's probably really going on at City Hall.
00:29:05 As you know, many politicians, even inside of here, are very close with many developers.
00:29:11 That's why their former planning commissioner is now under investigation for bribery and fraud.
00:29:16 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 here once those charges uh came to fruition he went to hamilton he's now had to step away from
00:29:28 his job at the city of hamilton under these investigations wow and i mean imagine if the
00:29:33 improbable does happen and you win i understand being the mayor of markham it's a really high
00:29:39 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 they go back and forth. But yeah, he is one of, if not the highest paid mayor in North America,
00:29:52 definitely in Canada. He goes back and forth with your mayor, the mayor of Richmond Hill.
00:29:56 The two of them are kind of like a one-two punch, but definitely one of the highest paid
00:29:59 mayors in North America. Wow. Incredible. Now I have to point out, Martin, we're just across
00:30:06 the street from City Hall. And what is, I think, perversely ironic, right behind us are pickleball
00:30:15 courts i think pickleball that's the name of the sport for those who are unable to play tennis
00:30:19 anyway and further down there are some beach volleyball courts erected on the property and
00:30:26 i personally don't have a problem with that it's great to have people come out and get active but
00:30:32 the thing is why is it okay for the city in its parking lot to have pickleball courts volleyball
00:30:38 courts and it was totally unacceptable for you to have a backyard hockey rink on your own private
00:30:45 property. Well you know these are questions that you know were never answered and I don't even know
00:30:50 if you call that a pickleball court because it seems to be made up with construction fencing or
00:30:56 I don't even and maybe they use some hockey tape to make the lines they maybe got the netting off
00:31:00 of Amazon I mean the city of Markham they're putting up pickleball courts they need to do
00:31:04 better they need to do a better job and I'm all for pickleball courts I'm all for beach volleyball
00:31:08 courts any anything that gets people outside get them active i'm all for it which is why i was all
00:31:13 for my rink and you know it's as you mentioned city hall can have this right in their parking
00:31:18 lot right across from all these residents right here but for me to have a rink for kids in the
00:31:22 backyard unacceptable and this is where the accountability and the transparency comes in
00:31:27 yeah that's my issue too martin not the embracing of sports but the double standard when it came to
00:31:34 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 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 your 30 second elevator pitch when you start going door to door and you have a half minute
00:31:52 of a person's time why should i vote for martin ross to be the next mayor of markham ontario
00:31:59 You know, I mentioned the first part is that I'm not your professional politician.
00:32:04 I'm a regular guy, just like everybody else that'll be doing the voting.
00:32:07 I'm a regular Joe, just like everybody else will be doing the voting.
00:32:10 And you've failed with the regular politicians time and time and time and time again.
00:32:15 It's about time that you try something new.
00:32:19 You know, I want to be here for the citizens.
00:32:21 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 because they've been here for so long have forgot that you know we work for them they don't the
00:32:32 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 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 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 failed the citizens of Markham and I want to try and you know turn Markham around
00:32:57 You