Rebel News Podcast - June 06, 2023


EZRA LEVANT ｜ The federal government published a lie about the truckers and the regime media just ran with it


Episode Stats


Length

38 minutes

Words per minute

165.4601

Word count

6,430

Sentence count

533

Harmful content

Misogyny

17

sentences flagged

Hate speech

9

sentences flagged


Summary

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

An official lie spread by the government about the Freedom Truckers. Well, blow me over. I'll take you through that. And we'll also have a great chat with our friend Sheila Gunn-Reed, coming up.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. A great story in BlackLocks.ca today. As you know, they're one of the few
00:00:04.420 independent media groups out there, along with us and True North and Western Standard. And
00:00:08.600 I subscribe to them. I really appreciate their work. And boy, they got a doozy. An official
00:00:13.320 lie, official misinformation spread by the government about the truckers. Well, blow me
00:00:19.040 over. I'll take you through that. And we'll also have a great chat with our friend Sheila Gunn-Reed
00:00:22.920 that's coming up. But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus.
00:00:26.160 It's the video version of this podcast. The reason I'd like to encourage you to do so is
00:00:30.880 because it's eight bucks a month, which is pretty cheap, if I may say, compared to other
00:00:35.340 subscriptions. But, you know, it really adds up for us. And that's how we pay our bills,
00:00:39.660 because we do not take money from Trudeau. And it shows. Just go to rebelnewsplus.com.
00:00:46.000 All right, here's today's show.
00:00:56.160 Tonight, the federal government published a lie about the truckers, and the regime media just
00:01:08.360 ran with it. It's June 6, and this is The Ezra LeVant Show.
00:01:11.720 You're fighting for freedom. Shame on you, you censorious bug.
00:01:26.160 It's June 6, and before we go on, we have to remember what that day means. It's the anniversary
00:01:31.300 of D-Day, the greatest invasion in history, when the Allies attacked the beaches of Normandy,
00:01:38.000 France, sailing across the English Channel. It was the beginning of the end for the European 0.83
00:01:43.400 front of the Second World War. It soon became a race who would go faster, who would reclaim 0.98
00:01:50.140 territory faster, the democratic allies coming from Normandy, Canada, the United States, the UK,
00:01:58.480 or the Red Army. Stalin's troops crushing in from the east. It became very important, because 0.98
00:02:06.000 where the two armies stopped is where the battle lines for the Cold War would end. But I think back
00:02:11.600 to the D-Day landings, and how they were young men, much younger than me, some of them teenagers,
00:02:17.000 of course, willing to sail onto a beach under machine gun and heavier fire than that to attack
00:02:23.400 and liberate countries. And I ask, how would they look at us today? The enormous sacrifices they made,
00:02:30.280 the price that they paid, the freedoms they fought for, what would they say to us if they could see
00:02:35.420 us now? I don't know if there's any veterans from that who are still alive. I doubt it. They'd be
00:02:41.780 over 100. I wonder what they would make of us. That's June 6th. Let me tell you a story that ran
00:02:49.680 today in June 6th. I saw it in Black Locks, which is one of the very few independent news outlets in
00:02:56.280 Canada. Like us, they take no government money. This is the headline. It caught my eye.
00:03:01.680 Government faked security bulletin. The Department of Public Safety issued a false security bulletin
00:03:09.780 claiming it had confirmation. Freedom Convoy protesters ransacked federal office buildings.
00:03:18.720 Access to information records show, the story goes on, the operations center on the first day of
00:03:23.900 Freedom Convoy protests outside Parliament Hill on January 28, 2022, issued the security bulletin
00:03:33.120 at 3.54 p.m. Eastern. We have received confirmation that protesters have started to enter office
00:03:40.460 buildings in the Ottawa downtown core and are allegedly causing damage, said the bulletin.
00:03:45.180 As a result, Minto Place is going into WeCound lockdown mode. All entrance doors will be locked,
00:03:51.520 effective immediately. Oh, wow. So they've certainly taken that report seriously.
00:03:54.900 But here's how Black Locks explains it. There was no incident involving protesters in office
00:04:01.920 buildings. The Public Safety Department yesterday would not account for the source of the disinformation.
00:04:08.720 So Black Locks actually called up public safety and they refused to say who made it up.
00:04:13.420 Departmental records earlier released through the Public Order Emergency Commission
00:04:16.940 disclosed that staff sought to discredit protesters as violent, even if allegations were untrue.
00:04:22.840 Quote, some of their more extreme comments, i.e. calling for a January 6th-style insurrection,
00:04:28.520 are getting more coverage in the media, staff wrote in a January 24, 2022 text.
00:04:34.520 There could be an opportunity to get in on this growing narrative of the truckers.
00:04:39.340 To get in on it, eh? So it's not about the truth. Let's get this narrative going.
00:04:43.560 It goes on. Let me show you that memo. I got a copy of this Black Locks Access to Information
00:04:50.200 for questions. It's their research, but I was so interested in it. I took a look at the document
00:04:54.400 myself. Look at document number 137. This is the memo that was circulated. Update. We have received
00:05:01.400 confirmation that protesters have started to enter our office buildings in the Ottawa downtown core
00:05:06.780 and are allegedly causing damage. As a result, mental place is going into weekend lockdown mode.
00:05:11.760 All entrance doors will be locked effective immediately. The situation is being closely monitored
00:05:16.620 as we are getting updates from various sources and will provide further updates as events unfold.
00:05:22.960 Signed, Harry Gill, CPA, CMA, Assistant Deputy, Acting Deputy Assistant Commissioner,
00:05:30.400 and Agency Security Officer, Finance and Administration Branch, Canada Revenue Agency.
00:05:35.180 Now, that was a pretty categorical statement by Harry Gill. Now, wasn't it?
00:05:40.080 It wasn't just an allegation or a rumor. The senior bureaucrat, Harry Gill, Deputy Acting Assistant
00:05:49.920 Commissioner or whatever, he says that it was, in fact, confirmed. Various sources closely monitoring.
00:05:57.140 Protesters are entering. They are causing damage. They're entering the buildings and causing damage.
00:06:03.220 But then he throws the word allegedly in there, which is weird, since he just said it was confirmed
00:06:07.300 and was giving details and said multiple sources said it. He says mental place, which is a large
00:06:11.420 bridge building downtown, says they were on lockdown mode. This was sent to everyone in the regime.
00:06:17.620 Here, take a look at these documents. Again, this is Blacklock's access to information request.
00:06:21.860 Look at how many people Harry Gill emailed this lie to. Everyone got this report that was confirmed.
00:06:29.480 So this wasn't an allegation or a rumor. It was confirmed. Take it from the big boss.
00:06:36.840 Protesters were sacking the downtown court. Except it was a wicked lie.
00:06:42.840 But it was all the regime that media needed to confirm their prejudices against the truckers.
00:06:48.500 Let me read more from the Blacklock's report today.
00:06:51.140 Records indicate several media corporations acted on advice that protesters were violent.
00:06:55.440 The Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery, in a February 1st, 2022 letter to the Commons Speaker,
00:07:00.460 complained that the demonstration was unsafe.
00:07:03.040 Some of our members have been harassed by protesters of the truck convoy in the last few days,
00:07:07.060 and we cannot afford to be left exposed without protection for hours outside the building,
00:07:11.220 wrote Catherine Levesque of the National Post, then Press Gallery president.
00:07:15.680 Levesque provided no examples.
00:07:18.180 CBC-TV assigned security guards to protect reporters assigned to cover the Freedom Convoy.
00:07:21.880 Quote, at CBC, in order to go out, you need one-to-one security guards,
00:07:26.400 reported Judy Trin until the March 8th, 2022 seminar at Carleton University.
00:07:30.760 Your camera would have a security guard, and the reporter would have a security guard,
00:07:34.380 and there weren't enough.
00:07:35.960 Really?
00:07:36.880 This was a real threat, said Trin.
00:07:40.000 No Freedom Convoy demonstrator was ever charged with any misconduct involving a reporter.
00:07:44.540 But they believe it in their hearts.
00:07:46.900 Remember all the lies and the hoaxes?
00:07:48.780 Remember the protesters were committing an arson in an apartment building?
00:07:55.100 Total lie.
00:07:55.840 Total hoax.
00:07:56.760 Now, that was a media lie.
00:07:58.440 That was an activist lie.
00:08:00.560 But this lie we're talking about today is from the heart of government,
00:08:03.840 saying it was confirmed.
00:08:06.040 That is pure disinformation.
00:08:08.280 How many people to this day believe that lie?
00:08:15.600 In fact, here's the crazy thing.
00:08:17.140 The government phoned every landlord in the city and apparently told them that lie?
00:08:22.920 Update number two.
00:08:23.940 All downtown landlords were contacted, and buildings are on weekend mode or lockdown.
00:08:30.580 In addition, many of them have put emergency plans in place and are ready to respond as necessary.
00:08:34.920 The situation is being closely monitored as we are getting updates from various sources,
00:08:38.940 and we'll provide further updates as events unfold.
00:08:41.580 I can imagine if you called a landlord from the government.
00:08:47.180 Hello, I'm a senior boss of the government.
00:08:49.160 We have confirmed reports that truckers are ransacking offices.
00:08:53.200 Walk down your place now.
00:08:54.540 Of course you're going to listen to them, especially if it's the government, and it's confirmed.
00:08:58.580 It was a wicked lie.
00:08:59.500 They made it up.
00:09:01.760 It wasn't the truckers who planted fear and shut down the city.
00:09:04.960 They honked a bit.
00:09:05.740 It was the government who planted the fear, who blamed the truckers, but they were the ones.
00:09:12.020 Incredibly, there were some more sober-minded people in the regime, and they said, no, no, that's just not happening.
00:09:18.300 But Harry Gill never retracted his lie.
00:09:20.440 They never phoned the landlords and said, hey, you know what?
00:09:23.140 We scared you about that accident.
00:09:24.480 Why would they?
00:09:25.280 Why would they retract the lie?
00:09:26.980 It served Trudeau very well.
00:09:29.840 Take a look at document 1359.
00:09:31.740 And here's France LePage, assistant deputy director, big bureaucrat, who actually pointed out, update, public safety, PSPC, that's the public safety department, advised that all downtown landlords were contacted and buildings are on weekend mode or locked.
00:09:49.740 In addition, many of them have put emergency plans in place and are ready to respond as necessary.
00:09:56.900 But look at this, also indicated the information about vandalism at Minto is not factual.
00:10:08.560 They didn't call the landlords to tell them, though.
00:10:10.860 They didn't put out a press release.
00:10:11.980 Who challenged the crazy claim that people were sacking offices?
00:10:16.620 Not the regime media.
00:10:17.820 Why would they?
00:10:18.660 They were part of the team.
00:10:21.280 Only black locks when the few independent voices left it.
00:10:23.960 Look at document 1215.
00:10:26.720 They inquired with the government.
00:10:27.940 You can see the government was sort of panicking about the question.
00:10:30.460 Blacklocks.ca, reporter's deadline, ASAP, publishing timeline, today, interview requests.
00:10:36.420 No.
00:10:36.780 Question.
00:10:37.800 Did CRA management at any point from the start of the truckers' protest Friday claim to have confirmation that protesters were looting office buildings?
00:10:46.800 Does CRA management still believe that to be true?
00:10:49.100 How did CRA management get, quote, confirmation?
00:10:53.600 And then they have a proposed response.
00:10:57.140 The Canada Revenue Agency has no knowledge of any looting in CRA-owned or CRA-occupied buildings located in Ottawa this past weekend.
00:11:07.040 But they were talking about other buildings, too, weren't they?
00:11:10.180 They claim they have no knowledge, but is that true?
00:11:13.600 Because Harry Gill, a deputy boss, said it was confirmed.
00:11:18.900 He talked about multiple sources.
00:11:21.400 He was very specific in his language.
00:11:23.900 Causing damage.
00:11:24.860 Minto locked down.
00:11:27.600 Confirmed, he said.
00:11:29.360 Confirmed.
00:11:30.800 Oh, well.
00:11:32.380 You know how it is.
00:11:34.600 There's a narrative.
00:11:36.080 Truckers, bad.
00:11:37.960 Trudeau, good.
00:11:39.580 And if the truckers actually weren't bad, and if Trudeau isn't really good, well, so what?
00:11:46.960 You publish the official story.
00:11:49.120 And when the truth comes out a year later, well, the lie is already well spread.
00:11:55.460 You literally have, to this day, liberal politicians saying that the truckers were terrorists.
00:12:01.500 I mean, I was just aghast this weekend that, you know, there's a bouncy castle and there's a hot tub.
00:12:08.220 David, I wanted to go up there and poke that hot tub myself and let the water flow out of it
00:12:13.800 and unplug that damn bouncy castle because it's just a symbol of the frustration that's gone on for 19 days in the Capitol.
00:12:21.240 So, yes, we are making changes to do everything that we can do to end this illegal occupation of our city.
00:12:28.720 This group is emboldened by the lack of enforcement by every level of government.
00:12:33.920 They are terrorizing our residents, torturing them with incessant honking, threatening them and preventing them from leading their lives.
00:12:43.980 People cannot go to work or open their businesses.
00:12:47.360 They cannot sleep, walk, shop, go to medical appointments or enjoy their neighborhood.
00:12:53.560 This group is a threat to our democracy.
00:12:57.700 What we're seeing is bigger than just a city of Ottawa problem.
00:13:01.840 This is a nationwide insurrection.
00:13:05.440 This is madness.
00:13:07.240 We need a concrete plan to put an end to this now.
00:13:11.560 You know, there was some violence during the convoy, of course.
00:13:15.680 It was by Trudeau's cops.
00:13:17.240 It was directed at another one of the independent journalists in this country, our own Alexa Lavoie.
00:13:23.580 But the violence was not from the truckers.
00:13:25.180 It was, well, you know.
00:13:26.900 Yeah, real violence from the government, not fake violence smeared on the truckers.
00:13:55.420 Stay with us for more.
00:13:57.900 Well, I enjoyed staying on the studio until it was about 1 a.m. Eastern time on the night of the Alberta election.
00:14:16.960 Of course, the Alberta election was on mountain time, so I was a little bit pooped.
00:14:19.980 But I had to go early, and it was a very interesting night.
00:14:24.900 It was a night of relief for me because I was genuinely worried that the socialist NDP had a real chance of winning.
00:14:31.280 In fact, there was a while there where the NDP seemed to be ahead in the polls, even incredibly in Calgary.
00:14:38.380 That seemed to stop when Danielle Smith had a great debate performance, and Rachel Notley was uncharacteristically wobbly. 1.00
00:14:47.760 And even strange things like wearing conservative blue.
00:14:51.540 I'm not sure why Notley did that.
00:14:53.080 I'm not saying that was an important or decisive moment.
00:14:55.440 But I think the NDP didn't really know what they were doing in the debate, whereas Danielle Smith knew exactly what she was doing, stopped the bleeding of votes, built up confidence, and went on to win.
00:15:05.440 I looked at the stats afterwards, and I know it's been a week, but forgive me.
00:15:10.160 Danielle Smith was only down 2% and change from where Jason Kenney was in his huge unifying victory in 2019.
00:15:20.360 Let me say that again.
00:15:21.620 2019, Jason Kenney comes back, unites the Wild Rose Party and the Conservative Party into one.
00:15:29.180 He comes from Stephen Harper's administration.
00:15:31.800 He's a very popular guy.
00:15:33.260 And the NDP were atrocious for four years, brought in the carbon tax, almost destroyed the province.
00:15:38.520 Kenney has a great success.
00:15:40.840 Well, here we are four years later, and Danielle Smith was just a touch, just a fraction below that.
00:15:46.780 Despite the most abusive, war room-style, unfair critiques and propaganda I've ever seen by the CBC in Alberta, it was astonishing.
00:15:56.600 The reason why the seat count fell, however, is that anyone who didn't vote for the Conservatives coalesced around the NDP.
00:16:06.060 There used to be sort of a vanity party in Alberta called the Alberta Party that, if I recall, got about 9% in the last election.
00:16:12.940 It got less than 1%.
00:16:14.660 The Liberal Party of Alberta, seriously, Justin Trudeau's party, provincially, got less than 1%.
00:16:21.400 The Green Party, less than 1%.
00:16:23.360 The Independence Party's, less than 1%.
00:16:25.780 What I'm saying is, if you weren't for Danielle Smith, you were only for Rachel Notley's socialists.
00:16:32.820 So, it wasn't so much that Danielle Smith's support fell, but rather that Rachel Notley sopped up the anybody-but-conservative A, B, C vote.
00:16:43.720 Alas, it was not enough for the socialists.
00:16:46.160 Danielle Smith won.
00:16:48.120 But a question immediately poses, and I'll bring in our next guest in a moment to talk about it.
00:16:52.900 Would Jason Kenney have won had he remained his premier?
00:16:58.900 And I mentioned that not just because it's an interesting academic exercise in alternative history,
00:17:04.980 but because there was a moment there where I truly believe Jason Kenney was no longer a conservative.
00:17:11.760 He was destroying the values that conservatives believe in, property rights, individual choice, freedom of religion, freedom of association,
00:17:19.720 all the things that the lockdowns and the forced vaccines were taking away from us.
00:17:24.200 But many people in the conservative party said, Ezra, you and Rebel News are going to re-elect Rachel Notley.
00:17:31.940 You're going to destroy Jason Kenney.
00:17:34.040 Sure, he's not great these days, but he's better than Rachel Notley.
00:17:37.120 You're wounding him by criticizing him.
00:17:39.640 Just shut up. 1.00
00:17:40.520 Get with Team Blue.
00:17:43.620 Be an old loyalist.
00:17:44.880 As you may know, 30 years ago, I was active in the conservative party.
00:17:48.780 Join the team, or you are strengthening Rachel Notley.
00:17:54.040 But alas, we could not hold our tongue because we're not partisans.
00:17:57.280 We had to speak truth to power.
00:17:59.100 Jason Kenney was defenestrated.
00:18:01.280 I love that word.
00:18:01.980 It means thrown out the window.
00:18:03.620 He was defenestrated by his own party.
00:18:07.460 Danielle Smith came in, and boy, it looked wobbly for a bit there, but alas, she won. 1.00
00:18:13.620 Well, to paraphrase our dear friend, Ralph Klein, welcome to another Miracle on the Prairies.
00:18:24.780 I've got some poll numbers to show you, but first, let's introduce our guest who really
00:18:28.360 knows what's going on.
00:18:29.320 She's our Alberta Bureau Chief, our Chief Reporter in general, and my good friend, Sheila Gunn-Reed.
00:18:34.140 Sheila, great to see you.
00:18:35.840 Thanks for having me on the show, boss.
00:18:37.240 Oh, come on. 0.87
00:18:37.800 It's my pleasure.
00:18:38.580 And thanks for doing the great work that you do.
00:18:40.580 I was nervous there about a week out from the election because I was worried that my
00:18:47.000 Conservative Party critics were right. 0.95
00:18:49.680 They're saying, Ezra, you and Rebel News criticized Jason Kenney so hard you knocked him out of
00:18:54.820 the game.
00:18:55.300 And now look at you.
00:18:56.220 You went ahead and elected Rachel Notley.
00:18:58.120 How is that better?
00:18:59.820 Economically civil libertarian.
00:19:01.620 How is that better?
00:19:02.640 And I thought, oh, brother, maybe they were right, but didn't turn out that way.
00:19:06.260 No, and I think Jason Kenney would have been the person who reelected Rachel Notley.
00:19:13.960 And part of that has to do with Jason Kenney hanging on as long as he did before going to
00:19:18.740 a leadership review when it was becoming increasingly clear that he was wildly unpopular with the
00:19:24.200 grassroots within the party.
00:19:27.180 And he sort of ragged the puck on that leadership review, which left Danielle Smith with really
00:19:33.940 not very much runway for people to get to know her.
00:19:39.500 And if people had gotten to know her and she was able to implement some policies that didn't 1.00
00:19:45.120 cause the sky to fall the way the media and the NDP said that they would, she would have
00:19:50.460 that little bit of cushion where she wasn't this unknown quantity for a lot of people who
00:19:55.980 are new to Alberta or skeptical of her past floor crossing or some of her, you know, more
00:20:01.680 wilder musings while she was on radio.
00:20:04.560 Jason Kenney didn't leave her that cushion.
00:20:06.940 And so she basically became premier, had a little bit of time to get out of the pandemic
00:20:11.280 and go straight to reelection.
00:20:13.140 So I think if there were some sort of catastrophe a week ago, the blame probably would have rested
00:20:21.520 squarely on Jason Kenney's shoulders.
00:20:23.920 Yeah.
00:20:24.080 And of course, our job is to speak honestly and give our opinions.
00:20:27.560 That's our role.
00:20:29.100 It's our role to report the facts, give our honest opinions, express our values and give
00:20:38.180 our viewers the other side of the story.
00:20:39.740 I mean, my God, if all they consumed was the CBC, they'd be full of Trudopian propaganda. 0.99
00:20:45.040 So it wouldn't be, quote, our fault anyways.
00:20:48.060 We're not candidates.
00:20:49.540 I'm not even a voter out there.
00:20:51.020 I'm out here in the big smoke these days.
00:20:52.580 But you're so right.
00:20:54.400 The events that happened were caused by the actors in the main case, Jason Kenney.
00:20:59.460 We are observers and, you know, we're not going to be blind to what the actors are doing.
00:21:04.880 Jason Kenney was acting a lot like Justin Trudeau.
00:21:07.400 But you know what?
00:21:08.020 We've got some proof of it.
00:21:09.480 And, Sheila, this is what I want to talk about, because in my bones, I think Jason Kenney
00:21:15.420 would have lost because he wouldn't wouldn't have picked up any voters in Edmonton that would
00:21:19.480 have gone all Andy P.
00:21:20.400 I think he would have held most of the rural parts, if not all.
00:21:25.040 But I think there were ridings in Calgary that they were people were just a lot of people.
00:21:30.580 You know, I think a lot of true blue conservatives and Christian conservatives and leave me alone
00:21:35.640 privacy conservative libertarians just they would not stomach voting for him.
00:21:40.660 But here's a study by a company called Research Co.
00:21:44.880 And their pollster, Mario Canseco, he's been polling for decades.
00:21:48.900 And I think he's pretty good.
00:21:50.340 And I think he's pretty fair minded.
00:21:51.740 I think he's based in Vancouver.
00:21:53.160 So maybe he doesn't have a lot of personal knowledge about Alberta.
00:21:55.780 And there's one way that that shows here.
00:21:57.900 But he published his poll and he asked.
00:22:02.680 He asked conservative voters, would you have voted for Jason Kenney had he been the leader?
00:22:09.180 And the number plunges, especially in Calgary and most pointedly in the rural parts.
00:22:20.280 They hated him, Sheila.
00:22:22.360 But here's the thing.
00:22:24.940 And I'm just going to spit this on that.
00:22:26.380 I'd love your reaction.
00:22:27.940 You take 30 percent off the conservative vote in in some really rock ribbed right wing ridings
00:22:34.220 and in rural Alberta, you're still going to win for the UCP.
00:22:37.820 There's they will never vote for NDP.
00:22:39.920 Just never.
00:22:40.440 But if you look in Calgary, which was sort of iffy, if there were about five or six ridings
00:22:49.480 in Calgary and one in Lethbridge, that Danielle Smith won by just a few percent. 0.99
00:22:54.760 If you look at the closest ridings in Calgary and Lethbridge, I take Mario Canseco's poll
00:23:02.980 and you chop five, 10 percent off the UCP vote because people are so mad at Jason Kenney.
00:23:10.540 All of a sudden, there is no majority for the UCP.
00:23:14.520 And remember, there's one independent candidate.
00:23:17.220 Now, it would at best be a tie and more likely a notly win.
00:23:22.920 Mario Canseco's poll asking the question, would you still support Kenny had he run?
00:23:27.480 And proves that pragmatically it was the right thing to get rid of him.
00:23:33.840 I've always said morally it was, but even pragmatically it was.
00:23:38.960 Danielle Smith saved Alberta from Rachel Notley to whom Jason Kenney was going to hand the government.
00:23:48.640 That's my assessment.
00:23:50.660 Yeah.
00:23:50.940 Jason Kenney did two things in his time here in Alberta provincial politics.
00:23:55.720 First, he united the right.
00:23:57.620 Thank you.
00:23:58.080 Good job.
00:23:58.820 But then he united the left around Rachel Notley.
00:24:03.380 In Alberta, the progressive vote coalesces around Rachel Notley in the way that the progressive
00:24:09.080 vote coalesces around Justin Trudeau federally.
00:24:11.600 So it is really a two-party system here, much the same as it is federally, even though they
00:24:16.560 don't want to admit it.
00:24:17.320 So Jason Kenney did that.
00:24:18.700 But to prove your point, you look at what happened to a cabinet minister named Tyler
00:24:24.280 Shandro in Calgary, Acadia, which is generally a conservative stronghold.
00:24:29.740 He's a cabinet minister or he was a cabinet minister.
00:24:34.040 He was the chief locker downer under Jason Kenney.
00:24:38.400 He lost his seat in a recount now that has added to the NDP cushion.
00:24:42.380 I think it was seven or nine votes initially.
00:24:44.440 Now it's 25 votes.
00:24:46.180 The writing has been handed to the NDP.
00:24:48.720 Shandro has been amazing on gun rights in the last four months, five months.
00:24:55.300 That's Danielle Smith trying to save his butt because she gave him a file that she knows 1.00
00:25:01.520 conservatives believe in.
00:25:03.280 It's a red meat conservative issue and everybody will support him on that issue. 0.65
00:25:07.820 But 25 conservatives could not stomach casting a vote for him and he lost his seat because
00:25:14.940 he was a locker downer hypocrite. 0.69
00:25:16.980 Right.
00:25:17.340 Can I jump in there for a second?
00:25:18.660 I know that riding a little bit.
00:25:20.280 I used to live in Calgary, as you know.
00:25:21.900 And he had a 20 point lead last time.
00:25:25.100 Yep.
00:25:25.880 And he lost it.
00:25:27.820 You can't blame that on the leader.
00:25:29.580 The leader held the total loss to 2%.
00:25:31.560 Why would that one district despise Shandro 20%?
00:25:37.220 Well, it's obvious why.
00:25:38.300 He was the chief locker downer.
00:25:39.980 He was abusive in his personal style.
00:25:42.760 He was in the Sky Palace.
00:25:44.760 I use that word Sky Palace.
00:25:46.080 People outside Alberta say, what are you talking about?
00:25:47.620 That sounds sort of cool.
00:25:48.640 Sounds like a hot nightclub.
00:25:49.840 Well, sort of.
00:25:51.240 It was built as sort of like a private apartment for the premier of the day more than a decade
00:25:56.800 ago.
00:25:57.280 It was a scandal back then because it was so luxurious.
00:25:59.460 Jason Kenney uses it for a dinner party.
00:26:03.140 And it's called the Sky Palace because it's a patio on a skyscraper.
00:26:08.260 How cool is that?
00:26:09.260 How much fun is that?
00:26:10.340 Super cool.
00:26:11.100 Super fun.
00:26:11.760 Except for when you banned all the little people from having their gatherings, their 1.00
00:26:15.500 weddings, their funerals, their Christmas dinners, their churches.
00:26:18.540 You can't even go to a gym, a restaurant, a bar, a school.
00:26:22.220 And then these masters of the universe have this Sky Palace, white tablecloth, boozy party. 1.00
00:26:27.560 And they look down below at the people like ants and they say, how dare they get together?
00:26:32.640 And they were photographed.
00:26:35.160 And Tyler Shandra was in the photograph and Jason Kenney was in the photograph and all
00:26:39.680 the honchos were in the photograph that you can't undo that.
00:26:44.560 Once you see that, you can't unsee that.
00:26:46.900 And it changes the character of the entire lockdown from something.
00:26:51.360 Hey, let's all pull together.
00:26:52.600 We're all in this together.
00:26:53.580 It's a no, no, no.
00:26:54.720 This is about me controlling you and having different rules for myself.
00:26:58.160 And it was so gross.
00:26:59.340 And you cannot get rid of that.
00:27:01.220 Tyler Shandra was a vestige.
00:27:03.380 He was the most prominent locker downer and he had to go.
00:27:07.460 And I know Danielle Smith stood by him.
00:27:09.160 I don't.
00:27:09.800 Maybe that was the right thing to do just to pull that party together.
00:27:14.060 Sorry.
00:27:14.280 Go ahead, Sheila.
00:27:15.520 No, I'm saying she tried to save him by giving him the gun rights file.
00:27:19.180 Really, that was her attempt to redeem him from the things that he had done previously,
00:27:24.780 to rebrand him as a Smith conservative instead of a Kenney conservative.
00:27:29.740 And I think Calgary Acadia would have gone UCP if there was a different person in that riding.
00:27:35.900 Yes, you're so right.
00:27:37.160 And the fact that he lost 20 points, but Smith held the total loss to two points,
00:27:44.600 shows that Shandra was the problem.
00:27:46.480 So that's what was weird is Kenney was kicked out, but all the other leadership candidates
00:27:51.340 were part of the Kenney regime, obviously, because they were all MLAs or cabinet ministers.
00:27:56.140 Sorry, one or two of them had expressed some contrariness.
00:27:59.420 Let me correct myself.
00:28:00.300 Drew Barnes, if I'm not mistaken.
00:28:02.040 Yeah, that's right.
00:28:02.860 So I correct myself.
00:28:04.100 One or two were dissidents.
00:28:05.400 But Danielle Smith was most clearly the outsider and she was resented.
00:28:09.320 She won.
00:28:09.680 Anyways, I'm pleased to say that Alberta will live to fight another day. 1.00
00:28:14.220 And people say, oh, come on, stop being so dramatic.
00:28:16.720 When you say Alberta will be gone forever, Alberta would still be there.
00:28:19.340 The mountains would still be there.
00:28:20.340 The buildings would still be there.
00:28:21.320 The people would still be there.
00:28:22.220 Yes, but it would be deracinated.
00:28:24.120 It would be like Detroit 2023 versus Detroit 1923.
00:28:29.600 And places change.
00:28:31.860 Great empires rise and fall.
00:28:33.860 Why should Alberta forever be the freest, most prosperous place?
00:28:37.620 Why?
00:28:37.760 It's not destined to be.
00:28:40.320 It's a series of choices.
00:28:42.700 And, you know, it's ironic because in a way, Danielle Smith installed Rachel Notley eight
00:28:52.500 years ago.
00:28:53.760 I won't get into the details of it.
00:28:55.600 But in a scandalous move, when she was leader of the opposition back then, on the eve of
00:29:01.280 an election, she cut a secret deal with the PC party to basically merge and take away the 0.97
00:29:07.060 opposition and say to the public, oh, no, we're all in agreement.
00:29:09.960 You really don't need to vote because we all agree.
00:29:12.100 The public was so outraged by that anti-democratic move.
00:29:15.920 They put Rachel Notley and they were so disgusted by Danielle Smith and the PC party today.
00:29:20.300 So in a way, Danielle Smith sentenced Alberta to four years of Notley socialism.
00:29:25.380 But then perhaps it's a redemption story, Sheila.
00:29:29.460 That same person who sentenced Alberta to four years gave Alberta a reprieve and saved it from
00:29:37.340 four more years.
00:29:38.340 There's something almost like a Greek tragedy here, but maybe in reverse, that Danielle Smith
00:29:44.580 redeemed herself, redeemed the province, saved it, made up for it, and saved Alberta not
00:29:50.760 only from Notley, but from Kenney, who would have handed it to Notley.
00:29:53.560 It's very interesting.
00:29:54.520 I look forward to following it.
00:29:55.800 I look forward to her, to having a, getting her sea legs under her.
00:30:00.020 Now, you're right.
00:30:00.520 Jason Kenney didn't even meet with her to be a transition.
00:30:02.700 Normally, a president hands a baton to her successor. 0.95
00:30:05.840 Jason Kenney was in a pout.
00:30:07.160 He was in a snit.
00:30:08.120 And everyone on his team got that message.
00:30:10.320 I'm so glad she won.
00:30:11.460 Your predecessor, did you get, he made, he promised to have an orderly transition, as
00:30:16.380 he called it, with you.
00:30:17.740 Did you, did you have a chance to talk to the former premier?
00:30:21.520 Did you get that orderly transition?
00:30:23.340 I did not.
00:30:24.500 I reached out to him and he did, he has not accepted my invitation for a meeting.
00:30:30.160 Me too.
00:30:30.700 And I think my fellow Canadians should be glad that she went too, because Danielle Smith
00:30:35.320 is really sort of Canada's Ron DeSantis, in that she is sometimes the first to go out
00:30:42.480 on freedom-minded issues, although our friends in Saskatchewan are quietly leading the way.
00:30:46.500 They're a little bit more quieter than us.
00:30:47.900 That's how they do things in Saskatchewan.
00:30:49.700 But, you know, she's leading the issue on appointing our own chief firearms officer,
00:30:54.360 fighting with the feds on energy issues, on net zero issues, on gun rights, on a whole
00:31:01.760 host of issues, and the other provinces then have the bravery to say us too.
00:31:08.700 Yukon says us too, and Saskatchewan says us too, and then Manitoba says us too, and then
00:31:13.720 the maritime provinces also agree.
00:31:15.900 So she tends to be a leader on these freedom-minded issues.
00:31:20.000 So the freer Alberta is, and the better that Danielle Smith does in leading our province, 1.00
00:31:25.860 I think the freer Canada will be at the end of the day.
00:31:28.120 And while it was close this time, I think like Ron DeSantis, who won basically by a
00:31:34.680 statistical rounding error in his first election and then blew it out four years later, I think
00:31:39.980 if Danielle Smith now is able to shake off the shackles of Jason Kenney, rebrand that 0.92
00:31:45.480 party as something her own, get rid of the Kenney stigma, and start making some changes
00:31:50.380 fast so she can teach those chicken littles in the media that the sky is not going to fall 0.99
00:31:54.160 and everything's going to be fine, I think we will see Calgary return to confidence in
00:31:59.900 the UCP.
00:32:00.880 Yeah, yeah, you're right.
00:32:03.120 And I don't know if Edmonton can be turned around.
00:32:06.200 Maybe it's like the California of Canada.
00:32:08.160 Maybe it's just too so far gone.
00:32:10.500 I don't know.
00:32:10.840 Well, I mean, listen, there's a lot of good people.
00:32:12.500 There's a great city.
00:32:13.760 It's the blue collar capital of the oil patch.
00:32:16.380 It's the gateway to the north.
00:32:17.580 It really is.
00:32:18.180 It's the doorway to Fort Mac and the oil sands.
00:32:20.640 I have some fondness.
00:32:21.940 I went to school there for four years and, you know, I mean, there's a rivalry between
00:32:26.700 Calgary and Edmonton, but you have to love Edmonton too.
00:32:29.520 And I don't know if that's a problem that can be solved for Danielle Smith.
00:32:35.380 You don't want that part of the province to feel perennially marginalized or left out.
00:32:40.640 It is the heart of government and civil service bureaucrats, institutions like the university.
00:32:46.560 And like, maybe there's something inherently left wing about the place.
00:32:52.080 But anyhow, Alberta has a reprieve.
00:32:55.620 I'm happy about it.
00:32:56.660 And I believe that Rebel News had a positive role to play the whole time.
00:33:00.440 I believe we were candid, honest, ethical critics of Jason Kenney in good faith.
00:33:05.440 I believe we put aside our personal friendship with them and to speak the truth to it.
00:33:09.480 I believe we stood by the truckers who made him blink and we were their megaphone.
00:33:15.940 I believe we covered Danielle Smith very vigorously and in our own way, paved the way for her to
00:33:23.440 become leader and then premier.
00:33:25.540 I think Rebel News has a role to play in Alberta.
00:33:28.180 We had a big role, actually.
00:33:29.920 And especially seeing the kind of wicked lies coming out of the CBC.
00:33:32.920 See, to this day, the CBC is publishing some disinformation, claiming that Danielle Smith
00:33:37.620 interfered with prosecutors by sending, quote, emails.
00:33:41.660 But a massive search by the public service, more than a million emails reviewed, not a single
00:33:46.640 one was found.
00:33:47.980 All 44 prosecutors who worked on the files and questions testified that they had not received
00:33:53.420 such an email.
00:33:54.260 All 32 staff in the premier's office testified they had not sent an email.
00:33:57.720 A former judge named Marguerite Trussler said there was no evidence whatsoever that these
00:34:02.840 emails exist.
00:34:03.800 And the CBC itself grudgingly admitted they hadn't even seen them.
00:34:07.060 And yet they published that these damning emails exist.
00:34:09.940 What is that but state propaganda designed to destroy a political enemy of Trudeau?
00:34:15.740 I really haven't seen anything as bad as that.
00:34:18.940 And that problem will not go away.
00:34:20.980 So you still have a strong, not the opposition.
00:34:23.780 You have a strong CBC opposition.
00:34:25.740 So a bit of a breather for Danielle Smith, but the battle starts anew.
00:34:29.960 I think she's going to have her cabinet in place by as soon as this weekend.
00:34:34.380 Yeah.
00:34:34.580 And just on the flip side of those comments, I think our job remains making sure that Danielle
00:34:41.560 Smith keeps her promises to Albertans that we are completely independent.
00:34:47.540 You know, we want Alberta to do well.
00:34:49.180 And I think for Alberta to do well, it needs a fiscally conservative government.
00:34:53.120 But at the same time, all the forces of the universe are currently acting on Danielle
00:34:59.080 Smith to pull her to the left. 0.93
00:35:00.460 Right.
00:35:00.680 The mainstream media, the opposition, the federal government, the public sector, the judicial
00:35:07.060 system.
00:35:07.600 All those things are working to pull her to the left. 0.63
00:35:10.340 We need to be on the right, pulling her back in the right direction. 0.98
00:35:13.220 You're exactly right.
00:35:14.080 And that is why our criticism of Jason Kenney hit home, because people knew that we liked
00:35:20.380 him, that we were friends with him, that we were supporters of him.
00:35:25.180 And so our criticisms of him were not in bad faith.
00:35:27.920 They were not gotcha.
00:35:28.760 And they were not taken lightly.
00:35:30.640 And it's almost like a man bites dog versus dog bites man.
00:35:35.220 I mean, people know we criticize Trudeau every day.
00:35:37.320 That's easy peasy.
00:35:38.220 That's not surprising.
00:35:39.060 But when Rebel News, when Sheila Gunn-Reed, when Ezra LeVant, when Adam Sows, the rest
00:35:42.460 of our Alberta team criticizes Jason Kenney, let's stop and pay attention, because what's
00:35:45.940 going on here?
00:35:46.840 We had the courage to call out our personal friends who were making moral errors.
00:35:52.980 And I think we, in our own way, helped.
00:35:55.840 Sheila, it's great to see you.
00:35:56.840 Thanks for coming on the show.
00:35:57.760 Keep up the fight out there.
00:35:59.340 You're our chief reporter and our Alberta bureau chief.
00:36:01.880 And both of those positions had an oversized role to play in the events we just discussed.
00:36:07.280 Thanks, boss.
00:36:07.940 Thanks for having me on the show.
00:36:09.060 All right.
00:36:09.360 There you have it, Sheila Gunn-Reed.
00:36:10.340 Stay with us.
00:36:10.860 Your Letters to Me next.
00:36:16.700 Hey, welcome back.
00:36:17.540 Your Letters to Me, Wren 500, says, Europe is controlled by unelected tyrannical bureaucrats.
00:36:22.480 National governments are pointless.
00:36:24.220 Well, that was the whole idea behind Brexit.
00:36:25.880 The UK, which is one of the oldest democracies and the healthiest democracies in the world,
00:36:31.660 despite its warts, it's the best, its decisions were being made in Brussels.
00:36:36.900 And I think that the substance of it and just the emotional realization that the UK was not master of its own home.
00:36:44.700 And the UK voted for a Brexit.
00:36:47.500 I think that was in 2016, if my memory is correct.
00:36:51.960 I remember it was 2015.
00:36:52.960 Sorry.
00:36:53.140 But it took years for the Brexit to be effectuated because the elite said, no, no, no, you didn't really mean that.
00:37:00.120 So the UK got out and there are exit movements in many other European countries of varying degree.
00:37:08.320 You have political parties, mainstream political parties in most European countries that have a Brexit orientation.
00:37:17.580 It's sort of incredible that the European Union would seek to rule an American company, but why not?
00:37:24.740 Johnny Raven says, great news.
00:37:27.080 And Ezra, I like your new set.
00:37:29.960 Well, thanks very much.
00:37:31.040 We're still figuring out a few things, but I think we're getting closer there.
00:37:33.840 We've got some new lights we're trying out.
00:37:36.020 And I recorded a video in another space here.
00:37:38.560 So we're finding our sea legs.
00:37:40.040 I'm sorry I was away for most of next week, but I look forward to really inhabiting the place this week.
00:37:46.200 Peter Story says, hey, man, it is wonderful to see you back in the saddle looking good.
00:37:50.240 Well, Peter, I thank you for your baseless compliments, but keep them coming.
00:37:56.480 I kid.
00:37:57.020 It's nice to be here.
00:37:58.080 And again, thanks to everyone who held the fort when I was away.
00:38:01.960 You know, we've got some exciting stories coming up in the days and weeks ahead.
00:38:05.800 An incredible story coming to you actually from Toronto that will shock you.
00:38:10.660 I don't want to give too much away, but let me put it this way.
00:38:12.760 It's about the pro-hard-drug-free-needle crazy public policy in this city.
00:38:21.420 And that's an incredible story.
00:38:23.500 There's so many stories.
00:38:24.340 I've got a court case coming up next week.
00:38:26.600 As you may know, we're suing the federal government for blocking us on their government Twitter accounts.
00:38:31.460 I don't mean their personal Twitter accounts.
00:38:33.440 I don't care about that.
00:38:34.120 I'm talking about official government Twitter accounts.
00:38:36.180 We're actually going to the federal court on, I think it's Tuesday.
00:38:38.220 So there's a lot cooking, and I hope to cover it either from this table here or from in the field.
00:38:44.300 So that's our show for today.
00:38:45.700 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night.
00:38:50.700 And keep fighting for freedom.