Ezra Levant examines Tommy Robinson’s 13-month prison sentence for a May 2018 Facebook Live outside Leeds courthouse, calling him a political prisoner amid UK publication bans and media silence, unlike U.S. coverage by Fox News. He criticizes Rachel Notley’s Alberta government for hiring 10 of 12 chiefs of staff from outside the province, including John Heaney—a BC lobbyist secretly on payroll—while hiding his dual role until May 2018. The Privacy Commissioner probes Heaney’s alleged document interference, framing it as a systemic democratic failure. Levant contrasts Canada’s mobility with UK classism, warning of elite contempt for working-class voices like Robinson’s, who opposes political correctness shielding sexual predator victims. Daily YouTube updates at noon ET will follow, exposing deeper institutional biases. [Automatically generated summary]
Tonight, it's been three days since Tommy Robinson was thrown in prison.
I have some reflections and some news.
It's May 28th, and you're watching The Ezra Levant Show.
Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
You come here once a year with a sign, and you feel morally superior.
The only thing I have to say to the government for why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.
Tommy Robinson was one of our most rambunctious employees of the Rebel.
I don't think he ever even fit the term employee.
He told me once that he never had a boss before in his whole life, and I absolutely believe it.
It sure felt that way.
He was like lightning.
You can't really put lightning in a bottle.
If you could, it wouldn't be lightning anymore, could it?
Anyways, when we parted amicably a few months ago, I knew Tommy would be even more newsworthy because he would be unrestrained by our corporate policies.
For example, Tommy went to Italy to cover the Italian elections.
He got into an argument with a migrant who threatened to kill Tommy.
Well, you don't say that to Tommy.
Boom.
Just down like a, just down on the ground.
I mean, that's exciting TV, but you can imagine how it would give me back here at Rebel World Headquarters ulcers when he worked for us at the Rebel if he had done that.
When he went independent, it let me for the first time just sort of enjoy Tommy's exciting work again instead of always worrying about things.
I told you on Friday that I saw Tommy doing a Facebook live stream from the street in front of the courthouse in Leeds, UK.
I don't have time to watch everything out there that I want to watch, but I made time for this maybe because it made me a bit nervous.
A year ago, Tommy was standing in front of the court in Canterbury and was later charged and convicted for contempt of court.
But I watched Tommy this time and he seemed to have learned the lessons from that day a year ago.
He said they were accused criminals, not criminals.
He didn't stand on the courthouse property at all, not even the sidewalk in front of the court.
And he wasn't saying any facts about the trial that weren't already public.
In fact, there was a moment when he was quoting from the British state broadcaster, the BBC.
That's where he was going through the names of the men who were accused of raping girls as young as 11 years old again and again in a gang.
So Tommy was giving his own opinions, but to me it certainly looked like he was following the rules.
But then he was arrested as I showed you that day.
I'll give you some new news in a moment.
But just to recap, this is what police said to him on Friday when he was just standing outside the court in Leeds.
The content of one stream being told I've been arrested for the breach of the peace.
You've all watched this.
You've all watched it.
Can you get me a solicitor?
Can you get me a solicitor?
If you'll just turn off your live feed, can you get a solicitor?
Do you understand what this stuff can do?
No, can you explain it again?
What does that mean?
What does that mean?
What does that mean up to you?
What does that mean?
I've been told that the police were doing the case for.
No, far.
George, that's the information I've got.
I'm inciting you with video.
How have I inciting you?
This is free speech.
This is where we're at.
You're not even allowed to.
Look at this.
Look how many people are doing it.
Why are you swinging right?
Why would you do this?
More people than you're going to be able to do that.
Jimmy Sharp brings our lights as a bad thing.
I just want to build this.
More people watch this now.
This is ridiculous.
Lads, do you feel right when you're doing it?
I haven't said a word.
In fact, someone laid their hand and assaulted me outside court.
Other people would scream.
You're threatened to beheaded.
They threatened me about my mother, and here I am being arrested for saying nothing.
I'm threatened to beheaded.
I've nothing said anything about what.
What are they arresting you for, Tommy?
Breach of the peace.
Apparently, I'm inciting on my video.
Now that's the last we saw of him.
Of course, Tommy was not disturbing the peace.
There was no one out there on the street.
Tommy was just talking to a Facebook video through his cell phone.
But think about that for a moment.
Imagine the police's power to arrest someone for peacefully giving a political commentary on Facebook Live and just calling that disturbing the peace.
I say again, Tommy was not on the courthouse property, not even on his front steps.
So police arrested him for talking on Facebook.
If they could arrest him across from a courthouse for that, why could they not arrest him at his home for that, anywhere, for what he says on Facebook or YouTube?
And indeed, they do that in the UK now.
And you know the rest.
If you watched my show on Friday, he was rushed before the judge in the case, not even allowed to call his regular lawyers, the ones who know him, who know his history, who might be expert in certain areas of the law.
He was given a public defender.
I'm sure he was a nice guy, but not anyone who knew Tommy, or the special facts and the special area of law.
And so it is unsurprising, but still shocking, that Tommy was sentenced to 13 months in prison.
A year ago, when Tommy faced the same contempt of court hearing in Canterbury, when we worked with him, we were at least able to get him home that night and have the hearing postponed a week or two.
And we brought in not one, not two, but three top lawyers, a bit of a junior dream team, I guess.
And we got Tommy out because it's a complicated area of law, contempt of court.
We needed to hire the best.
But even though we won that case a year ago, the judge was terrifying.
Look at this from the ruling last year.
This is from the court transcript.
Mr. Kovalewski is the name of our top lawyer at the time that we hired.
I accept what Mr. Kovalewski tells me about the dangers that you might face were you to be sent into immediate custody.
This is the judge I'm quoting.
I have to say it is on a knife edge so far as I'm concerned because a very large part of me thinks, so what?
You could be put into protective custody.
So the judge was saying, sure, he'll be in danger for your life, but so what?
You can go in solitary confinement for a few months because you shot a 45-second selfie video.
I tell you, they treat Guantanamo Bay terrorists better.
That is a fact.
Anyways, Tommy was careful on Friday, but that didn't stop him from being arrested.
But from arrest to drumhead trial to conviction to sentencing, what, an hour or two?
Sorry, that's banana republic stuff.
That's like the desaparcidos in Argentina.
Just vanished.
The disappeared ones.
That's that word in Spanish.
They were just disappeared, never to be heard from again.
But not a word for Tommy from Amnesty International or Penn International or Reporters Without Borders, none of those groups, not a word.
Not a word from CNN or the New York Times or even from the BBC or the UK tabloids, nothing.
In the United States, Fox News had a story.
Give them credit.
They called Tommy far right, but let that small insult pass.
At least they reported the story.
Not a peep from the mainstream media other than them.
The Drudge Report made it their top story.
I bet it got a million clicks, including from the UK, where the whole matter is under a publication ban.
The judge who sentenced Tommy made it illegal to report that sentence.
It's not funny, eh?
Banana Republic stuff.
I'm going to sentence you and then ban people from saying I sentenced you.
Donald Trump Jr. tweeted about it too.
He said it's a reason why the United States had a revolution in 1776.
He called that the original Brexit.
Those are good quips, but seriously, I'm glad that someone, anyone, even the son of the president, mentioned the case.
How about an actual elected official though, especially in the UK?
Here's one member of the European Parliament, a UKIP MP or MEP, Gerard Batten, who did, who is speaking out, but that's about it.
No one from the governing Tories, not even the official UKIP party, or what's left of it, other than this MEP.
Gerd Wilders, the Dutch politician who was prosecuted for hate speech in his own country, he spoke out.
As you can see here, he stood in front of the UK embassy in Holland.
Hopefully there will be more protests like it, but so far it's just the margins, not the heart.
There's no prime ministers or presidents speaking out.
And where are all the liberals?
Do you doubt if some liberal citizen journalist were swept off the streets and swept into prison and a gag order put on top?
That this would be international news around the world if it had been Donald Trump who did it or Stephen Hopper who did it to a leftist.
But of course there are different standards.
Do you remember this guy here, Nakula Basili Nakula?
Hard to forget that name.
An American filmmaker originally from the Middle East who made a short YouTube video about Islam.
And Hillary Clinton blamed him and his video for the September 11th, 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.
They said his little YouTube film caused a terrorist attack of 100 terrorists.
No, no, it wasn't Al-Qaeda, you see.
It was this American filmmaker.
Hillary said anything.
Obama said anything to pretend al-Qaeda didn't do it.
And they threw that American filmmaker in jail.
He's a journalist of sorts.
He's a filmmaker.
They threw him in jail.
And yeah, different standards when it's a leftist president who does it.
I spoke several times with Tommy's wife and family and lawyer over the past few days.
It sounds like they still haven't had a chance to meet with Tommy in person.
Can you believe that?
That's an outrage in itself.
His own lawyer, his own family.
I say again, can you tell me in what way Tommy's situation does not qualify him as a political prisoner?
I cannot think of a way, other than we don't normally talk like that about people in the UK or the US and Canada, and yet here we are.
So the family tells me they want to wait until they speak to Tommy before making any decisions on crowdfunding or any other offers of help.
I get it.
They don't have instructions from the key guy.
They're feeling show shocked, and they're surely getting advice from all quarters, from meddlers.
I suppose we are meddlers in a way.
Tommy doesn't work for us anymore.
We have no standing, but we support him morally and we helped give him his start in journalism.
And we still like what he's doing.
We have a track record with him and with helping him in this very exact problem a year ago.
So I offered help and I'll stand down until it's specifically asked of me.
Any crowdfunding sites out there that you see, they are rogue other than Tommy's own website.
Nothing claiming to be for his aid is actually authorized.
But there is one thing we can do, one thing we have a standing to do on our own, without the instruction of Tommy or his family, something that in fact we ought to do and that we can do and not everyone can do, but we can.
And that is challenge this publication ban in court.
You can do it.
Here's the book that tells you how.
It's a guide for UK judges and lawyers.
You can apply to a court to have a publication ban set aside.
Did you know that?
I mentioned before we're based here in North America, obviously.
We're not subject to this ban, obviously.
But our UK sister corporation called Rebel News Network UK Limited, well, it's a UK company and we have 152,000 supporters in the UK.
Did you know that?
And we have staff there too, Katie Hopkins, Jack Buckby, other folks who are our UK sister company has the standing to go to court and to fight against this ban.
It's not in Tommy's name, it's in the name of our UK sister company's right to report and our UK customers' right to know and the general public interest in having open courts with no secret star chambers.
So we're doing that.
We've hired an outstanding lawyer who has worked with us before and worked with Tommy before.
That's him there.
His name is Daniel Burke.
Do you remember him?
He's the lawyer who took the case of Chelsea Wright, the girl from Sunderland who suffered so brutally at the hands of a predator.
I have spoken with Daniel just this morning and he believes this is an important case and he's already working on an emergency application.
He's going to try to lift the publication ban for us and for all other reporters, for everyone.
It's a good job for us to do.
It's shocking that it falls to us, a small independent internet-based news company, to fight for freedom of the press and open courts in the United Kingdom.
Where's the BBC or Sky or any of the tabloids that so love to skewer Tommy when it suits them?
Where are the organizations like Amnesty International or Reporters Without Borders coming to the aid of a citizen journalist who was arrested and sentenced faster than in any dictatorship?
Hours.
Where's Pierce Morgan?
Or is he just happy to have silenced Tommy Robinson for good?
Now, we're going to crowdfund this, as we always do.
We don't have huge budgets like the BBC or Sky or ITV.
If you want to help us crowdfund this court challenge to the gag order, please visit our special website called letusreport.com.
Letusreport.com.
Note that this is separate from Tommy Robinson's own case.
This is simply to pay for challenging the publication ban in the UK.
It's hard to estimate how much it'll cost.
My experience tells me it'll be approximately £20,000.
I'm going to make a video similar to this one and put it on YouTube outside the paywall so that not just our subscribers can know about it.
Right now, Tommy's family and lawyer are still huddling and coming up with a strategy.
Let us give them their space.
But in the meantime, let us go to court to lift the publication ban on this horrific story.
Our UK company has the legal standing.
I truly believe that if the British people learned what happened to Tommy Robinson on Friday, it would awaken within them the instincts of freedom and the rule of law that has been the British heritage since the Magna Carta.
If you want to help crowdfund the legal costs of our emergency appeal, please go to letusreport.com.
There's also a petition there that we're going to deliver next week to the UK Attorney General.
His name is Jeremy Wright.
We're going to demand an investigation into the shocking treatment of Tommy by police and prosecutors.
So sign the petition.
It's something Tommy used to do to great effect in the UK when he worked at the Rebel.
Let's get 100,000 names on the petition demanding an explanation for this high-handed treatment of him.
Tommy did his part.
That's the biggest part.
He paid the biggest price.
I think this one lawsuit is our part.
Please do your part.
Please go to letusreport.com and let the British people know what is happening in their own country.
Thank you.
Tommy's not with our company anymore, but he's still the UK's biggest rebel, don't you think?
And I think we ought to help him, even if that just means getting rid of this publication ban.
Stay with us for more.
Doug Ford Attacks the NDP00:15:03
Well, I tell you, it is such a nail-biter, this Ontario provincial election.
It's been a roller coaster ride ever since Patrick Brown was thrown out the window by his own party a couple months back.
Doug Ford took the leadership another surprise, and he started with a 20-plus-point lead.
But now the momentum is with the New Democrats, terrifyingly.
Well, last night was a key leader's debate on TV.
And joining us now is someone who's been watching this debate extremely closely, our friend Jerry Agar with News Talk 1010, the Jerry Agar show.
Jerry, it's great to see you again.
You too, Ezra.
It's been a while.
Well, thanks for being back.
I tell you, this Ontario election is so important.
We have a lot of viewers in Western Canada, but I know that they understand that if Ontario lurches to the left or comes back a little bit towards sanity, it impacts the whole country.
So this is actually a pretty big deal, even if you're not in Ontario, right?
Well, sure.
It was like watching the Alberta election when, after 43 years, the Conservatives needed a change.
Unfortunately, they went to the NDP.
But here's the thing.
You're right.
The momentum looks to be to the NDP.
That's on popular vote.
But I keep telling people, I don't have a crystal ball, but let's not get caught up like we did on the American election in thinking that because Hillary Clinton had the popular vote in the polls, she was going to win.
The polls were not wrong.
People say, oh, the polls were terrible.
No, they weren't.
She won the popular vote.
But that's not how elections are decided.
Trump won the congressional vote.
And we, of course, are going to do it on seats in writings.
And there's a fascinating poll that they keep track of every day on the CBC, Ezra, where they are making seat projections.
They show the NDP winning the popular vote, the PCs winning a majority government, and a possibility of the liberals being decimated down below party status.
Oh, my God.
Well, I'm very pleased to hear that the fortunes of the Liberals are so dismal, but I am terrified at the prospect of another.
sort of an anybody but the above choosing the NDP.
That really scares me.
Jerry, can I play some clips?
Our producers have selected some clips from last night's debates.
We've got some longer ones, some shorter ones.
I'm going to throw them up there.
You watched this very close last night in real time.
Maybe you can give me your thoughts on a half a dozen clips, okay?
Okay.
Okay.
Let's start with an opening remark with Doug Ford attacking the NDP, which is interesting.
I mean, he knows where his challenger is.
As you say, the Liberals are not even in the game.
Take a look at this, and I'd like your thoughts after this one, Jerry.
Well, you think it's unaffordable now under the Liberals, and it's bad, but it's going to get 10 times worse under the NDP.
We've seen this show before.
We've seen when the NDP were in power that 125,000 people lost their jobs.
Unemployment skyrocketed 28%.
Welfare rates went up.
We had the highest taxes in North America.
My friends, I'm going to reduce your personal income tax by 20%.
I'm going to reduce the gas price per liter by 10 cents a liter.
I'm going to reduce your hydro rates by 12%.
That is true savings.
Jerry, do you think that's connecting with people?
Well, I hope it's connecting with people.
I think people are asking Doug Ford how he's going to afford to do that.
And that's a legitimate question.
But the first part, when he went after the NDP saying it's going to get even worse, here's the evidence.
First of all, even the Premier took Andrea Horvath, the leader of the Ontario NDP, to task when the NDP have made the statement that they would not under any circumstances ever tell a public union they had to go back to work.
And, you know, the others were asking, well, then where's the power of government to do anything about a public union?
At some point, you have to actually care about the people on the other side of the equation, the taxpayers.
Andrea Horvath and the NDP say they would make Ontario a sanctuary province when the city of Toronto is already inundated by illegal immigrants who are coming across irresponsibly, as you've reported so much on the Rebel, into Quebec.
And Justin Trudeau is saying, well, we'll just send them to Toronto.
And she's saying, fine, we'll take them.
Yeah.
Yeah, geez.
Well, you know, I want to play just one more clip from Doug Ford.
We're obviously Ford supporters here.
He's not perfect by any stretch, but I believe he's the guy who could save Ontario from what I fear is like a Detroit-like decline.
Detroit used to be the most wealthy industrial city in America, the highest wage.
It was the place.
And a generation later, it's one of the poorest cities.
I hate to be so depressing, but it can happen that an economic jewel becomes a wasteland.
And I know that sounds shocking, but tell that to Detroiters 50 years ago.
One of the things that really animated the conservative leadership campaign was the carbon tax.
Let me play for you a clip from Doug Ford on the carbon tax.
Jerry, I'd love your thoughts on this.
The people that are most vulnerable people that get hurt.
When they put the carbon tax, the carbon tax jacks up the gas price, the worst tax ever, jacks up the gas prices, but jacks up every single item you buy in the store, and it does nothing for the environment.
They believe in high taxes.
I believe in empowering the people, not empowering the government.
The people can spend their money a lot wiser than the government can.
That's the difference between the NDP, the liberals, and the PCs.
Not really a direct attack on the concept of a carbon tax.
I don't know.
I'm excited by opposing the carbon tax because I think it's something all the fancy elite environmentalists support, but no severely normal person does.
I don't know.
I feel like he wasn't as on fire on that as he should have been.
What's your take?
Well, it was one of the questions that was asked by somebody in the audience who first challenged him.
Do you believe in global warming?
And an important preface to this, Ezra, is that Doug Ford said to the person who asked the question, not only do I believe in global warming, I believe in man-made global warming, but I don't believe in the carbon tax.
It isn't going to do anything other than just take money out of people's pockets.
I mean, you heard what he had to say about it there.
That the important thing was let's not panic ourselves into doing the wrong thing.
You know, Jason Kenny, believe it or not, is taking the same line.
The would-be premier of Alberta, I think Jason Kenney is going to win.
He's saying, I'm not even going to engage on the science.
I think that's a mistake, but these guys, they don't want to get bogged down there.
They would prefer the fight over the carbon tax as opposed to, you know, this ethereal debate about global warming.
Do you think that— I think, Ezra, sorry, I think that there's—I understand why they're doing that.
And they're saying people might listen a little more.
And if we actually go after this and demonstrate to people that the carbon tax won't do what they hope it will.
Lori Goldstein of the Toronto Sun has done many, many, many fabulous columns on this.
I think you can win on the economics and the science of the ineffectiveness of a carbon tax.
I want to talk a little bit more about the NDP because, of course, Andrea Horvath, I think this is her third campaign, if I'm not mistaken, as leader.
And normally opposition leaders don't get that many cracks at it.
But I mean, I'm a fairly new Ontarian, as you know, Jerry, but I'm sort of comfortable with her as a person.
I mean, ideologically, I am totally opposed to the NDP.
But what I detect might happen is that people say, oh, yeah, she seems nice enough.
She seems friendly enough.
Doug Ford, I don't like for this reason.
Kathleen Wynn, I don't like for that reason.
I'll go for the third choice.
And I feel like that's what happened in Alberta.
Let me show you sort of a mashup of Andrea Horvath really trying to get some punches in.
You tell me how you think this went over.
Did this show a level of confidence that voters will like, or do you think this might have taken the shine off Andrea Horvath?
Take a look.
So their plan's out the window.
Mr. Ford, not to say that.
Their plan is actually out the window.
You made a $7 billion mistake.
And the Liberals are cooking the book.
Mr. Ford, in fact, that has approved.
Okay, stand by.
Your child care plan will actually create long, long waiting.
Your child care plan will actually create a long wait list.
Your plan has people paying $2,000 a month for childcare in Toronto.
You're spending $30,000, $50 billion.
Where is your money coming from?
So she was doing a lot of interrupting.
I mean, I know that's not a substantive reason to vote for someone or not, but these things sometimes matter.
It gives people a certain feeling.
Do you think she came across as a tough cookie who's going to hold Doug Ford to account?
Or do you think she came across as a, how do you think that went for her?
I tell you, it didn't actually look that bad to me.
If I was a New Democrat, I would have been probably cheering her.
Well, maybe, but it's not just New Democrats.
She has to win over at this point.
I think she finds herself in this amazing position where she could theoretically be premier.
I don't think that the NDP have thought about that for quite a long time, which I'll get to in just a second because it gives them another problem.
But I thought she seemed incredibly rude, but then I'm not predisposed to support the NDP anyway.
I think if it were flipped around and Doug Ford was interrupting the woman as rudely as she did for 90 minutes last night, that would have been the headline this morning.
But that's the double standard, and I think that Ford understood it and played the game well in that regard.
What I meant by the other comment, Ezra, I'm going on a bit of a tangent here, but I would say to anybody who has decided, oh, that Andrea Horvath seems so nice.
Oh, I don't like that Doug Ford.
We're done with the liberals, so maybe the NDP are a choice.
Look, the NDP may have some good, intelligent, smart people who could lead a government on their roster.
But because they didn't really properly vet a lot of their people, not realizing perhaps that they'd be in this position, you need to look at the particular NDP candidate in your writing because some of them are just anti-Canadian, way out there, fringe, loopy people.
I mean, seriously, loopy people, Ezra.
Yeah, that reminds me of the Alberta NDP.
They were just putting names down on paper because they thought they were going to be sacrificial landers.
Jerry, you've been very generous with your time.
Can I play just two more short clips?
One is exactly what I'm talking about.
There was one of these NDP candidates who, I know this sounds crazy, was posting to social media Hitler memes as in Adolf Hitler.
And the NDP didn't get rid of the candidate here.
Take a quick look.
I want to say straight up that any memes that had anything to do with Hitler is absolutely abhorrent and it's something that I absolutely reject completely.
But Mr. Ford's tabloid mudslinging against my candidates only foments divisiveness and hatred and it has to stop.
It's the wrong thing to do.
I tell you, that's quite a move there, Jerry, to have a candidate posting Hitler memes and to call the other guy hateful and divisive.
But I think she's getting away with it.
I don't know.
Well, you know, I hope not because here's the problem.
She said last night, you heard it on the clip, that she just has no tolerance for that.
Well, I'll give credit to journalist Robin Urbach, who tweeted out right after that.
She says she has no tolerance for it, but she seems to be tolerating the candidate who actually put the meme out.
She's not dumping the candidate.
And by the way, we discussed this this morning on my radio show, and I brought up that point.
And one of the people said, well, it's too late because if you dump that candidate, you've got nobody to replace her.
At this point, if people start giving the thumbs up to Hitler, take the hit and have no candidate in that writing if that's what it takes.
Show some character, Andrea Horvath.
Yeah, I mean, if you're not going to get rid of someone for praising Hitler, I mean, that's pretty low standards.
I know we've really ignored Kathleen Wynne's whole discussion, Jerry, because the polls are so daunting for her.
But let me show you, she took sort of a defiant stance.
And she said, I'm not sorry.
I'm not sorry if you don't like me.
Here, let me play a clip of that and then I'll let you go because you're very generous with your time.
But take a look at this.
So here's what I want to say about the last five years.
Sorry.
Not sorry.
I'm really genuinely sorry that more people don't like me.
But I am not sorry about all of the things that we're doing in Ontario to make life better.
I mean, I guess she's embracing it, Jerry.
She knows that her personal approval rule is very low.
Her name's not on the campaign signs.
She's not even appearing in all her ads.
But maybe she's embracing it, saying, I don't care what you think about me.
It's what I've done that counts.
Again, I mean, I don't want to sound sympathetic to someone who I disagree with on everything, but that's not a bad line to me.
Do you disagree, Jerry?
I do disagree because she has it backward.
I actually think that maybe you and I notwithstanding, I think most people actually don't dislike her.
I think they actually like her.
I think she's gotten away with a tremendous amount because they actually like her.
She's very good at that.
What people have finally decided is they don't like her policies.
They don't like what she's done to this province.
Not for this province, to this province.
I think people have finally figured that out.
So once again, she doesn't really actually understand the people of Ontario properly.
Well, Jerry, you have your finger on the pulse of Ontario better than just about anyone.
I mean, every single day you interact with so many Ontarians on your show, News Talk 1010, Jerry Agar Show.
I believe you have a pulse of this debate and the pulse of this campaign.
And you've given me a little bit of hope when you point to the fact that if you just look at raw numbers, the NDP looks strong.
But if you look at the distribution geographically riding by riding, it's still hopeful for Ford.
I sure hope so because, by God, I've watched what happens in Alberta.
I don't want it to be replayed here.
Jerry, last word to you.
Well, I think that that's the strongest thing that I want to tell people to repeat here is if you are inclined to vote NDP, take a look at what the NDP is offering you.
Because if you end up with a person who has accused the Canadian military of slaughtering women, children, and innocents, you might not be happy with the government you get.
Yeah, and that Sanctuary City point that you mentioned earlier, it is so insane, but I think they mean it.
Jerry, it's great to see you again.
Thanks for coming back on the show.
Me too.
There you go.
Our friend Jerry Agar from News Talk 1010, the Jerry Agar show.
You know, I'm so glad to talk with him because, I mean, I've paid attention to the Ontario campaign.
I'm an Ontarian now transplanted here, I guess, about five years, but I don't have the intimate knowledge of all the wrinkles like our friend Jerry does.
I'm glad he's got a little bit of hope left.
I'm getting nervous.
I mean, Doug Ford's burnt up a 20-point lead.
I hope he can salvage it.
Stay with us.
More ahead on The Rebel.
John Heaney Controversies00:09:07
One of the weirdest things about Rachel Notley's government is how many of the senior staffers are from outside the province of Alberta.
I recall when Rachel Notley first took office there, I think 12 cabinet ministers.
My memory serves.
I think only two of them had chiefs of staff from Alberta.
Imagine that.
10 out of 12 of the most important departments and ministries in the province of Alberta were run by hired mercenaries from outside the province's borders, including Rachel Notley's own Premier's office.
The chief of staff was a lawyer from Toronto who was with an actors union.
He was a labor organizer from Toronto.
In a province of, what, four and a half million people, was there not a single person in the province who was better suited to run her office than him?
I mean, there's not a ton of socialists in Alberta, but don't tell me you couldn't find one Albertan who wanted to serve his or her province, even if they weren't a dyed-in-the-wolf socialist, who would just say, in the interests of patriotism and success, I will go help Premier Notley.
10 out of 12 were, I'm not going to say foreign because they were Canadian, but they were the leftovers, the losers, actually, from failed NDP campaigns in Toronto, in Vancouver, in BC.
All the losers in the NDP came to Alberta to get free jobs.
And one of those losers is named John Heaney.
And joining us now to talk about who John Heaney is and how he's bringing his loser-ness to Alberta.
Is our friend Sheila Gunread, our Alberta Bureau Chief?
Sheila, do I have my stats right about all those out of provisions?
It would just be so weird.
Imagine if 10 out of 12 chiefs of staff in Quebec were from like Calgary.
Or imagine if 10 out of 12 chiefs of staff to the BC government came from like Newfoundland.
People would say, yeah, good people, but shouldn't we represent our own province rather than having like a colonial governor?
It's just weird.
It is weird.
And this story with John Heaney is even weirder because you mentioned Brian Topp there, so Toronto-based socialist who came to be Rachel Notley's chief of staff.
When Brian Topp left, then John Heaney came on the scene.
And John Heaney is from BC.
He worked for the NDP there.
Actually, he's known as a close friend of Premier John Horgan.
He was John Horgan's chief of staff when John Horgan was sitting as the leader of the opposition.
And he was also John Horgan's former business partner in his lobbying firm.
Now, John Heaney was Rachel Notley's chief of staff, and then he sort of left suddenly last August, saying that he had to go back to BC because he wanted to spend more time with his family.
While the sordid tale goes on, that John Heaney only left for two months.
He was back already working in Alberta in October of 2017.
So he wanted to see his family, but not any longer than two months.
And then he came right back here.
And while he was working for the Alberta government, he was also actively lobbying in British Columbia.
He was working as a registered lobbyist in British Columbia, lobbying the NDP government there while on the payroll in Alberta.
And even sneakier and slimier, Rachel Notley hid his employment from the population of Alberta.
He was not listed as a government worker on our government employee website.
He wasn't on there at all.
And he was only confirmed finally by the energy minister spokesperson to have been working in Alberta at the beginning of May.
And it was confirmed that he was actually rehired back in October of last year.
How does that happen?
I mean, to be a chief of staff or to be a senior staffer for a government, but you have a gig on the side that is political.
Like I guess if you had like a local bakery or something, I don't think there would be a problem.
But if your business is lobbying the BC government for private clients while representing the Alberta government, which has a big feud with the BC government, that you're lobbying for private clients, how is that even legal, let alone how did that pass anyone's gut check for being ethical?
And the fact that you say they hid it, obviously it didn't pass their gut check, but they said, well, you know, we all got to get paid while we can because we're all going to be fired in a year and a half.
This sounds crazy.
It gets crazier, Ezra, because there's another level to this story.
This isn't the first time that John Heaney has done this.
In 2007, he was a lawyer who was retained by the NDP in BC.
And so he was working for the NDP as a lawyer when they were sitting in opposition.
And he was also, again, a registered lobbyist in British Columbia.
Now, those two things are not in contravention to the law.
What happened to end up in contravention of the law in 2007 was that John Heaney did what he always does and tries to line his pockets twice.
And he lobbied the NDP opposition critic on behalf of his client, which was a generic drug manufacturer.
He lobbied Adrian Dix, who happened to be the NDP health critic.
So he's working for the NDP, taking money for them, and then sort of peddling his influence to his clients as a lobbyist and then lobbying the NDP health critic.
So this is something that he's always done.
It's something that Rachel Notley has had to have known that he was, that he's done in the past.
And she hid his employment from the Alberta people because she knew he was doing this again.
And I know she knew he was doing this again because Rachel Notley's spokesperson, Cheryl Oates, admitted that they knew he was doing it, but it was fine because he has an exemption.
I got to tell you, that just sounds crooked.
I mean, what you said before that he was a lawyer for the NDP.
So, I mean, I used to work as a lawyer a long time ago.
You have a loyalty to your client and you have to disclose things and your interests are to your client.
For him at the same time to lobby his client on behalf of someone else paying him, that feels like he was being paid by both sides of a deal.
That is so not kosher.
And the fact that he's still, that he's being paid by someone to lobby the BC government while he's being paid by the Alberta government.
I'm sorry, I don't like saying the word crooked because crooked really implies you're breaking some rules.
But this sounds crooked, crooked, crooked.
I guess in that way, Sheila, he's a perfect fit for the NDP.
He really is.
And, you know, just by nature of Rachel Notley hiding his employment from the public, she knows that this wouldn't pass the smell test either.
But that's not even where John Heaney's troubles end.
In November of 2017, an investigation was opened by the Privacy Commissioner into something that he had done in October 20, or in October of 2016.
So like a year prior, he was found to have been meddled in, meddling in freedom of information requests.
He asked Service Alberta, according to an email released by the UCPP, he asked Service Alberta to change the information that they would be releasing in these freedom of information requests.
So when the news broke that John Heaney was under investigation for things that he had done during the time that he had worked in the Premier's office, he was already working back at the government, but none of the media knew.
And the Alberta government was answering questions about John Heaney as though he was no longer employed with them.
But he was, and they were just misleading everybody from start to finish.
Sheila, you called their number two years ago in your number one best-selling book called TheDestroyers.ca.
By the way, that book is still available.
I was just on the website the other day, thedestroyers.ca.
It was ahead of its time, and I regret that because it was a premonition.
It was like, you know, that mythical character, Cassandra, warning everybody, warning, warning, warning, and no one listened.
But they're listening now, aren't they?
This NDP has brought Alberta to its knees.
I'm counting the days till they're thrown into the dustbin of history.
I cannot wait until they're relegated to the fringe party status that they so rightly deserve.
I think that John Heaney might deserve some extra sanctions.
I truly believe his conduct needs to be investigated because I think it goes beyond bad taste and bad judgment.
Breaking Rules Predictions00:02:59
I think it goes to breaking rules.
I won't say more until I have that's of a more criminal nature.
Sheila, great to see you.
Thanks for bringing us the facts.
Thanks, Ezra.
All right.
What do you think of that, eh?
Holy cow.
Sheila Gunreen, our Alberta Bureau Chief.
Stay with us.
There's more ahead on The Rebel.
Hey, welcome back on my monologue Friday about Tommy Robinson.
Carol writes, the judge that sentenced Tommy is a shame to humanity.
We are way too polite and docile in the West, while the five Ps are destroying everything, including human rights.
We have to rebel before it becomes a bloodbath.
Thank you, Carol.
The five Ps that Daniel Pipes described are the police, the prosecutors, the press, the politicians, and the professors.
And sometimes, Daniel Pipes adds the priests.
Yeah, and this absolutely, absolutely is part of it.
The official people are not on our side anymore.
James writes, how can this be possible?
It goes against everything we know as a Western democracy.
What happens to the right to defend yourself in court?
The right to have your own lawyer, innocent until proven guilty.
This is truly scary.
Well, that's the thing.
I remember last time when they raided Tommy's home at 4 a.m., I was shocked by that.
I was shocked by how quick it went.
But we were able to muster lawyers to get Tommy home that night, and we were able to give our lawyers a few weeks to prepare.
That didn't happen here at all, and that is wrong.
Paul writes, this is now the normal in Soviet Britain.
They protect pedophiles and sexual predators and imprison those who call them out.
The rule of law exists at the whim of the political class.
Yes, and I know I've talked about the classism in the UK before.
And you know what?
Here in North America, we are blessed to be free of classism.
I mean, people don't look down on you if you are a rags to riches story.
And that's sort of the American dream.
And I think it's a bit of the Canadian dream, too.
So many people come here low class and they work hard and they make their way up.
And no one says you can't do that.
You're nouveau riche.
Like there's none of that stratified sedimentary system in the UK.
I mean, in Canada, people almost, I mean, it's two ways.
If someone started poor and made their way up, I think they earn the respect of people, don't they?
That's my observation.
And if someone really made it, I think a lot of people say, wow, I want to do that too.
Like, there's not a hatred of wealth by working classes, I don't think generally, other than the NDP.
And I don't think there's a despise and a contempt for people who start off in working classes.
So I think there's a real mobility.
I really believe that in Canada, don't you?
It's not that way in the UK.
And it was shocking to me, and that's one of the things it took me a year to learn with Tommy, is that the people who are the victims of these rape gangs, of these predators, they are, to quote Morrissey, they are nobody's nothings.
They are poor, white, working-class girls that no one gives a damn about.
They don't have friends in parliament, don't have rich lawyers, don't have friends in the media.
12 Noon YouTube Chat00:00:55
They're not connected.
And so no one cares.
What they care more about is, oh, well, I'd be called a racist if I do anything.
That is what Tommy stood athwart.
And that is why I think he had so much courage.
His family doesn't want our help for their personal affairs right now.
That's fine.
We're going to do this gag order, letusreport.com project, and hopefully we'll have some success there.
I'm going to keep you posted on this story.
I'm not going to do my monologue every single day about it.
But I don't know if you know, but at 12 noon every day, I do a live chat on YouTube.