Ezra Levant’s episode contrasts the Republican National Convention’s unfiltered Trump speeches—ignored by CBC, Toronto Star, and Globe—with mainstream media’s selective coverage, citing 37M viewers vs. Democrats’ 12M. Guests like Mark McCloskey (charged for defending home against protesters) and Herschel Walker (rejecting Trump’s racism claims) highlight Democratic radicalism and declining black support. Tim Scott and Maximo Alvarez critique Biden’s policies on crime and socialism, framing Trump as a protector of minority freedoms. Nick Sandman’s defamation lawsuit reveals media bias, while Rebel News’ Alberta accreditation victory exposes Post Media’s anti-competitive "clique" behavior, forcing shared access. The episode questions CBC’s partisan ties and suggests media gatekeeping undermines public trust in political narratives. [Automatically generated summary]
Today I show you five excerpts from the Republican convention that's nominating Donald Trump.
It's really the party's last chance to put on an official show for the country before the campaign heats up full tilt after Labor Day.
The Democrats had theirs a few days ago.
I'm going to show you five clips from the Republican convention, each of which tells a bit of a story about Trump's party.
And obviously, you know where I'm going with this.
Did you see any of this on the mainstream media?
Hey, before I get to the podcast, let me invite you to see the video version, which you can do by becoming a subscriber to what we call Rebel News Plus.
It's $8 a month.
You get the daily Ezra Levant show, which is a video of this podcast.
Plus, every week, David Menzies and Sheila Gunreed do a video too.
So you get a lot for your money.
You get seven shows a week, plus the satisfaction of knowing that you help keep the Rebels strong.
It's just $8 a month or $80 if you buy a whole year in advance.
And you can get that by clicking subscribe at rebelnews.com.
All right, here's the podcast.
Tonight, a side of Donald Trump and the Republican Party that you'll never see on the CBC.
It's August 26th, and this is 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.
The only thing I have to say is government don't want to publish is because it's my bloody right to do so.
You know, it's good to watch the mainstream media just to see what the official narrative is.
But if that's all you saw, well, that wouldn't be enough.
You would need to see the other side of the story.
That's our motto here at Rebel News.
And with Donald Trump, he's providing so much content directly to the people.
It's a way for people to get around the middleman of the media.
It was one of the ways that Trump won in 2016.
He had huge stadium-sized rallies where people could listen to Trump for one, two, three hours at a time directly.
They would hear more from the candidate, hear him make jokes, hear him talk about serious issues in that day than they would likely hear through the media over the course of a whole campaign.
And of course, it would leave a deep mark on them.
Besides stadium rallies, of course, Trump relied on the internet, not only using it masterfully in his own campaign, but there was a whole army of YouTubers and Twitterers who became sort of a volunteer army for Trump.
That's why after the 2016 election, social media companies cracked down on conservative sites, including ours, throttling us and cutting back our advertising, because they knew we magnified Trump's message.
Well, Trump is generally cut away from by, for example, CNN whenever he's giving a speech.
They don't want to let people have access to him directly.
But for the past few days, the Republican National Convention, where they formally nominate Trump to be the Republican candidate for the presidential election, they've been having their convention, just like the Democrats did with Joe Biden a few days earlier.
Early audience ratings show that the Republican show, because it is a show in this era of pandemic social distancing, it's largely made for TV.
Well, the Republican show has, according to one measurement I read, six times the viewership of the Democrats, indicating more energy and more interest in the Republicans than the Democrats.
But more important than just the quantity is the quality.
The chance to hear Trump and his team describe themselves in their own words rather than simply reacting to the questions that CNN and the New York Times think are important.
I want to show you five short videos from the Republican convention that if you're online and actively searching for the other side of the story, you may have seen these.
But if you're one of millions of Canadians who relies on the media party, on the CBC, on the, God forbid, Toronto Star to tell you what's going on, you'll never have seen these.
None of these are by Donald Trump or his family, all of whom spoke at the convention.
These are all by different elements in the Trump campaign.
I want to play them for you, not all the way through, that would be too long, but I want to give you a real taste of these different messages, so completely different to the media narrative out there.
I watched these and other videos, and it gave me great encouragement that Trump is talking about things and the campaign is focusing on things that will make a real difference.
And that the crazy anti-fove Black Lives Matter nightly riots in Democrat-controlled cities, well, that's probably a losing campaign narrative.
In fact, I see CNN starting to panic that people don't like the nightly riots and the daily threats not to open school up after the pandemic.
Without further ado, let me show you excerpts from five videos from the Republican Convention that I think are of interest.
The first, well, you probably met this couple the same way I did, seeing them panicky outside their lovely home in St. Louis with their own firearms defending their house against a mob there to burn it down.
Take a listen to Mark and Patricia McCloskey.
Good evening, America.
We are Mark and Patty McCloskey.
We're speaking to you tonight from St. Louis, Missouri, where just weeks ago you may have seen us defending our home as a mob of protesters descended on our neighborhood.
America is such a great country that not only do you have the right to own a gun and use it to defend yourself, but thousands of Americans will offer you free advice on how to use it.
At least that's what we experienced.
What you saw happen to us could just as easily happen to any of you who are watching from quiet neighborhoods around our country.
And that's what we want to speak to you about tonight.
That's exactly right.
Whether it's the defunding of police, ending cash bail so criminals can be released back out on the streets the same day to riot again, or encouraging anarchy and chaos on our streets.
It seems as if the Democrats no longer view the government's job as protecting honest citizens from criminals, but rather protecting criminals from honest citizens.
Not a single person in the out-of-control mob you saw at our house was charged with a crime.
But you know who was?
We were.
They've actually charged us with felonies for daring to defend our home.
On top of that, consider this.
The Marxist liberal activist leading the mob to our neighborhood stood outside our home with a bullhorn screaming, you can't stop the revolution.
Just weeks later, that same Marxist activist won the Democrat nomination to hold a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In the city of St. Louis, that's the same as winning the general election.
That Marxist revolutionary is now going to be the congresswoman from the 1st District of Missouri.
These radicals are not content with marching in the streets.
They want to walk the halls of Congress.
They want to take over.
They want power.
This is Joe Biden's party.
These are the people who will be in charge of your future and the future of your children.
They're not satisfied with spreading the chaos and violence into our communities.
They want to abolish the suburbs altogether by ending single-family home zoning.
This forced rezoning would bring crime, lawlessness, and low-quality apartments into now thriving suburban neighborhoods.
President Trump smartly ended this government overreach, but Joe Biden wants to bring it back.
These are the policies that are coming to a neighborhood near you.
So make no mistake, no matter where you live, your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats America.
Growing Up Black in the South00:10:17
Even inviting this couple to come and present, well, that's a very important statement in itself, isn't it?
That Trump is not going to leave people like this behind, not going to abandon them.
And in fact, they were the morally superior ones, not the local DA who actually charged them.
And it's a very good point.
If you think these riots only happen downtown, well, they start downtown, but this couple lived in the burbs.
They'll come for you one day.
Well, let me switch gears completely now.
Donald Trump, before he became the Republican candidate in 2015-16 is when he was nominated.
He was extremely popular with the celebrity circuit, the TV circuit, with other rich and famous people.
He was the owner of the, I think it was the Miss America pageant.
He had a famous TV show, The Apprentice.
And of course, living in New York, he met people of all different backgrounds.
And being in the entertainment field, he knew probably a disproportionate number of African Americans.
And he became real friends with people of every background.
I mean, when you're in New York, you meet a lot of minorities.
He became true friends with them.
And in fact, Donald Trump and his name, well, they were referenced in dozens of rap songs because Trump was held to be an icon of make it big, make it flashy in the black entertainment circles until he came out as a Republican.
Well, not everyone dropped him because Hillary Clinton said so, because Joe Biden said, you ain't black if you're for Trump.
Here's Herschel Walker, a football great, talking about his personal friendship with Trump, Trump's elbows up style, and the odd reference to something the Democrats never talk about, Christianity.
Take a listen.
I'm not an actor, a singer, or a politician.
I'm Herschel Walker.
Most of you know me as a football player, but I'm also a father, a man of faith, and a very good judge of character.
I've known Donald Trump for 37 years, and I don't mean just casual ran into him from time to time.
I'm talking about a deep personal friendship.
I watched him as an owner of a professional football team.
Right after he bought the team, he set out to learn.
He learned about the history of the team, the players, the coaches, every detail.
Then he used what he learned to make the team better.
I watched him in the boardroom.
He can be in the middle of a big meeting, but if one of the kids was on the phone, he dropped everything to take the call.
He taught me that the family should be your top priority.
I watched him treat janitors, security guards, and waiters the same way you would treat a VIP.
He made them feel special because he knew they were.
He understands that they are the people who make this country run.
They clean, they cook, they bill, they drive, they deliver.
He told me, Herschel, make an effort to get to know people.
Remember their names.
That stuck with me.
One time, I planned to take his kids to Disney World with my family.
At the last minute, Donald said he'd like to join us.
So there he was in a business suit on Is a Small World Ride.
That was something to see.
It just shows you what a caring, loving father he is.
It hurt my soul to hear the terrible names that people call Donald.
The worst one is racist.
I take it as a personal insult that people would think I've had a 37-year friendship with the races.
People who think that don't know what they're talking about.
Growing up in the deep South, I've seen racism up close.
I know what it is, and it isn't Donald Trump.
Just because someone loves and respects the flag, our national anthem, and our country, doesn't mean they don't care about social justice.
I care about all those things.
So does Donald Trump.
He shows how much he cares about social justice in the black community through his actions.
And his actions speaks louder than stickers or slogans on a jersey.
He keeps right on fighting to improve the lives of black Americans and all Americans.
He worked night and day.
He never stops.
He leaves nothing on the field.
Some people don't like his style, the way he knocks down obstacles that get in the way of his goals.
People on the opposing team didn't like when I ran over them either.
But that's how you get the job done.
I pray every night that God gives him more time.
Give him four more years.
He has accomplished so much almost all by himself on a constant attack.
But there's still more work to be done.
If you love America and want to make it better, Donald Trump is your president.
He's my president, and I'm blessed to call him friend.
It's true there aren't a lot of black senators in the United States on either party, but there are some, and they're not all Democrats.
That's something that particularly irks the Democrats because they've traditionally counted on 80 to 90 percent support from African Americans.
That number reached well over 90 percent when Barack Obama was the candidate.
But it looks like it's sagging first under Hillary Clinton and then under Joe Biden.
What if a Blexit really happens?
That's the phrase that Candace Owens and others give it to blacks simply choosing not to stay Democrat for a variety of reasons.
Maybe they're conservative.
Maybe they think we're taken for granted by the Democrats.
Or maybe they just ask, what have you done for us lately?
Some black voters even remember that it was the Democrats who were the party of slavery and the great emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, well, he was a Republican.
There were no slave owners in the Republican Party.
It was the party of abolition, the party of the KKK.
That's the Democrats.
Well, here's Tim Scott, the junior United States Senator for South Carolina, explaining why he's black and he's voting for Trump.
Good evening.
I'm Senator Tim Scott from the great state of South Carolina.
To all of you tuning in and participating in the political process, God bless you.
This isn't how I picture tonight, but our country is experiencing something none of us envisioned.
From a global pandemic to the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, 2020 has tested our nation in ways we haven't seen for decades.
But regardless of the challenges presented to us, every four years, Americans come together to vote, to share stories of what makes our nation strong and the lessons we have learned that can strengthen it for further generations.
After starting my small business and spending some time in local government, I decided to run for Congress in 2010.
The district is based in Charleston, South Carolina, where the Civil War started, against a son of our legendary senator, Strom Thurmond.
You may be asking yourself, how does a poor black kid from a single-parent household run and win in a race crowded with Republicans against a Thurman?
Because of the evolution of the Southern heart.
In an overwhelmingly white district, the voters judge me not on the color of my skin, but on the content of my character.
We live in a world that only wants you to believe in the bad news, racially, economically, and culturally polarizing news.
The truth is, our nation's arc always bends back towards fairness.
We are not fully where we want to be, but I thank God Almighty, we are not where we used to be.
We are always striving to be better.
When we stumble, and we will, we pick ourselves back up and try again.
So, I'm going to ask you, the American people, not to simply look at what the candidates say, but to look back at what they've done.
This election is about your future, and it is critical to paint a full picture of the records of Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Joe Biden said if a black man didn't vote for him, he wasn't truly black.
Joe Biden said black people are a monolithic community.
It was Joe Biden who said poor kids can be just as smart as white kids.
And while his words are one thing, his actions take it to a whole new level.
In 1994, Biden led the charge on a crime bill that put millions of black Americans behind bars.
President Trump's criminal justice reform law fixed many of the disparities Biden created and made our system more fair and just for all Americans.
Joe Biden also failed our nation's historically black colleges and universities, heaping blame on them as they fought to ensure our young folks had access to higher education.
Once again, to clean up Joe Biden's mess, President Trump signed into law historically high funding for HBCUs, as well as a bill to give them permanent funding for the first time ever.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris want a cultural revolution, a fundamentally different America.
If we let them, they will turn our country into a socialist utopia.
And history has taught us that path only leads to pain and misery, especially for hardworking people hoping to rise.
Instead, we must focus on the promise of the American journey.
Fleeing Communism00:06:58
I know that journey well.
My grandfather's 99th birthday would have been tomorrow.
Growing up, he had to cross the street if a white person was coming.
He suffered the indignity of being forced out of school as a third grader to pick cotton, and he never learned to read or write.
Yet, he lived long enough to see his grandson become the first African American to be elected to both the United States House and the United States Senate in the history of this country.
Our family went from cotton to Congress in one lifetime.
And that's why I believe the next American century can be better than the last.
There are millions of families just like mine all across this nation full of potential seeking to live the American dream.
And I'm here tonight to tell you that supporting the Republican ticket gives you the best chance of making that dream a reality.
God bless you.
And Father, please continue blessing the United States of America.
This next one, you know what, I don't regard myself as overly sentimental.
Maybe I am.
Actually, maybe I'm very sentimental.
I don't know.
You tell me.
But politicians, I don't usually buy into their sentimentality.
I find it fake.
I find it theatrical.
But this next speaker, he's clearly not a politician.
And I have to say, although I had never heard of him or seen him before, when he choked up, I choked up a little bit.
I didn't mean to.
I'm not American.
I'm not Floridian.
I'm not Cuban.
But his story was so passionate and the man was speaking from the heart, I couldn't help myself.
I choked up a little bit too.
Will you listen to Maximo Alvarez telling his story of freedom?
Hello, my name is Maximo Alvarez.
I live in Miami, Florida, not far from the Strait of Florida, which isn't just a 90-mile wide blue strip on a map for me.
It divides freedom from fear.
It divides the past from the present, from the future.
I know all about the past.
I'll never forget my own.
My family has fled totalitarianism and communism more than once.
First my dad from Spain, then from Cuba.
But my family is done running away.
By the grace of God, I live the American dream, the greatest blessing I ever had.
My dad, who only had a sixth-grade education, told me, don't lose this place.
You will never be as a law against me.
I'm speaking to you today because my family is done abandoning what we rightfully earned.
There's no place to hide.
I'm speaking to you today because President Trump may not always be politically correct.
He's in fact a successful businessman, your average Korean politician.
Our president is just another family man, a friend, and most important, our elected commander-in-chief who puts America first.
I heard the promises of Fidel Castro, and I can never forget all those who grew up around me, who look like me, who suffered and starved and died because they believed those empty promises.
They swallowed the communist poison pill.
If you have a chance, go to the Freedom Tower in Miami.
Stop and listen.
You can still hear the sounds of those broken promises.
It is the sound of waves in the ocean carrying families clinging to pieces of wood.
Families with children who can swim, but willing to risk everything to reach this blessed land.
It is the sound of tears hitting the paper of an application to become an American citizen.
Most heard and liked the promises.
But soon after, they experience the reality.
Look at them.
Listen to them.
Learn the truth.
Those false promises spread the wealth.
Free education, free health care.
Defund the police.
Trust the socialist state more than your family and your community.
They don't sound radical to my ears.
They sound familiar.
When Fidel Castro was asked if he was a communist, he said he was a Roman Catholic.
He knew he had to hide the truth.
But the country I was born in is gone, totally destroyed.
When I watch the news in Seattle, Chicago, Portland, and other cities, when I see the history being rewritten, when I hear the promises, I've heard echoes, I've hear echoes of the former life I never wanted to hear again.
I see shadows.
I thought I had outrun.
I may be a Cuban-born, but I am 100% American.
This is the greatest country in the world.
And I said this before.
If I gave away everything that I have today, it would not equal 1% of what I was given when I came to this great country of ours.
The gift of freedom.
Right now, it is up to us to decide our fate and to choose freedom over oppression.
President Trump is fighting the forces of anarchy and communism.
Face to Face with Protesters00:05:30
And I know he will continue to do just that.
And what about his opponent and the rest of the TC swamp?
I have no doubt they will hand the country over to those dangerous forces.
You and I will decide.
And here's what I've decided.
My decision is very easy.
I choose President Trump because I choose America.
I choose freedom.
I'm still here, my dad, there is no other place to go.
Thank you, and may the good Lord bless America.
I'm sorry I found that touching.
I just did.
And I hope that Hispanic Americans listen to that message of freedom and not Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's message of socialism and communism.
Well, there was one more speaker, and again, it's a dramatic choice to make him a speaker, isn't it?
His name is Nick Sandman, and he's just a teenager.
He was the teen who was on a school trip to Washington, D.C., normally a highlight of one's high school career.
And he was waiting for the buses to take them all home.
They were waiting at the Lincoln Memorial.
And there was a group of radical activists there, radical black activists, radical aboriginal activists, and one came right up to his face and banged the drum inches from his nose.
He froze, not wanting to provoke the man, kept his hands behind his back, and just did his best to smile.
Well, he became the enemy to the media.
That smile was called a smirk.
And because he had a Make America Great Again hat on, well, he became a proxy, a piñata for every media pundit and activist to smash, saying that he was the one who engaged in some racist taunt.
Well, don't take it from me.
Listen to Nick Sandman himself talk about cancel culture and worse, the media that perpetrates it.
Good evening, everyone.
My name is Nick Sandman, and I'm the teenager who was defamed by the media after an encounter with a group of protesters on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial last year.
Before I begin, I'd like to thank President Trump for the opportunity to share some of my story and why it matters so much to this November's election.
In 2019, I attended the March for Life in Washington, D.C., where I demonstrated in defense of the unborn.
Later that day, I bought a Make America Great Again hat because our president, Donald Trump, has distinguished himself as one of the most pro-life presidents in the history of our country, and I wanted to express my support for him too.
Looking back now, how could I possibly imagine that the simple act of putting on that red hat would unleash hate from the left and make myself the target of network and cable news networks nationwide?
Being from Kentucky, the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, my classmates and I visited the Lincoln Memorial.
I found myself face to face with Nathan Phillips and other professional protesters looking to turn me into the latest poster child showing why Trump is bad.
While the media portrayed me as an aggressor with a relentless smirk on my face, in reality, the video confirms I was standing with my hands behind my back and an awkward smile on my face that hid two thoughts.
One, don't do anything that might further agitate the man banging a drum in my face.
And two, I was trying to follow a family friend's advice, never to do anything to embarrass your family, your school, or your community.
Before I knew what was happening, it was over.
One of Mr. Phillips' fellow agitators yelled up.
We got him.
It's all right here on video.
And we won, Grandpa.
What I thought was a strange encounter quickly developed into a major news story complete with video footage.
My life changed forever in that one moment.
The full war machine of the mainstream media revved up into attack mode.
They did so without researching the full video of the incident, without ever investigating Mr. Phillips' motives, or without ever asking me for my side of the story.
And do you know why?
Because the truth was not important.
Advancing their anti-Christian, anti-conservative, anti-Donald Trump narrative was all that mattered.
And if advancing their narrative ruined the reputation and future of a teenager from Covington, Kentucky, well, so be it.
That would teach him not to wear a mega hat.
Well, I don't know if you know this, but Nick Sandman sued a number of media companies.
Some have already settled with him.
The terms of the settlement are confidential, but there were massive lawsuits.
And given the bad faith with which the media acted, it wouldn't surprise me if Nick Sandman, well, his college is probably paid for.
Well, that's a review of the Republican Convention.
Why Some Media Avoid Nick Sandman Clips00:11:14
Let me ask you, did you see any of those, even five or ten seconds of those clips, on the CBC or in the Globe and Mail or the Toronto Star?
No?
Yeah.
I didn't think so.
Imagine what else they're not showing you.
Stay with us for more.
My friends, our business here at Rebel News, well, you can see it right in the name.
It's to tell you the news, to share with you our opinions on the news and sometimes to make a difference in the world.
We call that activism.
But our main job of doing journalism is often impeded these days by obstacles, sometimes rioters and antifootypes.
We have to hire security guards to get around them.
Sometimes, though, the censorship comes not through a fist, but through the inappropriate and illegal conduct of some sort of government official.
You might recall that a year ago, we had to go to court and get an emergency injunction to command that Justin Trudeau's hand-picked elections debates commission allowed two rebel reporters in.
We're currently suing that commission, as well as Justin Trudeau's Privy Council office for keeping us out of his daily scrums in Ottawa.
Well, we've had similar battles, believe it or not, in the province of Alberta.
You might recall that several years ago, Rachel Notley, the socialist premier at the time, literally sent an armed sheriff to block our chief reporter, Sheila Gonread, from attending the people's legislature.
They backed down after national ridicule, but just about a month ago or so, we applied to join the Alberta Legislature Press Gallery.
Just a formality.
We didn't want to really join the club.
We just needed the club's power to give us a security pass.
For some bizarre reason, the sergeant-at-arms and the speaker of the legislature had delegated that security pass to our competitors, our rivals in this teeny tiny club.
And they rejected us.
Well, we went nuclear.
We had a big media campaign.
We fired off legal demand letters and we started a campaign called Cancel the Post, telling our viewers that, well, the National Post isn't the paper you thought it once was.
Now, it's in the censorship business.
I say that because the president of the press gallery at the time, Tyler Dawson, was a reporter for the National Post.
He was the one who told us we were banned.
Well, we've been working behind the scenes since we filed that lawsuit demand, and a few things have happened.
The National Post realizes it made a terrible error, commanded all of its reporters to quit that legislative press gallery.
And look at this.
Look who joins us now from the steps outside the Alberta legislature on this gorgeous August afternoon.
My friends, the aforementioned Sheila Gonread and Kian Bexte, how are you two doing today?
We're great.
The city is a little more free because we are officially allowed back in that building behind us.
We had a meeting with the sergeant at arms today who said that he would grant us some form of media access, the same access to work inside the building as the other journalists who do work here, despite post-media's attempts to censor us.
Yeah, it'll be separate from the press gallery, but equal.
Separate but equal.
I've heard that before.
In this case, the bigots are with the old press gallery.
I call them bigoted because without explanation, without any due process, they simply banned the two of you for what I presume is a difference of opinion.
They're CBC, CTV, post-media types, and we don't do that.
We don't take government money like the aforementioned do.
So they were, I'm not even going to say mean.
I don't care if they're mean to us.
They literally banned you guys from the right to do your job.
Tell me a little bit.
Want you to give away confidences, and it sounds like you had a very exciting meeting with the sergeant-at-arms.
Is there anything from that meeting you feel you can share with our viewers that won't compromise your relationship with the speaker and the sergeant-at-arms?
What I can tell you is that they have assured us that they see the independence of the media in Alberta as of the utmost importance, and they are going to do what they can to protect it and to foster it.
And that's why they've allowed us to work in the legislature without joining the official censorious press galleries.
Because Kian and I really were banned in what I would say was a secret witch trial one afternoon.
We didn't even know that they were voting on our membership until they declined our membership for really no reason.
Then our competitors just didn't want us there because they want to protect their exclusive access to the politicians in the building behind us.
Yeah, that's what's crazy.
The idea that journalists who are our rivals, our competitors, would have the power to say, Yeah, you guys are not even allowed to walk into the legislature to talk to Jason Kenney, Rachel Notley, what the idea that our competitors could stop us from working is so weird.
It's like some medieval guild or some strange cartel.
And that's basically what our lawsuit threat to post media was because when they bought up all the papers in Canada, they made a bunch of legal promises to the Competition Bureau that they would not behave like this, they would not engage in anti-competitive conduct.
So it sounds to me now.
You correct me if I'm wrong here.
I wasn't at the meeting with you.
It sounds to me like the speaker of the legislature, through his delegate, the sergeant-at-arms, has basically said, All right, we're not disbanding the press gallery.
We're giving you the same rights that you would have if you were in there.
So we're just directly accrediting you.
Is that right?
So they're not banning or shutting down the old press gallery.
They're just saying that's one way in, but you can talk to us directly and we'll get you the security passes and what do you have access to to office space or other things there, Wi-Fi, stuff like that?
Yeah, they're working at getting a certain office space.
What they're doing here is they're subverting the press gallery.
They're kneecapping it basically and stopping their official monopoly on the space, which they've had for decades.
Now the rules for accrediting journalists are completely different.
You don't have to be a member of the press gallery.
We are going directly to the source, the people who are tenants of this building, tenants of the Minister of Infrastructure, which is the Speaker of the House, has given us through the Sergeant at Arms.
This is big, convoluted web, has given us these press passes that we walk in and we do what we need to do to cover the story of the day.
There are certain places where we're allowed to be, certain places where we're not allowed to be, certain rules we have to follow, but it's the same rules that everyone else has to follow.
And that's all we want.
So basically, they've taken away the monopoly that was granted to this little club because they were abusing it.
They were being like a mean girls clique in high school.
Oh, you're not cool.
So you can't join.
They were basically acting like it was their power, like the legislature was their property as opposed to the property of the people.
Well, yeah, and there's a great irony in this because post media, because their on-the-ground reporter Tyler Dawson, who's the head of the press gallery here in Alberta, held the secret witch trial for us.
Post media then, in response to that, withdrew all of their reporters from the press gallery.
And post media controls, I would suggest, probably 75% of the media in Alberta.
But now because post media is no longer a member of the press gallery either, guess who they get to sit with in the legislature?
Guess who they share office space with?
They tried to keep Kean and I out and now they're probably going to have to share office space with us.
So there's great irony in that and I'm really enjoying that.
I can't wait to share a desk with Tyler Dawson.
I've heard that Tyler Dawson and the other post media reporters were specifically ordered by their corporate head office to shut up about being censors.
They just couldn't help themselves when they were on their own, but they so embarrassed the company and exposed their company to Competition Act litigation that they've not only been told to quit that little mean girls club, but they've been told not to utter a peep about it in public.
I wonder if they'll be able to behave themselves when they see you in those offices there.
Listen, I'm so proud of you guys being accredited by the legislature directly.
Do you guys have like a pass or a card?
Did you get anything that you could sort of hold up?
I know that we're all members of the Independent Press Gallery, the second largest press gallery in Canada, the one that Candice Malcolm set up.
But did you get anything like a card or a pass today?
Yeah, we'll send the producer a photo that he can put up on the screen right here.
This is the press pass that was given to us by the sergeant at arms and the security staff, the sheriffs that are in the area, they recognize this badge and it gives us the power to come in and out of the building as we need and specifically and most importantly to stand in the hallway outside of the premier's office and in the rotunda where press conferences happen and where members of cabinet pass in and out of as they go into the actual house,
the legislature, while they'll vote on things, will do what they call ins, which is a much more polite version of what I do when I chase Anne McGrath down a suburban street.
You know, they'll be in a very specific spot.
It'll be very cordial and I'm really excited for that.
It's going to be sort of like turning over a new leaf because those tactics of finding people where they're not expecting you and jumping out behind a potted plant, as Sheila said earlier today, we do that because we have to, because we're relegated to the sidelines and we can't get this kind of access.
We'll be in very specific spots where they'll know we're going to be there, but we're still going to ask those same questions that nobody else is asking, that the mainstream media certainly is.
And let me just finish by saying we will continue to be on our best behavior when we're at these things, because despite what the mainstream media and our competitors would have you believe, Keen and I always act very professionally when we're at press conferences, when we're at debates, when we are reporting, we act professionally because we are professionals.
We're doing a professional job and we're holding our politicians to account on behalf of the people.
So our style, while we might not have to chase politicians, we are still going to continue to be the professionals we've always been.
Professionalism Amidst Adversity00:07:08
As one thing I'd be remiss if I didn't mention, the battle to get in here was huge, long.
It was months long, actually.
And it all started when we were trying to get into the press gallery in the first place.
They ignored us for months.
And then Tyler Dawson, when he replaced Catherine Grakowski, said, no, you're not coming in.
And that's when the legal sort of fight really initiated.
We were running our campaign at letusreport.com, where folks were so generous to help us out.
But I mean, you've seen the legal bills as much as I have, and they're thousands of dollars.
We still need to pay those off.
We're in this building now and we'll be able to continue reporting here for as long as they let us.
I expect that to be in perpetuity.
But that bill is still lingering and we need folks' help at letusreport.com to sort of finalize that bill with the lawyers.
Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that because we have had to lawyer up not just to take on the press gallery, but on take on post media and it's expensive.
That's the role that's fallen to us because you don't see the Canadian Association of Journalists doing it.
In fact, they put out a bizarre memo saying they like censorship.
The Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, completely silent.
We did it for us, but I understand there may be some other media in Alberta who were kept out by the mean girls.
I'm calling the mean girls as a metaphor.
They're the girls and guys.
It's like a mean clique in high school.
We weren't the only ones they kept out.
I understand they kept out an ethnic media group called Times of Asia, if I'm not mistaken.
I understand they kept out a Catholic media company.
So these little bigots in the press gallery had this tiny little club, and they were basically mean to everyone who didn't look and sound exactly like them.
And Times of Asia and this Catholic news organization didn't have the money or the lawyers or the horsepower to fight back.
We fought back for ourselves.
But in doing so, we widened the scope of freedom for everyone, including, I hope, those two aforementioned groups that were censored.
I don't know those two groups, Times of Asia or the Catholic group, but if we help pave the way for them to have free access to the legislature, I say that's a good job done.
Yeah, I think it's a public service.
We set a precedent here that journalism isn't to be kept by elites in the media.
It's something that's accessible to anyone who has an audience and has a story.
Sheila made a point.
I just want to emphasize that we are professional.
We are not disruptive.
We are not negative.
I mean, we're not abusive.
We're not insulting.
We don't shout or interrupt.
We don't do anything.
We're not a security threat.
We don't do anything that would legitimately keep us out.
The one thing we have always done and we will always do is that we ask accountability style questions, unlike the other parties.
And it's for that reason they kept us out.
I note in closing that the Parliamentary Press Gallery in Ottawa, which keeps us out to this day, well, their day will come too.
They accredit Xinhua and the People's Daily, which are both owned by the government of China, the Propaganda Arm.
So they don't mind that.
They don't mind the gonzo journalism of Vice, the hyper-partisan journalism of the Huffington Post.
They don't mind the lobby group funding for groups like National Observer.
It's not even a real news organization.
They're literally paid cash from the Tides Foundation to print on demand.
So they don't actually oppose us for any of their stated reasons.
The only reason they ever kept our people out is that we are not leftist like them.
Last word to you, Sheila.
I want to let you know how proud I am of the two of you for reaching this milestone.
And it's just so looks so lovely out there in Eminem today.
I really wish I were out there with you.
But I know you're there on behalf of me, our whole team, and all our many thousands of viewers.
Your victory is our victory, and I'm very pleased to see it.
Yeah, both Kean and I are going to do our best to make sure that everybody who supported our right to work here through their donations to letusreport.com will be getting their money's worth because we are going to be in this building asking accountability questions of the government.
We're going to make sure that Jason Kenney's government stays conservative.
And I want to share a little anecdote with you because it was a perfect dovetail to our fight to get access to the legislature here.
Remember in 2016 when that sheriff threw me out at the behest of Rachel Notley, that armed sheriff?
Yeah.
Well, guess who was the sheriff who greeted me at security today and had to let me in?
Come on.
Come on.
It was the same guy?
Yes.
Come on.
That was him.
And he had to greet me with a smile.
That is poetic.
That is poetic.
The warden, the jailer, the cop, the bouncer is now rolling out the red carpet for you.
Well, as Martin Luther King said, the arc of history bends towards justice.
Sometimes it does so slowly, but over time, things work out.
I'm so pleased for you two and for us all.
Congratulations, you guys.
And let me know if you get any hassle from those mean girls now that their club has lost the only thing of value it ever had, the veto over its competitors.
I don't know why anyone would stick around with those losers if you could just get access to the building directly from the speaker or the sergeant-at-arms.
So you let me know if they try any tricks on you.
You let me know if, like some petty high school rivalries, they do anything to impede you.
Because as God is my witness, we will not let this backslide and we will not submit ever again to their bullying.
Congrats, you guys.
I'll let you go and do your good work.
Thanks, boss.
Thanks.
All right, there you have it, Kian Bexte from Calgary up in Edmonton today, along with Sheila Gunread, our chief reporter.
And the big news is that we have been granted accreditation, press credentials, security access on equal terms to the losers in the left-wing government press gallery.
Sheila and Kian are accredited reporters at the Alberta Legislature.
And I thank you, our viewers, who helped us fight the fight, including hiring lawyers at letusreport.com.
Stay with us more.
Hey, welcome back on my monologue last night.
Aaron O'Toole's CBC Skepticism00:01:16
Marion writes, what would you expect from Justin's employees?
I bet he add more millions of debt, giving them bonuses.
Well, you're talking about the CBC.
And of course, they are Justin Trudeau's employees.
They are paid by the government.
They specifically lobby for more money, and Trudeau gives them more money.
You don't think there's a quid pro quo?
If you don't think there's a quid pro quo, you haven't been following Justin Trudeau and everyone from the Aga Khan to the we charities.
Jake writes, the state broadcaster must be defunded.
Well, why just defund them?
Why not sell them to help pay off the national debt, a large portion of which they incurred?
Pierre writes, what do you expect?
Mr. O'Toole promised to partly defund the CBC, our Canadian liberal pravda.
They'll fight him tooth and nail.
Yes, they will, and they already are.
I think they would fight him even if he didn't promise to defund them.
Stephen Harper didn't defund them.
He didn't privatize them, and the CBC certainly stuck the knife in him, especially in 2015.
I have to tell you, I'm a bit of a skeptic that Aaron O'Toole really will defund the CBC if he's ever elected.
Remember, Aaron O'Toole was in government and had the chance.
He never talked this way when he was in office, did he?