Ezra Levent’s June 21, 2022 episode dissects Tammy Sepetis’ viral HR threat video—condemned by the HRPA—while questioning her credibility and employability. It contrasts the "Coots blockade" trucker protests in Alberta, depicted as non-violent family-driven resistance against COVID policies in Trucker Rebellion, with media smear campaigns. A Formula One driver’s criticism of Alberta’s oil sands is exposed as hypocritical due to ties with Saudi Aramco, underscoring how local economic realities clash with detached celebrity opinions. The episode argues that grassroots perspectives often reveal truths mainstream narratives ignore. [Automatically generated summary]
Tonight, a super fan of cancel culture cancels herself.
It's Tuesday, June 21st, 2022.
I'm David Menzies, and this is The Ezra Levent Show.
Shame on you, you censorious bug.
Where, oh where, is Tammy Sepetis?
Who dat, you ask?
Well, my bad.
Her given name might be unfamiliar to many, but most will likely know Tammy Sepatis by her nickname, which is Batshite Crazy Human Resources Lady from Hell who has a bone to pick with freedom fighters.
The Tammy Sepatis story is all about someone who loves the idea of cancel culture.
She's perfectly fine with giving someone a economic death sentence for embracing wrongthink.
Hey, diversity is our strength and all that.
Just not a diversity of opinions, mind you.
But alas and alack, much like an O. Henry short story, the Tammy Sepitus tale is full of irony with a twist ending to boot.
That's because this self-appointed queen of cancellation apparently ended up canceling herself.
Now, before I ramble on, let's check out that infamous two-minute slice of viral TikTok video evidence.
If you haven't seen it, oh, you're in for a treat.
And by the way, as you view the self-inflicted carnage, just ask yourself, imagine working for a company in which Miss Sepatis heads up the human resources department.
Charters and Rights and Freedom would tell you that.
But since you seem to forget that, and you're all loud and proud with your big thoughts and your big ideas and you want to, whatever, set up hot tubs in Ottawa.
I'm a recruiter.
It's a small, small, small industry, smaller than you'd think.
Same with HR.
So, if you're looking for a job or maybe trying to keep a job, maybe, just maybe, think about what you're putting on social media.
Again, freedom fighters.
I know you're not really big with stats and, you know, facts aren't your thing, you know.
But what I can tell you, what is a fact, is that recruiters talk.
And recruiters, like the majority of Canada, don't agree with you.
Do you know what that means?
Do you have any guesses?
You have a guess is what that means.
What that means is that if you need a job, you might not get one.
If you want to keep a job, you might not get to do that.
And you know what else HR is good at?
Documentation.
You know what that means?
You want to be.
We document it.
We give you a couple tries.
Then what do we do?
We terminate you with cause, if we're so lucky.
If not, we give you the minimum allowed by law.
Either way, best of luck to you.
Recruiters are watching.
HR is watching everywhere.
And we hate you.
We hate you so much.
And you think we can't do anything, but we can.
We have the power.
Always remember that.
Doesn't matter if there's a f ⁇ ing man at the top of your HR department.
It's run by women, and it's run by angry women just like me.
I'm so, so glad I got that off my chest.
It's been eating me up inside.
And honestly, my heart goes out to you guys.
I mean, you have families to feed, right?
You brought your kids to this big event.
You're freedom fighters.
You're standing up.
Oh, they will be so, so proud.
So, so, so proud of you.
Love you.
Hmm.
That unhinged rant, those wackadoodle eyes, that demented demeanor.
It all reminds me of another loony lass.
Oh, yeah, check it out.
You dirty bird.
How could you?
Misery chest tank cannot be dead.
Misery spirit is still alive.
I don't want her spirit!
I want her!
And you murdered her!
Of course, the difference is that the Kathy Bates character in the 1990 film Misery was fictional, whereas Tammy Sepatis is a real-life monster chiller horror theater character.
And good golly, Miss Molly, where does one even begin to unpack the insanity?
How would any company think that someone so unhinged would make for a qualified human resources director?
I wouldn't entrust this fruit loop to feed the fish in the office aquarium.
Now, I did reach out for Tammy's side of the story.
Well, I tried.
In a way, I wanted to play the role of Tiger Woods' deceased daddy and essentially ask her, Hey, girl, what in blue hell were you thinking?
Tiger, I am more prone to be inquisitive to promote discussion.
I want to find out what your thinking was.
I want to find out what your feelings are.
And did you learn anything?
You know, folks, I still can't believe that ad aired.
I mean, the very idea of Tiger Woods' departed dad lecturing him on his shenanigans from the great hereafter.
And was that ad like pre-recorded just in case Nike's top spokes thingy ever got into some hot water?
And is this even an ad?
Because I have no idea what Nike is trying to sell here, but I think the goal was to produce something profound and moving.
But to me, it's cheesier than a bucket full of Bulgarian feta.
And it made me L-O-L because I think the best form of comedy is unintentional humor.
But still, the Zombie Woods lecture to Tiger Woods does indeed apply to the curious case of Miss Sepatis.
Namely, once again, Tammy, what were you thinking posting that TikTok video?
In any event, we spent some two weeks trying to track down Tammy to get her side of the story.
I was really looking forward to that interview.
But methinks Tammy has removed herself from the grid.
Maybe she's curled up in the fetal position in a jungle somewhere in Costa Rica.
I think that's where I would be and what I'd be doing if I were in her stilettos.
This much is known about her.
Tammy took an HR course at Toronto Seneca College, but the folks at Seneca have no idea where she is employed right now.
I also got the idea from the nice lady who answered the phone at Seneca College that they are getting deluged with calls about her.
So please don't pester the Seneca people, folks.
Sepatis might come across as a cancel culture monster, but Seneca is not Dr. Frankenstein.
Then we heard Tammy was the HR person at Boehringer Ingelheim in Burlington, Ontario.
I reached out to this company only to be informed that Tammy departed this firm some three years ago.
No mention if she resigned or was fired.
I can offer a guess though.
By the way, Boehenger Ingelheim is a pharmaceutical company.
Do you think they make a pill or a vaccine to cure Tammy's condition, whatever that condition might be?
As well, a LinkedIn profile of Sepatis is now deleted.
Wow, what a surprise.
In the meantime, the Human Resources Professionals Association stated the following in a tweet: quote: HRPA is aware of this video posted by one of its regulated members and does not condone or endorse in any way the statements made about HR practice therein.
Further, HRPA is reviewing this matter to determine if there has been a breach of its rules of professional conduct, end quote.
So the Human Resources Professionals Association issued that statement some two weeks ago, and apparently it's still studying if that rant is a breach of professional conduct.
Because the reader's digest translation of what Tammy stated on TikTok is essentially this: if I disagree with you or your politics or your ideology, I shall do whatever I can to end your career.
Oh, and by the way, PSFU.
Nice.
Now, one must wonder: is this woman employable in the realm of human resources anymore?
Tammy has made it abundantly clear that she does not judge people on their merits in the workplace.
Rather, like some fearsome bureaucrat plucked from Orwell's 1984, Tammy believes that whether an employee remains an employee has much to do with what they do on their free time or how they think or what causes they support.
Hey, Big Tammy is watching you, sucker, so smarten up and embrace her thoughts and ideas or else.
And now that her rant has been viewed by some 3 million people the world over, an important question arises: if Tammy ever had a role in firing anyone in the past, do you think maybe we are talking a wrongful termination lawsuit given what we now know about her today?
Oh, well, I'm sure she'll show up somewhere.
I'm guessing at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in Timbuktu.
In the meantime, poor Tammy, in the Department of Perverse Irony, maybe she really should have taken her own heartfelt advice.
Namely, so if you're looking for a job, or maybe trying to keep a job, maybe, just maybe think about what you're putting on social media.
Indeed, because as the saying goes, folks, the internet is forever.
You know, normally I'd have a fair degree of sympathy for someone self-terminating his or her career.
But given what Tammy Sepatis stands for and given her position of power, well, her old position of power, that is, it's hard to shed a tear.
She is the hunter who became the hunted.
She is an adherent of cancel culture only to apparently cancel herself with her own unhinged words.
Hey, I'm not saying Tammy Sepatis is unemployable, but while everybody loves a comeback story, it is abundantly clear that she can't come back to her chosen vocation of human resources.
That TikTok video revealed what's lurking in Tammy's warped mind, and it's very ugly indeed.
Trucker Rebellion: The Coots Blockade00:10:39
Well, folks, while the trucker freedom convoys received the lion's share of publicity when they descended upon Ottawa and Windsor, there was also another trucker rally, this one in Little Coots, Alberta.
And while it might have been smaller, the story that was told is really quite profound.
And I'm delighted to be joined by my guest.
He is the producer of the documentary Trucker Rebellion: the story of the Coots blockade.
And that would be Kian Simone.
How you doing there, Kian?
Good.
How are you, Dave?
I'm doing great.
Well, you know what?
What a fantastic documentary.
Before we get into the nitty-gritty, why don't we throw to a few scenes from that doc that is now playing across Canada?
We're here for all Albertans.
Canadians, we're here fighting for the freedoms of not us, but our kids, our grandkids, the future of this province, this country.
We are prepared to put everything on the line.
The small fringe minority of people who are on their way to Ottawa or who are holding unacceptable views.
I've also received reports in the last hour of people allied with the protesters assaulting RCMP officers.
Well, that was an assault between the two civilians, between a protester and a civilian.
So Jason Kenney's statement was not true at the press release.
I can tell you what I just told you, sir.
They have just blocked the border here in Coutts, Alberta, to Sweetgrass, Montana.
We don't want to put anybody's livelihood in jeopardy.
That is the very last resort.
But this is something I don't, I've certainly never seen before.
Freedom and peace and loving.
That's the Canadian way.
It's not like CBC or any of these other mainstream news channels are making it out to me.
I am not a white supremacist.
We're not backing down and come dandy to this.
We're not backing down companies in this.
This is our only battle we have.
So there you have it.
You know, Kian, why don't we talk about your narrative versus what we saw from the mainstream media and of course the various governments.
There was demonization.
There was vilification.
There was outright lying about crime and arson and vandalism.
The precise opposite was true.
When you were there in Coutz over those very cold weeks observing this rebellion, how would you sum it up in the final analysis?
Yeah, so what you'll see in the documentary is actually it's in a span of nine days, and the whole thing is actually carried through from day one to day nine of statements from Jason Kenney and statements from the mainstream media of what they were saying.
So I would put their clip in of what they would say, and then the next thing, and then the next thing coming up would be what actually happened.
So it's really, it was, they got demonized and they were called names.
There was a statement that Jason Kenney made that a trucker assaulted an RCMP officer.
And to this day, that statement has not been retracted, which was not true.
So this is a false statement, and there's been no retraction of that.
Yeah, so the RCMP said the same thing at the top, the top dogs at the RCMP, but the lower guys there, you'll see like there was a member of the protest who was speaking to the RCMP and the RCMP, who was there when the supposed assault happened.
He never saw anything, and he was supposedly the one to report that.
Unbelievable.
In fact, Kian, I seem to recall, and correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't there a large piece of construction equipment that was deliberately vandalized by the RCMP?
Yeah, I believe it was three excavators, which it's funny when you tell a story, but it's really not funny that it was on private property.
They went in without a warrant.
Anyway, it's a funny story because they were seen from the protest from the border.
And the cops went over to the owners and said, can you move these?
Can you move these out of the way?
And they're like, we don't want them to be used in the protest.
So the owner's like, sure, I'll move them out of the way.
And then after they got moved out of the way, it was when they got foam sprayed by the RCMP.
So they really wanted to move the excavators out of the way of the sight of other people so that they could break it.
That is despicable.
And I wonder if in the future there'll be some kind of a civil lawsuit against that because this is the police operating above the law and nobody is above the law.
That was absolutely, like I said, despicable.
But tell me, Kean, when you look at the rank and file truckers and their allies that were part of the Coots blockade, how would you describe these people?
Sheila, the previous screenings we've had for this documentary, brings up a great point that it's not the judges, it's not the lawyers, it's not the teachers, and it sure isn't the doctors who save the country, who save the world, who save culture or society when it's in turmoil.
It's the common person.
And that's who these truckers are and their ranking of how they participate in society.
They're the ones that put food on our table.
They're the ones who, down in Coots, there is people with seven children, nine children, 12 children, and they would bring them on the last final days.
And these are regular people.
Yeah.
Right?
Yeah, being pushed to the brink.
And I like what Tucker Carlson of Fox News said about truckers.
And it was simply this.
If you're alive, you owe your life to a trucker.
They're the ones bringing groceries to the supermarket.
And they're the ones bringing pharmaceuticals to the drugstores.
The idea that these people are vilified is absolutely perverse.
Tell me too, Kian, this documentary, it's been playing at select cinemas.
SOL sold right out, standing room only.
When you talk to people, members of the audience that see your report, what kind of feedback are you getting?
It's always, and I think it'll be different tonight, as we play in Toronto, in Edmonton, sorry, in Alberta as a whole.
I think it's so special to be able to bring it to them.
And because they got the smear campaign from the mainstream media as well.
So all they have about what happened at Coots was what I was able to get up on Twitter because of our little service that we had, right?
So when they were able to come and they would see this documentary and they would see the actual whole nine days of what went on when the border was being blocked and unblocked and the commotion that happened with the RCMP, the negotiations, and what these truckers really went through.
They didn't just go there and protest, stand around and drink beers at night and hang around.
They went through some cold, cold days where it was minus 45 with 110 kilometer wind chill.
Oh, unbelievable.
Yeah, so that's they would come up to me in our QA and sometimes the questions wouldn't even be questions.
It would just be a thank you.
You know, Kian, how do you respond to those critics of the trucker convoys?
They typically phrase their criticism along the lines of, we believe in the right to protest, we believe in demonstrations, et cetera, but you don't have the right to occupy a street, to close off a bridge to another nation, so on and so forth.
Why can't you just spend an hour or two driving around saying what you have to do and then go home?
How do you respond to these people?
Well, first of all, I wouldn't listen to anybody who didn't go.
And second of all, they have to look at the last two years, which they have also and their families have also been impacted by.
And maybe they view it differently about how they feel about the virus and how it affects them on a health basis.
But like I said before, these are the people who put the food on our plates.
They need to put food on their plates too.
So if you're going to push them into a corner, you're going to get pushback from the people who have families.
And that's what it is.
It wasn't just truckers there.
It was also my aunt.
Yeah, I think policies were making many of these people desperate, losing their livelihoods, their jobs, their homes.
And when you lose all of that, what more can you do but make a profound statement yourself?
And given all the misery that led up to these various convoys, you know, what's incredible, Key and I find, is that they weren't violent.
It was like love.
I mean, for goodness sakes, I don't know many revolutions in world history where there was a hot tub and a bouncy castle on the streets of the capital.
Last word goes to you, my friend, when it comes up to summing up the Trucker Rebellion documentary.
Well, it's a great project.
It was an honor to be able to be there and be the only journalist, myself and Sidney Fazard, on the scene.
He was there for 16 days.
I was there for nine.
And this project that we're now sharing around the world, I think is extremely important.
And that's what we're going to do around the country is we're going to bring it.
We're going to try to bring it to a hometown, maybe your hometown.
If anybody has a theater, let us know and we'll bring it.
I think everybody needs to see this on the big screen with the loudspeakers so you can hear the honking.
You need to see it, how it was made, what it was made for.
It was the big screen.
The Importance of Oil Sands Project00:08:32
Indeed.
Well, thanks so much for coming in all the way from Calgary, Kian.
And there you have it, folks.
Trucker Rebellion, the story of the Coots blockade.
Check your local listings if it's coming to a town or city near you.
More of the Ezra Levent Show coming up right after this.
Well, folks, plenty of feedback regarding Ezra Levent's monologue on censorship.
And let's kick it off with a letter from construction cronies who writes, diabetes, obesity, fentanyl, inflation, interest rates, house pricing, and they are going after free speech.
Way to go, Trudolf.
Well, you know, what can I tell you, my friend?
This is a man, as I've said many times before, some eight years ago in Toronto before he was prime minister, said he admired the basic dictatorship in China in terms of getting things done.
I always wondered what he meant by getting things done.
And I think now we know it's shutting down freedom of speech.
He would be just really at home in Beijing these days, wouldn't he?
In Darkness writes, in Canada, hate speech laws are secular versions of blasphemy laws, plain and simple.
So who are the sacred cows and little gods?
Well, it's very clear.
It is anyone with a contrarian opinion to the Trudeau-Singh regime.
Those are on the wrong side of history and good thought.
Well, at least according to Justin Trudeau and Jugmeet Singh.
Gogger writes, China is starting to admire Canada's basic dictatorship.
Gee, that rings a bell.
Why am I having a sense of deja vu right now?
Well, there you have it, folks.
That's the Ezra Levant show for tonight.
Ezra will be back tomorrow.
In the meantime, as always, stay sane.
This is Carrie Diot in downtown Edmonton, where we're getting reaction to the Formula One driver who said that what happens in Alberta is a crime because you chop down a lot of trees and you basically destroy the place just to extract oil.
These things shouldn't be allowed anymore and they shouldn't happen.
Bear in mind, this is a Formula One driver.
You might be asking the wrong people.
Yes, I did hear about this actually.
And what do you think?
I think that he just isn't informed and he doesn't know about the oil sands.
We've spent countless years working up there and I think it's a lot more than what people realize.
And if they went up to the oil sands and they saw the reclamation projects and stuff like that, they would have a different outlook.
But going off of what's just in the media, they'd draw the wrong conclusions.
What do you think?
Oh, the same thing.
Like I said, I've been in the oil industry for the last 20 years and I'm actually currently working up in the oil sands.
And his opinion is absolute hypocrisy because he's standing there with Aramco on his jersey, which is Saudi Arabian oil company.
So he's telling us to shut down the most ethical, most environmentally regulated oil system in the world, oil production system in the world, but he's okay with blood oil, where women can barely drive.
They still behead people, and your hand get cuts off if you steal something.
It's ridiculous.
And the manner of doing it with the tar sands mining or oil sands mining is horrible for nature.
What information they're cherry-picking is, yes, the oil companies up there, they're still doing open-pit mining, which looks terrible.
Yes.
But those companies are bound by the government to reclaim everything.
So yes, that pit gets dug, but it also gets filled back in, and they have to reclaim it to the original topography when they started mining it.
Sir, a very quick question for you.
Did you hear about the Formula One driver who said that it's basically a crime that we're developing the oil sands in Alberta?
What do you think of that?
I never heard about it, but I think it's a terrible thing to say.
Why so?
Well, just because we need the oil sands.
I think it's a hypocrite.
I think it does not know what it's talking about.
I think we all need it because, hey, technology, hey, Alberta is number one.
At the same time, see, we actually live on these planes, the car drivers.
But, you know, carbon capture technology is also, you know, we are probably, I think, number one, too.
So we are even, man.
There's no...
When you're there, man, you know, you say things that you don't know, man.
You should come here, see it, then you will understand how many jobs are on the line.
And the safety.
You gotta have the safety tickets as well protected, as clean, as cleaner that, you know, the ones we know.
You see Alberta University, some of the best citizens come here.
I mean, I love oil, man.
I think it's kind of a hypocrite, right?
Driving a race car eats more gas than any other car in the world.
Well, that's nonsense, unless he's driving an electric Formula One car.
And that I gotta see.
I think it's very hypocritical.
I mean, he's made a fortune driving a vehicle that's powered by fossil fuels.
So, you know, talk about the kettle calling the pot black.
Well, I mean, if you don't live in this country and you don't know how we do things, then I'm not sure if you should have an opinion at all.
I think he's wrong.
Like a contradiction himself.
Well, I appreciate oil and gas when he gets to minus 40.
And he's a race car driver.
Isn't that ironic?
I would think so, eh?
And I don't know, everyone's a critic, and everyone wants to point fingers and such, but I'm pretty thankful for a warm apartment.
I'm pretty thankful for the industry, eh?
So everyone can be a critic all they want, right?
But there's no substance to it, right?
So I don't pay attention to that.
Well, I'm a big fan of the Montreal Grand Prix.
Montreal is my hometown, and it's the biggest sporting event in Canada.
And I thought, you know, why go and tarnish it with this?
I mean, it's based on misinformation.
It's misleading.
It's unfair to resource-producing provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Just like, you know, stay, he's a driver.
Stay in your lane.
Stay in your lane.
I think there's a lot of ignorance to that comment.
Yeah.
Stay in his lane.
How about that?
I don't pay attention to celebrities on political issues.
So they don't really mean anything to me.
We still need Alberta oil, don't we?
That's all I know for sure.
We still rely on it.
We still need it.
Our province functions on it, but so does the whole country.
So yeah, I don't know.
I don't weigh in on other people's opinions, but I know what we need is Albertans.
And I know that we need to still be on oil, and it's not feasible to not be yet.
That's what I know for sure.
Well, I can see where he's coming from, but for us to get our oil sands industry going, that's something we need for the province to stimulate our economy.
First of all, stop watching Formula One.
It was the most exciting sport when Damon Hill and Schimaker used to race.
And it became the most boring sport and they just rolled around in a procession.
So did I hear about it?
No.
Yeah, I guess, well, considering that this guy makes his living from oil and gas, do you see the irony in that?
Well, the world is now divided into most people who I think are stupid.
That's just my humble opinion.
So I ignore most of what people say.
So we ran into a lot of opinionated people about the Formula One driver who is critical of Alberta's oil sands.