Ezra Levant’s Ezra Levant Show at the Canada Strong and Free Conference spotlights grassroots conservatives like Robbie Picard, who champions Fort McMurray’s oil sands against anti-energy policies, and Josh Alexander, a 16-year-old expelled for opposing transgender policies in his Catholic school. Picard criticizes Trudeau’s hypocrisy on oil while calling Vancouver/Toronto’s housing market a "recession-proof bubble," while Alexander faces legal battles over religious freedom after arrests linked to school protests. The episode highlights a generational shift—young activists like Alexander clashing with institutional power, alongside veteran voices like Picard and Rebel News journalists—underscoring how conservative movements are now driven by ordinary people fighting perceived erosion of freedoms. [Automatically generated summary]
Tonight, an interview with half a dozen conservative activists at a conference in Ottawa.
It's March 22nd, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Shame on you, you censorious bug.
As you can see by the buildings behind me, that's the Chateau Laurier.
And the temporary home of the House of Commons is this former railway station while they renovate the old House of Commons.
I am in Ottawa.
I'm standing atop the Weston Hotel, which is the venue for the annual conference that used to be called the Manning Center Conference, named after Preston Manning.
Now it's called the Canada Strong and Free Conference.
It's a conservative conference.
The new leader of the group is Jamil Giovanni, a conservative activist.
I think he's doing a great job.
I used to attend this conference back in the day.
It's been going on for more than a decade.
I stopped going during the Harper years.
You would think that would be the time to go to a conservative conference.
Conservatives were in power.
Conservatives were making changes, but that was actually the worst time to go to a conservative ideas conference because it was invaded.
It was colonized by lobbyists who simply wanted FaceTime and influence with politicians.
And so instead of having activists who believed in ideas, you had well-heeled people spreading cash around trying to get this grant or pass that bill or get this regulation changed.
It wasn't my kind of thing, and I just stopped going.
But I'm back and I'm glad not only does it feel like a sort of political family reunion, but I'm pleased to see that the emphasis has moved away from the lobbyists and back to the idea battlers, the happy warriors.
I'm sure if Pierre Pollia becomes prime minister and attends or his cabinet ministers attend this event, the pendulum will swing back towards the influence peddlers and seekers.
It's just natural.
And in a democracy, it's to be expected, I suppose.
But I enjoyed listening to the panels talk about ideas.
And in the hallways, I would bump into interesting people, some of whom I had only seen on social media, some of whom I had only seen on video, and some of whom I had seen in person and knew from battles in the past.
For example, our friend Robbie Picard.
So today's Ezra Levant show is actually going to be a half a dozen interviews with a range of people that I bumped into at the conference.
Not much of a monologue, but half a dozen short interviews, a little chilly outside, with people just to give you a flavor of it.
Some of them are very brief.
Someone I met today for the first time.
For example, a refugee from Hugo Chavez's Venezuela and her warning to Canadians.
Other people you've probably seen on the news in Rebel News before, Josh Alexander, who is fighting with his own Catholic school over his opposition to men using women's bathrooms.
Chantel Fall, another case we've talked about Rebel News before.
further ado, I present to you half a dozen vignettes of conservative activists at the Conservative Conference.
Well, you come to a Conservative Conference in Canada and you're going to find our friends from True North, especially one of their lead journalists, Andrew Lawton.
If I'm not seeing you here in Ottawa at a conservative conference, I'll see you in Davos covering the World Economic Forum.
It's great to see you.
What is this conference?
It's called a networking conference.
Who is here and what's it like?
Well, it's always been, I mean, billed as a place for the conservative movement.
And they always emphasize historically lower C conservative case.
And people can take from that what they will.
But I think the most important aspect of this is that you're talking about a program that's driven by real people and not as much by politicians.
And that's something that the president Jamil Giovanni has spoken about actually on my show about how, yeah, obviously you've got party leaders and MPs and whatnot that are here, but they really should be listening to people.
And I think that's true whether you're here in Ottawa or anywhere else in the country.
You know, I remember coming to these conferences about a decade ago.
They were called the Manning Center.
It's no longer called the Manning Center.
Preston Manning, he's 80 now.
He's focused on other things.
You mentioned the new CEO, Jamil Giovanni.
I think that's a healthy thing.
And during the Harper years, this conference felt very official, very corporate.
Tons of lobby groups were there to jockey to get in front of cabinet ministers.
Maybe it's because the conservative movement is in the wilderness right now.
It's more grassroots-y, more principled.
And there's still some lobbyists here, but I think there's more ideas people than I've seen during the Harper years, for example.
What do you think of that?
That's my point of view.
I don't know if I'm wrong.
No, I think you're right.
And I also think there's been a big shift in just the political landscape.
I mean, one notable example back in those days was the level of corporate sponsorship here.
You had all these big corporations, banks, and airlines that were throwing some money behind it.
And obviously, I don't have access to any internal information.
There are still some signs of corporate sponsorship, but corporations in general have gone so woke in the last few years and in particular.
And a lot of them do not want anything to do with conservatism.
It's not that they don't want anything to do with politics.
They don't want anything to do with conservative politics.
And I think that really has reoriented people in the right of center movement, whether you're conservatives or libertarians, that you have to go it alone and you have to be okay being the outliers and outcasts of society.
And that's an increasingly difficult proposition for people, but it's an important one.
You know, Rebel News, it's in our name.
We're rebellious.
We're outsiders.
Although we always crave to be in the center of the news, it's sort of a contradiction.
I feel comfortable amongst grassroots populists.
And there's a trade show here.
I just walked through it.
You have the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedom.
You have vaccine skeptics.
You have all sorts of groups that are true conservative.
Maybe that kind of grassroots, rough and tumble conservative populism doesn't really fit with sponsored by Facebook, sponsored by Amazon.
Actually, Facebook is one of the sponsors here.
I don't know.
I find it interesting.
I'm glad to be here.
I heard something on a panel this morning.
One of the speakers, I forget his name, said he asked a bunch of conservative candidates to define what is a woman.
You know, that Matt Walsh question.
And it's an absurd question that any first grader could answer, but politically correct politicians, even who call themselves conservative, are afraid to say an adult female woman, you know.
And I think that's part of it.
I think the cancel culture, the being afraid of the mob, I think it is soaked even into conservative parties, certainly the last conservative leader.
What do you think about that?
Well, it has.
And I mean, you look at the last two conservative elections, and I think they show very interesting contrasts.
In 2019, you had Andrew Scheer, who, despite being a pro-life social conservative, ran away from that position during the campaign.
And then you have Aaron O'Toole, who was everything that all of the moderates and the Red Tories and the media and the liberals said a conservative leader should be.
He was moderate.
He was from the GTA.
He was pro-choice.
He didn't want to touch social issues.
And he lost.
He lost to Justin Trudeau yet again.
So this idea that the conservatives can win by becoming like the liberals has been completely debunked, completely and utterly debunked.
And I think that the 2021 election should be the death knell to that narrative that still permeates in some ways within conservative politics.
Now, I know you're here to do your own journalism.
I saw some of your True North team.
Very exciting.
I love the young guys you've got going.
What's the best way for people to keep in touch with what you're up to?
What's the best way for them to stay connected to Andrew Lawton?
Well, obviously my work and my show at True North is a big vehicle for that.
And I also have my own substack, andrewLawton.substack.com.
And like you, I have a bit of Twitter fever from time to time.
So at Andrew Lawton on Twitter.
Well, it's great to see you here.
The fact that you are here tells me this is a good place to be.
Andrew Lawton, certainly one of the good guys.
I'm going to go back into the conference now.
It really is a kind of political reunion.
There's people here from all across the country.
And I'm glad to be here.
Stay with us.
More ahead.
I'm here at the Conservative Networking Conference.
It used to be called the Manning Center Networking Conference.
Now it's Canada Strong and Free.
A new leader of the organization, Jamil Giovanni.
One of the things I like about it this year, as opposed to, say, a decade ago, is the emphasis is less on elected conservative cabinet ministers.
There aren't any parties in opposition.
School Board Investigation00:04:58
And there's a lot of grassroots activists, including the young lady I'm talking with now, Chanel Fall.
I know you are a fighter in the very important sphere of education and things like that.
You've also been in some legal battles.
Why don't you, for viewers who aren't familiar with your case, give maybe a one-minute summary of the fight you're in.
I understand the Democracy Fund was helping you, which makes me feel good.
Give me a little bit of an update of what battle were you in?
What's the status of that fight?
And what's next?
Sure.
So it's been about two years now.
I've been investigated a few times and it all started with a Facebook comment I put out.
I said we shouldn't indoctrinate kids with critical race theory.
I was investigated for that.
I was suspended.
Who investigated you?
I was investigated by my school board first.
So you're a classroom teacher?
What's your position in the school?
I'm no longer teaching now, but at the time I was a high school teacher.
I taught mostly science and they came after me for that.
Who complained?
A teacher, an Ontario teacher.
I didn't know.
I had never met her and I had never interacted with her.
She's just a Facebook, she was in the Facebook group.
So literally some teacher who's never had anything to do with you or your classroom saw you making a comment online and thought she would try and get you fired.
Yeah, she thought it was offensive and harmful and that I should be removed from my position or educated.
What exactly had you said?
I said kids should not be indoctrinated with critical race theory.
Schools should be nonpartisan and teachers should model kindness to everyone and speak out against every form of discrimination they see, including discrimination against white people, which comes from the anti-racist movement because the anti-racists want us to believe that whites are inherently racist and they're permanently guilty of some kind of sin.
So how did that complaint conclude?
So it concluded with I was suspended for a week and I'm still appealing it now.
My union is helping me with that.
That's good to hear.
But then a year later, it escalated to the level of the Ontario College of Teachers, which is when the Democracy Fund stepped in and helped out.
So they supported me for close to a year, and then they decided to back off.
Now the latest is that they've now...
Who backed off?
The Democracy Fund?
The Ontario College of Teachers.
Oh, good.
So the Democracy Fund stayed with you.
The Democracy Fund stayed with me.
Okay, I just wanted to make sure because I love the Democracy Fund and I'm glad they didn't back up.
So the teachers backed up.
So maybe the Democracy Fund helped scare them away.
I think that's what happened.
Yeah, I mean, I think it helps when you have some constitutional lawyers who are saying, look, we're allowed to have some opinions in Canada.
I'm glad to hear that, but is there a second part to this story?
There is.
Unfortunately, less than a month after this first investigation concluded, they now launched a second investigation, and it has to do with a tweet they didn't like.
A tweet.
So back in October of this year, I decided to try to get involved.
I ran for school board trustee in my local zone there.
And an employee of the Public Ottawa School Board sent me an email, and I shared that email, and they did not like that.
The email was about a board-wide initiative that the board had started.
And basically what it was, was after-school virtual hangouts with kids.
But it wasn't just for all kids.
It was for specific kids.
So they would have, on Monday, they would have the Muslim kids hang out and on Tuesday it would be the LGBT kids hangout.
And so I wanted to share that information with parents.
I thought it was relevant.
And I was running for the school board.
I wanted changes in the school board.
So that's why I shared it.
And yeah, they didn't like that.
Sounds like election interference.
They're trying to stop a candidate for the school board.
Well, listen, you're exactly the kind of conservative grassroots activist I think the movement needs.
I should say that one of the most interesting political outcomes in the last couple years in the United States was the election of Glenn Young as the governor of Virginia, which was a red, sorry, a blue state.
It was a Democratic Party state, and it was flipped Republican on the school board issue, on woke teaching in classrooms.
I think what happened is a lot of parents, they were at home with their kids watching the Zoom classes for the first time, and they were shocked.
And they said, this is nuts.
We didn't know this was going on.
And if I recall, I think there was like a 14-point flip in that governor's race.
And now that state is red because of education.
And I think that's a great issue for conservatives.
Alessandra's Assertive Stand00:15:18
Chantal, you're fighting.
I'm glad that the Democracy Fund is fighting with you.
And I'm glad that you're here at the conference.
Thank you so much.
Right on.
There you have it.
Stay with us.
We'll do more interviews as the day goes on.
Like I say, one of the most interesting things about this conference are ordinary grassroots people.
Yes, there's some politicians here and some fancy folks, but there's some severely normal people who are motivated by the idea of freedom, which is what motivates me.
And I just met this young lady moments ago.
Her name is Alessandra Polga.
I'm looking at your name, Dag, because we just became friends.
And you told me a story, and I thought, I want to share this story with our viewers because you bring a warning from Venezuela.
Venezuela, which used to be one of the richest countries in the world, used to has one of the largest oil reserves in the world, a beautiful country, and yet it was destroyed by tyranny.
Tell me your story and how you came from Venezuela to Canada.
And then tell me the warning for our viewers.
Well, I arrived in 2008.
I came as a refugee to Canada.
I was against Chavez, part of the dissidents.
That is the reason why I have to run away and came to Canada.
And my concern that probably many Canadians always are in denial is this system, they go inside the democracies.
Chavez arrived to the government for election and he turned all the system.
He destroyed the separation of power.
He controlled the social media.
He blacked out the freedom of speech.
He controlled the army, the National Assembly, everything.
And they started to change the constitution.
They did action like the emergency act many times in my country, relieved the civic rights of the population.
And what I see right now, a step by state that is now getting very faster, like the Bill C-11 and that kind of law, is to reduce the freedom of the population.
The inflation that we have right now.
That also happened in Venezuela, didn't it?
Yes, yes.
We was the second, Venezuela before Chavez.
We are the second best oil industry and now we are in the 42 position.
They destroy everything.
They start with bites and benefits for the population and the people stop to work.
It's against the middle class.
And tell me what you see in Canada.
You mentioned some of the internet censorship bills, Bill C-11, C-18.
You mentioned the Emergencies Act.
What are the other things that Trudeau and this government are doing that remind you of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela?
What are the warning signs, the early warning signs that we should be attentive to?
Okay, Chavez removed the international news outlets like, well, it's not that CNN, but he removed a few international news, NTN24, and he took control of the news outlets in Venezuela.
He controlled the news.
If you control the news and the mass media, you control the narrative.
And the people heard and listen what they want.
The government wants to need to hear.
And they don't know the truth because people is busy like here, working, studying, and then you turn off your TV to know what is going on.
But if you are not listening to the truth, if you are listening to the narrative of the government, they lie to you.
And then you believe because they are, it's supposed that they are to lead your leader.
It's supposed that they are work on your behalf, but it's not like that.
They are working in their agenda and they said what they need to say.
Well, it's just terrifying.
And I note that many of the opponents of the lockdowns over the last two years have been by people who come from authoritarian countries.
I heard a lot of Eastern European accents, people from the former Soviet bloc, they were ringing the alarm bells.
So to hear you in your beautiful Spanish accent warning about what you learned in Venezuela and why you came here, it's certainly a message we should all take to heart.
I'm very glad you introduced yourself to me, Alessandra, and thank you and keep fighting for freedom.
You already fought for freedom in Venezuela.
Thank you for fighting for freedom in Canada.
Yeah, I unfortunately have to leave my, left everything behind, my homeland, and now Canada is my new homeland.
And I was so young when everything started in my country.
I don't want that happen the same here in Canada.
I don't want to move again with my family.
And that is the reason why I am participating in an event like that and working on behalf of political prisoners, knowing about the torture and how fast is the socialism.
It's like my responsibility to warning and work here to that stop that happened here in Canada.
Well, message received, and it's a message that so many more people need to hear.
Thank you, Alessandra.
Stay with us.
We'll have more stories from the conference.
Well, I'm enjoying myself too much here at the Canada Strong and Free networking events because I'm a schmoozer by nature.
Plus, I'm getting on in years.
Look at all this gray hair going on.
I'm 51, which means I've been around for a bit, and this conference feels a little bit like a family reunion, but not just for folks here in Ottawa, like all fun reunions, people from everywhere.
And one of my friends who's spoken at Rebel Live conferences before is Robbie Bicard.
And Robbie is one of Canada's leading advocates for the oil sands and for ethical oil and oil sands proud, oil sands strong, all these positive words.
Great to see you here in Ottawa.
Thank you.
Thank you for interviewing me.
It's been a blast so far and bumping into a lot of old friends.
And it's always a pleasure to be in Ottawa for this conference.
Well, it's nice to see you.
Let's zoom in on because you've got the hoodie.
Oil sands strong.
And I like the fist.
And the reason I like it is this, because our side, in my view, is too wishy-washy, too shy.
We don't have a bad cop.
We always have good cops, but you need a bad cop.
And by that, I mean someone who's willing to call out the hypocrisy of the Greta Tunbergs, of the Jane Fondas.
And because all these Hollywood loves with the private jets, they come up to Fort McMurray, dump on it, and leave.
You actually had a very important moment.
And I want to play this clip of Robbie accosting Jane Fonda in Fort McMurray.
Take a look at the clip.
We're from the Fort McMurray First Nation.
We live in Ansac, Alberta, which is half an hour south of Fort McMurray.
And we're really proud and honored to be able to host Jane Fonda in our community and in our area of this part of the north.
Can you tell me what was your impression of doing a flyover edge?
It's big.
It's like someone took my skin and peeled it off my body over a very large surface.
I hurt.
It made my body ache to watch it.
And, you know, and then it's very interesting to do a flyover, which gives you the macro.
And then to talk, there's a woman in there who's 89.
She's had 12 children.
And she said when she grew up, they could bring water from anywhere and drink it and use it.
And now they can't.
And it's affecting every aspect of their lives.
Are you aware that Jim Boucher from the Fort Mackay First Nations just invented $250 million into the oil sands?
Are you aware that there's 289 Aboriginal businesses?
I think we don't have time because that's actually where we're going to Fort Mackay.
So could you please stop being a CBC and kind of hijack the entire thing?
I know who you are.
You're not telling the whole story about Aboriginally owned businesses.
You never have.
I've got those Aboriginal-owned businesses, but that doesn't mean that Robbie, I think the way you asked her questions, and I know Neil Young, you were involved when he came up.
I think that you and your fight back helped stop the parade of the Hollywood lobbies to go to Fort McMurray and dump on that town.
You know, I'm very proud of that, 100%.
There's not been a celebrity visit since.
Greta Toonberg came to Fort McMurray, but they were so terrified that they kind of laid low.
And I was actually told one time by Mike Kadima from Greenpeace was supposed to debate me, and he said he wouldn't debate me because I'm too aggressive to the environmental, to the environmental.
Good, good.
Someone's got to be.
But I think we need to do a lot more of that.
I believe in being assertive and standing up for our resources.
I think it's a shame that this horrible prime minister has basically told Germany and Japan no to LNG natural gas, which would help stabilize the world.
And push them into the arms of Qatar, a authoritarian dictatorship.
It was nuts when I remember in the early days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
And what was their chief weapon?
Was it tanks?
Was it missiles?
It was the oil weapon that gives Russia so much money.
And the way to displace that is to replace Russian oil and gas with Canadian oil and gas.
And Trudeau literally said, there's no business case for it.
Well, tell that to the Qataris who signed the deal.
Well, you know, and if you look at the wealth that Saudi Arabia has and no business case.
Like, I mean, we could literally improve the quality of lives for every single Canadian, like a thousand fold by just embracing our natural resources, like Russia, like Saudi Arabia, like all the Arab countries that have natural gas and oil.
So one of the things I'm doing is I've watched a new magazine called Oil and Gas World Magazine, and I'm interviewing a lot of people.
And my bus is actually in Sudbury right now, but his permanent home is Ontario.
And I will be flying to my bus and coming to Ottawa on a frequent basis and kind of using that as a bit of a mobile oil sandstrong embassy because I think that we need to have a larger voice here in Ottawa.
Last time I was in Ottawa, I had a debate with a bunch of people about oil and gas, and it was a heated debate.
It was a friendly one.
And once I got my points across, they were very, very opened to Alberta.
And I don't think people in this city understand that all these buildings and all of this comes from tax money, a good portion of it generated from Fort McMurray.
And they seem to forget that in their recession-proof city.
And I want to remind them that the more successful Alberta is, the more successful Ottawa is.
And I think a lot of people are sick that decisions made in here.
We don't have a lot to say.
I mean, by the time the election is done in Ontario and Quebec, Albertans, who contribute the most financially to this country, were basically told a direction.
And I'm hoping that we get a stronger voice here.
You know, I think about Fort McMurray, and I've been to that amazing city many times, but no one just passes through Fort McMurray.
You have to make it your destination.
It's not like a hub.
I mean, I guess it is to the small northern communities, but no one has a layover in Fort McMurray by chance, as you might in Toronto or Calgary.
And the reason I mention that is I wish that so many more people could observe with their eyes what it's really like.
The first thing they would say is, oh my gosh, this is a natural wonderland of gorgeous forests and rivers and wildlife instead of the Greenpeace oil sands pornography of a tailings pond, by the way, that is going to be fully reclaimed.
I just wish more decision makers, more influencers in the media could put eyes on it and be tuned around by someone.
When I was there, I remember I felt like you were an honorary mayor.
You knew everyone in town.
You took me around.
We even went out on a speedboat.
Here, let me show you when I was a younger man and Robbie took me out on a speedboat to see the gorgeous rivers and to show me something that I bet you 99% of critics of the oil sands don't know, which is that the oil sands naturally ooze into the world, into the river, and they have for millions of years.
You can reach down in the river and pull up oily sand.
It's natural and it predates industry.
Take a look at this.
I actually did something silly.
I tasted it.
Well, wouldn't you?
Take a look.
This is actually oil sand and this is actually oil sand in the Clearwater River, a bar that comes out.
and you just reach down and you can see the oil on the surface here and this is I see the sheen I see the shit.
That's right.
And this is, and it's got a very distinct smell.
And that's oil sand.
This is a World Heritage River.
This, it's got an interesting smell, and it's just natural.
It's here.
It's just.
And in the oil sands, we're cleaning it up.
Yeah, that's the thing.
When you're done with the oil sands, you dump the sand back, which is white, and the oil is shipped to people who use it.
Right, who need it.
Absolutely.
I know what it looks like.
I know what it feels like.
I know what it smells like.
Is it stupid to put your tongue on it and taste it?
Yeah.
Probably.
I just want to, like, part of me feels compelled to just taste it.
Is that poisonous?
It's just like oil.
It's just oil, right?
Yeah.
Have you ever tasted bitumen?
I don't think so.
It's not on purpose.
It would be like eating motor oil.
I would try it.
So you're saying don't do it.
I think you're not on Oreo.
It's not a crushed up Oreo cookie.
See, that's what I'm thinking.
I'm thinking that I know what Oreos tastes like.
That looks like Oreos.
That's amazing.
If I had a chunk of Oreo that big, whoa, look at that here.
Come tickets.
Come look at this.
Look at that.
Look at how oily that bitumen.
And that's just right here in the clear water.
It's called the Clearwater River.
And that's just right here, seeping into the water year after year, millennium after millennium.
Smell that.
I wish you could smell that, it's very, that's what the oil sands smell like.
That's the plant.
That's what we do.
It smells like freedom to me.
It starts out black.
You go up there, you see the whole area.
It starts out black like this, and we turn it white.
Sorry, I'm sorry.
I know I'm going to taste this.
Is it just going to stick on my tongue?
It's like a kid on the beach.
You put sand in his mouth, spits it out, learns never to do it again.
This, you know, it's amazing that this is rolling right out into the river.
What does it taste like?
Sometimes It's Odd00:05:39
Not that bad.
If there's no comparison, it tastes like oil sand.
Yeah, I mean, it doesn't really taste like anything.
I mean, I'm not going to eat it.
We're not putting it on the river.
I'm just curious.
I'm just curious.
I mean, I know that there was sort of a childish thing to do, but aren't you curious?
This is the first time I've ever been out here in the heart of this beautiful Clearwater River.
Frankly, I have tasted it working in the mine so long.
It's just not something that I feel like eating right now.
Yeah, well, I mean, listen, you've been doing this for 40 years.
I want to know everything about bitumen because I'm certainly not going to learn about it watching David Suzuki's The Nature of Things.
Robbie, I had a lot of fun that day.
Here's a question for you.
Taiwan sometimes flies MPs from Canada to Taiwan to make them see how wonderful it is.
Israel, same thing, would fly MPs to Israel.
The thinking being we've got to show people what we're really like to win them over.
Is there some way we could bring MPs, not just conservatives, but new Democrats and liberals and block even?
Do you think it would be a good idea to bring them to the oil sands and give them a friendly tour, not a hate tour led by the green side?
So actually, it's funny you say that.
So that's what we're working on right now.
So Oil and Gas World Magazine, I have an office now with a boardroom and all that.
And half of the interviews I do, we're going to be flying MPs and politicians.
I'm actually working on trying to get Dr. Jordan Peterson a helicopter tour.
Oh, wow.
He's such a powerful voice.
100%.
Him, a few other people as well.
We're going to get them a helicopter tour, show them the oil signs, show them the reclamation, give them a tour.
And Indigenous people, too.
You're Indigenous yourself.
People don't realize that the number one employer of Aboriginal people in Canada is oil and gas and mining.
You know, in Fort McMurray, it's uplifted Indigenous people from object poverty, but it's even a bigger story.
90% of my clients through my marketing company, and I have seven full-time employees now, are all Indigenous businesses that are either billionaires or multi-millionaires.
So it's a great story.
And here's the thing, too: Fort McMurray is a natural wonder.
If you travel a little north, the next time you're there, I'm going to take you to call Six Lakes.
It looks like the Sahara Desert.
It is beautiful for four months of the year.
You think that you're in untouched sand dunes and beautiful, beautiful, it's a beautiful place.
And I think Fort McMurray is the best place to live.
If you want to go, if you want to, if you let's say you made a bad choice in life and you need to make some cash.
All right, you have my attention.
Come to Fort McMurray, get a job.
You can get affordable housing.
Is it back?
Is Fort McMurray back?
It's back.
Because of the fire, heartbreaking fire.
You know, it's back in a better way than it's ever been.
So I ran Sandy Bowman, our mayor's campaign.
He's the MMA fighter that beat up Butterbean and great guy.
And one of the things that Fort McMurray is doing really good right now is it's making it more fair for everybody.
So you don't have to work in the oil sands if you don't want to.
I mean, I had a marketing company.
I was homeless when I went there.
And now, you know, I've got a business and a home.
There's a lot of opportunity.
But if you embrace Fort McMurray, we've got one of the best recreation facilities, MAC Island, that we were there years ago.
There's so much great things to do.
And you can get a job and own a home.
You can't do that in Vancouver.
You can't do that in Toronto.
That's so true.
It's so hard for young people.
Well, listen, Robbie, I'm so glad you're here.
I also am glad that you do reach out to the other side because supporting the oil sands should not be a partisan divide.
In fact, labor union people should love it more than anyone.
You know, sometimes it's hard when you have narcissists like Trudeau that speak out of both sides of their mouth.
And I kind of lean more conservative than I did when I first met you.
However, I have, so I'm on my way to Montreal.
I'm interviewing a bunch of Montreal mayors that support oil and gas.
And I believe we really need to, like, if we in Alberta, we have to invite people from Ottawa to our hometown.
This country is so big that sometimes I don't even think we're a country because we're only 40 million population, but we're the second largest country landmass and we need to connect more.
But I am doing my best.
I think it's a shame.
Like it's horrible what's happening to our industry right now because it's just a bunch of crap.
Batteries and so-called green energy are not any greener.
In fact, the more research is coming out of how bad it is.
All those mining of those rare earth meterals, those are terrible scenes.
We have solar panels in Fort Chip that have never been turned on and they don't really work in winter.
We need to stop pretending that this somehow there's this better green energy and embrace all forms of energy and stop the war because this war on Fort McMurray and Alberta is going to cost Canada.
And I think when they live in this sort of recession-proof bubble, they don't understand that and they need to wake up quick.
All right.
How's that for plain talk from our friend Robbie Picard?
Look at that oil sands strong.
Are you oil sands strong?
I sure am.
Robbie, great to see you.
And congratulations for your successes.
And we'll have some more reports from the Canada Strong and Free Network ahead.
You know, I think by nature, older people are drawn to politics because they have more time in some ways.
Young people are so busy going to school, getting a job, dating, starting a family.
They don't have time for politics.
Plus, when you're a little bit older, in some ways, you have more of a stake in things.
You have property, you have a job, you pay taxes.
And so the knock on politics and political parties is that their members are typically older, middle-aged or seniors.
I think that's just a natural thing.
In fact, sometimes it's odd if young people get too involved.
Young Voices in Politics00:10:43
But I was involved as a teenager, and I know why.
Because there are some people who, from a very early age, feel a sense of mission, of idealism, and that they see that that is a way to change the world.
So there is an important place for young people in politics.
I know that because I was one of them.
Well, I'm here with one of probably one of the youngest delegates at the conference here.
Josh Alexander, how old are you, lad?
16. 16.
So I'm almost four times your age.
I'm triple your age.
But you've been in the news.
In fact, we've covered your story a little bit.
For our viewers who might not recognize us, why don't you give us a one-minute summary of the shenanigans and the battle you're in?
Yeah, sure.
So I had been going to a high school in Renfrew not long ago.
It's in Ontario?
Yeah, Renfrew, Ontario.
And not long into my time, there, some female students informed me that males were using the female washrooms.
They were concerned about this and they had known I had a future, had a history in activism during the Freedom Convoy where I organized the student walkouts against mandates.
So I decided to speak up in the Catholic board there.
And how did you do that?
Well, I went to my principals and spoke.
It came up in classroom debates.
And how did the principals receive you?
They didn't, well, eventually, after about two or three talks, they said they were no longer going to continue to discuss the matter with me.
So they obviously knew about this and supported it.
Oh, yeah, they were well aware of it.
And they actually said that trans-identifying students are the gender they identify as rather than their biological gender.
So, you know, the faculties and this is a Catholic school.
Yeah.
All right, keep going.
Yeah, so anyways, I was in a class debate.
topic came up and I said there's only two genders and I what was the class What subject?
There was a couple different classes.
The main ones were law and math class.
Well, math, sure, the number two.
Yeah.
So I said there's only two genders, and there were transgender students in this class.
What grade is this?
Grade 11?
Grade 11, yeah.
Mind you, this is a math class, so it shouldn't be on this topic in the first place.
But the teacher was allowing it to stray, and students were asking me questions, and I answered them because it had been quite a controversial topic.
And then the teacher in two different classes went on to endorse and support male breastfeeding.
Yeah, so I got nothing.
So I ended up calling that pedophilia.
And I had to graphically describe in front of the class what exactly the male teacher was endorsing.
And all right, so I get the feeling that this Catholic school ain't like Catholic schools when I was growing up.
But so how so what came about?
How did the story end?
It sounds like it's one thing for you to spar with your classmates, but sparring with teachers and administration, that typically doesn't go well for a student.
Yeah, no, it didn't.
I got long story short, I got multiple suspensions, exclusions, and at this point, I've been kicked out for the year.
And what did your parents think about all this?
Whose side were they on?
Did they say, hush now, young one, just get through school, or did they stand with you?
Well, no, my parents taught me how to think and not what to think, right?
So they were supportive when I exercised my critical thinking.
What did they think about the fact you're suspended from school?
They weren't happy with the administration, but even they were even more discouraged when they saw me get arrested at my high school.
And were you charged with anything?
I was given a trespassing charge, but other than that, no.
And has that gone to court yet?
It will be going to court.
We're also taking the tour to the, or taking the school to the human rights tribunal.
Do you have a lawyer for either of those matters, the trespass matter or the human rights matter?
Yeah, I've got James Kitchen from Liberty Coalition Canada.
And is that being crowdfunded or how's that being?
Is the Democracy Fund helping with that?
Or is James taking care of that?
How's that going?
Yeah, so there's a fundraiser at LibertyCoalitionCanada.com and there's a petition there you can sign for me as well.
I know, James, he does some good civil liberties work.
So it sounds like, you know, that was my first question because a young lad fighting in class is one thing, but if you're fighting in court, you do need a lawyer.
Sounds like that's covered.
So you're taking the Human Rights Commission, and what are you pleading?
That your freedom of religion is being violated?
Or what freedom are you saying is violated?
Well, yeah, I would argue that my religious freedom was violated.
I actually used scripture.
I quoted some scripture and said that there's only two genders and I backed it with my beliefs in a Catholic school.
By the way, what's the Pope's view on this?
I'm taking it.
This is a liberal pope, but I'm going to guess what you were saying was probably not too far away from what the Pope says.
Well, I myself am not Catholic, so I'm actually kind of not in the loop there, but I did get to talk to several priests and a couple bishops, and it was mixed support.
Some wouldn't even talk to me, and others were supportive.
So what's the latest?
Well, so I got arrested at the school for refusing to abide by the unlawful exclusion order.
And then one day later, actually, it was almost right here.
I got arrested again, just one street over there at the National Arts Center for going to the Dre Queen Storytime.
And I used a megaphone to quote some scripture and exercise my religious freedom as well as my freedom of peaceful assembly.
So what did now were you on public property?
No, I was on.
Well, yeah, I was on a crosswalk.
I was on.
So what were you possibly arrested for?
They said they were going to arrest me for disturbance, and then they eventually arrested me and charged me with trespassing.
On a crosswalk?
On a crosswalk.
Well, what was the trespass part?
What property did they say you were illegally on?
They said I was on the National Arts Center.
I had been on the sidewalk, and then I was walking across the crosswalk when they arrested me.
You know, I don't know the rules in this city, but I studied the trespass laws in Toronto very carefully when some cops were trying to keep us off the plaza in front of City Hall.
And at least in Toronto, the laws for trespassing someone off of public property, off of parks and things like that, is extremely strict, as in you have to be physically harassing someone drunk or something like that before you can be kicked off public property.
You're on private property.
The owner says, get out.
He doesn't need any reason.
You're off.
But from a park, from a plaza, at least in Toronto, it's very hard to have cops evict you.
Is James Kitchen helping you on this case also?
Well, so it was actually about two weeks afterwards.
The police contacted, I think they actually contacted my dad, and they apologized and said it was a mistake.
They apologize.
They said they didn't mean to arrest me for trespassing.
It was an accident.
These things can happen.
You know, it can happen to anyone.
They accidentally arrest when they didn't mean to.
It was just a coincidence that Global News and CTV were all standing there filming it.
Yo, they apologized.
Was this just verbally or did they put that in writing?
No, they didn't put it in writing.
Getting an apology from the police, that's rare, I should tell you.
Yeah.
Well, they know I'm already considering suing them.
And they wrongfully arrested me, wrongfully charged me.
They made a public scene about it and then apologized quietly over the phone.
Not even to me personally.
They apologized to my dad.
Well, it's probably better that they talk to your dad.
I mean, it would be weird for police to call a minor directly and have a chat with him.
There's a lot of weirdness here.
All right.
So what are you doing for school next year?
That's a good question.
At this point, I'm kicked out.
There's certain conditions they want me to agree to that I refuse to agree to.
And at this point, I don't have any form of education.
You know, there's an old saying, you know, someone asks you a question that the answer is so obviously yes.
You say, is the Pope Catholic?
I don't know if you've ever heard that turn of phrase like, Ezra, are you hungry?
Is the Pope Catholic?
Like, it's a generic way of saying, of course, it's in my nature.
But for a young man to be kicked out of and trespassed, given a trespass notice out of a Catholic school, is the Pope Catholic, is a real question.
Or at least with, what's it called?
St. Joe's.
What's the name of your school?
St. Joseph's Catholic High in Renford.
Very strange days we're in.
You know, there was one moment in the morning session here where someone noted that a whole bunch of conservative candidates, conservative candidates, were asked, can you define the word woman?
And every one of them refused to.
And that's in the conservative party.
And I think that this issue went from absurd thought experiment to fascist authoritarianism faster than anything I've ever seen.
And it'll be interesting to watch your case.
And I wish you good luck.
And I think you're in good hands with the lawyer you have.
And we'll see where you wind up.
Hopefully you get that high school diploma.
All right.
Thank you.
All right.
There he is, Josh Alexander, one of the interesting people you meet at the Conservative Strong and Free Network Conference.
Well, there you have it.
I could say there's probably 10 more interviews I could do, but we don't want this show to be an hour or two or three long.
I've enjoyed this.
I enjoyed saying hello to Jamil Giovanni, the new leader.
It's great to see the growth of the independent journalism.
Our first person we talked to today was Andrew Lawton.
It's nice to see a number of True North reporters here.
I saw a reporter from Western Standard online here.
I saw the Epoch Times here.
That's also a change is that you have conservative or freedom-oriented independent journalists.
I did see one journalist from the mainstream media, and frankly, she was here with an open mind.
I know because I've talked to her before about these things.
There will be more events ahead that will come after my filing deadline.
I understand that Stephen Harper is scheduled to speak.
It'll be interesting to hear what he has to say.
And that's it.
Uniform Welcome At Rebel News00:00:39
But I would say that Rebel News was so uniformly welcomed.
I mean, I walked in and our reporter Alexa Lavoie and our cameraman Guillaume Roi from Montreal was here as well.
And the love that was shown, not just to Guillaume and Alexa, but to me too, welcoming Rebel News and telling us how we fought the fight for them when, frankly, the conservative movement in Canada was not quite as conservative as it should have been, was deeply satisfying.
And it was a good encouragement for us to continue our work at Rebel News.