Ezra Levant celebrates Rebel News’ 10th anniversary in Calgary, where guests like Alexa Lavois—shot while reporting on the trucker convoy—and Sarah Miller, a lawyer who filed UN human rights complaints against Trudeau, share stories of media bias and government overreach. Merrily How praises Rebel’s truthful coverage, contrasting it with mainstream misinformation during protests, while Mary Ugalini describes losing everything after COVID fines for peaceful civil disobedience. Levant highlights 20 attacks on Rebel journalists in a decade, spending up to $100K annually on security, and compares antifa’s impunity to criminal organizations. Their fight underscores the urgent need for independent journalism to counter systemic manipulation and protect free speech. [Automatically generated summary]
It's September 19th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Shame on you, you censorious bug.
Oh, hi, everybody.
It is so sunny here.
I can barely keep my eyes open.
Behind me, the Olympic Saddledome, and now behind me is the location, the conference center where we unify is having a get together.
It's an interesting mix of people who care about freedom from different perspectives, especially from the COVID perspective, the personal health perspective.
I was invited to speak on a panel and to give a speech.
I gave some remarks about citizen journalism, talking about three important historical moments where citizen journalism really made a difference.
The first one, of course, being the Canadian truckers.
The second one being the Farmers Rebellion in the Netherlands.
And the third one, just last week, Tommy Robinson's massive rally in the UK.
I was excited to be in there.
It was also on a panel, including with Dr. Bruce Party.
But I really want to tell you about yesterday's gathering.
By the way, there's so many conferences going on in Calgary.
It's very exciting.
I suppose you could go to a conference every week and still not cover them all.
Last night was not a conference, so it was a genuine birthday party at Rebel News.
I mean, we turned 10 years old a few months ago, but we had a celebration in Calgary.
We had a dinner.
We had the reception.
Tamara Leach and her band played.
It was amazing.
It was a lot of fun.
Without further ado, here, take a look at some of the video from last night.
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday, everyone, Rebel News.
Happy birthday!
Happy 10 years, Rebel!
There you go!
That's what we're talking about, Darling.
Great to see you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for coming to our birthday party.
Lots of friends here that I've met before.
Lots of this here and around Canada and even around the world on our cruises, on the recent trip to the UK.
A lot of people love Rebel because it's more than just the news.
It's telling the other side of the story.
We really live up to our motto.
And we don't stop at just telling the news.
Every once in a while, we stop and try and fix the news.
Whether it's the Fight the Fiance Project, or defending churches that were prosecuted during the lockdown, or helping our dear friend Tamara Leach, who has been the subject.
10 years has gone by in a flash.
I've aged 20.
But I feel like we've made a difference in this country.
When we started, the regime media laughed at us, but they're not laughing now.
And when Rebel News was a lonely other voice of dissent, now we're joined by other independent journalists.
And I saw my friend Derek Fildebrand from Western Standard here.
Derek, if you're out, put up your hand.
Derek, thanks for being here.
Earlier today, I saw my friend Kian Beckstee from Juneau.
So Rebel News is not alone, and you're not alone.
I think that one of the most important services we do, besides telling the other side of the story, is letting you know that if the whole world says you're wrong, you can still be right.
I see my friend John Cartay from the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedom.
And Sarah, who are you pointing to over there?
Sarah, one of our lawyers at the Democracy Fund.
Chris Barber, sir.
Chris Barber.
Chris and Tara were supposed to be run over.
They were supposed to be bulldozed.
But they had a different plan in mind, didn't they?
They stood up, not just for themselves, but in standing up for themselves, they stood up for all of us as well.
And we're grateful to them.
They've given up years of their life in this Kafka-esque process, but I'm delighted that they continue to fight like hell.
Why Rebel News Matters00:15:24
A little bit later, we're going to play a video, a compilation, sort of some highlights of the last 10 years, and some lowlights, because that's part of the story too.
But for now, let's celebrate.
And it's my great pleasure to interview, to introduce someone who's become a true friend, someone who I only knew from my TV because I had never met her until after she was arrested.
But over the course of time, I've gotten to know how lucky we all were to have her as the face and the heart of the trucker movement.
And I'm grateful for the opportunity I've had to get to know you and to work with you.
Without further ado, let me introduce you to a friend of mine and a great rebel and a great rock and roller to Merrily How you guys?
Just give us something here and we'll get all set up.
That's funny I only saw Ezra on my TV too until after I was arrested.
I even sent him a friend request like in about 2019 and he still hasn't responded How was dinner?
Awesome We just drove in from Medicine this morning.
Go like Saskatchewan.
Actually, I got to introduce you guys.
Most of you have seen or met my husband Dwayne, before LEE Guitar Player, and We spent well two things.
We spent COVID in Manitoba.
We went out to work on a farm with my daughter I've told that story a million times and Craig was our drummer.
We broke all the laws and went to his garage once a week, jammed in his garage and the neighbors never even turned us in.
So Craig Atkinson, welcome to the West, welcome to Alberta, you guys are so quiet.
Working for the main every night.
But I never lost a little sleep.
When out the way things might have been, big wheels keep on telling.
I sit proud there and keep on burning.
Rebel News has been around for 10 years.
What are some of your favorite moments of reporting that Douglas Long?
I think my favorite reporting would have to be the trucker convoy because I was there.
I saw a lot of what was going on and how the mainstream media was reporting.
It was just factually untrue.
So when we were looking at Rebel and what you guys were doing out there, you guys were actually talking to the people, talking to the crowd, seeing what was going on, and recording it honestly.
Which I just appreciated because it was not a fringe majority, as people know, and it was peaceful and it was like a big block party, really, you know, being down there.
It was great.
Really enjoyed it.
Highlights would be everything that they showed that's truthful.
Yeah, especially the over-COVID period.
It's the truth.
And it's a little sad that the mainstream media and stuff has steered us in the direction to hate everything else and only believe what they say.
So we're all, they're training us to be like robots sort of thing and just not all about that sort of thing.
And all you have to do is five minutes of research sort of thing and then you get the real numbers, the real truth and everything.
And then it just all makes sense sort of thing and stuff.
And then censoring American news and stuff, even what Trump has to say and everything, and paint him as the enemy.
And that's how they win an election sort of thing here.
And he's the guy we need to be on the side with and look up to more.
But I guess that's not the case and stuff anymore.
Oh, I love it.
Like it's just I've been to some of the events.
We had an event here a while ago, about two months ago.
Great speakers, great speakers.
The continued freedom of speech in Canada, I think that's the most important.
The values and the work that all of Rebel stands behind, fighting that liberal government, the non-stop, and making sure that our conservatives pull through.
I think conservatives are better at managing our country, better at managing money, our funding, and hopefully in the future get our generations after generations out of debt.
Well, I really started watching Rebel constantly, obviously, during the Trucker Convoy.
I mean, I didn't even, I mean, I'd heard of it, and I knew of a girl who used to work with Ezra at, I think it was like the Western Standard.
But yeah, I had no idea about Rebel News.
And when I saw the reporting that you guys do, it's truthful.
It's honest.
You speak plain language to people they can understand.
It's much better than what the mainstream does.
It's been lots of great coverage.
One of the clips that really horrifies me every time I play it is when Alexa got shot by the RCMP.
That scream just rips right through me.
Shakedown and the other one was Ethical Oil.
And nobody understands why the mainstream media doesn't want to talk to him.
It's because he's done his research and he's made books, a couple.
And all these people, like CBC journalists who've never written anything, who've just been hired on the basis of how well they can be bent, can poo-poo him.
It's like he's written lots of books.
He knows what he's doing.
He knows what he talks about.
He doesn't waste his time like they do making up stories.
He finds what's really going on.
I appreciate that kind of that media approach that you're not beholden to the narrative of whoever is holding the narrative at the time.
And looking, you know, let's looking back at the last 10 years, looking into the 10 years ahead of us, what's your message to Rebel News and Nestor?
Keep doing what you're doing.
You guys are doing fantastic.
You know, really appreciate all the hard work you guys do.
And let's face it, you take a beating a lot of the time, so we really appreciate it.
Keep up what they're doing.
I don't listen to mainstream media at all anymore, so this is it.
This is where we get our news from is social media, Rebel News being part of it.
Hope C push for more truth and stuff, and really the Alberta project of sovereignty and everything.
I really think we need to really, really evaluate Canada and really get actual facts going to younger people.
I noticed that even going to work and stuff, demographic category 18 to 35 ages is the problem.
And they are just so suckered in, unfortunately, to say, it's just left-wing, heavy, left-wing media stuff.
And they just don't want to listen to an opinion of line of here.
Let me give you a stat and saying, what do you think, sort of thing?
And it's just, it goes right over the head sort of thing.
And I really want Rebel News to just spread the truth around everything because we're not going in a direction that's going to be good even in the next five years sort of thing.
So when Rebel News just seems to be getting censored for saying the right things and we need to keep pushing it sort of.
Keep up the great work.
We support you 100%.
And I think as you can see, how many people are here, he's got a tremendous amount of support and it's going to get bigger and bigger.
And I think the people of Canada, hopefully, will wake up and realize that, hey, this is the truth.
This is the true news that's being reported.
Not this nonsense that the Liberals report.
Happy birthday, Rebel News.
Let's keep going.
20 years, 40 years, let's keep reaching for the stars.
The truth is needed now more than ever.
And Charlie Kirk, Charlie Kirk.
Keep doing what we need to do, free speech.
Keep up the little good work and keep planning for free.
Just keep on doing what you're doing.
You got a great big large number of good journalists out there risking their lives, really, for what they're doing because the modern media just follows their WF scripts that they get from the Wilbow Party, and that's it.
They think that that'll satisfy those people.
I have one of those.
Myself, I've been following the news ever since I was a little kid, since I delivered the paper in my little hometown and increased my membership from small to large.
I've been paying, I care about carrying the news a lot, and what I've discovered is a lot of it just complete bullshit.
So much has been erased that people can't comprehend how they've been groomed to follow the narrative.
And what's particularly good about Rebel News?
Honesty, truth.
And I like the people that are doing it.
As we all know, the news outlets are all a joke.
They're all legacy media paid by the Liberal government.
So they're totally biased.
Without their handouts, they wouldn't exist.
They can't compete.
Whereas Rebel News is totally independent.
Ezra does an amazing job.
Truthful news, the truth.
I avoid to watch any other news just because most of the stuff that you're watching is just blatant fabrication.
I want the real news.
I want exactly what's happening, whether it's good or it's bad.
I want straight news.
And Rebel has always more than provided that to us.
Yeah, simple.
The stories you cover, too.
And again, like you say, you look at it from the other side, but it's not even necessarily the other side.
It's just putting out what they won't put out.
And they either can't or won't.
It makes them useless to regular Canadians.
It's not news.
It's nothing but propaganda at this point.
And when it comes to the next 10 years, what's your message to Rebel News and As Will Evans?
Oh, wow.
Oh, wow.
Keep at it.
You guys have made change as far as I can see.
And you're kind of bad and worldwide these days.
So that's pretty awesome.
Keep it up.
That's what I'd say.
I'm going to take a moment to call up.
I can't call up every single rebel because if everyone gives a speech, we'll be here too long.
But I'd like a couple of folks to join me on stage.
Our chief reporter, Sheila Gunnry.
Can Sheila come on up here?
And David the Menzoid Benzies.
Can you come up here?
And Drea Humphrey, can you come up here?
And Alexa Lavois, can you come up here?
I see Drea is down there by the camera.
I'm not sure if she can hear me.
I want to say that one of the great pleasures of Rebel News is to work with the finest people I've ever met in my life.
People who care about the country so deeply that they literally put themselves in danger.
They're arrested.
They're physically attacked because they're pursuing the truth.
And I'm just going to ask my friends to speak very briefly, like 60 to 90 seconds.
And I know with some of them that's impossible.
But David, why don't you come up here?
And just, everyone here is gathered to celebrate Rebel News, but really the Rebel News means to celebrate the journalists and the work that was done.
So why don't you give us a minute of your reflections after 10 years?
Yeah, well, you know what, folks, I think, uh, thank you, thank you.
And by the way, the original hat is at a silent auction, I understand.
And the origin story about it, it's not quite as thrilling as Peter Parker getting bitten by a radioactive spider and getting superpowers, is that during COVID, when I was covering the protest, there was an incident where a CBC reporter almost fell into traffic.
I saved her and I said, what's wrong?
She was running backwards and she said, your hair, it scared me.
Because, you know, you couldn't go to a barber shop right back then.
I thought, oh my God, I'm not Brad Pitt.
I don't think I'm quite the Frankenstein monster yet.
So I went to the Hudson's Bay and bought a hat.
So that's the origin story behind it, if anyone's interested.
I don't think she's going to be reassigned to the Afghanistan Bureau anytime soon.
But anyways, I know Ezra wants us to keep this short.
I want to thank all of you for showing up and I want to thank you.
If we don't have an audience, we're nothing.
And you are the greatest audience ever.
You know, we go to pressers, we go to events where there's all kinds of mainstream media.
And I'm not kidding you, when it's rebel news reporters, people come up, they want selfies, they want autographs.
The mainstream media is there, they are shunned.
No, I've never seen such television.
And I just want to say that, you know, we are harassed, we are arrested, we are assaulted.
But thanks to this man, and I mean this, you know, if Ezra has our back, it means hiring security guards or it means going to court.
And it's very expensive.
And again, this is where you all come in with crowdfunding.
You pay our bills.
We don't accept a nickel of Mark Carney's government train seal money, okay?
Without Ezra's resolve, without his courage, because Ezra is next level in my book, he really is.
And this is why rebel news exists.
And I'm telling you, people, you know, they probably gave us 10 weeks when we first launched.
Here we are.
10 years, another 10 years to come, I'm sure.
David's Courage00:02:28
Thank you, David.
Permit me a very brief response.
David was arrested five times last year just for journalism.
Just for journalism.
If that were to happen in Iran or Russia or China, there would be a State Department memo about it.
There would be, you know, maybe Penn International or Amnesty would care.
But it was in Trudeau's Canada and Mark Carney's Canada.
And that's just the new normal.
But let me tell you a very quick thing.
I was out on that same street corner where David was arrested once, and there was a pro-Hamas protest, and I was on the sidewalk.
It was actually my neighborhood.
I was just taking a picture of some grotesque terrorist reenactment.
And the cops said, move.
They said, your mere presence, and I filmed them saying this, they said, your presence here will cause those people to disturb the peace.
And I said, well, then deal with those people over there.
No, they took the path of least resistance.
So the top cop came over and he basically said, move now or you'll be arrested.
And this was, I didn't, I was sort of almost in my PJs.
I hadn't planned to go out there.
It was in my neighborhood, so I just saw it.
And I could have avoided a lot of hassle just by leaving.
But you know what I thought, David?
I thought David Menzies has been arrested five times in the service of our company and in a way in the service of my request for.
And how can I claim to be the leader if I don't show the same courage that he does?
Can I be the boss of the company?
Can I be David's boss if I lack his courage?
That was what was going through my mind.
And I decided what would David do.
I'm not, this is not a joke.
This is what went through my mind.
And I stood my ground and they arrested me there and took me to the police station, put the handcuffs on, and we're suing them just like you're suing them.
David has tremendous courage and he has courage for you.
It's for you.
All right.
What Would David Do?00:03:16
Sheila Gunread has been with us since almost day one.
Not only is she a great reporter, but she helps new rebels learn the rebel way.
Without further ado, let me introduce my dear friend and chief reporter, Sheila Gunn-Reid.
Thank you, everybody, and thank you so much for being here.
I don't have...
I don't have a fun story about my hat like David does.
I just got it at a small town in Saskatchewan when I was there at a rodeo.
But I want to stop and just acknowledge Ezra for what he's done for the state of journalism in this country.
I don't have a super fun story about my hat.
It's kind of boring.
I do have a fun story about how I came to work at Rebel News, and I know I'm going to make it short.
Because usually I follow Ezra, and that means make up the time.
I was just a regular mom in 2015, just given her on the internet.
Because the internet was a better, funner time.
In 2015, Rachel Notley had just got elected, and I saw that the media didn't do their homework on these crazy candidates that had put their names forward.
They were insane.
And so all of a sudden, Justin Trudeau wants to leave the country.
And I thought, you know what?
The media is not going to do the work.
Maybe I can do it.
I'm just a mom.
I can Google things like everybody else.
And so that's what I did.
I started Googling some of Justin Trudeau's candidates.
Pretty soon I got a couple of them nuked.
He had to ask them to step down.
And I was just a mom.
The media was reporting this big C conservative researcher as though I worked for the party.
And they never once reached out to me and asked me why I was doing it.
I would have said, because you're not.
And then Natalie Serrett messaged me.
I think it was on Twitter.
And he said, you're doing journalism.
You should come work for me.
And I said, that's not what my family signed up for.
My husband works in the oil patch.
He's gone 300 days of the year, and my youngest is not in school full-time.
And then September rolled around.
And my excuse went to school full-time.
And that was 10 years ago.
And so the point of that big long story is that outside of David Mendez, and we definitely don't hold it against him, none of us are classically trained journalists.
We are just curious people with dinner table questions just like you.
Rebel's Amazing Work00:14:21
Excellent.
And that's why we cover the stories that you care about.
It's because those are our stories too.
And they're the things that you care about and we care about.
And I think that's what makes us different.
I think that's why Ezra really changed the way we do news in this country.
You have people in a cubicle in Edmonton reporting on things without ever caring or talking to any of you.
And I think that's what makes us different.
We're with you.
We're in the streets with you.
We're in the protests with you.
And we ask the things that nobody asks you, like, why are you here?
You know?
And I just, I'm so grateful for Ezra for seeing the things in us that we didn't see in ourselves and giving us that opportunity.
So thanks, boss.
Thank you, Sheila.
Can I invite Drea to come up?
And Tamara and Sheila, can I let's see this.
Treya, come on up here and then I'll ask you to take Alexa's camera from her and switch with her.
Why don't you come up here now?
Drea Humphrey came to us in a dark time when we didn't know how dark it would get.
We didn't know how far our civil liberties would be infringed.
And she signed up for a difficult job, not knowing how hard it would be.
But she has flourished.
And I'm delighted to ask you to say a few words as our BC Bureau Chief.
Thank you.
Well, first and foremost, thank you to all of you because we are absolutely nothing without the people who run and give us the oil to function around.
So thank you all.
It's been a wild five years.
I've been here half as long as Rebel News existed.
And I remember sitting on the couch watching David Benzies in the hat, you know, getting roughed up at a Black Lives Matter, the standoff in Nathan Times Square.
I don't live out there, whatever it's called.
Yeah, and they were getting roughed up.
And I remember thinking to myself, they really need some color on their team.
It was like Sheila too.
I was just a mom.
I was a healthcare worker and I was like, something is going on in 2020.
I had a craft channel and all of a sudden I couldn't turn like dollar store items into a beautiful centerpiece when I was like, is Bonnie Henry trained in hypnosis and hypnosing us or something?
And so I started ranting online and somehow Rebel found me that way and gave me this, a mic, to amplify what I was finding.
One of the first things I was talking about was the lie that was, I was going to say the lie that Black Lives Matter thought sounds really bad.
But the hijacked movement and reminding people that's in fact racist to convince people that by the color of their skin it makes them limited or repressed.
And then it went on to the COVID stuff.
So it's been a wild ride.
I was one of the many healthcare workers who lost their job for not taking an experimental vaccine.
That was my husband.
And taking the job at Rebel News, I actually thought I would lose it faster just for doing that and shedding light on all of the hysteria that was going on.
But it was, in fact, the mandate.
And so again, thank you so much because without Rebel News, I don't know.
We would have lost our house and we wouldn't have had this mic to say the truth.
And so we're still doing that.
And I love all of you.
Thanks, Creole.
And thanks to Creo's mom for making the journey here.
It's nice to see you again.
Now, Sheila, I'd like you to take over the camera from Alexa Lavois.
I'm an Alberta boy originally, and frankly, growing up, Quebec was a bit of a mystery, but I also knew that Quebec, from the Alberta point of view, was a favored province, and it was a source of some concern in the Reform Party.
And I want to tell you how important it's been for my view of Canada to know that there is a group of people in Quebec who love freedom as much as I do.
And although they're outgunned, although if you think the regime media is vicious in English Canada, they've got nothing on how extreme the Quebec media clique is, probably because it's so much smaller.
And here you have this bombshell who comes in and starts telling the other side of the story.
Well, you're not allowed to do that.
Well, she's done so well telling us the stories of Quebec on homblais, but also telling the truth to Quebecers en français, which is the reason why, well, I mean, I won't give specific examples, but quite recently, the Premier of the province announced that he was going to bring in a new bill precisely because of a story that only Alexa was covering, namely the mass protest right outside the basilica by Hamas supporters.
Well, first of all, I want to thank you all for being here.
And first of all, thank you, Ezra, because Ezra took a big, big, big risk when he took me in the company.
First of all, because my English was so poor that same me, when I was listening to myself, I was like, what did I say?
Yeah, so I grew up on the Rebel, and thanks to you, Ezra, and thanks for everybody who believed on me.
And how I joined Rebel, but most of the people know about it, it's mainly because in Quebec, nobody knew really what was happening during the COVID.
And everybody thought that everywhere in Canada it was the same, but Quebec had the harshest COVID lockdown.
And just because one day I wanted to warm myself up in the middle of the afternoon with some of my friends who just tried to help us to get warm, there were 14 police officers cracking inside of the building, the apartment, searching everywhere in the apartment as if we were criminals.
And we got everybody $1,550 fine.
And at that moment, sorry, I didn't know what Rebel was before, but I learned pretty fast that Rebel was helping people.
And I tried to reach out to Sheila and David.
And it's when I started protesting and I met Mocha because I was handling roses to police officers.
Now they hate me, but I don't know why.
They just refused to protect citizens, they refused to protect us.
I got assaulted multiple times in front of them.
They didn't move, they didn't do anything.
As I got shot during the convoy, because I was just reporting on the truth and showing the other side of the story to people, and that was already too much for them.
So I think rebel is needed in Canada.
Rebel is important.
is making a difference and I can see it right now because just in Quebec there is now mainstream media who are trying to report on me.
They are trying to.
Who is this lady?
She's by herself, but she's doing like more work than most of us.
I have mainstream people reaching out to me because they want to cover those promas protests, but they are too scared to go over there.
So they want to join me because they are too scared.
Our mainstream media coming to me and saying, we really like what you're doing, what I don't.
So Rebel is doing an amazing work.
And I think we are doing a difference.
And I think we can see it as a right now because the mainstream doesn't have the narrative anymore.
And we are bringing the other side of the story.
So thank you everybody for being here.
Sumaira Ugolini, if you're in the room, can you make your way forward?
But first I'd like to surprise someone who came here tonight, unbeknownst to me, and she said hi.
And unbeknownst to her, I'm going to ask her to say a few words.
Rebel News does battle in the court of public opinion, but every once in a while we do battle in the court of law.
And we have found lawyers that believe in freedom and civil liberties.
We lose a lot, I won't lie.
We often lose.
But I got to tell you, when we win, it feels so good.
And a lawyer who has probably done more civil liberties work for us than anyone else is my friend Sarah Miller from right here in Calgary.
Great to see you.
Hi, everyone.
Everybody else did a little origin story, so I'll give mine.
Ezra called my firm back at the beginning of COVID in 2020.
He asked for the cheapest lawyer in the firm.
I'm the cheapest lawyer.
So I stepped up.
I took on a lot of the tickets that we saw in the city.
He connected me with Arthur Pavlowski.
I was able to do the most amazing work for our community.
Without Rebel, without all of you, I couldn't do as often what I'd love to do.
A lot of you have thanked me for my work.
Honestly, I don't know what else I could do.
I don't need thanks.
It's my pleasure and my passion.
So I really appreciate all of you.
Thank you, Sarah.
I forgot about that part.
You know what?
When you're using other people's money, you have to be careful.
Sarah, you did a great job.
I mean, your firm has done some great work, and it's protected our journalists, and it's come to the aid of individuals like Pastor Arthur.
So, I mean, we're having a laugh, but it was really important.
And you actually, there'll be a clip of you in the video that we show shortly, flying to Geneva with Sheila Gunread to file a human rights complaint at the UN Human Rights Commission against Justin Trudeau for what he did during the pandemic walkout.
You know, COVID is a story that many of our people share because that's when we learned who could think for themselves, who would be a nonconformist when the whole world was going mad.
If you could keep your wits about you while those all around you were losing theirs.
And our next guest speaker is someone, and I mentioned this over dinner.
We met her because she was a client of the Fight the Finds program that Sarah was talking about.
Here's this young lady who was arrested for walking on the beach, which apparently is a terrible COVID risk.
And I saw her speak and I thought, who is she?
She's so articulate and so confident and such a good communicator.
And she went from being a client of Rebel News to a reporter and now an editor at Rebel News.
Mary Ugalini, come on up here.
Thanks, Ezra.
It's a really wild story, and actually, you know, five years later now, it's even more wild to think that you could be arrested for simply walking a public shoreline due to the risk of COVID-19.
And outdoor viral spread was never considered or proven to be a thing or a scientific fact.
Arrested for Walking00:04:56
And yet there we were just restricting and fencing off beaches.
And a funny thing about that story I think is what Ezra appreciated the most was I had actually researched the lot lines in terms of who owned the property that they were restricting.
And I came to find that there's something that exists called riparian rights.
And I won't get into all the nitty-gritty, but essentially no one owns the shore.
The shore is a fluid moving thing.
And from a certain point of that beach onward is Crown land.
And so restricting public access is not only unconstitutional, completely, but an infringement of that easement and that access the public was always entitled to.
And so I entered on Crown Land, I walked that shoreline, and I did it really out of the fact that my husband and I had lost everything after the lockdowns and the COVID-related restrictions.
And I had engaged with politicians.
I had been petitioning the town to reopen the beach.
I had been delegating at town council meetings.
I reached out to my MP, my MPP, all of these civil discourse avenues that you're supposed to have when you have an issue with how the government's behaving.
And no one was listening.
And so the next step naturally is some civil disobedience, peaceful civil disobedience.
Thank you.
And not only was I being fined for trespass when there wasn't any lawful way that I was trespassing because I didn't go on town property and they never had jurisdiction to restrict access in the first place, but I was actually also being charged criminally.
And I don't even have so much as a speeding ticket.
I was also a mom like the women up here on the stage before me.
And I was concerned about the future and where we were headed if no one spoke up.
People said to me, well, weren't you scared of speaking up?
And I said, what terrified me more was what would happen if I didn't.
Yeah.
Hands on me, and I'm so thankful for that.
And this is my first time being at the Calgary-based Rebel event.
So thank you to all of you.
It's so nice to be in a room full of freedom-minded rebels and supporters.
Thank you.
And thanks, Ezra, for taking a chance on me.
Cheers, everyone.
Thanks, Samira.
We have a couple other rebels here.
Angelica, can you give us a wave?
And Sidney Fazard, Angelika, and Sid are actually headed down to the Turning Point USA mega meeting in Arizona.
They'll be our rebel eyes and ears down there.
Thank you for going down there and I look forward to what you see.
You know, there is always a whiff of violence when we cover the other side, whether it's antifa or police brutality, I hate to say it.
Our people have been attacked 20 times over the course of 10 years.
And I don't know any other media in the country who actually have spent tens of thousands, sometimes close to $100,000 a year on personal security.
And not just here, our friend Abiyamini in Australia.
The left is inherently, not all of them, but there is an unchecked part of the left that believes in violence.
Antifa is allowed to operate in a way that the Hells Angels or the Mafia would not.
It's a criminal organization.
It is a racketeer-type organization.
But because it serves left-wing politics, it is allowed to happen.
And I have watched countless times our people being hit.
And every time I think to myself, what would I do if I were the one who was hit?
And would I sue or would I, like, and I try to do for our team what I would do for myself because they are there for me and for you.
And I'm not independently wealthy.
Every cent we have for security or lawyers comes from you through crowdfunding.
You've probably tired of us emailing and asking for help.
But the fact that you keep providing that help tells me you want us to continue to protect our people.
You want us to continue doing the stories, frankly, that require protection.
When David goes to cover the case of Ash Davis, the big bloke who punches girls on the rugby team, you want us to be there, even though you know, and I know that that leads to litigation.
You Want Us To Continue00:00:34
We don't want you, we need you.
Well, thank you, my friend.
All right.
I talk too much.
Well, it was a great night.
I'm off to the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms dinner tonight.
What a great group they are.
And then I'll be back in Toronto tomorrow doing the show normally.
It's been a busy week in the UK and then here in Calgary.
Rebel News is interested in the whole world and I'm delighted that our journalists make a difference in so many different places.
It was an honor to be on some panels and speak today.