A Big Focus on Gender Ideology at the Rebel News LIVE! Conference

The topic that's got people talking

Rebel News reporter David Menzies dressed up as an Ontario teacher who wore massive prosthetic breasts to school.

This weekend, I had the opportunity to attend the Rebel News LIVE! Conference here in Calgary. Rebel News is an independent media outlet founded by Canadian conservative media personality Ezra Levant that covers topics most Canadian media won’t touch, including gender ideology. Naturally, Rebel News and its reporters are reviled by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The location of the conference was released privately to attendees a day before the event, which was definitely a smart move to keep the venue from getting harassed.

It was a really interesting conference with great attendees and fantastic speakers. The fun started right as I walked through the doors of the venue when I noticed these specially made name tags.

This set the tone for the event, which dealt with serious topics but never failed to inject some lighthearted humor into the proceedings.

The first part of the day was mostly focused on the Canadian freedom movement, which got a huge boost during the convoy protest of early 2022. Speakers included John Carpay, the founder and president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (which is defending Amy Hamm against the British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives), lawyer Chad Williamson, Rebel News reporter Alexa Lavoie, and True North reporter Harrison Faulkner.

While I thought the turnout was great, the audience did grow a little after lunch when the gender ideology segment of the convention was scheduled. This featured four fantastic and highly qualified speakers, each of whom had something unique to add to the conversation.

First up was Mission Specialist at Rebel News David Menzies. His speech was preceded by a short segment of his Greatest Hits interviews over the past year. This included Menzies confronting a trans-identified male rugby player while his female teammates cried and screamed about trans rights and a segment about a swim competition that allowed a 50-year-old man to compete with 13-year-old girls.

Menzies also regularly covers Keep Prisons Single Sex protests in Canada, which aim to draw attention to government policy that transfers men into women’s prisons on the basis of sex self-identification.

Next up was the one and only Billboard Chris (Chris Elston), a father who travels around North America wearing sandwich boards that say things like “kids can’t consent to puberty blockers” and “dad: a human male who protects his kids from gender ideology.”

Elston gave a great speech covering the ways that gender ideology is medically and psychologically damaging to kids. He is always solid on the facts and his messaging is clear and consistent. He noted that a lot of the kids identified as “trans” are likely just going to grow up to be gay as well as that many are autistic. He talked about the younger and younger ages that kids are receiving “gender-affirming surgeries” and debunked the myth that such kids will kill themselves if not allowed to transition.

Then it was the speaker I was most excited for—my friend Heather Mason. Mason was incarcerated in a federal prison when Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government passed Bill C-16, which set the stage for the transfers of sexually violent males into women’s prisons.

After she got out, Mason had no inclination to get into activism. However, she found herself at an Elizabeth Fry Society event where a woman was describing her experience of being locked up with a man. She was accused of transphobia and left the stage in tears. The Elizabeth Fry Society claims that it supports criminalized and marginalized women.

Now, Mason knows more than anyone about what is going on in Canadian prisons in regard to this insane policy. She stays on top of the transfers and judiciously gathers what scant data the government is willing to reveal.

Rounding out this portion of the conference was Drea Humphrey, B.C. Bureau Chief at Rebel News who reports on Western Canada. Humphrey remarked that she thought she would start off the year covering cooler topics like the dangers of AI… but the drag queens had different plans for her. A lot of her reporting recently has been on Drag Queen Story Hour and on how we now allow shockingly sexualized behavior around children which would have been unthinkable a decade ago: like drag queen raves for babies.

I caught up with Humphrey during the next break and, of course, had to ask for a picture.

I also purchased a hat that says “ungovernable.”

The conference closed with a musical performance by Tamara Lich and her husband. Lich was one of the Canadian Freedom Convoy organizers, for which she was arrested and is still on trial.

It was wonderful to spend a day around people who care about a lot of the same issues I care about when it comes to Canadian politics and who are all also aware of the harms and downright insanity of gender ideology. And no, it wasn’t a hate-fest. I’m positive the words “trans people” were not even uttered. What was discussed was the safeguarding of children and the protection of women’s spaces.

Alberta has been a happening place lately. In early October, James Lindsay visited Calgary and Edmonton to fantastic turnouts. In early November, the United Conservative Party held its annual general meeting and passed resolutions against the social transition of children in schools and the placement of male prisoners in women’s provincial jails. A few days ago, my friends and I also met with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to discuss these issues.

Change is in the air.