EZRA LEVANT | Inside the protest against Meta’s $13 billion Alberta data centre

Summary

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Rebel News Podcast

Episode: EZRA LEVANT | Inside the protest against Meta’s $13 billion Alberta data centre

Date: August 6, 2026
Host: Ezra Levant, with Sheila Gunn Reid
Location: Morinville, Alberta

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Overview

This episode of The Ezra Levant Show takes listeners on-site to a protest in Morinville, Alberta, against Meta’s construction of a $13 billion data center—the largest such project in Canada, currently under development. Ezra Levant and Sheila Gunn Reid provide an inside look at the grassroots opposition, focusing on the diversity of protestors' motivations: environmentalism, anti-surveillance sentiment, left-wing ideology, economic skepticism, and broader distrust of Big Tech and government. The episode highlights not only the protest’s key themes and tensions but also candid and sometimes surprising conversations with activists, communists, concerned parents, and even voice actors worried about AI.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Background of the Project & Protest

• Zoning and History:

  • The location is Alberta's "industrial heartland," long zoned for heavy industry, not pristine wilderness.
  • Quote: “This is not some prist field and meadow with like Bambi everywhere. This is a heavy industry place.” – Ezra Levant (00:55)

• Jobs and Economic Framing:

  • Meta claims thousands of construction and hundreds of permanent jobs.
  • Debate on whether local community truly benefits versus jobs going to outsiders.
  • Sheila Gunn Reid notes: “All the land there in the area was zoned for heavy industry... Just waiting for the next major industrial project and this is it.” (01:09)

2. Composition and Tone of the Protest

• The protest attracted approximately 200 people, spanning climate activists, communists, and concerned locals.
• Remarkably civil discourse—Ezra mentions that unlike typical left-wing protests, everyone agreed to interviews, even self-identified communists.
  • “Not a single person here said I won't talk to you... Well yeah, but let's, let's have a conversation.” – Ezra Levant (03:02)

3. Left-Wing and Communist Participation

• Prominent presence of the Revolutionary Communist Party and related activists, with explicit anti-capitalist rhetoric.

  • Quote: “Consider joining the revolutionary Communist Party. This is not one fight against one AI data center. This is a fight against the capitalist system.” – Communist speaker (04:12)
  • Organizers clarify communists were not invited, but attend many protests by default (04:22).

• Economic Critiques:

  • Calls to expropriate billionaires, scrutiny of big tech motives, and skepticism about who profits from these ventures.
  • “They don't give a fuck about us.” – Left-wing activist (05:58)

• Ironies Acknowledged:

  • Ezra pays $5 for a communist pamphlet, leading to humorous commentary on capitalism and communism mixed at the protest.
    • “I have never in my life been told to pay for propaganda, but I thought it's too delicious not to pay five bucks to the communists for a capitalist transaction.” – Ezra Levant (12:33)
    • “The day that I can give you this for free is the day that I know we've won.” – Kaden, young communist (13:32)

4. AI, Surveillance, and Privacy Concerns

• Many worry that the data center enables mass surveillance and strengthens Big Tech’s hold over society.
  • “We are going to be what's called a Panopticon society, that is, they're going to monitor your every move.” – Ezra Levant (05:38)
  • Voice actor reports his voice/literal likeness stolen by AI, expressing fear about abused intellectual property and lack of consent (26:13).

5. Environmental Issues

• Protestors cite risk to wetlands, water supply, air quality, and Alberta’s climate commitments.

  • Dispute over whether the data center’s water usage is justified compared to farmland or oil industry.
    • “If this land were a field of canola, it would use more water than it's proposed to use as a data center.” – Ezra Levant (31:32)
    • “You know that the water usage is being understated and it doesn't seem like a coincidence that the province cut funding for the Alberta Water Council earlier this year.” – Environmental Advocate (30:14)

• Distrust in consultation process; claims of poor advertising and lack of real community input (29:15, 29:27).

6. Economic and Labor Debates

• Disagreement over the quality and provenance of jobs: local, temporary, well-paid?
  • “Salaries are poised to double... Do you think these trades jobs are really low quality jobs that won't come from the community?” – Sheila Gunn Reid (10:08)
  • “We have a housing shortage in this province. Why are we not using the trades jobs to build out housing... Instead of something that ultimately is going to be used to spy on the community?” – Organizer (11:09)

7. Broader Anti-Elite & Anti-Government Sentiments

• Multiple protestors criticize the influence of billionaires and accuse politicians of being pawns for corporate interests.
  • “These politicians are their pawns in a generational Monopoly game.” – Revolutionary Communist speaker (05:59)
  • Disappointment in modern government and skepticism of referenda and real community control (24:20).

8. Identity, Generational Divide, and Anti-Capitalism

• Young protestors driven toward communism by the negative impact of student debt, lack of home ownership, COVID-19 “crony capitalism,” and incidents like the murder of George Floyd.
  • “A lot of young people, their only experience with capitalism is negative... If you're not seeing any of the fruits of capitalism, why would you support this system?” – Ezra Levant (20:00)

9. Fears of Authoritarian Tech, Western Decline, and Eastern Advance

• Worry that stalling AI/data center development in the West will push technological dominance to places like China, with less concern for civil liberties.
  • “You stop AI, at least in the Western world, and the communists will win. And I don't think a lot of people see that parallel.” – Sheila Gunn Reid (40:44)

10. Calls for Direct Action and Civil Disobedience

• Some support for escalation, from mass civil disobedience to symbolic violence (references to toy guillotines).
  • “We need to be doing illegal... big moves, big actions... We need to remind the politicians that they work for us.” – Radical activist (34:13)
  • “Are you talking again? ...Do you mean violence?” – Ezra Levant
    “No, I don't mean violence, but... like, civil disobedience.” – Radical activist (35:14–35:30)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• On Industry Context:

  • “This land has just been sitting there waiting for the next major industrial project and this is it.” – Sheila Gunn Reid (01:09)

• On Protest Diversity:

  • “There were climate activists and they were communist activists... they were speakers.” – Ezra Levant (03:29)

• On Communists at Protests:

  • “We didn't plan to have the revolutionary communists set up a table here. They're just kind of a fixture at a lot of protests.” – Protest Organizer (04:22)

• On Big Tech:

  • “Google, meta, Amazon. These people are no friends of democracy. Their funding, their greed, their dominance, their surveillance.” – Ezra Levant (05:38)

• On Economic Anxiety & Anti-Elite Rhetoric:

  • “They don't care for our health.” – Revolutionary Communist (05:56)
  • “They don't give a fuck about us.” – Left-wing activist (05:58)

• On Youth and Ideology:

  • “Covid. And the COVID crony capitalism that we saw with the government and their friends getting handouts and the vaccines, they brought that up, too, as one of their formative, communistic experiences.” – Sheila Gunn Reid (21:00)

• On Surveillance & Privacy:

  • “I've been a voice actor... my voice was stolen by AI and synthesized. My likeness stolen... The only safeguard against tyranny is the free flow of information. Beware of he who wishes to deny you information. For in their heart they dream themselves your master.” – Voice actor (26:13, 31:07)

• On Protest Tactics:

  • “We need to uprise. There needs to be, like, big moves, big actions happening to, like, actually, like, we need to remind the politicians that they work for us.” – Radical Activist (34:13)
  • “Are you talking again... Do you mean violence?” – Ezra Levant
    “No, I don’t mean violence, but… like, civil disobedience.” – Radical Activist (35:14–35:30)

• On the Issue's Political Resonance:

  • “This is the defining era, I think, for the populist left... This was the realest protest I've been to... This issue ain't going the way.” – Ezra Levant (37:23, 38:24)

• On the Diversity of Motives:

  • “Opposing AI is sort of like an inkblot test, a Rorschach test. You look at it and you can always find yourself in that inkblot... everyone here... I bet there are 200 people. I bet they are 200 reasons to be here. And AI is malleable enough to give them each that motivation.” – Ezra Levant (43:13)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00–02:00: Introduction, project background, location context
• 03:00–06:00: Overview of protestors; unexpected openness; early interviews
• 04:12–06:00: Revolutionary Communist Party and leftist rhetoric
• 10:00–12:00: Economic debates about local jobs, wage prospects
• 12:20–14:00: Ezra’s comical/political purchase of a communist pamphlet
• 24:00–25:00: Referenda, direct democracy, anti-government sentiment
• 26:13–27:21: Voice actor’s personal story about AI and privacy
• 29:09–32:12: Environmental concerns, critique of water/air impacts
• 34:00–36:12: Discussion with a radical activist; escalation of protest tactics
• 41:14–43:00: Concerns about Western tech falling behind China; Big Tech PR
• 43:13–44:18: Concluding thoughts; diversity of grievances among protestors

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Tone and Final Thoughts

This episode is both sharp and wry, marked by Ezra Levant’s style—a mix of skeptical humor, pointed questions, and willingness to let activists speak for themselves, sometimes to their own detriment. There's a rare openness—the hosts and protestors engage in real dialogue despite ideological divides.

Protestors’ concerns coalesce around distrust of elites, technology, government, and the environmental and social impacts of new industry. But, as Ezra puts it, “AI is sort of like an inkblot test” (43:13)—it brings out every latent anxiety, from left-wing anti-capitalism to libertarian privacy fears. The protest, Ezra suggests, signals the emergence of AI/data centers as the new rallying point for a broad coalition of skeptics and dissidents, potentially eclipsing older fights around climate and globalization.

In closing, both hosts note the irony and the bridge of dialogue—sometimes fractious, occasionally funny—that this issue sparks in even the smallest towns in Alberta.

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Summary prepared for listeners seeking a full spectrum of the episode’s themes; all timestamps and quotes reflect the speakers’ direct language as heard in the raw transcript.

Transcript

[Ezra Levant]

Tonight, Sheila Gonreid and I went to a protest against a proposed Alberta data center. We'll show you what people had to say might surprise you. It's August 4th and this is the Ezra Levant Show. Shame on you, you censorious fuck. Oh, hi, everybody. Ezra Levant here with my colleague, Sheila Gunn Reed. We are in Morinville in Alberta, about an hour north of Edmonton, where for the last two hours there has been a protest against the big Meta data center. I'm not going to say it's planned for Alberta. They're building it already. They're breaking ground. It's going to be a huge project. $13 billion. That's just the first phase. Thousands of construction jobs, hundreds of permanent jobs. And Sheila, by the way, happens to live right there. Sheila, tell me about the place. Because this is not some prist field and meadow with like Bambi everywhere. This is a heavy industry place.

[Sheila Gunn Reid]

This is a heavy industry place. It's in the industrial heartland. It's where the city of Edmonton, Strathcona county and Sturgeon county come together. And about 15 years ago, the industrial heartland was created. All the land there in the area was zoned for heavy industry. Heavy industry exists there already. Some of it is currently in crop, but that's just while it kills time before it's turned into something else. Maybe 10 years ago there were a series of upgraders planned there. When the bottom fell out of the oil industry, they were put on the shelf. So this land has just been sitting there waiting for the next major industrial project and this is it.

[Ezra Levant]

So it's already been zoned heavy industry. And if you know what zoning means, it's already been approved for smokestacks and boilers and stuff. The kind of thing you would expect in a, in an upgrader. But instead Meta said, well, we're going to build our stuff there for a lot of logistical reasons. For a climate reason is in. It's easy to cool something in northern Alberta than. Let's say you're building a data center in the desert of Texas.

[Sheila Gunn Reid]

Well, not just the formidable climate that we live in, but access to water and access to natural gas because the facility will be supported by its own natural gas generating plant.

[Ezra Levant]

That's the thing, these data centers, it's. Elon Musk wants to put them in space. He says you put them in space, it's solar powered and you don't have any issues of protesters. I added that last part and that's what today was. I came across a small article in the local newspaper here. I think it was the St. Albert Tribune if I'm, I could be wrong on that. And it mentioned that a 20 year old student named Ben Burial was organizing a protest. And I remember When I was 20 I was a troublemaker a little bit myself. I didn't really think, okay, this is going to be a long weekend Sunday, the weather's a little gloomy. As I was driving out here, Sheila, I thought there's no way anyone's going to be here other than Ben and you and me. There were I'd say 200 people here today and we did a lot of interviews. And that in itself, I mean, Sheila, you live in a saner part of the world. I live in Toronto. You go to a left wing protest, they see the rebel Mike flag, they immediately the walls, they either run or they get violent. At the very, very least they say F off, I'm not talking to you. Not a single person here said I won't talk to you. Some people recognize rebels. In fact, the very first guy we saw when we were walking in, he's wearing an NDP hat, he said, oh, rebel. Well a different point of view than you. The only people who knew us, they said, well you might not agree with me. Well yeah, but let's, let's have a conversation. So there were climate activists and they were communist activists. And I put that to Ben, the organizer because they weren't just like they were speakers. He had communists and climate extremists as speakers.

[Revolutionary Communist Speaker]

Consider joining the revolutionary Communist Party. This is not one fight against one AI data center. This is a fight against the capitalist system.

[Protest Organizer or Activist]

We didn't specifically try to coordinate with them to bring their setup. We didn't want necessary. We didn't plan to have the revolutionary communists set up a table here. They're just kind of a fixture at a lot of protests. So they, they kind of mobilize on their own.

[Ezra Levant]

But, but he did speak.

[Protest Organizer or Activist]

He, he did speak. I honestly, quite honestly wasn't expecting him to plug the, the revolutionary, revolutionary communists because this is sort of supposed to be a relatively politically neutral like opposition to data centers and to sort of the threat that they pose to the community. Because this is a broad issue, this isn't specific to the left or to the right.

[Sheila Gunn Reid]

As you said to him. There was an extremist, I guess left wing element here and extreme in their views and not that they're violent. A lot of anti billionaire expropriate the billionaire and trillionaire people there.

[Ezra Levant]

And you want to expropriate what from Elon Musk?

[Left-wing Activist]

Well, we'd start with some of his businesses.

[Ezra Levant]

QV1, Tesla. Is that a positive or a negative?

[Left-wing Activist]

Well, what do you mean?

[Ezra Levant]

Well, environmentally, for example.

[Left-wing Activist]

Well, I mean, I think there's some potential for electric vehicles to be good for the environment. I think that they're not meeting that potential right now. And that's because they're being used for the profit of this guy.

[Ezra Levant]

Google, meta, Amazon. These people are no friends of democracy. Their funding, their greed, their dominance, their surveillance. We are going to be what's called a Panopticon society, that is, they're going to monitor your every move.

[Revolutionary Communist Speaker]

They don't care for our health.

[Left-wing Activist]

They don't give a fuck about us.

[Revolutionary Communist Speaker]

They don't. Or our safety, let alone the health of the Sturgeon county wetlands. These men are the ones really in power. These politicians are their pawns in a generational Monopoly game.

[Ezra Levant]

If this particular data center is not built, you're still going to use your Facebook account, I'm guessing you're still going to use email, you're still going to stream Netflix. It would just be from a data center somewhere else.

[Concerned Parent/Author Supporter]

Right, but the question is how much of the data center is used for just Internet? And the answer is not much. They're building and overbuilding data centers now because of the computational requirements for AI. And AI is something that they're pushing so fast to make money that they're overlooking the downside, unfortunately.

[Ezra Levant]

There's a lot of people who are going to get jobs building this thing. And if we don't build it here, like you say, it'll go up in someplace in the States or, or heck, in China. And why can't Alberta have some industry?

[Environmental Activist]

Alberta can't. Alberta can't.

[Ezra Levant]

Why not this one?

[Environmental Activist]

No, see, that's misrepresented.

[Ezra Levant]

I'm not mis. I'm just putting it. Help me. Answer my question, then help me out.

[Environmental Activist]

But you're answering the question by throwing out your own answer. So my answer is this consultation.

[Protest Organizer or Activist]

I don't think we're necessarily stopping local jobs. I mean, the jobs we're stopping, we're stopping, theoretically 3,000 temporary construction jobs which are largely, probably not going to come from the community.

[Revolutionary Communist Speaker]

These decisions which impact our lives come down to their money. Money stolen from the people. The only time we are permitted a say is when their profits come under threat, which only happens when the working class bands together.

[Ezra Levant]

What are your thoughts on Peter Thiel?

[Left-wing Activist]

Well, personally, I think he's kind of a weirdo.

[Ezra Levant]

You put his eyes in red so it does look weird. But that was photoshopped sure.

[Left-wing Activist]

Yes, I'm aware that the red is photoshopped. So.

[Ezra Levant]

Well then, what do you think about him? That's weird.

[Left-wing Activist]

Well, I think that it's very interesting that he is so very anti human. He's very, he does not care about the social conditions of people. That's very clear. But he doesn't seem to care about the lives of people either.

[Ezra Levant]

Can you, can you give me an example? I've never heard that about him before.

[Left-wing Activist]

Well, he, have you heard of Palantir?

[Ezra Levant]

Right. Yes.

[Revolutionary Communist Speaker]

Right.

[Left-wing Activist]

And you know how he names his, all of his companies after evil things? Because he's very interested in controlling people. He's very interested in breaking down the people ourselves and the backgrounds that we have. And he's not interested in improving anyone's life but his own.

[Ezra Levant]

So has he said anything in particular? Because you're saying you're, you're characterizing him as weird and evil, but yet you haven't actually give me an example yet.

[Left-wing Activist]

Well, I don't think I can remember any of his quotes offhand.

[Sheila Gunn Reid]

Okay.

[Left-wing Activist]

It's very easy to find this stuff on the Internet.

[Voice Actor Concerned About AI]

Meta has poisoned water tables from Cheyenne, Wyoming, Oregon, all night, you name it. Across the border. There's problems in Ontario being reported.

[Ezra Levant]

This protest will not be enough because they will come back and they will say, oh, we consulted the community, oh, we consulted the land. Oh, we made sure to do everything right. They write the laws and we are fucked by them.

[Left-wing Activist]

We are not anti technology. We understand though that these people's wealth are coming off the backs of the workers of the working people of America, Canada and the world.

[Ezra Levant]

I think SpaceX workers are some of the best paid people in America.

[Left-wing Activist]

Okay, well what about the guys who make the components, the chips that are being shipped in from China?

[Ezra Levant]

I saw some amazing stories about literally welders who had shares in SpaceX, who are now millionaires because this IPO, like I think I would love for every tradesman to be paid as well as SpaceX paid their people.

[Left-wing Activist]

Yeah, and we could be doing that, except that we have people at the top who are parasitically sucking the money out of the pockets of the working people.

[Sheila Gunn Reid]

Electricians working on this project, salaries are poised to double. And when electricians make more carpenters make more pipefitters make more. Do you think these trades jobs are really low quality jobs that won't come from the community?

[Protest Organizer or Activist]

Well, I'm more talking about the sort of maintenance jobs that need to be done during like once it's in operation. A lot of those are Sort of replacing. Like my dad, he works in sort of the tech IT industry. He says a lot of these jobs in the within data centers are sort of just replacing components on computers that break and sort of general building maintenance. The work environment itself is incredibly hot regardless of like the cooling system. That's sort of, that's like not part of this equation at all. And then of course they're incredibly loud. Like people, people in the data centers have to wear hearing protection at all times.

[Environmental Advocate]

You know that the people who stand to gain are wealthy foreign corporations and that this is not about Canadian data sovereignty.

[Protest Organizer or Activist]

We have a housing shortage in this, this province. Why are we not using the trades jobs to build out housing in a meaningful way? Why are we diverting them to something that ultimately is going to be used to spy on the community? It's going to be used to destroy the environment. It's going to be used to replace workers. Why are we not using tradesmen whose skills are incredibly valuable and who we need more of in this province, especially bricklayers as well? I've heard that there's a huge shortage

[Sheila Gunn Reid]

of bricklayers, but the housing jobs aren't there. The electrician jobs are there and you're here protesting against them.

[Protest Organizer or Activist]

Well, but you use electricians for housing, you use electricians for other industries. It should be the responsibility of the government to attract jobs that are, attract jobs for these people that are beneficial to the community, that are building out our public infrastructure.

[Sheila Gunn Reid]

But they were willing to talk to us and tell us their viewpoint point.

[Ezra Levant]

We were not sworn by antifa. Never did I feel at risk. And we were wandering around and, and Ben himself gave us 10 or 15 minutes, which he didn't even have to do. And I'm not impressed with all of his answers, but the fact that he answered is, is interesting.

[Sheila Gunn Reid]

Capitalist transaction with the communists early on.

[Ezra Levant]

Oh, it was so funny. I wanted a pamphlet. I wanted this pamphlet from the communist revolutionary Communist Party. And they insisted on charging me.

[Sheila Gunn Reid]

Said, okay, that's $5.

[Ezra Levant]

I have never in my life been told to pay for propaganda, but I thought it's too delicious not to pay five bucks to the communists for a capitalist transaction. I thought it was very funny. Can I ask you why you're focused on data centers? That seems a bit random. Help me out. What was on your mind when you guys decided to come here today? I think that I'll take a copy of that and I'll, I'll do some extra reading at home, but maybe I can put one of those in my pocket. Or something. Five bucks. Boy, you're a cabin. You know what? I'm not even kidding when I say I don't carry cash on me these days.

[Young Communist Supporter (Kaden)]

Yes, we have cars.

[Ezra Levant]

Oh, okay. You know what? It's very rare. It's very rare to see someone selling a brochure, but I love your sense of capitalism. I'll give you five bucks.

[Young Communist Supporter (Kaden)]

Well, we need to pay workers and purchase the.

[Ezra Levant]

I know, the free market. It's. It's not. Sign me up, I'll give you a five bucks.

[Young Communist Supporter (Kaden)]

The day that I can give you this for free is the day that I know we've won.

[Ezra Levant]

Yeah, that would be unusual. Okay, I'm ready to pay. Can I do it on your phone there? Here I am engaging in an act of capitalism with my new communist friends. Okay.

[Young Communist Supporter (Kaden)]

I think we kind of exist within capitalism in the same way that.

[Ezra Levant]

There it goes now. Some data center. Some data center somewhere. Process both sides of that. All right, I just purchased $5 worth of communist information.

[Abi (Communist Supporter)]

Thanks for supporting communism. That's awesome.

[Ezra Levant]

Well, I don't know if that was my purpose, but I'm going to read this later just to go deep on the thinking.

[Abi (Communist Supporter)]

I think it's good to try to understand, you know, other people's. What we're actually saying, you know, not what the news media says about us, that we're crazy terrorists and things like this.

[Ezra Levant]

I wouldn't certainly call you terrorists, at least not you guys. Maybe some of your fellow travelers in other countries. But I was just asking your colleague here, why data centers? Why does that get stuck in your craw?

[Abi (Communist Supporter)]

I think because people are angry about it.

[Ezra Levant]

So you're just sort of. Any revolution is a revolution. A communist joins any other revolution. Right. That's what Lenin would do.

[Abi (Communist Supporter)]

Communists are just workers and students who want to fight against the system, who want a better life.

[Ezra Levant]

So if there's any fight against the system, a communist would join.

[Abi (Communist Supporter)]

Of course. Yeah.

[Ezra Levant]

So data centers is hot right now.

[Abi (Communist Supporter)]

Yeah, people are really mad that they don't have control over their lives, over their community, and people are trying to have a say. And I think what's interesting about the data centers is it's broached the left and right divide.

[Ezra Levant]

Are there any right wingers here today?

[Abi (Communist Supporter)]

Sorry?

[Ezra Levant]

Are there any right wingers here today?

[Abi (Communist Supporter)]

I. I haven't talked to anyone specifically yet, but we've had people that, you know, we've had separatists come to these types of rallies because a lot of what like the separatists want is, you know, a say over Their life. They want their life to be better.

[Ezra Levant]

How does shutting down this data center in, in Alberta change anything other than the AI will be using will be made in China versus made in Canada?

[Abi (Communist Supporter)]

Well, we wouldn't actually call for it to be shut down. We would call for workers control and for workers to decide what should happen. So workers should be deciding that the AI data centers aren't being used for Palantir and to kill civilians across the world, for example, or to target migrants with ice. And the workers should also decide what type of facility it is. It should be closed loop water, which it supposedly is. I don't really trust these people because they also said that they would bring their own electricity. And that's already not true for at least the first two years of its creation, which Danielle Smith has admitted to.

[Ezra Levant]

So you if there was a data center that was run by the proletariat,

[Abi (Communist Supporter)]

you'd support it if workers had control of their whole lives? Yeah. Like workers should be able to control the types of business, businesses that are around, the types of work that they do, everything like that. And that includes data centers.

[Ezra Levant]

Marxism versus identity politics. China's long march to capitalism. So help me out on that one. In your view, is that a good thing or a bad thing that China is becoming more capitalist?

[Young Communist Supporter (Kaden)]

A bad thing.

[Ezra Levant]

And why is that?

[Young Communist Supporter (Kaden)]

I think we've seen the decline in the conditions of the people in China as a result of their return to capitalism.

[Ezra Levant]

I think a critic would say that the Chinese middle class has grown very quickly. There's no more famines, there's a lot more housing and infrastructure. I think a lot of people would point to electrification. I mean, I'm very skeptical of China, but can you not acknowledge that the average Chinese person has more prosperity now?

[Young Communist Supporter (Kaden)]

I think a large part of that is just the historical product of combined and uneven development. When you have a country that is, you know, backward for a very long time, it's able to import the most modern forms of technique from without.

[Ezra Levant]

What do you mean by backward? What was backward about it economically?

[Young Communist Supporter (Kaden)]

It was built on, you know, very backward forms of technology. Right. Like the vast majority of the country were peasants existing in a very primitive state of production.

[Ezra Levant]

Don't you think that's because of communism?

[Revolutionary Communist Speaker]

No.

[Young Communist Supporter (Kaden)]

The planned economy was able to revolutionize a lot of the productive forces in China upon the basis of what remained of the planned economy. This gave them an advantage in their transition to capitalism.

[Ezra Levant]

Expropriate the billionaires. How did that work in China when they sacked the capitalist class? Well, did it did it make the poor people richer or did it just make the rich people poor or dead?

[Abi (Communist Supporter)]

There was a massive improvement in life under Mao. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. There was absolutely mistakes that were made. But ultimately, if you look at the Bolshevik Revolution, the fact that they went from the most backwards country in the world to almost winning the space race, I think is a testament to, to the fact that they were able to actually grow their economy.

[Ezra Levant]

So how did the Russian Revolution, how did it. Why did it fall if it was so successful?

[Abi (Communist Supporter)]

Because the capitalists continue to attack it like that. They don't want competing systems because the workers will look at the Russian Revolution, the Chinese Revolution, and will take inspiration from it.

[Ezra Levant]

I thought that Communists, they believe that the workers should own the means of production, but they believe in production. Are you against building this factory?

[Left-wing Activist]

I'm against building it for private enrichment of the billionaires.

[Ezra Levant]

So would you be in favor of it if it was owned by the government?

[Left-wing Activist]

Not our government, not the Canadian government, not the Alberta government, but a government of worker control, letting the people keep the products.

[Ezra Levant]

So let's say if there was like a cooperative or a collective of workers who said, let's build a data center, would you support it in that case?

[Left-wing Activist]

Well, it's preferable to the government owning it or the billionaires owning it. But the problem, the key problem here is what this is going to be used for.

[Concerned Parent/Author Supporter]

I agree that the Communist Party being here is rather interesting, but I hope that you don't give the idea that this whole thing was organized by that. They just said, hey, we agree this AI thing is not a good idea. So they joined us.

[Ezra Levant]

They're crazy, but that is the way young people are. When you look at Zoran Mamdani, when you look at aoc, Communism and socialism are on the march. And so we might say they're crazy. Yeah, they're also having a renaissance. And Marc Andreessen, a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley who is a turbo capitalist, he said, a lot of young people, their only experience with capitalism is negative, number one, student debt that they'll never pay down. And number two, they'll never be able to buy a house. So the things that make a person invest in the free market system. I own a house, I'm saving up, I'm paying down debt, I'm going to have something of value. You know, in, especially in big cities, no young people can afford a house. So if you're not in, if you're not seeing any of the fruits of capitalism, why would you support this system? Why not Be against capitalism.

[Sheila Gunn Reid]

Right. But there's a great irony in that, because a lot of the people who will be working building the metadata center are probably roughly the same age as some of these young people protesting here today, young Alberta tradespeople who will be making $250,000 a year as an electrician. The data center is a solution to a lot of the problems that they're talking about here. But I will point out that there was a third experience with capitalism that one of these young communists pointed out, and that was Covid. And the COVID crony capitalism that we saw with the government and their friends getting handouts and the vaccines, they brought that up, too, as one of their formative, communistic experiences.

[Ezra Levant]

And that was one of about 20 things I heard today that made me say, oh, I. I sort of have some common ground here, because it absolutely was crony capitalism. And, you know, the most famous video I've ever participated in in my life was when I scrummed Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer, on the streets of Davos. Take a quick look at that. Mr. Pourla. Can I ask you, when did you know that the vaccines didn't stop transmission? How long did you know that without saying it publicly? Thank you very much. I'm sorry, that question. I mean, we now know that the vaccines didn't stop transmission, but why did you keep it secret? He was crony capitalism. He and his friends in government, Anthony Fauci, Theresa Tam, they made billions and so many companies.

[Sheila Gunn Reid]

Frank Bayless here in Canada with his ventilators, you know, close ties to the liberal.

[Ezra Levant]

It was all an ins. And you're exactly right. Thank you so much. So that young woman, I said to her, what flipped you? What made you commie? And she said, Covid. And at first I thought, what? No, but I get it. If that's what you think, if that's what the world says capitalism is, well, who wouldn't hate that, right? How did you come to this way of thinking? Was it your family, your school, your, like, how did you become a communist?

[Abi (Communist Supporter)]

I got mad during COVID that there was no plan for the economy, that profit was being made while people were losing their lives, and that there was no, like, real discussion over. Over anything that was going on. I would say, including the vaccines. Not in, like, people shouldn't get vaccinated, but in that. There was these corporations that charged the Canadian working class multiple times for single doses. They charged. The Canadian government took on the risk of the vaccines, and then the Canadian government bought the vaccines. After.

[Ezra Levant]

But I made you a communist.

[Abi (Communist Supporter)]

I was mad that there was no plan. I was mad at the George Floyd killing, at the murder of George Floyd.

[Ezra Levant]

Hang on a second. What you just described absolutely was a plan. Like the COVID was totally. But a plan. Planning who could go where, planning curfews, planning.

[Abi (Communist Supporter)]

Didn't get to control that. We didn't get to decide that. You know, Trudeau, who was it? Kenny? These are the people that got to decide what we did. And I don't trust them.

[Ezra Levant]

But you want more power. I mean, communism means government has the ability to make decisions. You want to give more power to government.

[Abi (Communist Supporter)]

I think we should have more referendums, actually. I think we should have. I think there should be a referendum on nationalizing the oil bosses and putting the oil companies under workers control. I think there should be referendums on data centers. I think we should have more say in everything.

[Ezra Levant]

Well, you've certainly given me a lot to think about. Nice to meet you. What's your name?

[Abi (Communist Supporter)]

Abi.

[Ezra Levant]

I'm Azra. Good to meet you. What's your name?

[Young Communist Supporter (Kaden)]

My name's Kaden.

[Ezra Levant]

Kaden, good to meet you. Bye guys. If you're a tradesman in a pro trades jurisdiction like Alberta, you'll be doing great, whether it's oil and gas, building data centers, whatever. But you went to some, you know, second rate university like Toronto Metropolitan University. You got a degree in communication studies or whatever. You got 50 grand in debt, you can't buy a house, you're not going to get the job of your dreams. And so naturally you're going to hate the billionaires, the gajillionaires. And there, you know, there were a number of things that I heard that rang a bell with me. There was a guy and we talked to him afterwards and he was a little bit cryptic. He said, I'm not going to tell you my name and I don't want to show you my face. He talked about being a voice actor who had his voice stolen, synthesized and appropriated by AI. I don't know the facts of his story. It sounds plausible to me. We know that AI is hoovering up all, basically the entire Internet without regard to who owns that intellectual property. OpenAI just had a huge settlement with a bunch of authors, like a billion and a half they paid for stealing their books. There are reasons to be worried if you care about privacy. The surveillance state. One guy referred to the Panopticon. That's true. Let me give you a taste of the one guy, you know, he was a little bit radical. And I think he was a man of the left. But it's tough not to take the side of a guy who's worried about privacy and the information war against us. Take a quick look.

[Voice Actor Concerned About AI]

I've been a voice actor and a different entertainer for different types of projects. My voice was stolen by AI and synthesized. My likeness stolen. And here's another thing, is that these companies have massive social media networks that scrape data. That is how these language learning models work. Generative AI works. They steal art, they steal people's imagery, they steal people's information, they synthesize it, they amalgamate it. I know Rebel News, I know you guys well enough. I know that you appeal to the right wing. So I'm just going to say something that unifies everyone.

[Ezra Levant]

Oh, that's a good idea.

[Voice Actor Concerned About AI]

Because I'm not here to be partisan. Believe it or not, I'm here to present an issue that's simple, okay, Is that everyone needs to breathe, everyone needs to pay energy bills, and everyone has information sovereignty. The more that that is distorted, the more that it is controlled by different forces outside of your control, the worse it gets. And whether you're right wing or left wing, that is an issue that presents to all of us. I'll leave it at that.

[Ezra Levant]

Sir, can I ask you this though? Some would say that AI is here whether you like it or not. And the question is, is it Chinese developed AI, Chinese managed AI, or American, Western European, Canadian AI? So to put the genie back in the bottle is impossible.

[Voice Actor Concerned About AI]

They would talk about the inevitable crawl of automation and labor and AI and all that. If you're looking at as an inevitability, then look at it this way. Then look at it this way. Regulation and people's responses is inevitable. People's responses to this technology, just like any other technology is inevitable. Trains, oil, anything, cars. There's legislation, there's rules that people back because of safety problems, because of health problems. We wear seat belts because people were being flung out of cars. We stopped drunk driving because people were swerving all over the road. These were rules placed on the automotive industry. The same will happen to AI.

[Ezra Levant]

What brings you out today?

[Concerned Parent/Author Supporter]

Well, mostly my daughter, who's very concerned about AI. She's an author and did a challenge, AI versus author, sort of like John Henry driving steel.

[Ezra Levant]

But so she's worried about AI. Does she think it should be stopped? Well, let me ask you because for

[Concerned Parent/Author Supporter]

doing things that it should not be doing, like appropriating authors works or artists works and so on, that's not a good Thing AI is a powerful tool. It can be used for very good things, but also for pretty bad things.

[Ezra Levant]

Well, Sheila, what I want to do now is we had so many little interactions and I'd like to show people, not all of them because we've been talking non stop for more than an hour to folks here, but just a sample of some of the things we heard.

[Voice Actor Concerned About AI]

Stop that slop.

[Ezra Levant]

Stop that slop. Stop that slop.

[Protest Organizer or Activist]

Stop that slop.

[Environmental Activist]

Even though the mayor of the county of Sturgeon said there was consultation, if you have zero people show up, you probably didn't advertise it well enough. So there's due diligence on the part of all politicians.

[Left-wing Activist]

Danielle Smith is saying the residents of Sturgeon agreed to this. I'm a resident of Sturgeon. I have always been a resident of Sturgeon for many years. My husband owns farmland and no one approached us. There's nothing in our mailbox, there's nothing in our online. There was nothing advertised. It was just the only time we heard anything was when it was agreed to. We never agreed to this.

[Concerned Parent/Author Supporter]

What about the environmental consequences? Should we forget about those even though we're in a race with China, as you put it? What about the resource uses? It turns out that yes, they'll build a power plant to power, but not until a couple of years after it's open. That's 900 plus megawatts they'll be using off the grid, which could affect us. But worst of all is the process. Not many people heard about it and this is just one project.

[Environmental Advocate]

You know that the water usage is being understated and it doesn't seem like a coincidence that the province cut funding for the Alberta Water Council earlier this year. Like me, you know they are planning to build the Green light gas power plant to run this data center which will have an impact on local air quality when we're already struggling with devastating wildfire smoke every year.

[Environmental Activist]

I'm worrying about the environmental impact. I'm worried about historically what I have seen in the United States with the increase in electrical consumption, the poor management of data centers and the cost that comes back to the people in the areas. And I know it's in the county and a lot of data centers in the states are in larger urban areas. But the reality is that the due diligence hasn't been done in terms of all of the environmental impacts.

[Voice Actor Concerned About AI]

The only safeguard against tyranny is the free flow of information. Beware of he who wishes to deny you information. For in their heart they dream themselves your master thank you. Everyone. Opposes AI DATA CENTERS Opposes information war Stay strong in solidarity.

[Ezra Levant]

If this land were a field of canola, it would use more water than it's proposed to use as a data center. So like my point is, compared to what else was going to go there, this is a light touch.

[Concerned Parent/Author Supporter]

Where would the water go when it's used to water the canola? Would the canola pollute it? Would it add strange chemicals to it? I don't think so. But the point is, I'm not sure

[Ezra Levant]

if that's, if that's what a data.

[Concerned Parent/Author Supporter]

And I agree that the oil industry has caused more pollution. This will. However, the question is, if we're doing something new, should we say, oh well, that's dirty, that's okay, so we don't have to do anything better now the question is, can we do better now?

[Ezra Levant]

We are polluting this planet harder than we ever have before. If you were to figure out the per capita emissions, Albertans are the worst polluters on the Earth. Is this just a reboot for the climate movement with a new news peg in the form of data centers? Like, I, I heard a lot of stuff that I've heard for 20 years, just general anti industry, anti oil, anti carbon stuff. What's different?

[Protest Organizer or Activist]

I would say that this, I mean, I personally am hoping to sort of push it beyond that because I know that the historic environmentalist movement has been very anti industry. It's been anti. It's like the, the Green Party. I've seen them speak sometimes and they will advocate for the sort of abolition of resource extraction and stuff like that, which just isn't feasible. Right.

[Revolutionary Communist Speaker]

We are here because 30 minutes that way a development is coming over which we can only speculate the ramifications. Although we've been elucidated with some real figures. We all share similar concerns. Our planet is on fire because greenhouse gas emissions are out of control. Municipalities everywhere in drought, food supply chains in crisis, energy bills for all of us are poised to skyrocket. All of this boils down to one thing. We have no say.

[Left-wing Activist]

We live in a very technologically advanced society. So things like data centers are necessary in some cases. The question is where they're being built, who's going to be running them and what purpose they're actually going to to be used for.

[Concerned Parent/Author Supporter]

Whether or not we build AI here, will we be able to control AI in other countries or other continents? Likely not. And the question that some people pose is are we heading for a cliff?

[Environmental Advocate]

This is a fossil fuel expenditure. Our planet just cannot Afford. And I know this is an economically complex statement to make in Alberta, but if we want a livable future for ourselves, for our kids, and for all living beings on Earth, it's a reality we have to grapple with.

[Radical Activist]

The Canadian citizens aren't being consulted about anything that's happening anymore. They're not even pretending that they give a. What we think. You know, and there's people writing letters and stuff. We don't need to be writing letters. Like, we need to. We need to be doing illegal. We. We need to uprise. There needs to be, like, big moves, big actions happening to, like, actually, like, we need to remind the politicians that they work for us.

[Ezra Levant]

We are not sitting down for this one. We are not lying down for this one. Take your jackhammer and do something. But it sounded like you were talking about direct physical action.

[Radical Activist]

Yeah, we need to be, like, tarring and feathering these people.

[Ezra Levant]

Do you mean that literally?

[Radical Activist]

Yeah. No, like, we need to be. We need to, like, remind the politicians

[Sheila Gunn Reid]

that they work for us.

[Radical Activist]

If they don't work for us, then, like, they're just. They're literally.

[Ezra Levant]

Isn't that what elections are for?

[Radical Activist]

If voting made a difference, they wouldn't let us do it.

[Ezra Levant]

Are you talking again? I don't want to put words in your mouth because. Because you. You didn't say it, but I. I'm trying to understand what you mean. Do you mean violence?

[Radical Activist]

No, I don't mean violence, but I mean, like. How do I describe it?

[Ezra Levant]

Like, civil disobedience?

[Radical Activist]

Yeah, civil disobedience. Like, honestly, like, you know, the idea if we stop paying our taxes, if we stop going to work, if we stop cooperating.

[Ezra Levant]

Okay, that makes me feel more comfortable because I did see a toy guillotine here, which. What do you think about that?

[Radical Activist]

I think that's fucking hilarious.

[Ezra Levant]

If it's a joke. I mean, it's a symbolic. Then it's funny. But, you know, there was the assassination of CEO in New York a couple years ago. The accused is Luigi Mangione. And I think there's. On the left, there's this rising idea that maybe assassinations work.

[Radical Activist]

I wouldn't say assassinations. I mean, he definitely, like, it was an extreme move, but it's one of those, like, we're all thinking it and somebody finally snapped.

[Ezra Levant]

We're not all thinking it.

[Radical Activist]

Okay, well, a lot of us are fed up. A lot of us are fed up with a lot. With a lot of things.

[Ezra Levant]

And we believe in Mother Earth. We believe in the survival of our people. We were put on this earth to survive.

[Radical Activist]

I think having open conversations is a huge thing. Like, if we aren't willing to converse, we're not going to get anywhere. Especially like people, you, me, everybody else here, like, we should be coming together because, you know, there's power in numbers. You know, the small population of the people making these decisions are vastly outnumbered by, you know, ordinary citizens that actually want to live a life in a, in a healthy country.

[Ezra Levant]

You know, I'm so glad I went in. Best foot forward.

[Sheila Gunn Reid]

You did well behaved.

[Ezra Levant]

Yeah, I mean, I didn't pick fights. I could have asked tougher questions, but they would have changed the dynamic and, and I didn't want to be. I wanted to actually observe.

[Sheila Gunn Reid]

You were on your sincerest vest today and they were trying to give you chocolate bars at the end.

[Revolutionary Communist Speaker]

Well, yeah.

[Ezra Levant]

Well, they just look at me and that's an instinct people have. Feed him. Feed him. But let me make a prediction here. This is absolutely the issue of our age, climate change. The energy's gone out of it. Gaza, well, you know, that's going to be a slow burn, but I think that with Israel out of Gaza and, and I just think the temperature on that issue has gone down. So this is the defining era, I think, for the populist left. Bernie Sanders going full tilt. Aoc, Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York announcing a moratorium. Naheed Nenshi in Alberta. A few years ago he would have held himself out as the innovation guy. I'm the high tech, cool innovation guy. Now he's the. This is the unifying issue on the. The socialist left, radical left, populist left across North America. This was the realest protest I've been to. I didn't see your typical handlers. There were a couple NDPers here, but no politicians. This issue ain't going the way. And my comments earlier about how McDonald's tried to rebut some of the propaganda. If the AI people don't start doing it and with different spokesmen, like there is something about the tech bros that they have a certain reputation already and a certain style and they've got egos. And Mr. Wonderful, as he calls himself, a lot of the people who are behind the data centers have some pr. Let's just say they have some PR challenges and sending out billionaires to make the case is probably not going to do it. There was even a rebel news guy here today who, who was thrilled to see us here. And he was also against AI in data centers. I tried to get to the bottom, but here, take a Look, well, I'm here to support anti AI and data centers. And as a matter of fact, I've been pushing hard, you know, online to stop or just to get stuff like this happening. And would you call yourself a right winger or a conservative? I'm a skeptic or a dissident. How would. I don't want to label you, label yourself. I'm a Rebel News fan and I stand Behind Rebel News 110%. Now we have some worries about AI. We don't understand it fully, but one of the things that we came here today to investigate was are these just anti industry, anti oil and gas climate activists? Because I, it sounded a bit like they were grafting on the anti data center stuff to just anti energy, anti development stuff. Does that worry you? I think everyone's really concerned. This is very disturbing. We can see what's happening in the US and it's, it's, it's destruction of, of, you know, society and all the freedom. So that's a real rebel. He hugged us and believe me, I know what rebels are like. That's a rebel. And he is here with a bunch of communists and climate extremists and leftists and NDPers because he's worried. And when I pressed him a bit, he's just worried about AI not so much this one data center, this feels

[Sheila Gunn Reid]

a lot like the space race all over again. It was, you know, freedom versus communism. And that's what's going to happen with AI. You stop AI, at least in the Western world, and the communists will win. And I don't think a lot of people see that parallel. You know, China is not going to stop and China will do sinister things with AI they're already doing sinister things with AI. People are worried about control. Imagine if China wins this race.

[Ezra Levant]

I don't like Mark Zuckerberg at all, really. I think he was a brutal censor. It still is to a degree of us like Rebel News paid a steep price because of Zuckerberg's censorship. His historic statements about privacy. I think a lot of people remember when he basically said to hell with privacy. So putting a guy like that in charge of making the case for AI is probably not wise. But what are the reasons that we can be optimistic about it? What are the reasons that we can have policy fixes instead of trying to unplug the entire economy and shut it down and put the genie back in the bottle? What can we do to allay the fears? There were good people here today. That's the difference. I can't look at anyone here that I spoke with and said they were malevolent or motive. Even the communists, even I said to the commie, what made you a commie? She said, Covid. Well, I had a different reaction myself but. But I can see why someone would be detonated by what Covid did. So there's a lot of work on this issue and you can see why the NDP and the Democrats and the leftists, they are all in on this because it's the only popular thing they have. Not that they have a solution, it's just they found something to demonize that lets them attack capitalism, trillionaires, industry.

[Sheila Gunn Reid]

Unify skeptics around a common cause.

[Ezra Levant]

There was a mix of people here for a whole number of things. I saw a couple of caffeists. AI is what brings everyone together. And some of the speeches were incoherent that way. It was like a laundry list of

[Sheila Gunn Reid]

every fear manifesto style.

[Ezra Levant]

One of the speakers really felt like a Ted Kaczynski type guy.

[Sheila Gunn Reid]

I saw it, I saw. I zoomed in on his notebook and it was, you know, the writing was four spaces wide, like four lines and just scrawled and he was angry. He was angry and spitting on the microphone.

[Ezra Levant]

Opposing AI is sort of like an inkblot test, a Rorschach test. You look at it and you can always find yourself in that inkblot. Do you care about privacy? Do you care about environmentalism? Do you care about sovereignty? Do you care about democracy? Like everyone here. I bet there are 200 people. I bet they are 200 reasons to be here. And AI is malleable enough to give them each that motivation that climate no longer does. Gaza no longer does. It does feed into anti capitalism. I tell you what, I'm so glad I came here today. I thought it was going to be enough. I remember driving up, I texted you, I said, it's just going to be us and Ben the organizer. No, it was us. Ben the organizer and 200 people.

[Sheila Gunn Reid]

200 people. And you know, there was, it was a cornucopia of humanity.

[Ezra Levant]

There were people, raging grannies, There were

[Sheila Gunn Reid]

raging grannies there, raging dinosaurs. More masks than I've seen in Alberta in a long time. But I share some of the concerns of these people. I just think the solution is to venture build AI here.

[Ezra Levant]

Very interesting. The I'm sure we'll continue on this subject for quite a while because the other side is revved up, I'll tell you that. Sheila, thanks very much for coming out here and for helping and I didn't even notice the trans flag on the driveway there. Welcome to 2026, I guess, in small town Alberta.

[Sheila Gunn Reid]

Take back your municipal town halls, people.

[Concerned Parent/Author Supporter]

Oh, boy.

[Ezra Levant]

Well, listen, thanks to all of you for watching. Thanks to Sheila for her support. Until next time, on behalf of all of us at Rebel, to you at home, good night and keep fighting for freedom.