r/Albertapolitics

In addition to the unwavering support of Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, Tamara Lich, a former Alberta separatist agitator, has two extremely well-connected people in her entourage: her employer, Rebel News head and Pierre Poilievre and Tommy Robinson mentor Ezra Levant, and her lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, a JNF Canada patron leading a push to defund UNRWA whose previous clients include Conservative Senator Mike Duffy, right-wing independent journalist Jamie Gilcig, and ex-convict and long-time con artist Julie Bilotta of OCDC jail birth notoriety.

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Alberta's separatist “movement” is primarily being orchestrated by the Rebel News Mafia, which is a Canadian propaganda outlet for the American, British, and Israeli far-right.

Both Pierre Poilievre and the far-right British agitator Tommy Robinson, whose 2025 Unite the Kingdom rally was funded and keynoted by trillionaire Trump ally Elon Musk, regard Ezra Levant as a mentor.

Rebel Media is financed in significant part by the GOP-aligned Zionist oligarch Robert Shillman, who's paid for Tommy Robinson and Laura Loomer's Rebel News Journalism Fellowships. Rebel is known for an editorial line that unapologetically supports far-right United States President Donald Trump and minimizes Trump's unceasing attacks on Canadian and Greenlandic sovereignty. 

Dr. Shillman also financed Ben Shapiro and Tommy Robinson's internships with the David Horowitz Freedom Center and continues to help underwrite the political activities of Robinson and of Dutch PVV leader Geert Wilders to this day. Most recently, Shillman donated $100,000 to a far-right march organised by Robinson and his entourage in May of 2026.

Ben Shapiro has interfered in our domestic politics and advocated for our annexation by the United States on multiple occasions. He and Dennis Prager have periodically met with Danielle Smith.

Rebel Media currently employs Convoy figurehead and Universal Ostrich Farm agitator Tamara Lich, an Alberta separatist who's regularly been supported by Poilievre on social media and who's being represented by Conservative-aligned lawyer Lawrence Greenspon, who also currently represents fellow Convoy figurehead James Bauder and whose law firm has previously represented Harper-appointed Conservative Senator Mike Duffy.

Greenspon has been a major donor to JNF Canada, a charity that has been delisted for the CRA for its relationship with the Jewish National Fund and alleged role in enabling Israel's illegal West Bank settlements), and has spearheaded an on-going legal push to get UNRWA defunded by the Government of Canada. In 2024, Greenspon won an award from C2C Journal, which is affiliated with Preston Manning's Canada Strong and Free Network.

Tommy Robinson's English Defence League was founded in tandem with and with the support of both the British and the Canadian branches of the late far-right American Rabbi Meir Kahane's Jewish Defense League. The American branch of the JDL was declared a terrorist group by the FBI more than 20 years ago.

While Kahanist parties had once been banned in Israel, the neo-Kahanist Otzma Yehudit is an essential part of the governing coalition of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who enjoys the full support of the Conservative Party of Canada's party apparatus and the Rebel Media editorial line. 

Otzma Yehudit cabinet ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smoltrich have become household names both in Israel and internationally for their cruelty, their right-wing extremism, and their violent, genocidal rhetoric. Smoltrich was permitted to march in New York City's Israel Day Parade, which New York’s democratic socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani chose to not attend, a decision among many which has earned Mamdani the overwhelming support of New York City's residents.

Property tax bills are due today.

Imagine if Ottawa forced Alberta to collect a big federal tax hike on provincial letterhead. That's how municipalities are treated with the Province's 57% property tax increase over four years. It's time to keep property taxes local, with clear accountability and transparency.

Imagine if Justin Trudeau ordered Danielle Smith to collect a massive federal tax increase through Alberta's tax bill. She'd be furious.

That’s exactly what’s happening today to Alberta’s cities, with today’s deadline to pay your property tax bill. Not many of you may know, but now upwards of half of your property taxes go to the provincial government, and not the town, city, or municipality you live in.

The biggest increase on your property tax bill didn't come from City Hall. It came from the Provincial government.

The Province imposed a 21 percent increase on your property tax bill, the largest property tax increase in Calgary's history. Over the past four years, it has increased the education property tax by 57 percent.

By comparison, our Council held the municipal property tax increase to just 1.8 percent. That funds police, firefighters, roads, transit, parks, snow clearing, recreation centres, and the infrastructure that keeps Calgary moving.

Because of the Province's education property tax equalization formula, Calgary homeowners are paying about twice the increase faced by Edmonton homeowners.

Don't take my word for it. Here's how the Premier herself describes where a large share of your property tax goes.

"If we're going to rail against equalization at the federal level, then we can't keep doing the same thing to our municipalities..."

The Premier is right.

If we're going to oppose equalization at the federal level, we shouldn't be doing the same thing to Alberta's municipalities.

Property taxes are local taxes. They should stay local.

The Province should fund provincial priorities through its other revenue sources, and municipalities should collect property taxes for local services.

Thank you for supporting the City services that keep Calgary safe, moving, and growing.

Hint: this is meant as humor and sarcasm, not to be taken seriously.

Great news, fellow Albertans! The $100 Alberta Energy Rebate portal is now open, and all you have to do is complete a totally normal, not-at-all-weird government scavenger hunt to prove you are worthy of one crisp government-issued “please stop complaining about affordability” payment. Obviously the "Alberta Red Tape Reduction Team" was told to "stand aside/look the other way" for this one.

To qualify:

First, create or verify your Alberta.ca account, because obviously the solution to affordability is giving the government one more login containing personal information.

Then please provide:

• One urine sample, refrigerated but not frozen.
• Fingerprints from both hands, unless you used one hand to pay your last power bill, in which case please highlight that hand.
• A hair sample, preferably from the head, but body hair may be accepted after 14 business days of review.
• A photo of you standing in front of your residence holding today’s newspaper, your utility bill, your driver’s license, and a handwritten sign saying, “I promise I live here.”
• Three years of utility bills, month by month, with the painful parts highlighted in yellow.
• A personal budget showing exactly where the $100 will go, including whether you plan to recklessly spend it on luxuries like groceries, fuel, rent, or a single family-sized bag of chips.
• A sworn statement from your neighbor confirming they have seen you leave the house at least twice.
• Your spouse/common-law partner’s information, if applicable, because nothing says “quick rebate” like turning your relationship status into a tax-data side quest.
• A blood oath confirming your household income calculation using the sacred scrolls of Line 15000, minus several other lines that only accountants and retired CRA employees understand.

Once completed, you *may* be eligible to receive $100 within 14 days, assuming the portal, Interac verification, identity matching, account verification, mailing address alignment, tax return data, and the phase of the moon all agree.

Honestly, I don’t know why they don’t just use all those totally fine and not-at-all-concerning voter lists that are apparently public now. Hint hint. Wink wink. Very normal province we have here.

Anyway, thank you Alberta government for replacing fuel tax relief with an online obstacle course where the prize is approximately enough gas to drive to the nearest Service Alberta office to ask why your verified account is not verified enough.

Can’t wait for the 2027 rebate, where we’ll have to submit a stool sample as well.