Not only did Rebel News commander Ezra Levant score a one-on-one interview with United States Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, but thanks to a serendipitous twist of timing, he was able to do so on location at Lornado, the 10-acre Rockcliffe estate that has served as the official residence for Hoekstra and his predecessors since 1935, as hundreds of well-wishers descended on the grounds to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Over the course of their “wide-ranging” 14-minute chat, Hoekstra shared his thoughts on “American exceptionalism, the Canada-U.S. relationship (and) free speech,” as well as “what makes the American republic endure, and what Canada needs to do to repair the relationship it has spent the past year damaging,” as the Rebel recap notes.

Although Levant gave Hoekstra every opportunity to echo his own — and the Rebel’s — longstanding laments about the state of free speech in Canada and the United Kingdom, Hoekstra politely but firmly rebuffed the offer.

“As an American, you assume free speech, and you can’t really do that in the U.K. or Canada anymore,” Levant contended.

“I will not comment on the U.K. or Canada,” Hoekstra noted.

“You almost got me there, but no, I ain’t going there. It’s the Fourth of July. We’re celebrating America. The prime minister put out a great statement, the city of Ottawa raised our flag this morning, that was a .. very nice gesture by them. I was on Parliament Hill today (for) the changing of the guard, and they’ve got this awesome band playing there (that) played the national anthem, so yeah. No, no bashing Canada today.”

Levant wasn’t the only member of the Rebel News team making the rounds at the festivities. Also in attendance: Production director Efrain Monsanto, Montreal-based correspondent Alexa Lavoie and Tamara Lich, one-time ‘Freedom convoy’ organizer who now serves as a roving Rebel news correspondent.

“It was an honour and a pleasure to attend the 4th of July American Independence Day celebrations at the Ambassador’s residence in Ottawa,” she posted to X that night.

“I had the opportunity to speak with Ambassador Hoekstra and thank him, the President, and the American people for their heartfelt support throughout the Freedom Convoy and ever since.”

In a Youtube clip filmed during the festivities, Lich marveled at the “change from how (she) was treated in Ottawa during the trucker convoy,” when she was “arrested, jailed and prosecuted just for peacefully protesting against the Liberal government,” she noted.

“I’m still under house arrest. The only way I’m allowed to travel is to clear every trip in advance with my probation officer. But because Rebel News hired me as a journalist and community ambassador … I was granted a work exemption to attend the 250th Independence Day celebrations in Ottawa alongside the other Rebels. And, frankly, the cherry on top of this excursion for me was the Liberal meltdown that ensued on Twitter when certain mainstream news pundits found out that I was invited and they weren’t!”

For his part, Levant followed up his visit to Lornado by serving notice that he’s prepared to launch yet another legal battle to stop a “government agency” from blocking Rebel News from their social media accounts — this time, against the Regina Police.

“Two weeks ago, I went to Regina to cover a downtown mosque and its plan to blast the Muslim call to prayer over loudspeakers — loud enough to be heard for half a mile in every direction,” he explains.

“So, when I showed up at the mosque press conference and found a row of police cars, I did what a reporter does: I walked over and asked a few polite questions. They didn’t like that one bit. I finished my report. And when I went back to the Regina Police account for a follow-up, I found I’d been blocked.”

That was enough to get Rebel lawyer Chad Williamson to fire off a “a scorching demand letter” to Regina police chief Lorilee Davis, he reveals. “They have until Friday, July 17, to unblock us and promise never to do it again. If they don’t, we’ll sue.”

While seemingly not on the manifest for Hoekstra’s shindig, Alberta-based Rebel Sheila Gunn Reid weighed in on a recent controversy to hit the capital, where the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board recently revealed that it will not be taking part in the annual Capital Pride celebrations in August, and although the local CTV affiliate “neglected to explain why,” she helpfully “filled in the blank” during a recent livestream.

“Islam is now the largest religious group in Ottawa public schools, at 25% of students — ahead of Christianity at 23%, with no religious affiliation at 29%,” the Rebel recap notes, which, according to Gunn, is “why there’s no Pride parade, and a lot of other changes will come soon, too,” she predicted.

Gunn “also recalled a moment from a few years ago, when a pro-Hamas march and a Pride parade encountered each other on a street corner, creating an awkward standoff,” the story notes.

“I thought, this is where the left is heading. Their bad ideas are meeting each other on a street corner. You can’t just be for unfettered immigration from all of the less progressive parts of the world and then think your country is going to stay a certain way.”

Her takeaway: “I’m happy that children will not be exposed to this. But the reason why is not a good reason.”

She also filed a fresh dispatch on the latest development in the ongoing legal battles that have “put Alberta’s citizen-led independence petition on ice” — namely, that, in the wake of an Alberta Court of Appeal ruling, Elections Alberta “has officially begun counting and verifying the signatures” even as the “broader court challenge continues,” she reports.

“Albertans who signed the petition are being asked to watch for text messages, phone calls, or emails from Elections Alberta over the next three weeks and respond if contacted. Elections Alberta says it expects to publish the verification results no later than July 27.”

Elsewhere on the site, her Alberta Fact Check co-contributor Cory Morgan took on Université de Montréal physic professor Normand Mosseau’s claim that the “proposed new pipeline from Alberta to the West Coast will weaken Quebec and cost Quebecers billions of dollars.”

Not so, he contends: “Apparently, the physics department at Université de Montréal didn’t get the memo that Quebec received $14 billion in equalization from funds generated by economic activity in Western provinces just this year alone.”

And while he acknowledges that the :continued nationalization of Canadian pipelines is certainly cause for concern, the prime recipient of transfers from the revenues generated by such projects really shouldn’t be complaining,” he argues.

“Any costs incurred through the federal funding of the project will be far outweighed by the massive transfer of funds that continue to be diverted to Quebec. Assuming the pipeline is constructed, it will only increase the interprovincial welfare that La Belle Province is so dependent upon.”

Over at Juno News, Harrison Faulkner also landed a Fourth of July sitdown interview with Hoekstra, who made the case that, “that since the tariffs on Canada are lower than on other countries, Canada somehow improved its strategic position with the United States,” he reports.

“Hoekstra says that Washington is satisfied with Canada’s efforts so far to combat illegal migration and drug smuggling while also raising alarm about hostile foreign networks continuing to operate within our borders.”

Elsewhere on the site, Juno contributor Sue-Ann Levy chronicled her impromptu meet-up with ‘Convoy Freedom crusader” Lich at the party, who “came across as remarkably poised and classy considering what she has been through, including being tossed in jail and denied bail by a Liberal judge and dragged through the courts for years,” which, Levy “firmly believes,” was “because she embarrassed former Liberal PM Justin Trudeau with her protest and upset entitled Ottawans.”

She also shared a sampling of responses to the picture of herself with Lich that she posted to X, which were “so nasty, so unhinged, so vindictive, it convinced me there is a strata of Canadians who love to prey and pile on the misfortunes of others.”

Rounding out the right-of-centre roster, Juno partner Keean Bexte was the first to report that Meta Platforms, “the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is behind a massive artificial intelligence data centre planned for (Alberta’s) Sturgeon County,” according to “several well-placed sources with direct knowledge of the investment, which “all sources agree will be ‘historic’ in magnitude.”

According to Bexte, “the project is expected to involve roughly $13 billion in total investment, though the final figure could still change as it is unclear if the final proposal has been approved and signed off by Mark Zuckerberg and Meta’s board,” and is “tied to new 932-megawatt natural gas power plant that will bring down electrical transmission costs for Albertans in the long run.”

Trending on the progressive-left side of the Canadian activist mediaverse:

• In a reported essay for The Breach, El Jones explains why, “despite the manufactured controversy,” the newly unveiled Nakba exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights “is a breakthrough for a long-silenced Palestinian narrative.”
• Alberta-based Rabble blogger David Climenhaga thinks the pitch for a west-to-east pipeline put forward by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and her Ontario counterpart, Doug Ford, last week “sounds more like a bit of brightly coloured pre-election confetti than an actual plan.”
• Canadian Dimension contributor Mark Winfield warns that the federal government’s “dangerous nuclear gamble promises energy security, but will deliver high costs and new vulnerabilities.”
• Finally, Press Progress editor Luke Lebrun has more details on the “far-right activists and right-wing media personalities” spotted in the crowd at the Fourth of July party.