“For years, Alberta has been told to sit down, shut up, and pay the bill. Pay equalization. Pay for federal failures. Pay for policies dreamed up in Ottawa — and dumped on the West. And every time Albertans asked a simple question — is this still working for us? — they were told not to ask it. That ends now.”

That’s how Rebel News Alberta Bureau Chief Sheila Gunn Reid sets the virtual stage for the launch of the latest Rebel campaign: The Alberta Independence Tour, “a live, in-person series of events across Alberta focused on the province’s future, its rights, and its place in Confederation.”

In addition to Gunn Reid, the rolling discussion — which is currently slated to kick off in Mirror, Alta., on Feb. 17 —  will also include appearances by Tamara Lich,  “one of the most recognizable figures to emerge from the Freedom Convoy” and, as of last month, a full-fledged member of the Rebel team who “covers government power, civil liberties, and political movements that legacy media either ignores or deliberately distorts,” according to Gunn Reid.

Also on the programme: “The Western Standard’s Cory Morgan, a senior Alberta columnist, veteran commentator, and author of The Sovereigntist’s Handbook,” who “will walk through the political and practical realities of Western independence — what’s possible, what’s legal, and what’s pure fear-mongering,” she notes.

“These aren’t sanitized panels. These aren’t media-approved conversations. This is straight talk. Real debate. And honest discussions the establishment won’t host.”

According to the posted schedule, the trio will be criss-crossing the province over the next few weeks, with stops in Red Deer, Edmonton, Calgary, Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Fort McMurray, Westlock and Grande Prairie, although in several cases, the venue is listed as ‘TBA.’

“In recent days, some venue operators have reported coordinated campaigns by local activists opposed to the tour’s political message,” Gunn Reid reveals in a separate post.

“Those campaigns reportedly include mass emails to venue management and social media appeals urging cancellations or threatening reputational consequences. The tours themselves, however, remain booked and set to proceed as planned.”

For her part, Lich is also keeping tabs on the newly formed Saskatchewan Prosperity Project, which “held its inaugural community meeting in Shaunavon, drawing a packed crowd eager to explore the province’s future,” she reports.

“Modelled after the Alberta Prosperity Project, the SPP is a grassroots, non-partisan educational initiative travelling across Saskatchewan. The organization’s mission is to inform residents about the benefits, challenges and practical steps toward an independent Saskatchewan, one that harness its vast natural resources for local prosperity.”

In her written recap, Lich notes the event “was abuzz with energy (as) attendees voiced deep frustrations with Canada’s Confederation,” including “the endless taxation, eroding freedoms, threats to gun rights, federal restrictions on resource development, a crumbling health-care system and a sense that the Canada they once knew had vanished.”

She also chatted with organizer Brad Williams, who “highlighted the strong turnout and momentum of the movement in the province,” and checked in with attendees to find out what brought them out to the evening meeting, including an unidentified woman who lamented the state of the health care system and the low rate of pensions, and a gentleman who complained that he was “just tired of paying tax all the time.”

Meanwhile, Montreal-based Rebel Alexandra Lavoie checked in with Quebec podcaster Joey Aubé to “to dissect the renewed talk of Quebec independence and how it compares to Alberta’s growing separatist movement,” who “attributed the (Parti Québécois) polling strength not to surging sovereigntist fervor but to widespread disillusionment with Premier François Legault and the CAQ,” she notes.

“Many voters, Aubé argued, plan to use the PQ to oust Legault but reject its core promise: ‘Their main logic is, yeah, we’ll vote for him to get rid of Legault and govern Quebec, but if he pulls up his referendum on sovereignty, we’ll just vote against it.’”

Earlier this week, Lavoie revealed that, “just days after the U.S. arrested Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro” she and her fellow Rebel, Efrain Monsanto, “secretly entered” Cuba, “one of the world’s most tightly controlled countries — posing as tourists, hiding our identities, and filming in conditions where a single mistake could have meant detention or worse.”

The resulting “undercover investigative report,” which was released last week, shows that “the reality on the ground is far more dire than we expected.”

In a post-trip interview with Rebel commander Ezra Levant, Lavoie “described the trip as a rare chance to speak directly with ordinary Cubans outside the resort areas typically seen by tourists,” including “widespread poverty, food shortages, failing infrastructure and heavy political surveillance.”

Elsewhere on the site, Rebel correspondent Tamara Ugolini sounds the alarm over the “38 secret vaccine tracking codes” that the World Health Organization “just activated … worldwide,” she warns.

“These new codes are sold to the public as a way to make it “easier to track vaccine and medical product shipments worldwide’ and allow ‘faster, more coordinated responses during future health emergencies.’ But don’t be fooled. This is the building of a global surveillance grid for things like vaccines. Every dose, every batch, every border crossing is to be logged, categorized, and monitored. In real time. And the WHO gets all of the data.”

She also highlighted the move by Conservative MP Mike Dawson, a “former drywaller and contractor,” who, “in a refreshing display of integrity amid Canada’s crushing cost-of-living crisis” is the first to have “officially declined the upcoming 4.2% parliamentary pay hike set for April 1,” she reports.

“This is the kind of leadership Canadians are increasingly desperate for, which puts taxpayers first instead of further padding pockets. Meanwhile, under globalist banker and now Prime Minister Mark Carney’s watch, inflation rages on.”

Over at Juno News, Melanie Bennet reports that “Ontario’s largest teachers’ union has sparked outrage after hiring the controversial anti-Israel group Independent Jewish Voices to deliver ‘anti-semitism’ training,’” which the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs is calling “completely unacceptable.”

Juno contributor Marc Patrone offered his own take on U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to “halt” the nearly-complete Gordie Howe Bridge, which is slated to open later this year — and, more specifically, the reaction from Canada.

“After a phone call with Trump, Carney insists the bridge will open, emphasizing Canada paid the bill and calling it a ‘symbol of cooperation.’ Trump isn’t buying it, posting on Truth Social that the U.S. should own ‘at least one half’ of the asset because the revenue will come from the American market.”

Rounding out the roster, Counter Signal contributor Clayton DeMaine chronicles the standoff between University of Ottawa professor Amir Attaran and the University of Alberta.

“Attaran, known for his staunch support of controversial COVID health measures, including vaccine mandates and lockdowns, threatened the University of Alberta with legal action if it eliminated its current race-based hiring policy,” he reports.

“One Albertan, with the user name ‘Alberta First,’ commented under a post on X about the letter that (the) the posturing from elites in Ottawa was yet ‘another example of why Alberta needs to be independent.’”

Trending on the progressive-left side of the Canadian activist media circuit:

• Ricochet contributor Sakina Ghayyur warns that the federal Liberal government’s decision to “fold Islamophobia into a generic advisory council ignores rising anti-Muslim hate,” and “sends a chilling message to Muslim-Canadians.”
• Breach Media writer Desmond Cole laments British Columbia’s refusal to renew a decriminalization pilot project that “was a clear win” because “making life easier for drug users didn’t suit the government and the many critics of decriminalization,” so “it was time to make life hard again.”
• Rabble politics writer Karl Nerenberg weighs in on now former Ontario New Democrat MPP Doly Begum’s bid to run for the federal Liberals in an as-yet-unscheduled byelection in Scarborough, Ont., which, he contends left “many New Democrats … hurt and worried,” with one describing it as a “body blow” to the provincial party.
• Press Progress health reporter Brishti Basu takes a closer look at the “Canadian-American health influencer who hung out with Jeffrey Epstein,” as documented in “emailed correspondence and calendar updates” released by the U.S. Department of Justice last month.