Kirk’s Assassination ‘A Turning Point’: Speakers at Calgary Conference Address Social Issues Facing Canada

Former Conservative MP Michelle Ferreri said the Sept. 10 assassination of American political influencer Charlie Kirk was a wake-up call that radicalism shouldn’t be allowed to run rampant, calling the moment a “turning point.”

Ferreri’s remarks came Sept. 19 at the grassroots, right-leaning 2025 Reclaiming Conference organized by the group We Unify in Calgary.

“The irony of Charlie Kirk’s assassination is that it truly is the turning point, and I genuinely believe, whether it’s a coping mechanism or not, I genuinely believe that the majority, the majority of people, mourn and grieve public assassinations,” Ferreri said.

“I think that if we let the radicals take up the space, we let them win. But I want to leave you with this, don’t become the thing that they say we are. Don’t become the thing we hate about them.”

Public Safety

Ferreri’s remarks in part focused on justice and public safety. She condemned current bail laws, saying the changes brought in under Bill C-75 in 2019 allowed overly lenient bail conditions and a society in which criminals are not sufficiently punished. Other recent laws and policies in Canada also amount to “tolerating” undesired behaviour in society, she said.

“I don’t care where you sit on the political spectrum. What I care about is that you understand that this law impacts your life and your family’s safety,” she said, adding that there are “obscene things happening in our country.”

Ferreri cited a recent visit to the federal medium-security Drumheller Institution in Alberta, where she was shown an area where inmates are allowed to use drugs. She was told it is necessary for their wellbeing.

“This is insane. … Ideology shapes policy,” Ferreri said, urging respectful but firm opposition from Canadians. “If we don’t push back, nothing changes. But how we push back is everything.”

Ferreri was among a number of speakers at the three-day conference, being held Sept. 18 to 21 at the BMO Centre in Calgary’s Stampede Park.

Defining Truth

Michael Binnion, president and CEO of Canadian natural gas company Questerre, also spoke, saying “truth has become a matter of tribal loyalty” in Canada today, and urging a return to a society that values truth as much as group belonging.

“We train people to protect their beliefs, not test them, and we build institutions that support coherence that we’re correct,” Binnion said. “But successful societies do something different. They build culture where truth and belonging are not at odds, where clarity and belief can coexist, and that, I believe, is the cure. It starts with taking responsibility.”

Binnion said that many Canadian society have drifted far from reality, with many intelligent people believing “nonsense,” and that it’s time to become more rigorous about pursuing truth and standing behind beliefs with facts.

“When belief drifts too far from reality, societies become fragile,” Binnion said. “Today our culture has stopped taking responsibility for what we produce.”

Rejecting Destructive Marxist Revolutions

In his talk, Conservative MP Garnett Genuis said the society should reject not only the Marxist philosophy, but also the “Marxist disposition” that seeks to exploit divisions to bring about a destructive revolution.

“Marxist revolutions didn’t eliminate elites. They simply exchange one set of elites with another,” Genuis said.

“Revolutions can overthrow an existing elite and replace them with a new belief. But no revolution has ever eliminated the existence of some kind of elite class of society.”

He called for reconciliation between different segments of society.

“We seek to fix the institutions that they govern through reforming governance and society to confront the challenges we face with greatness, virtue, and solidarity,” he said.

Different Solutions for a Difficult Time

Other speakers on Sept. 19 agreed Canada is in a difficult period but had very different proposals regarding what to do about it.

Writer and documentary filmmaker Caylan Ford, founder of the Alberta Classical Academy, drew on J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” and the poetry of W.B. Yeats to argue that those who are distressed by today’s political polarization should embrace a firm commitment to their beliefs without becoming overly negative or overly passive.

“How do we respond to this disorder in the world, and how do we put our own souls in order for that sort of disorder?” Ford said.

“We’re not doomed to take part in this spiritual crisis,” she said. On the contrary, there is an obligation to avoid it “and live our lives in order.”

The task demands “discernment, vigilance, and also a great deal of humanity, humility,” she said. “There’s an extraordinary multiplicity of vices and temptations that snare us, and some of those have come to us dressed in the garb of virtues.”

Queen’s University law professor Bruce Pardy proposed an alternative viewpoint, saying the solution to current government control and the state of Canadian society is separatism. According to Pardy, the federal government has far too much control over its citizens, a problem that won’t be resolved as long as the Constitution grants it such broad power.

The solution lies in Alberta independence, said Pardy, outlining a libertarian vision for a new nation where the state has no constitutional right to use force and is only granted distinctly limited powers.

“Our professional ruling class loves to control the people, but it will not control itself,” Pardy said. “First, we need an independent Alberta. And then, step two: that new country needs to adopt a different kind of constitution … What I think ‘free’ means is that you are not subject to the coercion of anybody else.”

Citizen Journalism

Rebel News founder and media personality Ezra Levant also spoke Sept. 19, highlighting Canada’s 2022 trucker convoy, agricultural protests in the Netherlands against government-imposed regulations, and the Sept. 13 pro-U.K. “Unite the Kingdom” rally in London organized by political activist Tommy Robinson. He said all citizens now can act as journalists thanks to technology, including smartphones with video recording capability.

“Look at these three mass events where grassroots people stood up to the regime: the trucker convoy, the farmer rebellion in the Netherlands, and Tommy Robinson’s massive rally in central London. The same theme is present in each of them, and it grew from one to the next citizen journalist,” Levant said. “That means you.”

2 More Days of Speakers

The next two days will offer speakers with a variety of perspectives, including investigative journalist Lara Logan, Dr. Robert Malone, and Universal Ostrich Farms spokesperson Katie Pasitney. On Sept. 20 the focus will be on opposition to censorship and health, while Sept. 21 will highlight “reclaiming faith and freedom,” according to We Unify’s website.

Last year’s Reclaiming event in Victoria, B.C., faced protests and security concerns, and media reported that conference centre staff “event notes” and emails described scenes of chaos, with delegates fleeing in fear as protesters forced their way inside, prompting at least two emergency calls.

Omid Ghoreishi contributed to this report.