Ezra Isaac Levant (born February 20, 1972) is a Canadian conservative media personality, political activist, writer, broadcaster, and former lawyer. Levant is the founder and former publisher of the conservative magazine, The Western Standard. He is also the co-founder, owner, and CEO of the far-right media website Rebel News. Levant has also worked as a columnist for Sun Media, and he hosted a daily program on the Sun News Network from the channel's inception in 2011 until its demise in 2015. Levant rose to prominence in 2006 after publishing the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons in The Western Standard, which led to a protracted legal battle with the Alberta Human Rights Commission regarding hate speech legislation and freedom of speech. The complaint against Levant was ultimately withdrawn. In February 2015, Levant co-founded Rebel News with Brian Lilley; Lilley later left Rebel News, citing lack of editorial standards. Under Levant, Rebel News has been accused of being a platform for the anti-Islamic ideology known as counter-jihad. Levant self-identifies as a libertarian conservative; however, he has also been identified as belonging to the Canadian far right. He is a prominent supporter of the Canadian petroleum industry and fracking. Levant has been successfully sued for libel on multiple occasions, while apologies and retractions were issued by him or on his behalf on numerous other occasions. Early life and education Levant was born to an Ashkenazi Jewish family in Calgary, Alberta. He holds a commerce degree from the University of Calgary and a law degree from the University of Alberta. His great-grandfather emigrated to Canada in 1903 from Russia to establish a homestead near Drumheller, Alberta. Levant grew up in a suburb of Calgary. He attended the Calgary Hebrew School in his childhood before transferring to a public junior high school. Levant campaigned for the Reform Party of Canada as a teenager and joined it as a university student. From 1990 to 1993, while at the University of Calgary, his two-person team won the "best debating" category in the Inter-Collegiate Business Competition held at Queen's University. The first two of those years, his debate partner was future Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi. He has subsequently accused Nenshi, who is Ismaili, of "anti-Christian bigotry" as mayor. In 1994, he was featured in a article in The Globe and Mail on young conservatives after accusing the University of Alberta of racism for instituting an affirmative action program of hiring