In this episode of the Rebel News Podcast, we speak with Mocha Bezergin, an actor, videographer, documentarian and editor-in-chief at Rebel News. He had vaulted into fame as a teenager for his anti-establishment comedy short films, and he s currently videographer in chief at Rebel.
00:06:39.500So, I'm saying that because being at that age, and I'm also, you know, facing all that stress from the police.
00:06:50.140Because when you're, because who wants to, you know, think of the point of view of your family.
00:06:55.560Who wants their children to get into trouble with the police, the government, and when you're, especially have a large following, and then maybe go to jail.
00:07:05.320Because one of my friends, he is facing four years in jail now, it's a court decision, because he made a music video, a parody music video, of a rapper who made a music video about weed.
00:07:21.920So, the rapper himself already got into jail.
00:07:28.420So, I didn't face pressure from the public.
00:07:31.840The pressure was coming within the family.
00:07:33.940And that pressure combined with the, you know, pressure of my friends, their motivation was being damaged, their willingness, because me, I'm dual citizen.
00:07:46.180If anything goes wrong, I can just come to Canada.
00:07:49.300My friends, they are there, they are Turkish citizens.
00:07:52.740If anything goes wrong, they're going to suffer.
00:07:55.040So, with all that stress, I said, you know what, why am I dealing with this?
00:08:14.140Well, because I was at that age, I was living with my family, so I wasn't paying rent, but I was making enough money to sustain myself.
00:08:21.140So, that's the reason you come to Canada then, is all the nonsense you have to deal with in Turkey?
00:08:25.900Yeah, all the nonsense, and I said, you know, in Canada, you have free speech, you have, the police is not, like, the police doesn't ask your ID every day when you're on the subway or walking to a major park or something.
00:08:43.140So, I said, I'm not going to deal with it.
00:08:46.380And also, there's a difference of consciousness levels between nations.
00:08:51.620For example, I was in Armenia, I was interviewing an intellectual there, and he was doing some research about Armenian genocide, and he goes back and forth to Turkey.
00:09:06.860So, he didn't want the interview to be released, because he thought I was just doing for school work, but this was in 2017, and I was young.
00:09:16.860So, I asked him, why are you scared? Why are you getting death threats in Turkey for even just talking about this?
00:09:26.860I said, aren't we in the 21st century?
00:09:30.860And he said, well, yeah, we might be in the 21st century, but not every country is in the 21st century.
00:09:40.860I want to ask you about the differences between Canada and Turkey.
00:09:45.860Like, Canada now, during all these lockdowns we mentioned, the police might not harass you before, but they certainly are legally allowed to right now.
00:09:53.860You see it with our own producer, Efron, getting ticketed for handshakes and David Menzies.
00:09:58.860So, they're allowed to ID you for whatever they want.
00:11:19.860Now, moving forward to when you first start working with Rebel News, one of your first videos, and I think we started around the same time,
00:11:28.860one of your first things was working with David Menzies at, I think, a Sir John A. McDonald statue, which we're still dealing with right now, everybody.
00:11:35.860There's still tons of, you know, controversy around our first Prime Minister, even though that's really crazy.
00:11:41.860And I've got to turn, you know, when I speak to the camera.
00:11:44.860So you were attacked that day, not to make light of it.
00:11:47.860You want to recap that a little bit while we show the highlights of it?
00:11:51.860Somebody's throwing stuff at you guys and they hit you with a Gatorade, I think?
00:11:54.860Yeah, it was actually, David was more attacked than I was because I kind of, when all that thing started happening,
00:12:03.860I immediately, I'm like, okay, this is no longer a video, this is no longer an interview.
00:12:09.860Now I have to use my camera in a way to collect evidence.
00:12:13.860And the gang members were coming towards us and they, I'm not talking about the police,
00:12:21.860and they started to, they have their umbrellas as a tactic to block the camera so that you won't be able to collect evidence of their crimes.
00:12:34.860But I'm physically gifted, I'm a tall individual and I have long arms and I was materially gifted too.
00:12:41.860I had a long tripod. So what did I do? I used my brain.
00:12:45.860I pull up the camera like this all the way up so that their umbrellas won't be able to block it.
00:12:52.860Now when this sort of stuff is happening, and obviously it's not the first time, what's going through your head?
00:12:57.860Because me, I mean, there's like the one video I have where they're all surrounding me,
00:13:02.860the native black identitarian group and they're all surrounding me and they're trying to intimidate me.
00:13:07.860And if one of them like attacks me like that, I can't say that I would be as calm as you are.
00:13:13.860What's going through your mind when that stuff happens? Just get it all on tape because it's a story and you want to expose these people?
00:13:19.860Are you mad? How do you feel when that's happening?
00:13:21.860I feel, you know, like I ask, first I ask to myself, you know, I'm a somewhat Turkish superstar in Turkey.
00:13:29.860Why am I getting punched here or pushed around here?
00:13:32.860But at the same time, you put me in any other country on earth, anywhere.
00:13:39.860And if there's something that disturbs me in that country or in the way the government is doing things,
00:13:45.860or anyone who claims power over me, I'm going to get, obviously, active, politically active.
00:13:52.860As anyone would, because we, as individuals, we all have values, we all have convictions, we all have, you know, our moral, what do you call it, point of views.
00:14:07.860So, as I was active against the government in Turkey, and the people who were trying to have more control over me, I'm going to be like that in Canada as well.
00:14:25.860So, I embrace that, and I'm not afraid or, like, in my mind, it's not like, oh, shit, I'm going to get, sorry, I'm going to get punched or something.
00:14:36.860I mean, in, what my reaction was, not towards them because they're violent, everybody knows that.
00:14:44.860My reaction was to the police who choose not to be there because the protesters demanded that they stand down.
00:14:54.860Why do they stand down when these, those particular protesters want them to stand down, but not for other protesters?
00:15:01.860And, as you know, recently I was punched in the face in a Israel protest, pro-Israel protest.
00:15:11.860And, you can see my reaction there right after getting punched. I'm like, what's going on?
00:15:17.860What is this child-minded, low character, piece of human flesh is trying to do?
00:15:26.860Like, he was such a low character, such a despicable human being that he wouldn't even look me in the eye when I was chasing him around.
00:15:37.860He denied that he punched me. He wouldn't say it to the police. He wouldn't acknowledge it.
00:15:41.860He wouldn't acknowledge it, and his low character friends wouldn't even acknowledge it.
00:15:44.860So, that's what I expose. I like to, if he was proud of what he did, he would have looked me in the eye and he would say, yeah, I punched you, you know.
00:21:36.860So now, but one dollar now makes almost 10 Liras.
00:21:41.860Within the 10 years, Turkish currency has devalued so much.
00:21:47.860Not only that, but also the government taxes have increased so much.
00:21:53.860When you're buying an Xbox or a PlayStation, as if the currency difference wasn't enough, you also have to buy the same device for the government when you pay taxes.
00:25:16.860I think we have a population that is not very much aware the government is, and the police is, acting on their behalf, at their expense.
00:25:31.860But we need to be aware of this and not let the government and the enforcers act in contrary to our values and our beliefs, our convictions.
00:25:47.860I think a lot of it is people not looking at the long run and the logic of a lot of the policies that get into place.
00:25:54.860I mean, I mentioned it a bit, but when you look at things, it comes from the term of media gratification.
00:26:01.860Oh, right now we're putting this bill into place where we're going to stop people from saying bad medical advice on the internet, for example, is the rationale.
00:26:09.860They don't think about five years later when who decides what the bad information is, who decides who gets to be censored.
00:26:16.860And when you're putting it into the hands of a small group of people, you're really letting other people decide for you.
00:26:21.860And I also think in that sense, it's a form of laziness.
00:26:26.860I don't want me or you to have a gun, but I entrust in this other man who went to a college police foundation program for two years.
00:26:37.860Most people don't have the capability of thinking beyond stage one.
00:26:42.860Thomas Sowell has a book on it. I forgot the name of the book.
00:26:45.860But he explains the policies that were introduced in Canada, I'm sorry, in the United States, that were, you know, how it was like stage one.
00:26:56.860You know, oh, we're going to rescue the poor by building housing, for example.
00:27:01.860And then, but this is just stage one thinking.
00:27:04.860And then if you have the stage two thinking, you would know the economic consequences of that.
00:27:09.860And then the stage three thinking would be the, you know, you know, they're like stages of thinking.
00:27:15.860You can't just operate with stage one thinking.
00:27:17.860You have to think beyond. You have to think long term.
00:27:20.860I was talking to one of our editors, cameraman, everything.
00:27:26.860Everybody's everything now at this company.
00:27:29.860And about how sometimes he gets questioned about his ideology versus his, you know, his ethnic background and his appearance.
00:27:38.860Do you ever get people criticizing you saying, hey, you're Turkish, you're non-white.
00:27:43.860How come you work for this company? How come you believe these things?
00:27:46.860Does that even happen to you? Does the opportunity ever come up?
00:27:49.860That happened to me at Kingston when those gang members were attacking us.
00:27:54.860And it happened at the City Hall when other gang members were attacking us.
00:28:01.860They were saying, yeah, you're not even white.
00:28:03.860I'm like, what does that have to do with anything?
00:28:05.860I think because in their mind, in their eco-bubble, in their small closed mind, they think that everybody acts according to the benefit of their group.
00:28:16.860And that's how it ought to be. Everybody should stick with their group.
00:28:20.860But what group? Like what are you talking about?
00:28:24.860You know, me? I have like Turkish blood. I have Armenian blood. I have Slavic blood and so on and so forth.
00:28:30.860Like I'm all over the place. And then I got, you know, I live in Canada. I'm dual citizen.
00:28:39.860My family background is Muslim. I'm not Muslim. I kind of quit.
00:28:45.860So like there's all that. And then, you know, like how are you going to put me in a box? How are you going to classify me?
00:28:52.860You know, you're not going to accurately classify me. I can't accurately classify you or anybody, any other individual.
00:29:02.860That's a good point. Now, when we talk about individuals and classifying people, I want to segue that to the Montreal police who have no problem doing that.
00:29:12.860They've shown to our cameramen and our reporters that they have no problem saying you're Jew media.
00:29:17.860No problem saying what do you think you're doing out here? What's your reasoning for doing out there?
00:29:21.860So I want to quickly cut to some of the coverage we had because it's been crazy.
00:29:26.860The lockdown slash curfew coverage in Montreal, which Mocha was a huge part of.
00:29:47.860This is like, we're documenting what's happening here, guys.
00:29:56.860So this is what's going on. They left shining the lights at me.
00:29:59.860So a lot of that stuff, Mocha, the police are flashing lights in your guys' eyes so you can't record stuff.
00:30:05.860Again, making like, and I'm not one to throw around anti-Semitism, but like calling people Jew media is not exactly something that's becoming of a police officer.
00:30:15.860So they're doing anything they can to criticize you guys and stop you from filming.
00:30:30.860Montreal, Quebec is really something different in terms of when you compare to other cities and provinces in Canada.
00:30:41.860It's not only the building structure, the city planning is European looking, the police is also a little bit like that.
00:30:52.860In fact, the police acts like Turkish police in Turkey.
00:30:57.860In Turkey, the police doesn't also like being recorded, whether you're a journalist or not.
00:31:02.860And just, you pulled me to the studio, I was actually editing my interview with Alex Bose, the man who was choked for not wearing a mask by the Montreal police.
00:31:13.860And he was just standing there recording them and they grabbed him using not wearing a mask in a demonstration as a excuse to assault him.
00:31:26.860And when I shared that video around on Twitter, it reached to international audience and Americans who have no idea what's going on in Canada.
00:31:36.860They said, there must be more to this. There must be something you're not showing to us.
00:31:42.860He must have done something. He must have said something to deserve that kind of arrest, let alone, you know, reason being the mask.
00:31:52.860So they just almost can't believe that we're actually going through this thing where police can.
00:32:00.860It's like what people complain about in major cities in the U.S. where people randomly being pulled over, whether you agree with that or not.
00:32:08.860It's I'm going to find something to charge you with, essentially, isn't it?
00:32:12.860Yeah. But I think he attracted police station out of thousands of other people who were not wearing masks there because he was recording.
00:32:20.860I 100% believe that. And I will attest to that because when I first come to Montreal to cover a lockdown protest, while I was recording the police detaining a gentleman for not wearing a mask.
00:32:38.860And I was recording this from afar from the protest and afar from the police. I was like in the middle.
00:32:44.860And there are like hundreds of people passing by, just ordinary people not wearing masks.
00:32:50.860The sergeant itself, who later raided our boat, the same sergeant, he came all the way up to me.
00:32:58.860Like we were foot to foot. He came so close to me. And I said, hey, can you step two meters apart?
00:33:04.860So I move backwards and then he grabs my arm. And then when I start recording with my phone, because I had the zoom lens on my camera, so with my phone it's like you can't see everything.
00:33:16.860And I'm telling him that he's assaulting me. He's pulling me. He pulled me to the police area and then gave me a ticket.
00:33:22.860And then later on that day, there was another camera person, not with Rebel News, but he was wearing his mask.
00:33:30.860But later on, I found out that he was getting arrested now. And I've seen him at other protests later on.
00:33:38.860He's not a violent person. And the police made him wear his mask with their hands.
00:33:44.860They put the mask on him, which is not OK because his hands were handcuffed.
00:33:51.860So if you're not able to remove your mask or put your mask or adjust your mask, you are not supposed to wear it.
00:33:59.860It's true. And there's a clip of you as well. I think it's the French police there trying to give you a mask.
00:34:06.860And you take it from their bare hands.
00:34:08.860As always, they do that to all the people who they find.
00:34:12.860I think it's a policy that if they find someone, they have to give them a mask.
00:34:16.860But this is not just, you know, can you please wear it? No.
00:34:20.860It's like, you will wear this mask or we're going to write you another $50, $50 ticket or we're going to jail you.
00:34:28.860So it's an upfront threat. And that happened when, I think it was March 27, when me, Lincoln and Efron were headed to another lockdown protest in Montreal.
00:34:40.860And there was a lot of traffic, so we were a little late, but the protest didn't start yet.
00:34:46.860Lincoln drops us off in front of the protest.
00:34:50.860We don't even get into the protest yet.
00:34:56.860And we're just recording from afar, from the protest, two police officers walking towards us.
00:35:04.860And we're recording them because they're looking for someone who's not wearing a mask.
00:35:08.860Well, they didn't dive into the protest area, given that they were only two police officers and they have, I believe, a quota to fill.
00:35:18.860And they came all the way up to us when they saw us recording them.
00:35:23.860And then they came up to us, they grabbed us and gave us tickets.
00:35:28.860And then with their naked hands, they tried to basically gave us contaminated masks.
00:35:36.860And what do we have? A police force. And you know, I asked the police, I emailed the media relations and they wouldn't respond to me.
00:35:42.860They said, we don't comment on these issues.
00:35:45.860There's just so much hypocrisy and they obviously target people who are recording.
00:35:51.860And I might, if I might add, you might just say, hey, why don't you just wear the mask, you know, just wear the mask and record it.
00:35:58.860I did that. I wore my gas mask, which doesn't protect you from COVID, but it passes through.
00:36:03.860You know, the police doesn't care. They don't even know.
00:36:06.860The mask they're wearing outside doesn't even protect them.
00:36:10.860But this time, later on that day, after we were, I didn't wear the mask that they gave me because I said, you touched that with your naked hands.
00:36:20.860But later on, as we were recording someone getting arrested, Efron got arrested.
00:36:29.860And then, so they made their threats. So if we were to wear those contaminated masks, there wouldn't be a problem.
00:36:37.860He got arrested. And then Lincoln got arrested. And then all the while I was wearing my mask.
00:36:45.860And because it's a big mask that I was wearing, because the police uses pepper spray and tear gas at those protests, I removed the mask like this down to my chin so that I can speak.
00:37:01.860And I said, why are you arrested? Why are you arresting two members of the media? Because it's outrageous.
00:37:08.860And the, who appeared to be the, in charge of the riot police there, the cop came up to me and said, put back your mask. Put up your mask back.
00:37:23.860And for two seconds, I did it. And then psychologically, I'm like, no, you're not, you're not obedient. What are you doing?
00:37:30.860So I removed it. I said, no, I'm not doing it. Because there's no one around me. I'm on the sidewalk. The protest has passed, has long passed.
00:37:38.860And I'm trying to ask a question. I just put down the mask so that I can speak. And you're not going to just come up to me and say, put the mask up.
00:37:47.860I don't care if you're a police officer or whoever. I don't care if you're Justin Trudeau. I don't care if you're, you know, whoever you are.
00:37:54.860And so, I said, what are you going to do? Are you going to arrest me? Come and arrest me. Go ahead. Go ahead and arrest me. Why?
00:38:02.860Because I put my mask two seconds to talk? I don't listen to you. Come arrest me. Come arrest me. Go ahead. Come. Go arrest.
00:38:09.860And you're going to arrest me over that? I'm not, I don't obey you. Come and arrest me, I said.
00:38:14.860And that's what they did. And they threw away my phone so that I wouldn't be able to record afterwards while they were coercing me to put my hands on top of my phone.
00:38:23.860Put my hands on top of the police cruiser while one officer is holding my arm. And he threw away my phone.
00:38:30.860And that officer was speaking in French, blah, blah, blah, rebel news. And then he started speaking in English.
00:38:37.860He told me, a real journalist, if you were a real journalist, you wouldn't be arguing with the police.
00:38:45.860And then he looked at my press pass like this. He said, you know, anyone can print that.
00:38:50.860And then as they were letting me go, I said, can I just say one thing? They said, yeah.
00:38:57.860I said, remember your oath. And then I walked back. And you know, one officer was asking me, what's your postal code?
00:39:03.860And I'm like, I don't remember. I have to check. And he said, oh, how old are you?
00:39:06.860You know, trying to make a joke that I don't remember the postal code.
00:39:10.860I wish I said this, but I didn't. I should have right there and down said, well, how old are you?
00:39:16.860You look like 35 years old, yet you don't remember your oath.
00:39:19.860It's a very scary situation when an adult man just thinks that he has an innate power over you.
00:39:29.860I don't agree with that. I can get into my opinions on that at all.
00:39:32.860Yes, I believe in respecting the law to a degree.
00:39:35.860But when it comes to things like that, like do what I say, even though it makes no sense,
00:39:40.860or else you're going to get arrested, I can't stand for that.