EZRA LEVANT ｜ Canada's left-wing circus comes to censor Rebel News
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
166.7012
Summary
A jumbotron truck with pro-Hamas messages on it has been the target of censorship from the left, including Mayor Olivia Chow and the police chief, who claim it's an Islamophobic hate crime. But there's no evidence that this is a crime, and it's no longer a hate crime at all.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Tonight it's time to call 9-1-1. The cops are coming for Rebel News. It's no
00:00:04.740
laughing matter. It's June 21st and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
00:00:24.000
I'm Ezra LeVant in downtown Toronto. In front of me, Toronto City Hall.
00:00:28.000
Behind me, a billboard truck. I sometimes call it a jumbotron truck because it's a
00:00:33.000
digital billboard. On it are messages paid by a third-party advertiser.
00:00:39.000
Canadians opposed to the occupation of our streets and campuses.
00:00:43.000
The ads on that truck have raised the ire of the censorship left.
00:00:48.000
So all your typical censors like the mayor, Olivia Chow, but also new radical censors who support Hamas.
00:00:56.000
Because you can't criticize Hamas in Gaza, they'd kill you.
00:01:01.000
But now we have a lot of Hamas supporters in Canada.
00:01:04.000
And they don't like being challenged and that's the thing.
00:01:07.000
I didn't make those ads and you know what I have to say.
00:01:13.000
But these are ads by other people who feel like they can't speak out.
00:01:18.000
Either their voices are silenced or they would be subjected to retaliation and cancel culture.
00:01:25.000
And in fact, Toronto's police chief has proven them right.
00:01:28.000
Because he announced before any investigation, let alone prosecution or conviction,
00:01:33.000
that this was an Islamophobic hate crime. It was very weird.
00:01:37.000
First, the police department put out a tweet and then the police chief himself.
00:01:42.000
And in a very Hamas kind of thing, a prominent Muslim advocate and a friend of Justin Trudeau,
00:01:50.000
Mohammed Faki, put out a $25,000 bounty for information about who owned the truck.
00:01:59.000
Own the truck. Well, I actually am hoping to claim that $25,000 because it's me.
00:02:06.000
Rebel News owns the truck. And there's a story in that also.
00:02:10.000
Rebel News has probably rented a hundred billboards over the 10 years of our existence.
00:02:16.000
Sometimes they're at the side of the road. Sometimes they're on trucks like this.
00:02:20.000
But we found that in the last eight months, it was very difficult to get a truck company to agree to criticize Hamas.
00:02:28.000
Not that they support Hamas. They absolutely don't.
00:02:31.000
They're just terrified that their trucks would be attacked, their drivers would be attacked.
00:02:36.000
And they said, no, we just can't risk it. And I understand.
00:02:40.000
So we got ourselves our own truck. And I think there's actually a large market for people who want to speak out
00:02:46.000
and don't want to be subjected to attacks by politicians or the police chief.
00:02:51.000
Now, it's absolutely crazy to call this billboard truck hate speech.
00:02:57.000
You might know that I've been in the free speech battle for more than 20 years.
00:03:06.000
I myself was once prosecuted under the Alberta Human Rights Code for publishing the Danish cartoons of Mohammed.
00:03:15.000
The law that the police chief is talking about for this truck is probably section 319 of the criminal code, which is such a high bar.
00:03:24.000
You have to prove a crime was committed beyond a reasonable doubt.
00:03:28.000
And the law actually has built into it defenses, like if it's a religious debate or a matter of public policy.
00:03:36.000
There is zero chance that this billboard comes within a country mile of a crime.
00:03:46.000
And actually, I think one of the reasons why the police chief, Myron Dempsey, was so sensitive to these billboards
00:03:52.000
is they shine a light on his own inability to keep the city safe.
00:03:57.000
The reason that people feel motivated to take out ads like these is because they feel like all their politicians and police
00:04:08.000
Toronto is in the middle of a massive crime wave, regular crime like home invasions and car thefts.
00:04:15.000
It's just astonishing how many crimes are committed every day.
00:04:19.000
And even here at City Hall, the general dilapidation of the city, homeless people living under on benches
00:04:32.000
And this police chief, I don't know if you recall,
00:04:35.000
they actually put out advice to have your car keys near your front door.
00:04:40.000
So when the home invasion gangs break in, they grab the keys and go and don't have to look through your house.
00:04:47.000
Well, Marco Ricciardi had a new message for vehicle owners who keep their fobs in Faraday pouches.
00:04:53.000
To prevent the possibility of being attacked in your home, leave your fobs at your front door.
00:04:58.000
Because they're breaking into your home to steal your car.
00:05:03.000
But imagine now adding on top of that regular crime wave an anti-Semitic crime wave,
00:05:09.000
where you have, for example, an apartheid siege of the University of Toronto,
00:05:14.000
where they actually have a fence and little masked thugs ask if you're a Jew or not.
00:05:21.000
That's going on right in the heart of the city and the police are fine with them.
00:05:25.000
I've shown you examples from the shooting of the Jewish girls' school,
00:05:30.000
to blocking a bridge into a residential neighborhood,
00:05:34.000
to the full-day hate march outside a synagogue.
00:05:45.000
Uttering death threats, trespass, mischief, vandalism, graffiti.
00:05:51.000
And my theory is it's because he takes political orders from the mayor,
00:05:56.000
who also put out a tweet denouncing this as an Islamophobic hate crime.
00:06:01.000
And just right now you can see that's a leader of a terrorist group.
00:06:06.000
I think that's actually going from memory, Khaled Mishal, a Hamas leader right then.
00:06:15.000
If showing that video and the others are hate speech,
00:06:28.000
They're not Rebel News ads, but we're airing the ads.
00:06:31.000
And, you know, we've only had the truck for a short period of time.
00:06:35.000
But my rule of thumb of who we can rent the billboard truck to or not,
00:06:43.000
I don't know if you remember, but when Elon Musk took over Twitter,
00:06:46.000
he reinstated various Twitter accounts that had been banned by the previous regime.
00:06:51.000
And some of those Twitter accounts are frankly foul.
00:06:57.000
But Elon Musk said he would apply the standard, the same standard as the law.
00:07:04.000
Now, he actually has a few other standards in there about, you know, impersonation and things like that.
00:07:13.000
If you have lawful speech, you can be on Twitter, which is different from the previous regime,
00:07:17.000
which says if you say anything politically incorrect or offensive, we'll ban you just because we can.
00:07:22.000
That's my view with the Rebel News truck as well, is that I'm not going to apply a daintiness standard,
00:07:31.000
a censorship cancel culture standard to what's on the truck.
00:07:35.000
Now, obviously, I'm a freedom oriented, conservative oriented person.
00:07:38.000
So I don't think I would run pro Hamas ads on this truck.
00:07:42.000
But the good news for the pro Hamas people in town, like the mayor and the police chief,
00:07:46.000
is there is another billboard truck circling this city with Hamas messages, including calls for genocide.
00:07:54.000
You know, I haven't been talked to by the mainstream media in years.
00:07:57.000
And it's not surprising. I prickle at them. They prickle at me.
00:08:03.000
In the last two days, I've had four mainstream media interviews.
00:08:07.000
And I've actually enjoyed all four of them. Surprisingly, the CBC was quite straightforward.
00:08:11.000
And they ran what I said fairly unedited. I was pleasantly surprised.
00:08:16.000
I spoke to the Toronto Star. I had to correct some things, but I think they did OK.
00:08:20.000
The former mayor of Toronto was on radio talking about me for hours today.
00:08:25.000
I don't listen to AM radio, but I was told about it. So I called in here.
00:08:29.000
I want to play for you a few minutes of my debate with John Tory, the former mayor of Toronto,
00:08:36.000
who's now on radio. I think I got a little shouty.
00:08:40.000
And it's hard to debate with someone who controls the microphone.
00:08:44.000
And I'm not sure if me being a noisy Jew was the best line to use.
00:08:50.000
I mean, but I think that is actually a point because the Jews of Toronto are quiet, most of them.
00:08:57.000
They're just sort of licking their wounds and they can't understand what's going on.
00:09:01.000
Rebel News texted in and knew we'd been discussing this truck going around the city this morning and asked for a chance to respond.
00:09:08.000
And so we're giving them that chance. Good morning, Ezra.
00:09:11.000
John, thanks very much. I'm surprised you had me on the show.
00:09:15.000
I certainly have always tried to sort of make sure everybody has a chance to say their piece.
00:09:20.000
I want to just I want to disagree with you there, because what you've just been talking about is criminalizing people with different opinions.
00:09:29.000
That billboard truck and the ad that's been running on it is a different opinion.
00:09:41.000
But what you've then done is said that should be prosecuted as a crime instead of debated.
00:09:49.000
And so that's why I'm surprised that you are having me on, because who knows?
00:09:53.000
Maybe you think disagreeing with you is a hate crime.
00:10:05.000
Well, because that shows that your ideas are brittle.
00:10:08.000
That's why you want to censor anyone who contradicts you.
00:10:15.000
OK, why don't you finish and then I'll have a word, OK?
00:10:22.000
I think you're being very dramatic the last hour.
00:10:27.000
Me and the 10 people I've had on roundtables this morning who agree with me, by the way,
00:10:32.000
Gee, it's almost like you've invited your own echo chamber in.
00:10:36.000
For eight months now, Toronto has had a crime wave of anti-Semitic violence,
00:10:43.000
including a girls' school that was shot up by masked men.
00:10:47.000
People masked Hamas supporters going through Jewish neighborhoods,
00:10:52.000
shrieking anti-Semitism, roads into residential areas.
00:10:56.000
And I've talked about it here a hundred times, Ezra.
00:10:58.000
I've talked about all those examples of how unacceptable that is.
00:11:00.000
You have never asked for the prosecution of hate crimes against them.
00:11:05.000
And the police have been investigating all of those things, Ezra.
00:11:08.000
No, the police have turned a blind eye to them.
00:11:12.000
The police, there is an apartheid siege of the University of Toronto right now,
00:11:22.000
And, Ezra, if you were listening yesterday, I'm sure you don't monitor this program 24 hours a day.
00:11:27.000
If you were listening yesterday, I said the U of T and everybody else involved have left this way too long
00:11:32.000
because of that kind of behavior that is going on
00:11:34.000
and because it represents an occupation of public property that is inappropriate.
00:11:38.000
I said that yesterday and the day before that and the day before that.
00:11:41.000
And the notion the police are not investigating the anti-Semitism
00:11:44.000
and incidents of anti-Semitism in Toronto, you're the one that's ill-informed.
00:11:47.000
You're in a news organization, so-called, and you should know that.
00:11:53.000
There's a billboard truck going around Toronto right now with anti-Semitic pro-genocide messages.
00:11:59.000
That billboard truck has been driving around with impunity.
00:12:02.000
Neither the media nor the police give a damn because you're afraid.
00:12:09.000
Because the demographics of this town suggest that the Muslim vote is very important.
00:12:14.000
And that's why politicians are turning a blind eye.
00:12:17.000
Ezra, I have seen no video as there is of the truck that...
00:12:20.000
Oh, I thought you were in the news business, John.
00:12:24.000
When I stand up against Tomas, I suppose part of it is because I'm Jewish,
00:12:31.000
I don't want terrorists here from Gaza or from anywhere.
00:12:35.000
And I don't think any group should be picked on like the Jews are being picked on in Toronto.
00:12:40.000
I wouldn't feel good if the blacks were being picked on or gay people were being picked on.
00:12:45.000
And by picked on, I don't mean political sparring.
00:12:47.000
I mean assaults and harassment and death threats.
00:12:52.000
That's what's going on in Toronto all the time.
00:12:54.000
I think that's the reason why the police chief hates these ads.
00:12:57.000
Anyhow, we came down here to City Hall to prove a point.
00:13:02.000
And the point is all the establishment, the current mayor, the former mayor, the police chief,
00:13:10.000
all the Islamic extremist groups, they can say that this is a crime.
00:13:15.000
And I think that would scare, frankly, 99% of people.
00:13:20.000
I mean, really, if some Islamic activist was putting a $25,000 bounty on your head,
00:13:27.000
and if a police chief was saying he's investigating you for a crime.
00:13:31.000
Sorry, I can't say that without laughing. It is not funny.
00:13:33.000
It's just so crazy. I have to sort of giggle when I say it.
00:13:36.000
I think 99% of people would say, whoa, danger, get out of this, turtle, do whatever,
00:13:43.000
throw yourself upon the mercy of the establishment.
00:13:46.000
But you got to look at our name. It's called Rebel News.
00:13:49.000
It's not called Obedient News. It's not called Whatever the Boss Says News.
00:13:55.000
It's called Rebel News. And these ads, in my mind, are reasonable.
00:14:02.000
I don't agree with every nuance of them. I didn't make the ads.
00:14:08.000
And as I said in my fourth interview on Anthony Fury's radio show,
00:14:14.000
if you don't like these messages, roll out your own messages.
00:14:18.000
So, yeah. Yesterday, the chief of police and the mayor said, this is a crime.
00:14:24.000
Today, I'm here on their turf saying, no, it ain't. You know where to find me.
00:14:31.000
I think that they thought I would bend the knee.
00:14:34.000
I do not bend the knee to Olivia Chow or Myron Demki.
00:14:45.000
And I think they need to refresh their memory about the Charter of Rights.
00:14:49.000
I don't need their permission to disagree with them.
00:14:53.000
And contrary to what John Tory, the former mayor of Toronto, thinks,
00:14:57.000
he can disagree with me, but he can't send me to jail.
00:15:06.000
But my point of parking the truck here is, this is my country, too.
00:15:18.000
Well, I got, I mean, that's, you're making a case.
00:15:25.000
You gave me the finger and I waved at you and you came back.
00:15:29.000
And I don't mind because what I said to my friend.
00:15:34.000
What I said to my friend was, I'd much rather have someone give me the finger
00:15:40.000
That's my point of view is we should be able to.
00:15:44.000
But my point is, I don't think the cops should decide what is or isn't
00:15:51.000
Well, I'm pushing back, but I don't think the cops should be able to do that.
00:15:55.000
Like, I'm pretty sure the cops have always done that to people.
00:15:59.000
Well, this is my moment to say I'm not going to roll over for it.
00:16:09.000
I mean, it sounds like we almost have some common ground then.
00:16:17.000
I mean, we're miles apart, but yet, I think what you're driving at is okay.
00:16:30.000
I think there's a real crisis on this issue, and there's hot points of view on both sides.
00:16:38.000
Let the debate happen in a marketplace of ideas and let people choose.
00:17:09.000
There's a fellow who, when he saw the truck pull out, he gave me the finger.
00:17:16.000
And then he came over, and we talked a bit off camera, and then we talked on camera.
00:17:24.000
In the end, I think he actually had some agreement.
00:17:28.000
Looks like we've got a police officer here, which is perfect.
00:18:13.000
He said I was committing a hate crime with that truck out there.
00:18:24.000
She's probably pretty busy chasing down other billboards or something important like that.
00:18:28.000
I thought I would see if he wants me to turn myself in to be arrested.
00:18:36.000
Like he sent a cop down, but she sort of ran away when she saw the camera.
00:18:40.000
I'm just sort of here to throw myself on the mercy of the law.
00:18:46.000
I can head over to the duty desk and get a police officer to come over and discuss all those terms you just talked about.
00:19:37.000
I know he's probably tweeting or something important.
00:19:39.000
But he did say he wanted to investigate the truck.
00:19:53.000
I'm just sort of surprised he was so butch online.
00:20:16.000
So you could fire this up the chain of command.
00:20:33.000
But I think he could have come down just for a minute.
00:20:40.000
But I think he could have sent just someone down.
00:21:16.000
Wouldn't be surprised if he's got a phone call from Trudeau's
00:21:24.000
When we brought the truck and parked it right out front,
00:21:28.000
they did send what I thought was a press officer right away.
00:21:39.000
But she was holding her cell phone down like this to film me.
00:21:53.000
And obviously, they're just not going to come down.
00:21:56.000
They, I mean, if I were to put their best case for why they
00:22:01.000
wouldn't meet me, because they're investigating me and they
00:22:05.000
don't want to talk to me, other than in the context of an
00:22:13.000
I think they thought that if they just threaten me and threaten
00:22:18.000
people, you know, the mayor's making a threat, the department's
00:22:28.000
But I'm a little more stubborn than your average bear.
00:22:36.000
I brought the truck that they're so interested in.
00:22:39.000
I brought myself that they're so interested in.
00:22:47.000
And they didn't even send a junior person down.
00:22:56.000
On the one hand, they've made so many promises to political bosses
00:23:02.000
And wouldn't surprise me if some federal cabinet ministers
00:23:07.000
So they've really promised that they're going to go hard.
00:23:10.000
But on the other hand, that truck does not break the law.
00:23:23.000
And I actually know the specific section of law, 319,
00:23:26.000
that they would try and use, which is such a high bar.
00:23:32.000
And it specifically exempts religious debates or matters
00:23:42.000
I was waiting up there in the sort of entry area,
00:23:58.000
And someone came in with remains of sort of drug paraphernalia
00:24:07.000
And he was a guy who was obviously having a really rough go
00:24:12.000
And he was wearing, as sort of short pants, a garbage bag.
00:24:21.000
He still had like a rubber band around his arm.
00:24:28.000
And I think there was even an attachment for a syringe to go in there.
00:24:34.000
I'm pointing out, oh my God, is this city falling apart.
00:24:42.000
A guy with drug paraphernalia still on him, wearing a garbage bag, asking for water and help.
00:24:52.000
And by the way, the cop tried to give him advice.
00:25:03.000
But there is such a crime wave going on in Toronto.
00:25:06.000
I don't know if you know, but Toronto is by far the car theft capital of Canada.
00:25:18.000
But I got to tell you folks, there are so many drug users in this city just on the street.
00:25:24.000
And by the way, the Trudeau government and the city government want to do more of that.
00:25:29.000
My point is that there are real problems in Canada.
00:25:32.000
In a lot of ways, the country is falling apart.
00:25:35.000
Home invasion crimes, which used to be shocking and used to be rare,
00:25:39.000
are pretty much daily occurrences now, multiple times a day sometimes.
00:25:44.000
And for the chief of police to take his time away from other projects to tweet about our billboard
00:25:50.000
and to get the police department to tweet about our billboard
00:25:54.000
and prejudge it as Islamophobic and prejudge it as hateful,
00:26:00.000
before even the investigation begins, is very political.
00:26:04.000
I think he has actually poisoned the case already by litigating in advance of an investigation.
00:26:13.000
You cannot trust an investigation where the police chief in advance says that's the enemy.
00:26:22.000
He hasn't even watched the ad in question other than a very short clip.
00:26:26.000
It is all performance art done for two reasons.
00:26:34.000
Mayor Olivia Chow, Justin Trudeau, the prime minister.
00:26:37.000
And second of all, and most obviously, if anyone's come to downtown Toronto recently,
00:26:42.000
because if you're the police chief presiding over the Detroitification of Toronto,
00:26:49.000
the collapse of this city in terms of crime and all sorts of other problems from traffic to infrastructure
00:26:58.000
to things just not working, if you're the police chief who's the concierge for this crumbling city,
00:27:11.000
That's it for now, but this obviously won't go away.
00:27:15.000
You saw I left my phone number and name for the chief.
00:27:18.000
I resisted the urge to write an insulting note.
00:27:34.000
I've been fighting against people who want to censor me.
00:27:37.000
And I'm not saying I'm always right in my views, by the way.
00:27:40.000
I think part of being a human is changing your mind on certain things
00:27:43.000
and even getting things wrong from time to time.
00:27:46.000
What I'm saying is I should have the right to be wrong.
00:27:50.000
Canadians should have the right to say something that other Canadians disagree with.
00:27:55.000
And the answer to a billboard ad that you don't like is not to call the cops.
00:27:59.000
That's what an angry two-year-old would do, smash.
00:28:02.000
No, we teach children to control their emotions.
00:28:05.000
And if it's a billboard or a political comment you don't like, get your own billboard.
00:28:10.000
Like I say, there is a Pro-Hamas billboard truck in this city that the police don't seem to care about.
00:28:16.000
Run a political campaign. Start a website. Have your say.
00:28:20.000
Or ignore it, by the way. You don't have to respond to everything in life.
00:28:24.000
The fact that so many people in power and so many political leaders want to silence this truck
00:28:32.000
shows that we're losing not just the country we once had, but the principles we once had as a country.
00:28:41.000
That's it for today. I'm going to go back to our office.
00:28:44.000
We'll drive in the truck, see how many hand waves we get and see how many fingers we get.
00:28:49.000
Until next time, on behalf of us here at The Rebel, to you at home, goodbye and keep fighting for freedom.