EZRA LEVANT： I need your help to Defend Rebel News from the Calgary Police
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Summary
Calgary police raid Rebel News HQ and demand that we hand over our footage. We're fighting back! Listen to the full episode to find out what happened and what we're doing to fight back. You can get the video version of this podcast by going to rebelnewsplus.ca and clicking subscribe. You can also see the documents I'm referring to at Defrebelnews.ca/TheEzraLeVantShow.
Transcript
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Hello, my friends. I'm in Israel, but I want to talk to you about something that's happening to
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us in Calgary. We're being raided in slow motion by the Calgary Police Service. They want our
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footage, and they want a court to order us to hand it over to them. I'll show you what they've said
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and done and what we're doing in response. I'd like to read to you from their letters.
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You can get the video version of this podcast by going to rebelnewsplus.com and clicking
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subscribe. You can also see the documents I'm going to refer to at defendrebelnews.com.
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Tonight, Calgary's highly partisan police get a court order demanding that Rebel News hand over
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our footage, but we're fighting back, and you can help. It's September 8th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
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Well, it's finally happened. I didn't expect it this way. Police have raided Rebel News. Now,
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they haven't stormed in the front door with jackboots. What they've done instead is go to court
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secretly. Ex parte is the legal word. We weren't invited to be there, and they said something to
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a judge. We haven't been able to see it, and the judge issued an order demanding that we hand over
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footage that we haven't published to the Calgary police. I guess that's a high priority for the
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Calgary police. The other day, 150 Eritrean men had a brutal riot. Literally, they read the riot act.
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These men came with clubs and sticks, and they had a violent showdown on the streets. Police were there
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en masse, but they decided not to arrest anyone, incredibly. They're too busy going after Rebel
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News. It doesn't surprise me. Calgary's police are highly partisan. Remember this shock and awe,
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drug lord-style takedown of Arthur Pavlovsky right in the middle of a busy highway?
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It was completely unnecessary, but it was for show to humiliate Arthur Pavlovsky. They liked
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humiliating people. Here's another Calgary police worst of moment when they humiliated
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pastor Tim Stevens in front of his own children.
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Calgary police are a disgrace. Remember when Ocean Weisblatt, a young hockey player, was
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outside on a city-owned outdoor hockey rink that was open, and some Calgary police thug
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started screaming at him, threatening to tase him with a taser. Remember this?
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Not a single one of those officers has been demoted. In fact, I'm sure that taser's screecher
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has been promoted. My point is, Calgary police don't actually go after real criminals.
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They go after political criminals. They do whatever the Calgary mayor says.
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Remember this? Calgary's mayor demanded that the police arrest anyone who protested drag queen
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story hours. Well, they didn't, because that's not against the law. So the mayor had a tantrum.
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We had a drag brunch at the rec room in the north of Calgary by our community of drag queens in Calgary,
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who have done amazing work promoting inclusion and really raising awareness of how important it is
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to be a welcoming community. Unfortunately, some members of our population thought it would be a good
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idea to protest this event, which is, I'm just going to use my opinion, a horrible thing to do.
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I was very happy that CPS was there to provide a buffer and to ensure that everyone was safe and
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that the show could go on. My question is, do we have the ability when a protest is rooted in hatred
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to ticket people and shut this down? How does it work?
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Well, the police heard what the mayor said, and they literally arrested that man later. His name was
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Derek Reimer, he's a Christian pastor, and the police literally arrested him because the mayor had a
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fit that they didn't. So are you surprised that of all the police forces in Canada or frankly around
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the world, and we have gone to court against police in Toronto, in Montreal, in foreign countries like
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Australia? We're even suing the RCMP right now. None of those police forces have dared to try to raid us
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except the crooked cops and Calgary police. Let me show you what arrived in our email box a couple
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weeks ago, and then I'll give you the latest and tell you why I'm asking for your help. Here's what
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we received out of the blue. Like I say, it was a secret hearing we weren't invited to. It's called
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a production order to Rebel News. Whereas I am satisfied by information on oath of Bradley Milne,
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a peace officer and sworn member of the Calgary Police Service, I have reasonable grounds to believe
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that the following offenses have been committed. Sexual assault, assault, unlawful confinement,
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mischief, theft under $5,000, here and after referred to as the offenses, and that the following
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documents and or data is in the possession or control of Rebel News or their designate relating
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to incidents at or near Western Canada High School on May 17th, audio recordings, video recordings,
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and photographs, and are in your possession or control of which will afford evidence respecting
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the commission of defenses. Therefore, you are hereby ordered to produce a document that is a
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true copy of said documents or data that are in your possession or control, and B, the document must
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be produced to, in a readable and usable form, to Bradley Milne. No later than 30 days from the date
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that this order is served. This order is subject to the following conditions. You have the right to apply
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to revoke or vary this order. If you contravene this order without lawful excuse, you may be subject
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to a fine, to imprisonment, or both. Signed, Justice E.J. Tolpanin, Justice of the Alberta Court of Justice.
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So we received that in the email. That's quite an email to wake up to. Now, obviously, we're against
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crimes, especially the crimes listed there. But we don't have any secret recordings. We recorded the
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events in question, and we published them. In fact, we published almost half an hour of footage.
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Here, here's a sample of the events that we recorded.
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Here, here's a sample of the events that we recorded. We're going to ask you to back up, because
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you're excited violence with the other crowns, so we're going to ask you to back up.
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And they're arresting him. You police, you should be arresting Antifa. They're the ones that
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attacked him. What are you cowards doing arresting this guy? Josh, do you have anything to say about
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this? Say it. Just say it. Hey, guys, Jesus saves. He loves you. Go get a Bible. I've got Bibles for you
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over there. Now, you might notice that the police were there. They were there, and they saw everything.
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They chose not to film the criminals or the criminal suspects because they were too busy abusing
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the conservatives in the crowd. That's what they do in Calgary. They go after Christian clergy,
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especially. So the police were there, and they could have videoed everything. We videoed everything,
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and we published nearly half an hour of it. But this cop is demanding that we hand over everything.
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And he's saying that if we don't do it, well, the judge gave him an order saying we could literally be
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imprisoned. But we don't do that. See, when we go to cover the news, it's critically important that
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everyone know we're there on our own accord. We're not there as agents of the police. We're not there
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as snitches or narcs or feds. Now, by the way, I happen to agree with the police in this case
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that crimes were committed. We showed you that in the footage that we published to the world.
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We just happen to believe that the police ought not to be able to raid news organizations,
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whether it's real journalists like us at Rebel News or even government journalists at the CBC.
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Even those government journalists have enough self-respect to fight back and say to police,
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no, no, you can't have our work because we are not agents of the state. It's not like we're a
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closed-circuit TV security camera. We're journalists. We do not work for anyone other than our own
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viewers and our own consciences. And as I said, we've already published 25 minutes of the crime scene.
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It makes me think that perhaps this cop actually isn't interested in the crime, but rather finding
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evidence that the Christian pastors and the other Christian activists here, that they should be
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charged too. What I've learned over the last few years is that politicians lie, health officials lie,
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and yes, even the police lie. The police told the judge they wanted the footage for a certain
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reason, but do you trust that they're not going to actually use our footage for other reasons, like to
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lay charges against the conservative students or other conservatives there? I don't. But more to the
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point, I don't work for the Calgary police, and yet they're demanding that we fork over our footage
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or go to jail. Well, no thanks. We've got a better idea. Here's the letter that our lawyer,
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Sarah Miller, sent to the Calgary police. Let me read it to you. And by the way, you can find all of
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these documents at our website, defendrebelnews.com. So here's a letter that our lawyer sent back to the
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cops about a week ago. Bradley Milne, Calgary Police Service. Dear Constable Milne, we've been
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retained by Rebel News in response to the production order, which you obtained from the Honorable Justice
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E.J. Tolpanen on August 2nd. We write first to advise that the production order fails to comply
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with the criminal code and that the purported service of Rebel News by email fails to comply
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with the code and Alberta rules of court. As you know, you obtain the production order pursuant to
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section 487.014 of the code, and it is constrained by section 488. An order under any sections
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knows that the application relates to a journalist's communications or an object document or data
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relating to or in the possession of a journalist. They shall make the application to a judge of a
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superior court of criminal jurisdiction. As you likely understand, the Honorable Justice E.J.
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Tolpanen is not a judge of a superior court and therefore lacks jurisdiction to issue a production
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order for journalist communications, documents, or data. Further, pursuant to section 488.013 of the
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code, a production order for a journalist communications has a different legal test and
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higher threshold to satisfy. Finally, the court may consider the integrity of journalistic activities
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and freedom of the press from undue government interference when deciding an application of
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this nature. Due to non-compliance with the code, as outlined above, we write to ask you
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to apply to revoke the production order. We take the position that it would be the most efficient use
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of judicial resources if you apply to Justice Tolpanen to revoke the production order, but as time is of
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the essence, we have instructions to apply to the court of King's bench to have the production order
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quashed by a King's bench justice for lack of jurisdiction and will be taking steps to do so
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immediately. So I think that's pretty plain language, but let me translate it into English
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from legalese. This cop went to the wrong court. He went to a junior court, let's say, as opposed to
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the superior court. Well, the junior court doesn't have the power to give such a production order.
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It's a serious matter reserved for the court in Alberta called the court of King's bench,
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and a different judge has to do it to a different legal standard. This cop got it wrong, and the judge
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got it wrong, and so it's illegal. But our lawyer continues because she's pretty smart. Here's what
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she had to say in the next paragraph. In addition, we put the Calgary Police Service on notice that
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Rebel News requests notice of any further application that the Calgary Police Service
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may take, may make to the superior court and request that its counsel be present at the
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application. Failing notice to us of any further application, we will rely on this correspondence
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should any further action be required on Rebel News' part to apply to vary or revoke a future production
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order. At minimum, we expect you to fulfill your duty of candor to the court to let the application
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justice know of our request for notice and representation. The court may then want to give Rebel News notice of the
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application or appoint a special advocate for Rebel News pursuant to Section 488 of the code.
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That means that we want to be there. We have the right, and we have a special right as journalists,
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to be there in the courtroom when some cop says, yeah, I think I'm going to grab their footage, judge.
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And we're saying to the cop that we want to be there. And even if this cop goes to the court
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sneakily by himself again, he'd bloody well better tell the judge that we wanted to be there.
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And if he doesn't tell that to the judge, we're going to show this letter to the judge
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showing what a sneaky little weasel this guy is. And here's the last point made by our lawyer,
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Finally, it appears that the only attempt to serve the production order was by email to
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legal at rebelnews.ca. Email services insufficient under the code or the rules. To our knowledge,
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the production order was never properly served, and we take the position that even if the production
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order was issued by the appropriate level of court, which of course it was not, the deadline
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under paragraph 2b of the production order has not begun to run. We look forward to hearing from you
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at your earliest convenience. So that was sent over a week ago, and the cop has not replied.
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So what we have here is a cop who saw 25 minutes of our coverage of a crime being committed,
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but he wants anything we have that we haven't published. But he's not willing to invite us to
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the court. He's not willing to have us in court when he orders for it. He's not going to the right
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court, and he didn't even serve the order on us correctly. I think we got a better lawyer, don't
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you? Well, we didn't hear back, so we applied to a court. Let me read very briefly. I know I've
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read a lot of legalese to you, but we went ahead and applied at the proper court, the court of King's
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Bench, where we're going to ask the real grown-up judge, the big judge, to smack down this smaller
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court that was acting outside the law. And no offense to the smaller court, they just don't
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have the authority to do that. It would be like the mayor of Calgary declaring war on a foreign
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country. You just don't have the power to do so. No offense. So here's what we applied to the
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court of King's Bench to say. You can see it's called an originating application. The applicant is
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us, Rebel News, and the respondents are the Calgary Police Service and the government in general. And
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we are demanding that we go to court on September 19th at 10 a.m. in Calgary in front of whatever
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judge there is. And the basis of the claim you can see is, number one, the originating application
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is brought pursuant to the Alberta rules of court. We seek to declare void the production order authorized
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by the Alberta Court of Justice. We're a federally registered corporation. We're a media organization.
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And on or about August 2nd, Constable Milne applied to the Alberta Court of Justice seeking authorization
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of a production order. And he got it. And it purports to compel Rebel News to provide this cop with audio
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recordings, video recordings, and photographs. Of course, as Point Six says, he has not served the
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production order on us. And basically, it puts in official lawsuit form the complaints that we put
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to the officer himself. Skip down to paragraph 14. Rebel News seeks the following. A stay of the
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production order. An order quashing and setting aside and declaring void the order. Costs on a solicitor-client
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basis. If this cop is dragging us through all of this because he doesn't even know how to properly
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seize documents, he should have to pay our bill. And such further and other relief as this honorable
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court may deem just. So we are headed to court on September 19th. As you can see, we wrote to the
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cops and we filed this lawsuit over a week ago. And they have not yet responded in any meaningful way.
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Today, I asked our lawyer to nudge the other side. For example, given how plainly illegal
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their production order is, will they consent to having it revoked instead of making us go to
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court to fight for that. So far, they have refused to do so. We've asked them to share with us the
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secret information they presented to the judge a month ago to get their sneaky production order.
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So far, they have failed to do so. There's no guessing why they failed to do so. They are on a guided
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missile attack at Rebel News. We have fought with police around the country. Right now, we have
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lawsuits against at least three police forces in Canada alone. And that's just how it is when you're
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in the journalism business and police rough up your staff. One of the worst days of our entire existence
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of Rebel News was when the RCMP shot our reporter Alexa Lavoie on the leg with a riot gun. Remember
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You just tried to throw this. You just tried to throw this.
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Or remember when Justin Trudeau's personal bodyguards roughed up David Menzies?
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But neither of those police forces, and not the Montreal police force that we sued, and
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none of the police forces we tangle with, none of them try to raid our journalistic footage.
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Only the crooked cops at the Calgary police force do.
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What do you call a police force that literally does whatever the mayor orders them to do in
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One of the whole points of an independent professional police force is they don't just
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They don't arrest the government's enemies just because the government doesn't like them.
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That's one of the atrocious things about Trudeau dispatching the police to rough up his enemies
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Of course, the worst of it was Chrystia Freeland ordering the banks to freeze the accounts of
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That's what the Calgary police force is doing here.
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We already published close to half an hour of footage.
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There's nothing in there that the police need to pursue the charges against the real bad
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They're only doing this to rough us up, to humiliate us, to destroy our journalistic independence.
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And in my view, they're likely fishing around so they can lay charges against some conservative
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But only the crooked Calgary cops in the whole world have dared to raid us with a court order
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Do you think we should roll over and do whatever this highly partisan, dubious police force tells
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Or do you think we should assert our rights, our freedom of the press, not to have to give
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up our private property to the cops just because the mayor hates us?
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I think we have to fight back, not just for us in this case, but for all media in all cases
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to set the precedent that some bully just can't rough us up because the mayor tells him to, and that
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you can't be such a moron as to go to the wrong court, ask the wrong judge for the wrong order
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on the wrong burden of proof, and serve it in the wrong way.
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So I'm fighting back because if I don't, and if Rebel News doesn't stand up, who will?
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The CBC works hand in glove with the government.
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Much of the rest of the media is already colonized by Justin Trudeau through his bailouts.
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Rebel News is one of the very few independent media, and we have to keep it that way.
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And although it might sound odd that we don't want to release footage of a criminal event,
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And what this is, is a fishing expedition rooting around in our digital files by a cop
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with a collateral political mission by an out-of-control police force led by an out-of-control
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And what I have to say to that dirty cop is, tell it to a judge.
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Now, I've spoken with our lawyer as recently as yesterday, and she tells me that we have
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I know that sounds astonishing, but we had to do the research on the law, write back to
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the cops, prepare the application, and we have to get ready for that court case on September
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Because although we asked the cops to call off their application because they're so obviously
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legally wrong, although we'd said, let's not waste the court's time, those fools at the
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So I think we're actually going to have to go to court on September 19th.
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And we're going to win if we do, but that's obviously not going to be the end of it.
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This cop is going to go to the correct court with the correct way of serving us, and he's
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going to come back with the same order, and we're going to fight it, because there has
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to be some journalists in this country who won't roll over for the government.
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We've already published this footage in the main.
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Just because some bully wants us to unlock ourselves and show them everything, I'm sorry,
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If you think this is an important fight, I need your help.
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I've already spent $9,000, and we haven't even had our day in court.
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There's no way we're getting out of this for less than $20,000, and then we've got to appeal
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The Calgary Police and the City of Calgary has unlimited resources.
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We saw what they did to Arthur Pawlowski and Tim Stevens.
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I think that's one of the reasons they hate us, too, because we have been champions for Arthur
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If you want to help us fight back against these folks, please do.
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Do you think I should just comply because they're police, so they're good guys?
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I don't think the Calgary police are real police anymore.
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They literally haven't arrested a soul who was part of that 150-man riot, but they're coming after Rebel News.
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Do you think it's a coincidence that we were the ones who defended Arthur Pavlovsky, both journalistically and crowdfunding for him, that we journalistically covered all the pastors, journalistically covered Ocean Weisblatt?
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Do you think it's a coincidence that the one police force that's trying to raid our footage is the Calgary police force run by that maniacal mayor, Jody Gonda?
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At the very least, I want to make them hop through the proper hoops, don't you?
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If you think we're right, go to defendrebelnews.com.
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If you think we're wrong, let me know in an email.
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That's the peace deal between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
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When we were in Israel—I'm in Israel now—we were earlier today at the Israel-Syria border, and we were in a building that felt like it was something from Chernobyl.
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It was wrecked and broken, and it looked very Soviet and was covered in graffiti.
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And over there, there's a bunch of wind turbines.
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There's green energy scams everywhere in the world, including literally in a border zone that's a hot border from time to time.
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Hezbollah, the terrorist group, controls much of the ground here.
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There used to actually be a permeable fence where people would cross the border.
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People from Syria would come to Israel for health care.
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The Druze, who were their own religious and ethnic group who live on both sides, would cross back and forth.
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But alas, things have gotten a little tighter lately.
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I don't have too much to say other than just the remarkable building on which I stand.
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You can see that white set of buildings down there.
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I understand it's the largest UN facility in the Middle East.
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Up on the hill there is some Israeli listening posts.
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And this building I'm on, though, is what I actually want to talk to you about now.
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It used to be a Soviet-era base for the Syrians.
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And then it was taken over by the Israelis and used as an Israeli base.
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It really, I couldn't help but think of Chernobyl, that brutalist Soviet architecture, abandoned and dilapidated, but reeking of sorrow and failure and mad political schemes.
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I saw some in Russian or Ukrainian, which I thought was fitting.
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Some of the Russian special forces that had been operating in Syria, in some ways fighting against different terrorist groups like al-Qaeda, have since relocated to the Ukraine war.
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Thank God we in Canada live so far away from any troubles.
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Just the rubble and the blast here, this has not been cleaned up.
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Although there is daily life here besides the wind turbines, there's agriculture.
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I mean, people do live on both sides and not just the Druze, but the Jewish community on this side.
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But I really just wanted to show you the incredible structure on which we stand.
00:32:27.020
And it brings back memories of the Berlin Wall in that it's been utterly graffitied.
00:32:32.980
It brings back memories of war, the absolute detonation of some of it.
00:32:38.520
It was actually a little bit nerve-wracking walking up some of those stairs.
00:32:42.100
But mainly, you know, the old saying about Canada, that Canada is a fireproof house far away from any flammable materials.
00:32:56.720
And we've had very little terrorism in our country coming to Israel and getting this close to not just a state that's technically at war with Israel, but terrorist groups.
00:33:09.600
I don't actually see any Hezbollah flags flying from here.
00:33:15.980
But in the past, in other borders, you can see the yellow flag of Hezbollah flying.
00:33:20.520
And it's a reminder of what a country of war looks like.
00:33:23.960
Really, I just wanted to show you the incredible architecture of decay that is this area.
00:33:32.660
And it was sort of incredible that you could just sort of walk right into it.
00:33:35.540
I felt nervous because there were so many blown-up parts that you could just fall down into.
00:33:44.600
On behalf of rebels here in Toronto and around the world, to you at home, good night and keep fighting for freedom.