Rebel News strikes a big blow for freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and for putting politicians in their place. We just crushed Justin Trudeau's cabinet minister, Stephen Guilbeault, in the Federal Court of Canada.
00:01:49.400But I want to talk to you about something that happened back in Canada that actually caught me by surprise, even though I was involved with it.
00:01:56.620As you may know, I sued the government of Canada, in particular Stephen Gilbeau, who at the time was the heritage minister, for blocking me on Twitter.
00:02:07.620And my co-plaintiff at the time was Sheila Gunn-Reed, who sued Catherine McKenna for blocking her on Twitter.
00:02:14.880You might say, why are you suing over being blocked on Twitter?
00:02:19.040Well, I'm not talking about their personal Twitter pages or personal Facebook pages.
00:02:23.600I'm talking about the government ministries that they ran.
00:02:27.380These are not normal Twitter accounts that you and I might have.
00:02:30.480It's not a normal Facebook account like you and I might have.
00:02:33.220These are accounts where the government has dozens of workers pumping out official government announcements.
00:02:40.020And you need to have access to that announcement like you would any other sort of government information.
00:02:45.280And for them to ban us from receiving it by blocking us just because they don't like our politics, well, what other services would they try and ban?
00:02:55.940I didn't include it in the Ezra LeBanc show last night, but let me show you this six-minute video that announces a success that actually sort of caught me by surprise out here in Dubai
00:03:07.220because I wasn't expecting it when it came and the way it came.
00:03:10.940Here's a six-minute video I recorded from my hotel room yesterday.
00:10:06.260I think one of the most interesting things, I just want to show you this in the consent order,
00:10:10.140is that Stephen Gilboa, for the rest of his political career as an MP, has to keep me unblocked,
00:10:15.860which is sort of interesting because we sued him because he was with the government.
00:10:19.680But for the rest of his life, if he's an MP, he must unblock me.
00:10:24.180I thought that was quite a muscular order.
00:10:27.040Anyways, not only did we get a lot of general media coverage, but a few civil liberties law experts weighed in, too.
00:10:35.080Here's Professor Michael Geist of the University of Ottawa, who's a well-known, very moderate, very learned scholar in issues just like this.
00:10:45.360And he covered the issue in great detail and said that he believed that it was pretty obvious that the government settled with us and agreed to the consent order because they knew they were going to lose.
00:10:57.220And so they sort of made the decision lose in a consent order rather than lose at the end of a trial where it would be a much more painful loss.
00:11:06.080Here is Kara Zwiebel of the pretty much defunct or slumbering, shall we say, Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
00:11:14.660I don't know where they've been for the past five years, by the way.
00:11:17.100Apparently, apparently they still exist.
00:11:19.500And she weighed in, I guess you could say mildly supportive, saying she wished it had been at the end of a trial as opposed to a consent order so it could be binding.
00:11:28.120OK, thanks very much for your nice wishes.
00:11:29.740You want to actually get off the couch and do something for civil liberties in Canada?
00:11:33.740I mean, civil liberties is your middle name, but alas, they've been doing other things.
00:11:42.020We do the civil liberties work that the Civil Liberties Association won't do.
00:11:45.380But my point is, not only did this get widespread media coverage, it got coverage from people I would call legal experts.
00:11:53.820And not just that, but the independent media obviously loved it.
00:11:57.480The Western Standard, Epoch Times, all sorts of independent journalists wrote about this because they hate the fact that the government is so censorship-oriented.
00:12:07.080My main tweet announcing this victory, last I checked, it had 2 million views and impressions.
00:13:40.100I'm not interested in a secret government making secret decisions.
00:13:44.960The whole point here is that government should be shamed for being so censorious.
00:13:50.080So I think that that's the difference.
00:13:52.260And I guess what I'm saying is I sensed, even from half a world away, that the mood in Canada is changing.
00:13:58.940And, in fact, the only voice of any size, and I give her too much credit, who was sort of against this settlement was Catherine McKenna.
00:14:08.920Do you remember her, a footnote in history, I think you would say, she used to be the environment minister until Trudeau got tired of her.
00:14:16.120And then she sort of skulked off to the United Nations, where I don't even know what she does there, but she got some, you know, fake job, patronage job.
00:15:26.980She said, and what normal person, especially women, indigenous peoples, minorities, members of LGBTQ2 plus community would want to go into politics?
00:15:49.060We would have crushed her in court, too, other than the fact that she, you know, bowed out of politics and we weren't interested in suing her as a private person.
00:15:57.400So I think that's one reason she was squawking so much.
00:16:01.580I just, Catherine McKenna, it's just, I think she's so instructive with the problem here.
00:16:05.440She said, there is no constitutional right to harass and spread lies and hate, but let me tell you, it has real-life consequences for politicians and their families.
00:16:16.660Now, obviously, she was talking about Rebel News, but we don't harass anyone.
00:16:22.600We've never harassed anyone in our life.
00:16:24.580If she means to chirp at someone on Twitter, that's not harassment.
00:17:06.240You know, I actually gave them some real advice.
00:17:08.920I said that if you actually say it louder, we've learned in the House of Commons, if you repeat it, if you say it louder, if that is your talking point, people will totally believe it.
00:17:17.160Yeah, you know, I hate that, and I think it's deeply unethical, and I think Catherine McKenna is a deeply unethical person.
00:17:23.000One, you know a lot about her by the fact that she eats dog of meat.
00:17:29.000I don't mean to emphasize that, but I think how someone treats animals and dogs gives you a window into their soul.
00:17:37.600I think Catherine McKenna is an odious person, but I'm not saying it should be illegal.
00:17:41.780It shouldn't be illegal for her to lie, and it shouldn't be illegal for her to eat dogs.
00:17:47.180She does both, and I'm not saying to ban it.
00:17:49.340She, on the other hand, says that she wants to ban people who lie and, what else does she call it, spread hate.
00:17:58.300Well, the amount of hatred that the Liberal Party has spread against Canadians who they don't like is shocking.
00:18:04.960Not just hatred, but deploying police, seizing bank accounts, throwing the country under martial law.
00:18:10.280It's just absurd, but the point is, we haven't done any of that.
00:18:14.520If we had, Twitter's terms of service would have knocked us out.
00:19:15.200I'm saying, who the heck is she to say that someone that she hates, someone that she lies about, should be banned from receiving a government service?
00:19:23.640And it was actually Catherine McKenna's self-pitying, vicious ramble that got me thinking, why would I stop now?
00:19:40.080We don't have a legally binding precedent because it wasn't the result of a full trial and a judgment.
00:19:45.720But as Michael Geist and Kara Zwiebel both said, it is pretty clear that we were going to win in court and we do have a constitutional right to equal access to government services.
00:19:56.960So that's obviously what happened because the government settled.
00:20:01.580And so my point is, why should we stop now?
00:20:04.380We've already incurred the legal fees to develop the lawsuit and do all the research and draft the pleadings.
00:20:11.080So to sue more politicians who block people is easy.
00:20:28.300But we built up legal documents so we can change the name of the plaintiffs and change the name of the cabinet ministers we're going after.
00:20:40.520We should expand this to other government Twitter accounts.
00:20:44.760I mean, why should another cabinet minister be able to ban any citizen?
00:20:50.760And forget about just the Ottawa federal liberals.
00:20:54.460What about other political parties, too?
00:20:57.280I'm sure that Doug Ford's thin-skinned MPPs and cabinet ministers have blocked plenty of people.
00:21:04.740And I'm sure that even mayors have blocked people.
00:21:07.720And I guess what I'm saying is the zeitgeist, the feeling that I've felt over the last 24, 36 hours, is that people are sort of sick of it.
00:21:33.920And right now, there's not a lot going on in that website, other than asking people for examples of where other government officials have blocked them on Twitter.
00:21:46.120But the point is, politicians are elected to serve us.
00:22:01.540And this attitude that Catherine McKenna has, that she's the victim here, making $287,000 as a cabinet minister or whatever it was, and that she can excoriate you, but how dare you heckle her?
00:22:17.300I think that instead of being hunted by politicians, instead of being canceled and de-platformed by politicians, we should cancel and de-platform them.
00:22:29.660Now, I'm not talking about having them banned on Twitter, but I'm talking about making them our servants again.
00:22:38.400So I want to take whatever precedent we've established on Stephen Gilboa, and I want to expand it.
00:22:48.200And if you know of any other government Twitter account or Facebook account or Instagram account or other social media account that is banning people for reasons of personal vendettas or political vendettas, let me know.
00:23:03.780Go to putpoliticiansintheirplace.com and tell us the info.
00:23:08.580And by the way, while you're there, sign our petition on this to tell politicians that it's not their place to cancel us.
00:23:14.860What I want to do is I want to crowdfund more litigation and crowdsource the names and proof that politicians around this country are blackballing people like Stephen Gilboa did.
00:23:30.400Because I sense that people are sick of the chutzpah, of the gall, of the audacity, of the arrogance, of some shmucky cabinet minister saying that you and I cannot get government services because they don't like us.
00:23:47.020And if Stephen Gilboa and his justice department lawyers, and there were seven of them finding us, if they're afraid enough that they wanted to settle and pay us to get out of this, that tells me that we're going to win.
00:23:58.500So go to putpoliticiansintheirplace.com, sign our petition, and if you know of a politician who has a government Twitter account, I'm not talking about a personal Twitter account, a government account that they're blocking people, let us know.