EZRA LEVANT ｜ Tommy Robinson faces prosecution for daring to go into London
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Summary
Sheila Gunn-Reed is in the UK covering the trial of Tommy Robinson, who has been prosecuted for daring to go into London. We ll have reports from on the scene, as well as my thoughts of some crazy anti-Semitic near riots in America over the weekend.
Transcript
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Hello, my friends. Today, my colleague Sheila Gunn-Reed is in the UK covering the trial of
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Tommy Robinson, who's been prosecuted for daring to go into London. He's been exiled from the city
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of London. I know that might sound really weird and medieval, but it's the truth. We'll have
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reports from on the scene, as well as my thoughts of some crazy anti-Semitic near riots in America
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over the weekend. But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. That's
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the video version of this podcast. Just go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe. It's eight
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bucks a month. You get all the video stuff and the satisfaction of helping Rebel News,
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because we take no money from Trudeau, and it shows. All right, here's today's podcast.
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Tonight, anti-Semitic rallies take over the streets and leading universities, and Jews
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and skeptical journalists are the ones being banned. It's April 22nd, and this is the Ezra
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So much has been going on over the weekend. I feel like a whole month has happened, a lot going
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on today. Today, our friend Sheila Gunn-Reed is in London, England. She's covering the trial
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of Tommy Robinson. Very interesting trial. We'll have her video presentation later on in the show.
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I really love going over there to live tweet these things myself. It's a Jewish holiday of Passover
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tonight, so I'm going to spend it with my family. Sheila's going over there in my place. I'm grateful
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to her. She's an excellent court reporter. She's very fast at live tweeting the action,
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and she's got a good understanding of the legal process. So I've been watching some of her tweets
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throughout the day. By the way, you can follow them all at TommyTrial.com. In a nutshell, Tommy
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Robinson went to attend a march against anti-Semitism, as in a pro-Israel, pro-Jewish march a few months
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back in London. And I was there too, you might recall. It was actually a complete coincidence
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that I bumped into him there. I guess I should have known he'd be there. I went into a coffee shop to
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stay warm because I got there a little early, and there he was having breakfast. So I watched
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the police try to extract him from that cafe and then arrest him, 24 officers to arrest him. What was
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his crime? Nothing. One of the left-wing organizers of that march didn't like Tommy and told police he
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caused him distress. His mere presence was stressful. So they arrested Tommy. He argued, but he complied.
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They handcuffed him. Then they pepper sprayed him. And they are completely outrageous. He's been banned
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from entering into London ever since. It's been almost six months. And the trial is going on today.
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Very interesting things that Sheila's finding. We'll show you her videos later. I wish I could be there,
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but I wanted to explain to you what's going on. So there's a lot cooking there,
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including whose streets are they and who gets canceled and who doesn't. It's very interesting
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and very depressing too. So Tommy Robinson is arrested in the UK merely for appearing and causing
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someone stress. That sounds a lot like how our reporter David Menzies has been repeatedly arrested
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three times so far in 2024, not for doing anything, but for causing someone some stress.
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As you know, he was arrested twice, simply going to, well, the first time it was a pro-Hamas protest.
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Actually, that was the third time. The second time it was going to a Israel protest that some
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Hamas counter-protesters went to. In both cases, police simply refused to let David do his job.
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They arrested him, claiming that he was a troublemaker. Of course, the first instance I'm referring to
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is when David Menzies simply asked Chrystia Freeland some questions about Islamic extremism
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and the police arrest them. So it's happened to our guy, David Menzies, on this side of the Atlantic.
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It's happening to Tommy Robinson on that side of the Atlantic. And both have the same thing in common.
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Police taking out the peaceful, law-abiding troublemaker. Trouble in that he might cause other
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people to get a little bit stroppy, as the Brits would say. Tommy Robinson, of course, with no threat
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to anyone and a friend of the Jews, but the left doesn't like him. Anyway, that's what Sheila's up to.
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But let me come right back to our own country, and let's start with my own city. The weekly
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professional protest in Toronto, which in Toronto there being about 200,000 Jews in the city,
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you're going to see some Jewish things. A Jewish synagogue here, a Jewish school there, a Jewish
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daycare, and a Jewish restaurant called Aroma, which is actually an Israeli-based chain. It's sort
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of like a healthier Starbucks. And when the protesters went by this Aroma, so it's basically
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a Jewish kind of food, but really it's more like a fancy cafe food. But because it started in Israel,
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even though it's got nothing to do with the government, nothing to do with the war,
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nothing to do with politics, these Palestinian protesters, who are really anti-Semitic protesters,
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let's not mess around, they can't restrain themselves. They swear at the people inside.
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They shout obscene things. They put racist stickers on the window. Take a look at that.
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What does it tell you when you literally flip the bird and swear at people just because
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You just hate Jews and you're amazed what you're allowed to get away with week after
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Windows smashed at a Jewish synagogue and no one gives a damn anymore because it's a
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Listen to some of these absolutely insane genocidal chants.
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When I sing from the river to the sea, the reply with Palestine is almost free because our
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resistance attacks are proof that we are almost free.
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And what's the response to it? Oh, on Twitter, some people tut tut, but not a damn thing. The truckers were thrown in jail. Police came out with riot horses. The country was put under martial law for a few days of horn honking and some parking infractions.
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Here you have death threats, calls for genocide. What has been going on for six months now? And all Justin Trudeau can say is, hey, that's democracy, really. But what's happened in Canada is nothing to what happened compared to what happened over the weekend in the United States.
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Some of the finest schools in America. Obviously, Harvard, we know a lot about that. Yale, Columbia in New York City, MIT, perhaps the most prestigious university in America.
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Just what happened here is so astonishing. Not just the pro-Gaza and anti-Israel commentary, not just the anti-Semitic commentary, but in two instances, someone who was visibly Jewish.
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He had a beard and he had a black hat. Most Jews are not visibly identifiable by how they wear their hair or their attire. They look sort of regular.
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But when there's very conspicuous Jews, these protesters blocked them from campus. These are not Israelis. These are not soldiers. These are Americans who were literally blocked on several campuses.
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Do you see what you guys are doing to us? We are going too slowly. Do you see how hostile this is? And you're asking me not to record?
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Walk and take a step forward. Walk and take a step forward. So that we can. So that we can. Start to push them. Start to push them. Out of the camp. Out of the camp.
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One step forward. Another step forward. Another step forward. We ask. We ask. That you please respect. That you please respect. Our privacy. Our privacy. And our community guidelines. And our community guidelines. Which you have so far disrespected. Which you have so far disrespected. And leave our camp.
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And leave our camp. One step forward. One step forward.
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One step forward. You know, that reminds me of this image from Vienna in the 1930s where Nazis would literally have a human chain blocking Jews from going into university in Vienna.
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Which was probably one of the leading cities. Which was probably one of the leading cities in Europe. The most intellectual. The most cultural.
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Well, a bunch of Nazi branchers just thought they would block the entry. And the cops did nothing. And the politicians did nothing. And it wasn't about convincing people. It was about showing what the new normal is.
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Columbia, which, by the way, costs almost $100,000 a year Canadian funds. Like it's one of the most expensive universities in America. These are not oppressed people there. These are the richest, most pampered, privileged kids in America.
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They turned the campus into a kind of shanty town there. People's university. We're going to take it. People's university. Sister, your parents paid $100,000 a year for you to be there.
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And they set up this shanty town. And they threatened any Jew who would try to pass. And incredibly, the unit today, just actually today, the president of the university said, basically, the thugs win.
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They're shutting down the entire campus today. There may be some classes live streamed on Zoom. Is that what you paid your $100,000 a year for?
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And the university will negotiate with the anti-Semites outside. That's actually what the university president published today.
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And one Israeli professor, who's Jewish as well, said, well, I would like to go in to the university. And the police blocked him.
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The police blocked the Jewish Israeli professor. But they are having negotiations with the haters.
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Wait, wait, wait, wait. Everybody, my card has been deactivated.
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This is Cass Holloway, the COO. This is Gerald Lewis.
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They were in the meeting where I asked them if Hamas is a terror organization.
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And they couldn't say that it is a terrorist organization.
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Shai, we are willing to take you to the math lawn?
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You cannot let people that support Hamas on campus and me, a professor, not go on campus.
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But students at Yale, I mean, it's just as crazy over there.
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Here's Yale preventing a student, Jewish student, from entering.
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I mentioned the Vienna example, but I think another example from slightly more recent history
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is in the 50s and 60s when schools were integrated by race and black students in the
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South wanted to go to schools alongside the white students.
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And so the U.S. military literally sent armed soldiers with army helmets on to escort those
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And I think that's the way to think about this.
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Stop talking about Jews and Palestinians for a second.
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Imagine if you were talking about blacks and whites, if you had the KKK burning crosses on
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the lawn and linking arms to stop any kid who looked black or even half black or even quarter
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I mean, that's the kind of racism that the KKK might use.
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But how is that any different from what the anti-Israel protesters are doing now?
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You would bring in fire hoses if there were physical violence, if they were physically attacking
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Jews, if they were physically blocking Jews from getting into campus.
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But in this case, no, they're actually shutting down Colombia and negotiating with the protesters,
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many of whom, by the way, are not even American.
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These are definitely born in America, Americans.
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I mean, we've seen that sort of thing in Toronto, too.
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When David Menzies and our cameraman, Lincoln Jay, go to cover some of these anti-Israel protests,
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Sometimes with the assistance of Antifa, they sort of block things.
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And they punch and they kick and they steal a cell phone and they do something sort of low-grade.
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Someone getting hit in the eye with a flagpole.
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If you're having trouble figuring out what's right and wrong here, swap in any other ethnicity or characteristic.
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If these were gay kids being attacked by homophobes.
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I don't know if such a thing has ever happened in the last 50 years.
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Or think about the Charlottesville Tiki Torch people.
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And that was the target of national excoriation for weeks.
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I think it's incredible because I know that a lot of these universities, Yale, Harvard, Columbia, MIT, were forever liberal bastions.
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It was a cover to be the most racist people in the world.
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They're the most reactionary people in the world.
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I mean, who would possibly send their children to Columbia, spend $100,000 a year Canadian money for that kind of an education?
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First of all, they're not even getting into the classes.
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And second of all, that harassing gauntlet they have to walk through, including many foreign students.
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I think we have a bit of that problem in Canada, too.
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If you listen and look at the bulk of the most vicious protesters in Canada, they're not Canadian.
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They're in many cases here on a student visa or some other temporary privilege we've granted them.
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And instead of doing what they claimed they would come here to do, study, work, whatever, they're actually fomenting hatred.
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And I think Canadian citizens in Canada and American citizens in the U.S. have certain rights to be odious and offensive.
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But I believe freedom of speech in Canada for Canadians.
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If you just got off a plane from some country where they hate Jews and you're not a Canadian and you go to a protest and you attack a Jew or punch a Jew or vandalize a Jewish restaurant or any other race, I don't believe that you have the right to a full hearing in your section to be freedom of speech.
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No, you are a foreigner who came here as our guest.
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And I'm not sure what's going to happen because I think that so many of our institutions are so totally corroded.
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Some of these universities used to be very Jewish, by the way, MIT, Yale, Harvard, Columbia especially.
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What Jew would send their kids to such an anti-Semitic hotspot?
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The kids would be blocked by the gauntlet of anti-Semites around it.
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That's Canada these days and the United States.
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And as Sheila Gunn-Reed's reporting from London, that's the UK too.
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I think step one to solve the problem is to stop making it worse.
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As the poll I showed you last week showed, most newcomers say stop with the immigration.
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In fact, minority immigrants are more likely to say stop than white Canadians.
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Net zero immigration until we can figure out what the hell is going on.
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And I think, frankly, some of the 900,000 foreign students here should be sent home.
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They're clearly not really here for an education, just a backdoor into immigration.
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And I think we have to root out these races from our institutions.
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And I would hope I would say that if it was anti-black racism.
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It just happens to be anti-Semitic racism this time around.
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Ahead, I'm going to play for you several clips from our friend Sheila Gunn-Reed in London.
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What we're going to hear today is that on multiple different accounts,
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their behavior and their actions have been unlawful.
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I hope that this doesn't even get past the halfway stage
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once the judge listens to the illegal behavior of the police officers that day.
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And I'm here in London, all the way from Western Canada,
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to cover the latest trial of citizen journalist and activist Tommy Robinson.
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To find more about that, please go to TommyTrial.com.
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Now, Tommy, give us the brief explainer of what brings us here today.
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It was the biggest one the country's ever seen.
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I went there, and I come under attack by the police.
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The police come in and said I needed to leave London, leave the city.
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As I left the cafe, I was manhandled, and in the end, I was assaulted.
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I was pepper-sprayed from point-blank range whilst already handcuffed.
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And then that wasn't bad enough, but they decided that they were going to prosecute me.
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I face prison today for disobeying their order.
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So they want to live in a state where they can attack journalists,
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and decide who can and can't report on which events.
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They said that my presence may cause people alarm and distress.
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My presence here may cause people alarm and distress.
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I speak openly and honestly, and unfortunately, in the society we live in today,
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So, yeah, my presence may cause alarm and distress.
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Not one person made a complaint about my behaviour.
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There was no complaint about my behaviour at all.
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As you've come here today, I'd like to say thank you to Ezra.
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I believe you're going to tweet what's happening.
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So I'll share that message because you'll be able to tweet exactly what's being said.
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What we're going to hear today is that on multiple different accounts,
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their behaviour and their actions have been unlawful.
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I hope that this doesn't even get past the halfway stage
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once the judge listens to the illegal behaviour of the police officers that day.
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So how did you come on the radar of the police?
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Because you're there, minding your own business as a supporter of Israel.
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How do you end up being basically attacked by the police?
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At which point I was spotted, they had decided to give me a section 35 dispersal order,
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What they don't point out is that the next section of that says
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that they can't give someone a dispersal order if they're employed to be there.
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So if you're a journalist, and my job is to go and report on these demonstrations,
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It turns out that the officer that authorised the order
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doesn't have authorisation to authorise the order.
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It also turns out that where I was standing wasn't inside their exclusion zone
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There's a lot that's turned out when I've sat down with my legal team
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So I've made all of this as part of a film which I'm releasing.
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because people may think we have freedom of speech.
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but people will be able to see that in the film I'm creating.
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How does it even happen that you become banned from an entire district?
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Do you know how many different boroughs that covers?
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for taking her to a restaurant and going to watch a football match.
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I have to ask a Muslim police officer for permission to come into this capital city.
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I asked him to meet Andrew Bridgen as a journalist.
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I come to interview a member of parliament and I was refused.
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They have decided whether I can work or not work,
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Say I wanted to meet a source of journalism today.
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If I said I was meeting you last week and I want to meet you in London,
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I have to give you a name, your phone number, the location of the meet.
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For anything to do with journalism, I've been refused.
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But the problem is the majority of the British public don't know what's happening.
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There's not one period of the last 15 years since my activism
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or these absurd conditions that limit my freedoms and my journalism.
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But also the people around you get sucked into the police state too.
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They want to know who I'm meeting, where I'm meeting.
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and Tommy's coming as a journalist to cover the event.
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Someone should be held to account for what they've done
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that mean this has been unlawful action by the police.
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because he's the man who decided for the last six months,
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Hamas supporters are not banned from this city.
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in that your home address was revealed in open court.
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There is a current counter-terrorism investigation
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where three properties were targeted with drones
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by nine men of Muslim attire at those properties.
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And that comes about because these judges wish to,
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they're going to try and make me give an address.