EZRA LEVANT ｜ Tommy Robinson supports Britain's Jews, and gets punished for it
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Summary
Tommy Robinson has been exiled from the UK, and is fighting to be allowed back in the country. He's been charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism and conspiracy to make terrorist threats, among other things. Rebel News' Ezra Levenveen reports from outside the Westminster Magistrates Court, where Robinson is being tried.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Hello, my friends. I'm in London today for the trial of Tommy Robinson.
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Well, there's been a lot of those trials, but this one is a weird one.
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A political critic called police and said, get him out of here.
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And the police obeyed and arrested Tommy and banned him from London, exiled him.
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Tommy's in court fighting that. I'll give you the full report.
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But first, let me invite you to get a subscription to what we call Rebel News Plus.
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It's the video version of this podcast. Just eight bucks a month.
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You'll get great content and you'll do me a huge favor because we don't take any government money.
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It adds up. Thanks for your help. Here's today's podcast.
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Tonight, I'm in London for the latest trial of Tommy Robinson.
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It's not looking good. It's January 22nd, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
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I'm standing outside the Westminster Magistrates Court.
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There's so many different ancient courts in this country with peculiar names.
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Westminster, of course, is a district, a jurisdiction of its own, right in the heart of London.
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You've probably heard of Westminster Abbey or the Palace of Westminster,
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which is a fancy name for the parliament buildings.
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It's at this court that Tommy Robinson has been brought to answer the most bizarre accusations,
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something that reminds me of how Canada has been treating trucker protesters.
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You might remember I came to London for the massive pro-Hamas protests in the streets
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when probably 100,000 people were chanting for genocide and intifada and death to the Jews.
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And by that, the pro-Jewish side had a march of their own.
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It was just a march against all the anti-Semitic hate that had been rolling through the streets of the city.
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That may have been a little bit liberal a number,
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but it was a counterpoint to the Hamas hate that was on the streets of London.
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I went there because I was curious about it, and I did some reports.
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So you're worried about anti-Semitism, your kids are in college, they're worried, it's a tough time, they're outnumbered.
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You agree with me that some of these places are anti-Semitic endemically,
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but you're not against pumping the brakes on unvetted anti-Semitic immigration.
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Don't you see that you've created, you're supporting the monster that's destroying you?
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Do you think Pakistan or Syria or Afghanistan are suddenly going to become philo-Semitic?
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It's not just a case, you know, the issue isn't just immigration.
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I think you're confusing many different things.
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I think there's nothing wrong with understanding the importance of immigration,
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of understanding the importance of bringing people and helping people who want to come from other countries
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Do you think we should put the brakes on Muslim immigration?
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The problem is right-wing, nasty, fascist Muslim fundamentalists.
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The real problem is anti-Semitism in the Muslim community.
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Anti-Semitism is not compatible with Western values.
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Because there are wonderful people who come here as well.
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Do you think Islamophobia is a problem in the UK?
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There's rising hate, I think, across the spectrum.
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I'm here particularly against anti-Semitism because it's a disproportional amount in comparison to the Jewish community.
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So I stand in solidarity with Jews all over the world.
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Well, I wasn't the only one reporting that day.
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My old friend and colleague, Tommy Robinson, who used to work for Rebel News, but now has his own platform called Urban Scoop, he was there, too, with a cameraman.
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I went to this pro-Israel or anti-March against anti-Semitism.
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And who's in the coffee shop but Tommy Robinson?
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It was an astonishing coincidence, but not actually a coincidence at all.
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That's where everyone who went really early was hanging out.
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Tommy told me, after we said our hellos, that the police had come to him and told him he must leave.
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I'm just literally having my breakfast in a coffee shop.
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As you can see, I've got my microphone and my cameraman.
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But they said that one of the organizers of the March against anti-Semitism named Gideon Falter, a left-wing Jewish activist, put his left-wingedness ahead of his Jewishness and said to the cops, I don't like Tommy Robinson.
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One of them was 100,000 pro-Hamas marches through the streets of London.
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Gideon Falter didn't ask police to clear them out.
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And the police didn't have the means or the motive to do so.
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But Tommy Robinson and his cameraman, they were easy pickings.
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And so with no crime committed, the police essentially told Tommy to scram.
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They gave him a dispersal notice, which is a weird thing.
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If you look at the word disperse, that's, you know, disperse a crowd.
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But Tommy said, no, I'm here as a working journalist and my civil rights are protected.
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I don't know if you remember, but I was standing right there because, of course, I was chatting with Tommy and I could see the police sort of eyeballing things.
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And people who saw Tommy, they were sort of excited because they know he's a powerful communicator and they know he's from a different world.
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The Gideon Falters of the world and all the fancy pants who were there, they're middle class or a little bit, I don't know, I don't know my class structure in the UK.
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But they were the fancy people, the good people, the righteous people, the wealthy people, the powerful people.
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But to have an ally in Tommy Robinson, who's a working class Brit, who is from the North, who has a bit of an accent as opposed to the Queen's received pronunciation.
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I think a lot of Jews at that rally thought it's nice to have some allies because so many of the woke professor class have gone full anti-Semitic.
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So I was there and I didn't hear a single voice raised against Tommy.
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And I'm telling you, I was a foot away from him.
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In fact, when the police finally made their move against Tommy, the Jews said, shame on you, to the cops.
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Move forward, move forward, move forward, move forward, move forward.
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Well, saying shame on you to the police doesn't really work because I don't think they have shame in 2023, 2024.
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At least not Sadiq Khan's D-E-I, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Metropolitan Police.
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And they released him saying he's not allowed back in the city of London.
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Not just for that hour or that day, but he's just not allowed back.
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Tommy went to court and got a slight variation on that bail.
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He's allowed to come to the city of London to meet with his lawyers and to go to court.
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And if a particular policeman named Officer Shaw, who happens to be Muslim, approves of where Tommy goes.
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And Tommy told me last night that he has said to this Officer Shaw,
00:10:06.220
I'd like to meet this particular member of Parliament, Andrew Bridgen.
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And Officer Shaw said, no, just because I'm the cop and I suddenly have the power of a judge.
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Where a policeman who is probably antipathetic to Tommy ideologically anyways,
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gets to vet Tommy's personal life, who he meets with.
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And I understand Tommy also wants to meet with a peer, a member of the House of Lords.
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I didn't know that just some cop on the street, some beat cop,
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who may or may not have a grudge against Tommy,
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has the power to deny two sitting members of Parliament,
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an MP and a member of the House of Lords, the right to meet with a citizen.
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I'm learning so much about the cradle of democracy, the mother of all parliaments.
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I'm learning so much about civil liberties here in the United Kingdom.
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It's incredible that all this started because some left-wing Jew
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had a vendetta against Tommy and told the cops, arrest him.
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Worse even than what we see in Canada these days.
00:11:11.160
So today's hearing was to set a formal trial for Tommy's appeal of this order
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and also to seek a variation on those bail conditions that he has right now.
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But the first matter was, in British court, it's a legal custom where the accused stands up,
00:11:35.380
says their name, says their date of birth, says their profession or occupation,
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But about that last part, Tommy Robinson has received 12 death threats from the police.
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And what I mean by that is the police intelligence, the national security intelligence,
00:11:56.920
through tips or sources or surveillance, have 12 realistic, imminent, actionable warnings of death threats.
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So it's not just some guy on Twitter saying, I'm going to kill you.
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It's something in the UK called an Osmond warning.
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And it was a case where the police had a warning about a death threat but didn't do anything.
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If the police know there's a real death threat about you,
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they have to hand deliver the details to you at your home.
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You're at your house and a cop knocks on your door and they hand you a paper saying,
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here are the details of a realistic death threat against you.
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Oh, and by the way, in the UK, you're not allowed to get a firearm to defend yourself.
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And Tommy Robinson has received 12 of these Osmond warnings.
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And his wife, Jenna, has received three of them.
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So you can imagine why Tommy didn't want to stand up in open court with a pack of media jackals there
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and say his home address, which is confidential.
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And so Tommy's lawyer, a senior king's counsel, said,
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Your Honor, the judge, sorry, the court knows the address.
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We just don't want it said in public because there were a grand total of 15 death threats
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against Tommy and his family, according to the police.
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Hey, journalists, do any of you have a comment?
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And one jackal with the evening standard stood up and went on how it's his right to publish
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And Tommy talks about, you know, openness of justice.
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I swear to God, he stood up and must have talked for five minutes about his right to be able
00:14:02.780
to tell the country where Tommy's wife and kids live.
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Tommy's case, he stood up and said that, you know, this is an exceptional case.
00:14:14.240
I mean, I don't believe that there'd be a single other Brit who has had 15 warnings to him and his wife.
00:14:35.300
The report from the evening standard argued that I have to give my address.
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The judge ruled that I had to read my address out in open court,
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at which point I read out and they fixed the boat.
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But I just still can't believe that they've done that.
00:14:49.300
For everyone who witnessed what happened on that day, yeah?
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Let me just read you, because we only got served the evidence last night.
00:15:05.480
Given the large numbers of people trying to breach the police cordon around us
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and Tommy trying to break away, I was concerned that he would flee and escape lawful custody.
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I drew my cat duck irritant spray and sprayed his face.
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Now, anyone who watched that, that is the justification for CS gas in my eyes,
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was I was going to break away from lawful custody.
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They're also saying here, I threw my arms out, knocking their cuffs off.
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Everything they say, I'm going to put together a clip-by-clip frame of what they say.
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The problem is, well, who's the mainstream journalist here?
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All they will do is report what the police say.
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So the headline will say, Tommy Robinson threatened police officer with violence.
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Luckily, there are other reporters here that will actually report what actually happened,
00:16:00.480
I just still, I still can't believe that they've tried to get my, they've tried to get my address.
00:16:04.660
And as I said, I'm, I was removed from a rally because the organiser said it might make him feel tense.
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How do they think my family will feel if their address is pumped all over the country tonight?
00:16:19.860
I still cannot believe they've just tried to do that.
00:16:29.500
If you read the conditions, they can't give it to someone who's at work.
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I had a cameraman with me who was paid to be at work.
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I just think that the entirety of this, it isn't about me being on trial.
00:16:41.440
I just think it's the public should be made aware of the police state we live in.
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The judge has just given, my trial date is St. George's Day.
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But the date, I'm now banned for another three months.
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So I have a meeting now with someone who I'm doing a podcast with.
00:17:00.280
I have to leave London instantly or I go to jail.
00:17:04.480
I find it remarkable that no other journalists or no other commentators from the mainstream
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or no other journalists, say there's journalists here, actually give a shit that someone doesn't
00:17:13.920
commit a crime, gets assaulted by the police, gets attacked by the police, and then gets
00:17:18.940
So we have a situation where you've got all these Islamists that have been driving through
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Finchley, for example, asking, calling to rape Jewish girls and all that.
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These groups are continuously calling for rallies, holding rallies, flying terrorist
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None of them have been given conditions banning them from inside the M25.
00:17:43.260
What becomes apparent is, so I've organized a rally on Saturday in Telford.
00:17:47.920
What this is about is inside the M25, they have such a Islamic extremist problem that rather
00:17:53.500
than deal with that problem, the one person they think might cause an opposition to it
00:18:00.660
But that may be London today, but that will just move to other cities.
00:18:03.540
When they've done this, my Barrett, my actual King's Council said, if they're banning you
00:18:08.680
from inside the M25, what's the stop and pick in other cities with these conditions?
00:18:15.940
The march against anti-Semitism was a one-day thing.
00:18:19.300
It was a particular activist, Gideon Falter, who said he was tense.
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What's the theory behind banning you for five months?
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They don't say anything, because I asked for permission to bring my children in for the
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A Muslim being banned from inside the M25, who then has a religious festival, a religious
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I asked, am I allowed to go watch Luton play in London?
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The relevance is, they saw that on Armatice Day, men come together.
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They were so fearful that men will come together.
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They have allowed Islamic radicals to take over this capital city week in, week out, and
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The one person they think might bring that resistance is myself, so their idea is, we
00:19:12.940
They don't mind letting Hamas take control of the city.
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They don't mind them climbing up memorials, desecrating memorials, because there's no opposition
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And you hear the police officers when they get asked in the street, there's not enough
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But when they saw on Armatice Day that British men were willing to come out on the streets,
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I think that would have worried them, and I think they just thought, whatever it takes
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So far, it's going to be, by the time trial comes, six months.
00:19:47.260
I don't think I should agree to those conditions.
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I don't think there should be no police or government that should be able to ban a journalist.
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from any city if they haven't broke a law, yeah?
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My freedom of the press, my freedom of assembly, my freedom of movement has been taken away
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from me so far for three months, and it's going to be another three.
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I was shocked by the evening standard going on for about five minutes about why they should
00:20:19.400
be able to publish your home address, which has got nothing to do with the case at hand.
00:20:23.980
But I assumed that the judge would have said, well, this is an extreme case, 15 death threats
00:20:34.520
The judge demanded that you give your home address there.
00:20:39.460
Have you had any support from any press organization?
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I mean, it was incredible that it was a journalist stabbing you, not even the prosecutor.
00:20:55.080
Journalists wanted my address to be given out, which is purposely trying to endanger my family.
00:21:03.160
And the point the judge made, she's got my address.
00:21:09.060
But the argument was they want it read out in open court so then the media can run it.
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So then when they run it, it brings danger to my family.
00:21:20.200
I shouldn't have been banned from London for five months.
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They then want to bring endangerment to my family.
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They spend almost as much time trying to get your address as they did on the substance of the hearing.
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And unfortunately, this now goes to trial April 22nd and April 23rd.
00:21:37.180
And unfortunately, with the media, what the media will report is the police allegations.
00:21:42.080
Now, do you know in the last trial, when I was here last time, the police officer's evidence was that the crowd was shouting, shame on you, at me.
00:21:52.520
When the police started taking me away, the crowd turned on the police shouting, shame on you.
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They totally changed the context, said that they needed to remove me because the crowd were angry with me.
00:22:01.320
It's like, but it doesn't matter because unless people watch what happened, the media will tell the story.
00:22:10.740
What you've reported about the threats to my, about trying to expose my address and trying to endanger my family, no mainstream media will even talk about that.
00:22:17.500
They'll just run Stephen Lennon off and give an address if they can.
00:22:23.080
I find it remarkable that no mainstream commentators, no TV news have even focused on the fact that I'm banned from London.
00:22:30.460
There should be no powers given to any police force or government to ban a journalist from entering anywhere.
00:22:45.880
So this is part of a lawfare strategy that's put on people.
00:22:49.140
Any activists or any journalists that come out, this lawfare has been directed.
00:22:52.860
If you look at Alex Jones' case, a billion pounds, it's like, even if he was in the wrong, a billion pounds, like, it's lawfare.
00:22:58.340
Yeah, you're tying us up legally, you're tying us up financially, but no one seems to give a shit about it.
00:23:02.420
No other mainstream commentators, no other media seem to care about it, but they shouldn't be able to do it.
00:23:07.980
And I've appealed and asked to come into London.
00:23:11.200
And when I took it to the judge to say, I want to come into London, I then have to apply to DC Shah, a Muslim police officer.
00:23:19.240
One was to an event where Andrew Bridgen was, an MP.
00:23:27.320
So then I come back to court again at extra costs.
00:23:29.780
And what the judge said is, every time you want to try and come into London, you can come back before me.
00:23:40.140
But what people are witnessing now, they've done this since 2009.
00:23:42.820
Since my activism with the English Defence League, I wasn't allowed to send an email.
00:23:45.480
I wasn't allowed in a group of three or more people.
00:23:49.360
This is all conditions given on bail for stupid little charges, which is what they've done now.
00:23:54.000
My point is, if I'd have pled guilty today, I'd have got probably maximums three months, but I'd probably get a fine, yeah?
00:24:10.320
There'll probably be another £10,000, £15,000 cost.
00:24:15.680
I'll say a thank you to anyone who's watching this who has supported my legal costs.
00:24:18.180
And what I'm trying to do here is I'm putting together a documentary about this.
00:24:23.260
I want the British police state to be on trial.
00:24:26.400
I want them to see the cost of fighting for freedom.
00:24:28.220
And I want everyone to see that I'm exhausted every legal avenue with the best counsel you can get.
00:24:34.680
So the best defence teams you can get, I've exhausted every avenue to try and get my rights back.
00:24:41.860
I do not agree to being banned from my capital C.
00:24:44.940
I do not accept six months of not being able to report on issues that are important to not just me, but to you in the capital C.
00:24:53.180
I've got a very important date next Saturday in Telford, and then I'm going to evaluate where I go next with this case.
00:24:59.140
I've got a scrum outside the Westminster Magistrates Court with Tommy Robinson and a number of citizen journalists.
00:25:16.160
Like I say, there were other reporters in the court.
00:25:18.740
There was someone from PA, Press Association, which is their version of the Canadian press in Canada.
00:25:23.540
But I just can't get over that reporter from the Evening Standard who stood up like it was his court.
00:25:35.040
The King's counsel stood up and said, Your Honor, 12 Osmond mornings for death threats for him, three for his wife.
00:25:44.940
That's why the judge looked to the audience and said, Does anyone have something to say?
00:25:49.620
And imagine being the journalist who hops up and say, Yeah, I do.
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But I really got something to say because I hate that Tommy.
00:26:01.560
And I want to be able to tell his address to people even though there's no public interest.
00:26:05.660
And I swear to God, he talked for five minutes.
00:26:10.860
And in the end, the judge ordered Tommy to give his address.
00:26:12.940
As he said, no fixed address, which was quick thinking.
00:26:15.800
But I just, could you possibly trust that journalist with anything he says about this court?
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If he said it was raining out, if he said the sky was blue, I wouldn't trust him.
00:26:32.940
And people say, Ezra, why are you flying in from Canada to cover Tommy Robinson?
00:26:38.120
It's because he is the pointy edge of the spear for freedom of speech battles in the United Kingdom.
00:26:44.860
I also like the guy who used to work for us, as you know.
00:26:48.780
This was supposed to be a fairly quick hearing today.
00:26:54.320
But as Tommy said in his scrum there, imagine being banned from London for essentially six months.
00:27:07.920
Because someone at a march said, that guy makes me feel tense.
00:27:14.520
I mean, I didn't know police took instructions like that.
00:27:18.740
Why is Tommy banned from going into the city today?
00:27:25.980
Why does he have to disclose his meetings and appointments to the police and ask their permission?
00:27:34.860
You know, when I went to law school, we looked up to the United Kingdom.
00:27:39.440
In fact, if you don't know, the United Kingdom used to be the court of final appeal for Canada.
00:27:45.120
I don't know if you know this, but it was only in the last century that Canada's Supreme Court became the final word on the law in Canada.
00:27:53.900
Appeals went to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
00:28:00.720
So when I was in law school, we looked up to the British.
00:28:07.920
To this day, British legal cases are persuasive in Canada.
00:28:13.740
And so here I am, and I've been to the old Bailey and the Royal Courts of Justice, and I've been to courts in Luton and Peterborough, as they say, Peterborough.
00:28:24.320
And I have to say, there are some brilliant judges in the Court of Appeal ruling that threw out Tommy's conviction a few years ago was a tour de force.
00:28:37.600
But what I saw in there today was deeply depressing.
00:28:43.040
The journalist, the prosecutor, the police, and the judge.
00:28:51.860
There's a two-day hearing coming up in April 22 and 23.
00:29:05.980
That's just, the word disperse does not, that's like one ball, disperse a ball.
00:29:17.220
Anyways, I thought I would come through London before going home.
00:29:20.020
I was in Switzerland covering the World Economic Forum.
00:29:23.380
And so it made sense to come here, and I'm going to go back to Toronto tonight.
00:29:35.020
Sometimes people say, Ezra, why are you traveling so much?
00:29:37.100
Well, maybe it's because I was locked up with Trudeau's vaccine no-fly list for two years,
00:29:43.420
and I had to scratch that itch, but that's not actually why.
00:29:47.220
I travel because I see in other countries the seeds of things that are growing in Canada as well.
00:29:53.760
I see in Davos, at the World Economic Forum, the globalists, the socialists, the authoritarians,
00:29:59.360
the censors, the oligarchs who want to rule us in Canada, where the ideas come from.
00:30:03.880
I see here in London the censorship culture take root,
00:30:09.540
and I think they're further down the road in the U.K. than we are in Canada.
00:30:14.780
I've never really visited Ireland before, but I'm deeply worried about censorship there.
00:30:21.420
We have 10,000 people marching in Canada, maybe 20,000.
00:30:25.460
They've got 100,000 in London, and I see our future.
00:30:34.380
When I go to London, it's like I'm traveling into the future five years if we don't fix our problems.
00:30:41.260
What happens if we don't stop mass immigration of illiberal people who don't believe in pluralism,
00:30:48.500
separation of mosque and state, peaceful solutions to problems, quality men and women?
00:30:52.520
What happens if we don't stop the censorship culture?
00:30:56.740
I will go back home to Canada tonight, and I will bring with me a warning of how police can simply arrest a man on the street
00:31:05.760
because his political opponent orders it, and then he must seek police permission for any meeting.
00:31:12.220
And I'll also tell the story about woke judges who work in concert with activist journalists
00:31:24.220
For all of us at Rebel News, whether it's in London, Davos, Toronto, or elsewhere,
00:31:28.460
to you at home, on behalf of us, to you, good night, and keep fighting for freedom.