Rebel News takes Trudeau to court — and WINS!
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Summary
Tonight, Rebel News takes Justin Trudeau to court. Why should others go to jail when you won't give them an answer to the question: Why should they be jailed if they don't agree with the government on climate change?
Transcript
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tonight rebel news takes justin trudeau to court we're here today how will it end it's october
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7th and this is the ezra levant show why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon
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consumer i know there's 8 500 customers here and you won't give them an answer the only thing i have
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to say to the government about why i'm publishing is because it's my bloody right to do so
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well i am standing inside the federal court building at 180 queen street west with the
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symbolic canoes that's the theme of the building here aboriginal reconciliation i wonder if justin
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trudeau can reconcile himself to freedom of speech the reason i say that is we're here in this
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court building suing justin trudeau and his hand-picked debates commission because on friday
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the last possible day they told us that our reporters kian bexty and david menzies were banned
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prohibited from even attending the leaders debates tonight uh in gatineau just across the river from
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ottawa we immediately retained a law firm they worked all weekend and here we are on monday morning
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at the court before the court even opens we don't know how it will go but we know a few things first
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of all we know we've had to spend ten thousand dollars so far on legal bills the second thing we
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know is that justin trudeau has put not one not two but three government lawyers on the other side
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filing more than a hundred pages of arguments why they should not allow conservative journalists in
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because they say we well i'll explain what they say in some detail and you can hear how absurd it is
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but i guess the most disappointing thing is how alone we are rebel news is fighting this in court and so
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is our friend andrew lawton and candace malcolm of true north but other than rebel news and true north
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there is no one here no other media in solidarity for the principle and precedent of free speech
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no civil liberties groups no pen international no canadian journalist for free expression
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no canadian civil liberties association all of the groups that would be skwalking
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if it were doug ford or stephen harper who had kept out left-wing journalists but when it's right-wing
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journalists kept out and journalists not on the government payroll well they couldn't care less
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now i want to tell you a little bit about our case and the case that the trudeau government has
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filed in response and then i'm going to briefly talk to kian and david then we're going to go into
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the court and we'll film the later half of this show once we get out but let me tell you our argument
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it's quite simple we're journalists this is a major journalistic event of the campaign it's the only
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english language debate that justin trudeau deigns to participate in and it's our right to cover it
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we've been accredited around the world from the white house and the u.s congress to the
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parliament of the united kingdom to the knesset of israel and a half dozen other countries simply put
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we are journalists journalists are not a profession it's not like doctors or even engineers you do
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journalism that's what makes you a journalist and we do journalism every day 13 000 videos and counting
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there are other journalistic groups who have been accredited tonight who have our pedigree or less
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so to speak for example national observer has an accredited journalist they're activists just like we
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are but on the other side they do petitions all the time there are state-run media organizations like
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the opec dictatorship of qatar al jazeera has not one not two but three journalists accredited the
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debate tonight so do many other foreign media outlets from germany vietnam the philippines and
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other countries like that why would foreign media be accredited to cover a canadian political debate but
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not canadian journalists there are uh activists the aboriginal people tv network a very activist tv station
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they're accredited as they should be i have no beef with that why would they be accredited and were
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not i looked through the entire list and the most striking thing is that there are close to 50
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journalists accredited from the cbc english and french sides of things so they have 50 cbc journalists but
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they don't have room for a single rebel news journalist i read the arguments put forward uh by the trudeau
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government over the weekend with their three high-priced lawyers and they're they go to great length to
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to imply that we somehow don't meet the same criteria that other journalists do but there is
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nothing they can criticize us for that other journalists wouldn't be excluded for the same thing
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it's very clear this is a conservative litmus test and we and andrew lawton have been banned well we are
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going to court to see if we can turn that around i want to be very candid i'm not optimistic the federal
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court is the most radical of the canadian courts the most left wing of canadian courts i don't know
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who our judges are but it would shock me if they weren't liberal leaning if not liberal appointed
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now you might say well that means nothing that will apply the law as it is well i certainly hope so but
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what i'm sensing is that in canada more and more the entire establishment believes in de-platforming
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voices that are outside the official establishment and i suppose that's the lesson that i'll take away
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today if we lose which i have to say i expect we will is that while the establishment will gloat in
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victory that the rebel and true north have been banned i don't think it's a real victory it's a pyrrhic
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victory because every canadian who feels that the establishment is out to get them to block them
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that the game is rigged that it's all a stitch up that it's all the insiders versus the populace
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they'll be confirmed in that so if we are indeed banned today well i guess score one for justin trudeau
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and his government lawyers but score one for us and our central thesis that the media party and the
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liberal party and i suppose the court party are really all the same thing and we've got no one
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on our side no one i suppose except the people coming up an interview with our two banned reporters
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well joining me now in the foyer of the federal court building are my friends david menzzi and kian
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how you doing fellas very good azra nice to be with you good yeah it's good to be here well i'm glad
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you're here in toronto this morning we are sending you to ottawa this afternoon no matter what either
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you'll be inside or outside the debates but so far yet there we still have some freedom of movement in
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canada although who knows they might try and handcuff you again david um what do you think about the
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trudeau government arguing that you're not a professional journalist you have a journalism degree you've been
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doing this for 34 years what do you make of that argument by trudeau what's preposter says when as
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you said in the beginning of your show uh look at all the other uh so-called activist journalistic
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organizations that are part of this the second thing is i i think the root of this is downright
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pettiness because at the end of the day ezra they have created this story not us by banning us
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um why would we be banned we're not going to be able to ask a question at the debate um we're going
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to be just you know part of the observers so to the justin trudeau brand of sunny ways transparency
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uh liberalism this is all about a draconian censorship move and i think it looks bad on them
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i think it's uh it's all about making them look like censorious thugs to use one of your words
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and again this would not be a story had it not been for what i believe to be their own pettiness
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their own hatred of the rebel uh being the engine behind this you're so right i mean we're obviously
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living rent free in their heads but i want to of course the blame is on trudeau he controls the
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commission he put his three government lawyers on this all weekend of course that's true but i can't
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help but notice there has been not one word from any of 338 conservative mps or candidates including
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from the leader i i don't expect the ndp or the bloc or the green party to care much about freedom of
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speech but i note that not one conservative candidate or senator has said a word and of course it was the
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conservatives that put you in handcuffs i also noted earlier that there's been no allies here
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i know in the past when one media company would be in legal trouble all the others would form a
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coalition to go to court together they would all actually join forces and hire one lawyer together
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and it was quite a powerful symbol all the newspapers all the tv stations backing the one in trouble
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none of that here no and and ezra i just want to say this that had the shoe been on the other foot
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had a globe and mail or a toronto star or cbc journalist being banned from anything that was
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allegedly open to all media i would stand up for those people but as you saw at the conservative press
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event just last monday when i was actually put in the handcuffs i reached out to the you know the
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unifor um uh appointed and approved journalist and said can i have some solidarity here and what
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really bothered me ezra is that they didn't even answer the question they wouldn't even say um no and
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here's why they just stood there like drone bees filming you know i guess what was supposed to be a
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humiliation of me and uh it comes down to this ezra either you believe in free speech or not there's no
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such thing as being a little bit pregnant or i believe in free speech except this kind of free
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speech they have shamed themselves in going against i would say the ethics of journalism yeah i think
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they'll have a good laugh over it with champagne cocktails at some high-priced downtown toronto bar
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and they'll think they had a real win but i think for millions of severely normal people it'll simply
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prove the theory that the elites are against the people here now let's switch around here kian come
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forward here kian i saw the video of you and david on the streets of montreal during the french
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language debate if i'm not mistaken no fewer than 11 police officers accosted you one of them demanding
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an illegal search of you just to remind our people here's a little clip of that and you called me on
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the phone and i remember maybe it was you called my phone i did a little bit of hollering here just
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here's a reminder of what happened the last time you were outside a debate on the street not even in
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the building here take a look i'm documenting everything okay no what do you mean why
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because i'm a journalist yeah cool okay show me your your idea of journalists you said you're
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journalist that it's just bullshit or no it's not just bullshit and i have no obligation to show you
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anything we we receive a complaint against you you received a complaint yeah from whom from whom i don't
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know i i have the right to tell you to stay away like 300 meters from here if you don't show me what's
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in your bag show me you tell me you're a journalist but you don't have an idea that shows me you're a
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journalist i'm not going to show you what's in my bag okay so you go outside so where where's the
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line okay next corner do you mind if i call my lawyer quickly i don't have to speak to a lawyer
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i'm calling because it sounds like you're harassing my journalist i'm not harassing i'm just asking
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what what your name and identity please norbert kutzer i'm from the rcmp badge number five seven seven
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eight eight and on what basis are you interrogating or threatening to detain i'm not threatening
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anybody i'm just asking why is he standing right beside where the prime minister is gonna
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because it's a goddamn free country any other questions oh my god any other questions happy to
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answer i i can't see what's in his bag he doesn't want to show his id you don't have a search warrant
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that's why no i have the right to tell me you the case law nolton you know that yes i do all right
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so i have the right to tell him to stay away a warrantless search on him you can expect a civil
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suit and a complaint to the rcmp complaints commission so i encourage you to talk to your
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supervising officer this minute yeah he's coming right right away well they clearly were targeting
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rebel news there were many other people protesting on the streets that day they were not subject to
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an illegal warrantless search um if we don't get in tonight you still plan on going to gatineau which
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is just across from ottawa am i right what's your plan my plan is to uh pose a question to justin
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trudeau however possible he's he justin trudeau and his uh campaigners and gerald butts i'm sure
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have meticulously planned this campaign to make sure that no hostile questions can be asked
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whatsoever and i think that's a chief reason why we're not allowed in the debate sure if we went
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it would be unlikely that we were even able to ask a question but even that small risk of asking an
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accountability question of dear leader is totally unacceptable to justin trudeau we got very close
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last time he snuck out a garbage door literally the cargo hold of the broadcasting corporation that it
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was held at in montreal he snuck out of after running the bus around the block a few times
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we were very close i stuck the microphone through the door of his bus and he waved at me like a like
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a jerk thinking that journalism really is a joke to him well for him in his circle it is funny
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because he doesn't have to answer but i think that i think that an enormous number of canadians want
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to answer i want to pick up on something you said i noticed that the liberal party they're not giving
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out their campaign events far in advance at all at least not ones where journalists could possibly
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ask a question in fact i've seen them announce media events as short a time as 15 minutes in advance
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so the only people who could ask questions are the vetted house journalists on the bus with them
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so they're really in this enclosed bubble going from event to event they keep it secret where they're
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about to go if there's any chance of a public encounter he really is afraid i think gerald
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butts is obsessed with us i know trudeau is obsessed with us because we're the one people he can't
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control we're so much smaller than the cbc and cdv and global male star like we're but the fact that
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we're not under his thumb that irks them so much why won't we be dominated by them why won't we
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submit to them it's so disproportionate and i think that they're it's starting to look bad
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do you expect to be uh accosted by police again tonight without a doubt i mean it's in quebec so
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it's not actually in ottawa it's across the river so who knows how uh the police over there are going
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to be acting the montreal police were i i mean i i haven't been to montreal often i haven't dealt
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with montreal police before then but the few encounters that i had that night with them they
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were absolutely below board um i i don't have high hopes i think that the police are going to be
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doing whatever they can to protect uh justin trudeau especially his security detail he has
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undercover cops wherever he goes making sure that nobody uh is a risk to him not a security risk mind
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you a question risk yeah well that's the thing is i i absolutely support a prime minister being
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protected from genuine security risks and i understand that uh in the heat of the moment
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the discretion of the officer should have priority i accept all of that for trudeau as much as i would
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for stephen harper but it's so clear that what they're trying to do is stop a political insecurity
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a question they don't like all right we're you know i want to keep an eye on the clock because we're
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going to head on in here and then after a while you guys are going to make your way to ottawa
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i'm pessimistic uh i think i've become that way over the last five years as i've seen
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deplatforming become the establishment point of view uh what do you think am i being too sad about
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things do we have a chance here in court it still is a court these judges still do take an oath to
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uphold the law neutrally even if they are liberals at heart what do you think we're going to see today
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the charter of rights and freedoms is clear we have a right to practice journalism along with other
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forms of media it's that's exactly what the charter says um whether or not the judge recognizes that
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or twists the words of it to make uh it convenient for the liberals is a different question i hold out
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hope um but i'm new at this so who knows all right well that's our pre-trial conversation we're going to
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go into the court i have to say we don't even know for sure that a judge will grant us a hearing
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because like i say this all happened on such an emergency basis we found out we were being banned
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on friday morning we retained a lawyer friday afternoon saturday we filed our application
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to their credit the government lawyers worked all weekend to reply to it so they're ready to go
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the question of whether or not a judge will actually take this case remains up in the air
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and getting an emergency injunction is difficult as the emergency part suggests but our argument is
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the balance of convenience is to let us in how does it possibly harm the debates if we're allowed
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in the building we're not one of the five question askers how does it possibly harm anyone
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whereas if we're kept out that's an irreparable harm we can never get that back and given that
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the criteria for keeping us out is so obviously made up there are other activists or advocacy style
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journalists in there justin ling a radical activist who sometimes write for the globe and mail and vice
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national observer aboriginal people tv network foreign extremists with al jazeera obviously we're not
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being kept out for any legitimate reason it's so obvious i barely need to say it we're kept out
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because we're conservative all right let's go in
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well it's about 9 30 in the morning and we're still waiting to see if a judge at the federal court
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will be seized with this matter what i mean by that is given the emergent nature of this that we were
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only banned on friday lawyered up friday afternoon filed our motions and applications on the weekend
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this is actually the first time judges have heard of this and they have to rearrange their schedule
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decide if they even want to hear the case of course it's quite urgent given that the debate starts
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in mere hours here at the courthouse i'm joined by candace malcolm you know her we had her on the
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show just the other day the editor-in-chief of true north and she joins us now great to see you
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hi esra good to be here well i guess it's good to be here because we're both fighting for freedom
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but the fact that we have to be here is bad you guys are the other journalistic organization
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applying for an injunction to let us both in because your report has been kicked out too right
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that's right yeah no i mean we wish we weren't didn't have to be here we'd really rather be out
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reporting and andrew lottner journalist is actually reporting right now he's in ottawa at a press
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conference with andrew sear so you know the government's not stopping us from reporting unfortunately
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what they are doing ezra is they're stopping us from attending a debate for journalists the
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journalists are allowed to be in they're supposed to be there they want to be able to report to
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their audience we have a unique audience at true north that want to see our perspective want to see
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the other side of the story and the fact that the government delivered this 11th hour notice letting
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us know that we weren't part of the the group of journalists allowed in is absolutely unacceptable and
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that's why we're here we're fighting we're fighting for true north we're also fighting for
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journalists and freedom of the press in this country you know i agree with every word you said
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and in fact i've said similar things myself but i look around and i see no one from the canadian
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association of journalists the canadian journalists for free expression from various media guilds there's
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actually a whole journalist union called the canadian media guild of course there's uniform i think one
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of the reasons they're not here is because we're competitors to them i think another reason is that
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they're ideologically left-wing they're supporting an anti-andrew sheer third-party campaign
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so i think they're putting momentary partisanship ahead of the principle of freedom of the press
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i tend to agree ezra you know there's so many we talked about this on your show the other day
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there's so many left-leaning editorial news outlets in canada there's so many you can hardly even count
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them they're almost all left-leaning there's a small small handful of of outlets that lean right
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editorially uh you know we're we're a digital upstart media company we're new uh you know we haven't
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been around for a long time we're not part of the legacy media but that doesn't mean that we're not
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journalists and you know in our organization we have a combined about eight decades of journalism
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andrew lawton the journalist that they're banning has been a journalist he interviewed trudeau himself
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i mean trudeau thought he was journalist enough to do a full radio interview with him before so
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what's changed right exactly well back in 2015 uh justin trudeau still believed in freedom of the press
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because he wasn't the prime minister yet and now that he's prime minister a couple of years in
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office has already corrupted that view but anyway we are journalists regardless of what some government
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bureaucrats say regardless what the trudeau liberals say and now the trudeau government and i think it's
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incredibly important for us to fight to fight for our right to report just because some bureaucrat or
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some government official or some overzealous liberal staffer says that we're not a journalist that
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doesn't make it true we are journalists and we're here to fight and repeat that over and over again
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you know it's one thing for the liberals or even the conservatives to ban us from
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a private event it's i don't think it's a good look but i suppose it's legally their rights
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but this event this debate was nationalized by trudeau so it's a government thing and for the
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government to ban us that infringes on our charter rights and it's sort of funny that we have to teach
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the son of pierre trudeau what the charter means i don't know i i find it depressing i don't know if
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we're going to win today i our lawyers say that an emergency injunction in a quasi-political matter
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is something judges don't like to meddle with but i don't think the judges would be meddling i think
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trudeau's done the meddling i have to say i'm a little pessimistic we don't know anything today
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but would you call yourself an optimist or a pessimist for today in court you know i'm generally
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an optimist ezra i think that you know things will work out and things err on the side of justice so i
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think that you know we have a pretty good case just because you know they had an arbitrary standard
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they gave us a very last minute decision they didn't clearly explain why we were being excluded
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they just kind of said in one sentence because you do advocacy uh well for the case of true north we
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actually don't uh true north is a charity uh we're federally registered we're not allowed to do
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advocacy and true north news is the news outlet within that charity so they're they're incorrect
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in their statement and you know because of that and but also just because you know the debate is
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tonight they created this this commission to determine who shouldn't and should be allowed
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it was very unclear they didn't post any standards they didn't tell journalists you know this is what
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we're looking for this is the criteria these are the rules i i think that they've made some mistakes
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and because of that i'm i'm optimistic i don't think there's a you know a hundred percent chance that
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we're going to be successful today but even if we're not you know the fact that a judge could say
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okay let them in today even though it's last minute and it's not completely common you know even if
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they don't do that today as we're not going to stop fighting we're going to continue to push the
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government to continue to stand up for our rights as journalists to continue to fight against these
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arbitrary decisions and we're going to keep fighting until they recognize that we are journalists and
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let us do our job well i'm really glad to hear that i'm not surprised by that because you're a fighter
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um i want to give a quick shout out to candace like us she doesn't take any government money
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you have helped pay for our lawyer tonight at letusreport.com candace is raising dough also
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at tnc.news tnc.news obviously we need the support but i encourage you to support candace too because
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you guys don't take a dime from the bailout money that's right that's right we're here just like
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you we've completely crowdfunded uh our entire you know mission we we wanted andrew lawton to cover
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this election long ago before any of it even started we crowdfunded that we were successful
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when we decided to fight against this we've had an overwhelming amount of support from what i call
00:26:10.980
true north nation uh they've really really been there for us supporting not just financially but
00:26:15.880
just messages of support i really feel like you know it's not just us in court today we're here on
00:26:20.420
behalf of a lot of canadians who are fighting for free and press so thank you for everyone for
00:26:23.980
for supporting us and thank you for the people who have supported us and we're going to continue to
00:26:28.040
fight you know i feel the same way really when you're reliant on your grassroots supporters
00:26:33.240
and then you're in court like this you've got to pretend in your mind that there's thousands of
00:26:39.140
people here because of course they can't physically be here but they're here in spirit they're here
00:26:44.440
financially because they help chip in for the lawyers well you've made me feel a tiny bit better
00:26:49.340
um but you can't get more establishment than the federal court at 180 queen street west in downtown
00:26:58.280
toronto it is as fancy pants downtown toronto as it gets and we're a little bit rabbley at the rebel
00:27:06.760
you guys are slightly less rabbley than us but you're still very grassrootsy and i just have this
00:27:13.380
feeling that the whole country's establishment is moving towards narrowing the bandwidth de-platforming
00:27:20.980
forgive my pessimism i think it's because i'm a little older than you and i've i've fought more
00:27:26.100
battles and i see the trends but i hope you're right i hope your optimism and enthusiasm are right
00:27:32.380
you've got an excellent lawyer i feel like we have excellent lawyers so if there's a chance if there's a
00:27:38.160
chance we'll get it last word to you candace well i agree and again you know just because some
00:27:42.800
established say the judge disagrees and refuses to to do the injunction and let us report tonight
00:27:47.880
again that's not going to stop us we're we're the future of media we are you know we're digital
00:27:51.780
we're online we're fresh we have a lot to offer to canadians and so you know as as things change
00:27:57.600
and as new journalism outlets pop up the government's going to have to deal with this a lot so we're just
00:28:01.580
at the frontier of this fight and we're going to continue to fight uh for freedom of press for all
00:28:05.540
canadians for all journalists in this country and well that's candace malcolm the editor-in-chief of
00:28:10.440
true north it's not quite 10 a.m we've been at at least i've been at the court for almost three
00:28:16.880
hours now we still don't know if a judge will hear the case uh which judge will hear the case
00:28:23.460
will it be in person or by phone how will it go down of course the debate starts tonight so this is
00:28:29.180
all very urgent thus the emergency application we'll keep you posted and um hopefully we'll have some good
00:28:41.460
i literally this moment got an email and this is from the courts administration service here at the uh
00:28:55.940
federal court of canada in toronto let me read it to you in its entirety it's addressed to our lawyers
00:29:02.520
candace malcolm's lawyers and the government lawyers it says good morning counsel the court directs
00:29:08.960
the following the court will hear the applicant's motion that's our request in person today october 7th
00:29:16.580
2019 at 3 p.m in courtroom 4c please confirm receive this direction via reply email thank you
00:29:23.340
abigail brimes so we will be getting a hearing in person 3 p.m at the federal court right now it's
00:29:31.360
11 33 so i'm going to go back to the office but i'll be back here for 3 p.m i'm glad they're hearing
00:29:37.220
it it was within their purview to say no we're not even going to hear it i'm still pessimistic but the
00:29:43.440
fact that we'll at least be able to have our say before a neutral judge rather than trudeau's hand
00:29:49.220
picked hacks is very encouraging by the way if you can help us out please go to letusreport.com
00:29:55.800
so far we've spent ten thousand dollars on lawyers i think it's money well spent we're not just fighting
00:30:01.460
for us we're fighting for all freedom in this country letusreport.com i'm standing as you can see
00:30:07.520
perhaps by the sign behind me at 180 queen street west that is the office of the federal court of
00:30:14.200
canada here in toronto let me spin around so you can see and i think you can see my smile i can't
00:30:20.900
believe it but rebel news oh let me i'll stop blocking the camera rebel news just won in court
00:30:27.840
along with candace malcolm and andrew lawton of true north uh our two reporters kian bexte and david
00:30:35.740
menzies had applied for accreditation at the leaders debate in ottawa tonight and we applied
00:30:42.960
like everyone else and so did andrew lawton of true north and we applied and we filled out the
00:30:48.140
forms and then at the very last minute on friday morning we all received an email but the email
00:30:53.260
didn't come from the debates commission it came from the government of canada saying sorry you can't
00:30:59.100
go because you're too much advocacy journalists or something like that it doesn't even make sense
00:31:04.460
what's an advocacy journalist um the government had a tough time explaining that today anyways so we
00:31:10.220
found out that news on friday morning and it was obviously sharp practice on behalf of the government
00:31:15.840
to give us no time to file a lawsuit but we did anyways we retained a law firm they worked all weekend full
00:31:23.520
tilt uh they filed the documents over the course of the weekend and at 8 30 a.m we all came to court
00:31:30.560
today and sort of surprised the courthouse because of course while the government of canada their
00:31:36.320
lawyers were on it no judges knew this was cook until 8 30 so the first thing they had to do is
00:31:41.620
find a judge who was able to take this case on short notice and then the judge had to read
00:31:48.220
literally hundreds of pages now the judge didn't read every single word but he read enough he read
00:31:53.340
the affidavits he skimmed other materials and then he had a 90 minute hearing and the first thing they
00:31:58.920
know about that hearing is that the lawyers on our side were paid for by us by our viewers but the
00:32:04.780
lawyers on the other side were paid for by i'm sorry to say it you the government used taxpayers money
00:32:11.740
to bring not only justice department lawyers but also um lawyers from the debate commission
00:32:17.280
and what was so frustrating to me is not only that there were five lawyers on the other side
00:32:21.700
but there was lawyers from the attorney general who said oh we have no horse in this fight we uh
00:32:28.360
aren't taking a side but then they proceeded to take up 20 minutes arguing against us
00:32:32.280
but i got a good feeling quite soon because first of all the lawyer for true north was excellent
00:32:39.280
and then our lawyers were excellent i couldn't believe i've had a lot of lawyers they were so concise
00:32:46.080
they made the case so convincingly and then i saw i saw the questions from the judge he had a few
00:32:52.480
questions here and there but his questions really started zeroing in on the government questions like
00:32:58.400
if it's not important and valuable to be invited in why does everyone want to get in and did the
00:33:04.240
commission really make this decision or did they hand it back to the guy there were lots of good
00:33:08.960
questions that i i didn't want my hopes to rise i'll tell you candidly our lawyers said we didn't have a big
00:33:14.560
chance and i i didn't want to allow hope to grow and what can you say but the judge said i'll be back
00:33:20.480
in 15 minutes and he came back in and long story short he ordered he ordered he commanded that the
00:33:28.320
debates commission immediately accredit david menzies and kian bexty uh for the debates tonight
00:33:36.880
he ordered the debates commission to do it and i want to say besides the outstanding performance
00:33:43.040
lawyers i'm just thrilled and i know i'm gushing about the lawyers and besides the fact that david
00:33:49.120
menzies kian bexty and andrew lawton applied and said we're not going to roll over and i salute candace
00:33:54.480
malcolm of true north too what was so notable to me was the absence of any journalism organizations and
00:34:03.440
the absence of any civil liberties groups in the courthouse itself what do i mean by that
00:34:09.280
there's a group called canadian journalists for free expression they've been silent on this there
00:34:14.560
was a group called there's a group called canadian association of journalists not only are they
00:34:18.800
silent on this the government invoked them as a reason to ban us there's a group called pen canada
00:34:25.840
they weren't there there's a group called amnesty international they weren't there there's a group
00:34:29.120
called the canadian civil轉 civil liberties association they weren't there there was no one there
00:34:35.040
There were no other media organizations that thought,
00:34:38.660
well, you know, we might not like Rebel News or True North,
00:34:41.100
but just it's in the interests of a free society
00:34:50.220
and it's not up to the whims of the government.
00:34:59.800
because it had our lawyers and it had Rebel and True North
00:35:12.480
the judge said not only is the Debate Commission
00:35:24.900
but I believe that this has set a new standard,
00:35:39.180
and that everyone would have that point of view,
00:35:44.500
Shame on the other media for frankly being fine with it
00:35:48.320
because they all got in and they're all on the bailout.
00:35:52.480
Shame on the civil liberties associations for being anything but.
00:35:59.860
but shame on Andrew Scheer who was asked about this this morning by Andrew Lawton
00:36:06.620
because he doesn't really believe in freedom of speech.
00:36:09.680
Congratulations to Candace Malcolm of True North
00:36:15.040
And I suppose the final thank you would be a massive thank you
00:36:23.780
Now, the court at the end made a ruling saying costs will be in the cause,
00:36:28.680
which means if this matter continues through court,
00:36:36.900
But if the government appeals and wants a bigger fight,
00:36:40.500
then the cost for today's event will be determined at the end of that.
00:36:46.740
Anyway, I just want to give you a quick live update on this.
00:37:07.300
Here we found a judge on the federal court who said,
00:37:18.360
And whatever, the judge says he'll produce detailed reasons if required.
00:37:27.440
today a judge said you simply can't ban reporters from an event
00:37:33.200
because you have a different political point of view.
00:37:39.700
But look, that's the thing about Justin Trudeau and Gerald Butz.
00:37:42.960
They never really respected the independence of the judiciary.
00:37:49.460
I'm just going to hop in my car, drive back up to the office,
00:37:52.700
But for now, I think freedom took a great leap forward.
00:37:56.240
And not because of any official civil liberties groups.