Rebel News vs Trudeau at Leaders Debate
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Summary
It's been a day since we won in federal court and busted the door of censorship that Justin Trudeau's Liberal Debates Commission had erected to stop us. Today, I review the day, not only in court, but later that night when our reporters went to the debate and asked eight questions that we got in between us, six of them asked by us.
Transcript
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Hello, my friends. It's been a day since we won in federal court and busted down the door of
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censorship that Justin Trudeau's Liberal Debates Commission had erected to stop us.
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Today, I review the day, not only in court, but later that night when our reporters went to the
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debate and asked questions, not one, not two, three, four, or five, not even six or seven,
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but we had eight questions that we got in between us, six of them asked by us, and two by
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Andrew Lawton of True North. I'm very, very proud of yesterday, and if you're the one of those who
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helped us pay for our legal fees, thank you very much, and I hope you feel proud too.
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Before I go, let me invite you to become a video subscriber. You just have to become a premium
00:00:44.320
member. It's pretty easy to do. Go to premium.rebelnews.com. Eight bucks a month, no biggie,
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but you get the video, and I want to show you the videos. I want to show you the videos of
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Keehan taking on Trudeau. Eight bucks a month, it's worth it. All right, without further ado, here's the podcast.
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Tonight, yesterday was one of the best days in the history of Rebel News, and one of the worst
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for Justin Trudeau. It's October 8th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
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Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
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There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
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The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody
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If you saw yesterday's show, you know that we had an amazing day, almost a miracle. At least it felt
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that way. It started very early in the morning when I went downtown here in Toronto to the Federal
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Court of Canada. That's the particular court that oversees certain matters of a national scope,
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like the National Debates Commission, which had been created by Justin Trudeau just a year ago.
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It was an atrocious idea. The National Debates Commission, it was Trudeau nationalizing,
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governmentizing, a private sector media institution. But of course, I mean, he's renting most journalists
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these days. Anyhow, why not just buy them? Now, the website of the Debates Commission swears on a
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stack of Bibles that they're all about independence from government, which is how you can tell that it's
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absolutely not independent from government. First of all, Trudeau's hand, he handpicked the members of
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the Debate Commission, so they're like fingers on a hand. But second of all, the Debate Commission just
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delegated back to the Trudeau government the decisions, including which journalists to let in.
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Just to be clear, I'm not even talking about the five liberal feminists who were put in charge of
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moderating the debate. I mean, of course, Trudeau liked having his old fangirl, Rosemary Barton,
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on the moderating panel and her rival for Trudeau's affection, Althea Raj. We never did get a good
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explanation for why Althea Raj had a private meeting with Gerald Butts, Justin Trudeau's
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Rasputin figure. Oh, well, I'm sure it's nothing. Trudeau's right-hand man having a private tete-a-tete
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with one of the debate moderators, who he happens to pay right before the debate. I'm sure it's nothing.
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I'm sure she met with all the campaign different staff, Maxime Bernier's staff, Andrew Scheer's
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staff one-on-one like that, right? Anyway, back to my point. Not only did Trudeau choose everyone
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actually moderating the debates and running the debates, they chose who was even allowed into
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the building, and that's where we came in. Here is a list of all the officially accredited journalists.
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Look at that. CBC, CBC, CBC, CBC, CNN, CTV, CTV. Look at that. CTV, CTV, CTV, CTV, CTV,
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global, global, global, global, global, global. La Presse, McLean's. There's more than 200 names
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here. More than 85 of them are CBC or the French equivalent, Radio Canada, if you can believe it.
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In fact, about two-thirds of these names are from CBC or CTV or the other hand-picked organizations
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that officially ran the debate. It was an inside job. I note that the Globe and Mail was shut out
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from the moderators' panel, so was Postmedia. Those are huge companies, of course. Bob Fyfe of
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the Globe and Mail has been the most effective journalist in the year, but he was shut out.
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Just the selfie girls were allowed in. But of those 200 journalists who were allowed into the building,
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again, I'm not talking about the five moderators, of those 200, there were many foreigners,
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including three from Al Jazeera, the state broadcaster of the dictatorship of Qatar,
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for example. So now all of this was approved by the government of Canada.
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That's what we learned in court yesterday, that this so-called independent debate commission
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didn't even vet the journalists themselves. I don't know why you would vet the journalists,
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but they delegated that right back to Trudeau. In fact, you can see in the rejection letter
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that both David and Kian got. The email came from the government of Canada. I don't know if you can
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see his email at the address at the top. Paral.gc.ca, that's the parliament, and it was from Trudeau's
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press gallery chief. That's the Trudeau way, isn't it? Pretend something is independent,
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but actually control it like he does with the so-called independent senators.
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Oh, and then have them delegate back to Trudeau any thinking or deciding, in this case,
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which journalists even get into the building. That's a control freak. What a sham this whole
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thing was. Well, Justice Russell Zinn of the Federal Court of Canada wasn't having any of it.
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He fired a rocket at this debates commission, ordering it to accredit Kian and David, and off
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they went. In fact, they had to leave Toronto for Ottawa even before the hearing began because they
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wanted to make sure they were at the debate in time. Now, I stuck around. Of course, our lawyers
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did too. I was so happy when we went. I could barely believe it, really, just because we're so used to
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fighting uphill battles, fighting impossible fights. And the whole establishment seemed to be
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deciding that the new way was to de-platform and marginalize people outside. A very narrow
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bandwidth of elite opinion. Not Justice Zinn, apparently. He let us right in. He ordered us in.
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And in we went, in the front door, not standing outside, being harassed by cops like last time.
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Okay, show me your idea of journalist. You said you're journalist, but it's just bullshit, or?
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No, it's not just bullshit, and I have no obligation to show you anything.
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I have the right to tell you to stay away, like 300 meters from here, if you don't show
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me what's in your bag. Show me, you tell me you're a journalist, but you don't have an
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ID that shows me you're a journalist? I'm not going to show you what's in my bag.
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Yeah, we got ID'd that he's a journalist now, don't we?
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Now, for the most of the debate, it wasn't really that interesting.
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Kean and David really just saw what anyone watching on TV at home would see.
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Way too much talk time for the vain journalists themselves.
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For example, no closing statements from the candidates.
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It was as lame as you'd imagine a government-run anything would be.
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No one in British Columbia who had a job or was picking kids up from school would even
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Funny about that, all of those quirks are to Trudeau's benefit.
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And he certainly didn't want to be seen in British Columbia where he sacked Jody Wilson-Raybould.
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And surprise, the Independent Debate Commission agreed with him on all of these points.
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But the fun started after the official debate was over.
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That's when the politicians came to the scrum to answer questions from journalists, including
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Now, in court yesterday, Justice Zinn said, and he was right, that being accredited to
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last night's debate really didn't mean much of anything at all other than access to this
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And he said yesterday in court, it was very interesting, he said with the 200-plus journalists
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in the room, you saw the list, what was the odds that Kian Bexte or David Menzies or
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Andrew Lawton of True North would even get a question?
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He compared it to winning a lottery, not a lottery where you have a one in 200 chance,
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Now, Andrew Lawton's lawyer had a good reply in court.
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She said, judge, you can't win a lottery if you're not even allowed to buy a ticket.
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But actually, not all 200 journalists in the room were reporters.
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Like I say, there were about 85 or so from the CBC alone, but many were just junior assistants,
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junior producers, coffee getters, people whispering in the ear of the talent.
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So of the actual practicing journalists in the CBC, maybe there were only 10.
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So maybe there were only 50 journalists total trying to ask questions, so that's a better
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But Kian made sure he got to the microphone first.
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He asked a question of the Bloc Québécois leader who refused to answer Kian because, well,
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who knows, I doubt that one in 100 French-speaking Quebecers has even heard of Rebel News or Kian
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They have no opinion about us, so the Bloc Québécois virtue signaling would be lost on
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But he knows that the Ottawa mean girls, well, they hate the rebels.
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So the Bloc Québécois knew he could avoid answering a question by just saying, I don't
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But Kian asked anyways, because the judge let him, and I'm glad he did.
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Okay, well, I'll keep asking the question because the judge said that we could be here
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and ask questions, so I'll continue to ask the question.
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And if TMX is canceled by a May-Singh-Trudeau coalition, that intention will inevitably spike
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even more, what's your advice to Albertans who think that Confederation is broken?
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He won't answer Kian, who's an Alberta boy asking about Alberta.
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Boy, the Bloc will take Alberta money, won't they?
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All right, so the Bloc leader didn't answer Kian, and he's pretty brave.
00:11:17.060
Hey, mate, if you can't answer questions from a 24-year-old reporter asking you a pretty
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friendly question, actually, maybe you're not quite tough enough to, you know, negotiate
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with your public sector unions or, in his Bloc-Cibiquot fantasy, negotiate the separation
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Yeah, I've never heard of that Bloc leader either.
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If Justice Zinn said he needed to win the lottery to ask, well, Kian won three lotteries
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Here he is asking a question of Justin Trudeau himself.
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Since your multiple use of blackface became an international scandal, Canada's international
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Have you reached out to any African leaders or any leaders from the Middle East to apologize
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Canada will continue to engage in a positive, constructive way around the world, standing
00:12:14.960
up for human rights, engaging with leaders right around the world.
00:12:19.360
Because we know that promoting our values and prosperity for everyone around the world
00:12:25.620
is good for Canadians and creates better opportunities for everyone.
00:12:31.460
Have you spoken to any African leaders or leaders from the Middle East to apologize for
00:12:37.060
I have continued to engage with leaders around the world in a responsible way during an election
00:12:43.320
My focus is connecting with Canadians, as I was able to tonight.
00:12:47.280
And I was very pleased to see so many of the questions turned to the environment.
00:12:51.400
In all sections, there was a clear contrast between those on stage who don't think we should
00:12:56.340
be fighting climate change, and those of us who do.
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And again, we are the only party with a clear plan to fight climate change.
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Last I checked, that's received half a million views on Twitter alone, that little video clip.
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It was the most gripping exchange of the night.
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The fact that there was a supplementary question really pointed out how evasive he was.
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Now, other journalists around Kean were clicking and clucking.
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Before Kean was ordered in there by some judge, it was a little bit more like this.
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What a disappointing answer this is going to be.
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Whatever happens to be hanging around at the time.
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But what's the excuse for Rosemary Barton's famous list of first date questions?
00:14:04.060
Last book you've read or the book you're reading?
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The just finished The Patch, which was Chris Turner's history of the oil patch.
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Um, but I'm also about to start the new, uh, Ken Follett with, uh, the third, third book
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that is, uh, the sequel to, um, Pillars of the Earth.
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Uh, it's, it's just a, a, a sweeping historical epic, I'm sure, but I haven't started it yet,
00:14:40.360
What, uh, kind of music are you listening to right now?
00:14:45.800
No, I don't, I, I've tried, I, I run regularly and I've tried to, uh, uh, tried to do the
00:14:51.060
podcast thing, but it hasn't really, uh, it doesn't really say, I don't like people talking
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There's a lot of, there's a lot of rumors and gossip out there, no.
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Rosemary, you're on the right track, but I don't think he's the small talk type.
00:15:17.220
Um, yeah, so Kian, why are you asking tough questions and why are you being so mean?
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Um, that video by Kian was picked up across the United States because Trudeau is such
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And that, the fact that foreigners were seeing how stupid Trudeau was, that made Gerald Butts
00:15:38.120
He went into some weird conspiracy theory saying that we're part of some global conspiracy.
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He called us alt-right, which is pretty weird to say about a Jew like me.
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Alt-right is, um, it typically means anti-Semitic.
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I'm obviously not, but sometimes Jews are accused of being globalists, you know, not
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loyal to their countries, part of an international conspiracy.
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Maybe that's the insult Butts was going for there.
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I'm not quite sure that I'm a disloyal Jew, part of some international thing.
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I think anyone who knows me knows I'm very pro-Canada.
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We are, all of us here at the Rebel, whether you're Jewish or Gentile, whatever religion.
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It's weird for Gerald Butts to imply that we're somehow not Canadian.
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But I think it's proof that that question by Kian really, really stung.
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Kian had one more set of questions, this time for Maxime Bernier.
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My question revolves around journalism in Canada.
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Three journalists came to this debate tonight, but they weren't going to be let in, myself included.
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We had to apply for an emergency court injunction to be allowed to cover the one English debate that our prime minister took part in.
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What does that say about the state of journalism in Canada and the contempt that the prime minister currently has for journalists?
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It's a shame, you know, we're a free democracy.
00:17:17.900
And it's too bad that what happened right now, it's the same thing for me on the stage.
00:17:24.380
You know, Mr. Sink said that I didn't have my place over there because of what I'm saying about immigration.
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But actually, you know, I'm a voice for the big majority of Canadians that want fewer immigrants.
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And the fact that some people doesn't want us to debate and some people don't want you also to be here, it's not a Canadian way.
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And I hope that you'll be able to be treated like a journalist.
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And my follow-up revolves around what you were saying.
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Six percent of Canadians want higher immigration.
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Do you think that the other leaders just think that Canadians need to take some tough medicine or do they just not believe the data?
00:18:09.720
Well, first of all, I think that they don't want to agree with Canadians.
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But actually, that's a position that it is in line with Canadians.
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But the most important also, if you want to preserve that country, if you want that country to be like that in 25 years, that's the time to have the discussion.
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And I'm very proud that I was able to have the discussion.
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I don't know if you're counting, but I think that's a total of six questions for Keehan, six lottery wins, as the judge might say.
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And here's our friend Andrew Lawton, who was also there with us in court, too.
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This afternoon, a federal court judge ruled that I had a right to be here to cover this debate as a journalist, despite opposition from your attorney general.
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Well, this comes after two weeks of me being kicked out of or not allowed into your campaign rallies.
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The Conservatives have criticized you for being not as advertised.
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You've advertised yourself as a champion of a press freedom.
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Will you take a stand right now, sir, as the leader of the Liberal Party and allow me to cover your campaign like every other journalist?
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We are a party and we are a country that respects journalistic rights and respects the freedom of the press.
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We are a party and a country that respects the hard work and the freedom of the press.
00:19:36.140
Then what time is your plane leaving tomorrow, sir?
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I mean, he's very disciplined in that he's not answering, but I think he looks sort of weird and cowardly.
00:19:48.240
I love the fact that Andrew, just like Keane, was allowed a follow-up.
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Now, as you know, Trudeau has done interviews with Andrew before.
00:20:07.840
So if you're counting, that's eight questions now from Andrew and Keane, two journalists who had just hours earlier been banned by this Liberal Debate Commission.
00:20:20.060
Well, that's quite a turnaround in just a few hours.
00:20:21.760
Now, I loved the freakout online by all the left-wingers who were shocked that the rebel was even allowed in.
00:20:30.880
So I'm not talking about people who just didn't like Keane and Andrew, but by those who didn't want them to be in at all.
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This is a hardcore left-wing group called North 99.
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When you realize True North and Rebel Media asked eight questions, rawr, they're steaming mad.
00:20:48.760
And really, there were three kinds of journalists there last night.
00:20:53.320
There were the bought-and-paid-for journalists, like my former colleague, David Aiken, who said that, look, Andrew Lawton was making too much of a fuss,
00:21:00.080
and it was all symbolic, and really, what a weird hill to die on.
00:21:08.980
Seriously, a journalist was saying free speech and not letting the government determine who gets to come to national debates?
00:21:15.860
David Aiken was saying that's all a waste of time.
00:21:21.420
But then again, he's a proud, paid-up member of Unifor, the union that's campaigning against the conservatives right now.
00:21:28.540
So that's the first kind of journalist who was there last night, the rented-out kind,
00:21:32.280
and the kind that Trudeau was more than happy to accredit.
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Then there were a small handful of journalists who were forbidden entry.
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I learned in federal court yesterday that I think there were three others who were banned.
00:21:44.540
Now, we didn't hear their names yesterday, but besides Kean Bexley, David Menzies, and Andrew Lawton,
00:21:51.420
I wonder who and if they were on Trudeau's enemies list, too.
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So there were about 250 journalists that Trudeau personally approved, most of them on Trudeau's payroll.
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There were three journalists who were banned and who would be kept out by police like we were last time if they tried to present.
00:22:09.740
And then there were three journalists who were so accredited that, as you can see here,
00:22:15.900
a judge of the federal court himself signed their names, that they were allowed to report because, well,
00:22:25.960
they were free men, and Canada is still a free country.
00:22:30.660
All in all, a huge night for Rebel News and for our viewers and for Canada and for freedom.
00:22:37.440
Say, I got the final bill from our lawyers today.
00:22:44.100
And then, of course, they were in court with me all day on Monday.
00:22:48.740
I sent them a $10,000 deposit on Friday when I hired them, a retainer.
00:22:55.020
I got the rest of their bill today, another $8,000 on top of the $10,000.
00:23:05.800
But I have to tell you, if it's only $18,000 to fight for freedom, that's pretty cheap.
00:23:10.720
One last thing, and we'll interview Kean in a moment.
00:23:13.280
We won the battle, the one that led us in last night and into the French language debate
00:23:21.080
We have applied for a judge to review the decision made by the Debates Commission, as
00:23:25.860
in to go through it meticulously, not just to give us a quick emergency injunction to
00:23:30.160
get us into the debates, because that moment would be lost.
00:23:35.080
Did we have enough of a case for a judicial review of this entire decision that a judge
00:23:39.800
could make a hasty, temporary decision to let us in the debates, because if we missed
00:23:46.640
That judge yesterday said yes to the emergency injunction.
00:23:51.220
But the actual hearing of our appeal is still to come.
00:23:57.780
That's the fight where we'll get all the disclosure, where we'll see all the collusion between Trudeau
00:24:03.180
and his rented journalists, where we'll see the collusion between Trudeau's independent
00:24:13.320
It's going to cost a lot more than $10,000 or $18,000, but it's going to be an even bigger
00:24:25.600
And joining us now live from Pearson International Airport as he runs to the next campaign event
00:24:49.380
Congratulations on a great day and a great night.
00:24:56.860
I have never had so much more fun than I did when I was able to ask Trudeau a question.
00:25:05.860
But, I mean, I've been flying across this country dozens of flights.
00:25:11.560
And finally, we were able to ask Trudeau one question.
00:25:15.640
It doesn't seem like in a first-world country we should have to pull so many strings to be able
00:25:21.040
to ask the leader of our nation just a simple question.
00:25:25.660
Yesterday morning, you were with me at the federal court.
00:25:28.380
You had to then fly to Ottawa in the hopes that the judge would let you in.
00:25:36.380
The judge said, even if you get in, it's like a lottery.
00:25:41.980
He was skeptical, but I guess you won the lottery, and so did Andrew Lawton of True North.
00:25:50.480
Here, let me just play my favorite question of the night, where you put yours to Trudeau.
00:25:56.040
By the way, last I checked on Twitter, this had almost half a million views.
00:26:01.100
By the time this goes to air tonight, it'll probably be close to a million.
00:26:04.180
I actually think this was the most viewed moment in the entire debate.
00:26:14.200
Since your multiple use of blackface became an international scandal,
00:26:18.560
Canada's international reputation has been irreparably harmed.
00:26:23.160
Have you reached out to any African leaders or any leaders from the Middle East to apologize for your conduct?
00:26:28.280
Canada will continue to engage in a positive, constructive way around the world,
00:26:33.400
standing up for human rights, engaging with leaders right around the world,
00:26:38.140
because we know that promoting our values and prosperity for everyone around the world
00:26:44.320
is good for Canadians and creates better opportunities for everyone.
00:26:50.020
Have you spoken to any African leaders or leaders from the Middle East to apologize for your personal conduct?
00:26:56.440
I have continued to engage with leaders around the world in a responsible way during an election campaign.
00:27:02.580
My focus is connecting with Canadians, as I was able to tonight.
00:27:06.040
And I was very pleased to see so many of the questions turned to the environment.
00:27:10.120
In all sections, there was a clear contrast between those on stage who don't think we should be fighting climate change
00:27:16.140
and those of us who do. And again, we are the only party with a clear plan to fight climate change.
00:27:22.740
You know, you're so right. He said nothing. In fact, it was a weird segue to global warming or whatever.
00:27:29.680
But I think the fact that you had a follow-up question just really drove in the point
00:27:33.520
that he doesn't have an answer, he can't answer, he won't answer, and it's pitiful.
00:27:37.580
Yeah, we wanted to ask more follow-ups, and it was a little bit unfair.
00:27:43.000
The debate commission was selecting who they would favor.
00:27:46.900
I'll give you an example. There was a CBC journalist that was ahead of us talking to Elizabeth May,
00:27:55.320
They said they were only allowing a question and a follow-up, but in reality,
00:27:58.580
they allowed a question and a follow-up and then some banter if you were a pre-approved journalist.
00:28:04.500
For Andrew Lawton and myself, we were immediately cut off, not just by the debate commission,
00:28:10.180
but by our colleagues, the other reporters at the other microphone.
00:28:14.300
For example, with Andrew Lawton, when he finished his question with Justin Trudeau,
00:28:18.400
he asked a follow-up. Justin Trudeau brushed him off.
00:28:21.100
Justin Ling, none other than him, butted in and started speaking over him frantically,
00:28:27.860
trying to make sure that Andrew Lawton was cut off. It was quite pathetic.
00:28:31.100
It is pathetic. You know, there were so many things I learned in the court hearing.
00:28:35.840
You were making your way to Ottawa. I stayed in the court in Toronto.
00:28:38.900
Three Al Jazeera journalists, for example, close to a dozen foreign nationals from Germany,
00:28:45.560
Switzerland, France, Vietnam. I got no beef with those people.
00:28:50.660
It's just a little bit of chutzpah that they would try and keep you, a Canadian, out of the way.
00:29:00.180
No one less than a justice of the Federal Court of Canada gave you your press credentials last night.
00:29:05.960
How were you received by the media party journalists, the bailout journalists,
00:29:10.420
the uniform journalists who surely didn't want you in?
00:29:13.700
A lot of snide looks. Mercedes from Global News, she said that we weren't accredited,
00:29:22.600
we didn't even fight a court battle, and we were controversial.
00:29:28.400
She since has apologized because now she recognizes that she was wrong.
00:29:32.140
But in the table of journalists that were there, well, it was actually a huge room.
00:29:37.620
Andrew Lawton did get some friendly hugs from some conservative staffers.
00:29:43.140
But overall, we were not welcome there, and that was abundantly clear.
00:29:49.020
I saw some snippy comments even by my former colleague, David Akin, who said,
00:29:59.120
The police who were barring you from these events, that was not a symbolic act on their part.
00:30:03.920
It was a brutal act of politicized policing that took a federal court judge to push back on.
00:30:15.120
That's spoken like a journalist who has never been shut out of his trade by police officers and political elites.
00:30:25.280
And at Sun News Network, he was always the most reasonable, the most modern.
00:30:30.680
But you're never going to be locked out in an event by asking a conventional question that doesn't get anyone's hackles up.
00:30:39.020
You'll be everyone's best friend, but that's a different job description than being an effective journalist.
00:30:44.380
I noticed that your question of Trudeau got some pickup by U.S. media.
00:30:50.840
I mean, I think a lot of conservatives in the U.S. are a little bit sick of Trudeau's moral preening.
00:30:54.700
I also think that blackface has a special meaning in the U.S. where they have the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow and the minstrel shows.
00:31:02.580
But why do you think it got so much coverage in the U.S.?
00:31:10.720
There is that history of blackface in the United States.
00:31:12.920
And as I like to say, Justin Trudeau, in doing what he did, putting on black and brownface, black knees, black arms, black hands, black tongue, he joined members of the KKK and other racists in the United States who do this as a pastime, as a joke, to belittle people of a different background and ethnicity.
00:31:32.460
Justin Trudeau joined members of the KKK and that line really resonates with Americans.
00:31:38.200
This, like you said, it was picked up by American media.
00:31:41.180
None other than Breitbart actually just shared the transcript.
00:31:45.420
They just directly took the words and translated them to text and posted it.
00:31:51.800
That's my favorite because every Canadian outlet that has bothered to talk about us just sort of paraphrases what we said and then comments and says, oh, but this was a controversial outlet.
00:32:07.580
Canada land is just in like tying themselves into pretzels, trying to figure out how we got in.
00:32:12.540
It's I'm just going to I'm just going to enjoy the victory for now.
00:32:16.740
I'm very excited for Thursday when we'll be at the French debate and we can do this all over.
00:32:26.000
If you're not tipping anyone off and giving anything away, like we don't want to remove the element of surprise.
00:32:31.140
Can you give in fact, maybe I shouldn't ask you where you're going on the air because we don't want any MPs or candidates to know.
00:32:37.660
So we'll just look forward to your next video and that'll tell the tale.
00:32:43.860
There's, I guess, just less than two weeks to go.
00:32:47.840
When we're done, you can take a break on October 22nd.
00:32:54.800
There you have a key in Bextie who went from being banned in the morning persona non grata, as they would say,
00:33:02.520
to being commanded into the event by a judge all in the course of one day and asking the question of the night, at least judging by viewer response.
00:33:15.860
Hey, welcome back on my show yesterday that I sort of cobbled together from downtown about our court battle.
00:33:31.520
Jan writes, a great day for Rebel News and True North and for Canada.
00:33:35.840
When the judge said he didn't usually watch the debates, but was going to watch the debate tonight, I knew you had won.
00:33:42.460
And won't that judge have been surprised because he said, oh, getting a question in the scrum is like winning a lottery.
00:33:49.200
Well, I guess we struck gold eight times because Kian asked three couples of questions and Andrew had one couple of questions.
00:34:02.040
The victory was winning the court case and it saved us from a dangerous precedent being set.
00:34:07.160
The fact that Rebel News and True North had to get a court injunction to attend is outrageous.
00:34:14.840
I mean, there was actually a few smarmy anti-rebel journalists who were there to sort of laugh if we lost.
00:34:23.720
It used to be normal to go to court for free speech.
00:34:27.480
In the past, that place would have been packed with every media outlet in town in solidarity because they would say we'd better, you know, as my old friend John O'Sullivan used to say,
00:34:38.500
better to fight in the first ditch than the last.
00:34:41.020
So it used to be until about five, ten years ago that whenever one media company had its liberties at risk, no matter the case, no matter the outlet, all the others attended because they knew we'd better stop this right now.
00:34:54.580
Because if a precedent is set for the globe, it'll affect us at the star.
00:34:58.400
If a precedent is set at CTV, it'll affect us at CBC.
00:35:11.020
Maynard writes, congratulations for standing up for freedom in the Canadian press.
00:35:16.360
Shameful to the mainstream media and the civil liberties groups for ignoring the important case against the federal government.
00:35:20.840
This win is beneficial to the preservation of Canadian democracy.
00:35:24.860
Yeah, well, I mean, listen, I remember it wasn't that long ago.
00:35:30.920
And he said, Ezra, I want to tell you we're probably going to lose.
00:35:37.320
Oh, I mean, it's almost like you didn't want me to hire him.
00:35:39.360
He said, ten grand retainer, you're going to lose.
00:35:42.320
Well, you know how to win a guy's heart, don't you?
00:35:47.540
But it was an uphill battle because it's tough to get an injunction on no notice.
00:35:52.460
I mean, remember, the judge didn't even know we were suing until, I guess, he showed up at work that morning because the whole thing happened over the weekend.
00:36:00.600
So, judge number one, the deputy chief judge, had to find a judge that was free.
00:36:19.360
And the government, remember, they had five government lawyers for the debates commission and the attorney general himself.
00:36:28.500
So, the judge hears about this for the first time in the morning, has to sit down, read through everything, and then he has the hearing from 3 to 4.30.
00:36:38.340
That was an exciting day for the judge, too, if I may say.
00:36:40.540
And he said he was interested enough to watch the debate.
00:36:43.140
I bet he chuckled when he saw Kian and Andrew on TV, don't you?
00:36:49.260
Anyways, you know, I said to the law, I'll tell you this, let me close on this.
00:36:52.520
I said to all our lawyers, there was the lawyer for True North.
00:37:02.760
And I said to them, that when I look back on my life, that win for freedom to fight back against the cartel will be one of the highlights of my public life.
00:37:18.700
And I know that sounds a little dramatic, and maybe with the passage of time, I won't feel that way.
00:37:25.420
Some of them were important in the moment, but flashed in the pan.
00:37:28.740
Others were more symbolic, like publishing the Danish cartoons of Mohammed, things like that.
00:37:33.680
But actually going to court, fighting an uphill battle, taking it to the man, being there alone other than True North,
00:37:40.360
and winning and breaking down the walls of censorship and pushing for freedom and then getting our journalists in and asking the questions,
00:37:48.560
I do believe that that is one of the best things I have ever done in my public life.
00:37:56.140
And I guess I would say to you, our viewers who paid for the bills, and I need your help to pay the new $8,000 invoice,
00:38:07.660
And if you chipped in, maybe you too can feel how I feel.
00:38:13.100
If you have some paternity in this lawsuit, if you chip in $50 or $100 or $5, whatever,
00:38:18.660
that you too were part of a moment that was so important,
00:38:22.140
a counter-strike against the censors and the deplatformers.
00:38:30.940
Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, good night.
00:38:50.120
And we've we've got a lot of reactionary things.