Juno News - Federal court says Ezra Levant book ads broke election laws

00:00:00.000 All that notwithstanding, there are plenty of killjoys, not just Saskatchewan Tourism Board

00:00:13.460 officials, but also federal court judges. And there was one ruling over the holidays

00:00:18.600 that we have followed this case for a little while on, and it was on this sign that you may

00:00:24.980 have seen in an election campaign, the Lebranos, lebranos.com, by the book. The book is, well,

00:00:33.140 as it's called there, Lebranos, was written by Ezra Levant of Rebel News. And the elections

00:00:40.180 bureaucrats, the Commissioner of Canada Elections, came down hard and said that sign wasn't actually

00:00:46.220 a book advertisement, but it was an election campaign sign. It was an election campaign sign,

00:00:51.760 and you aren't allowed to do it without going through all of these rules that we have for

00:00:55.920 election advertisers, for third parties and political parties. Now, Ezra pointed to a section

00:01:01.300 of the law, which specifically says advertising books, like it literally says advertising books

00:01:09.280 is in a category of its own and are exempt from this. So he challenged this, brought it to federal

00:01:14.160 court, and a judge ultimately signed on to the narrative put forward by the Commissioner of

00:01:19.880 Canada Elections and found that those signs were illegal. Ezra Levant is the author of the Lebranos

00:01:25.500 and the founder of Rebel News and joins us now. Ezra, I mean, you and I have had a number of

00:01:30.120 conversations over the years about our dissatisfaction with the judicial status quo. So I don't want to

00:01:35.680 say that I'm totally shocked by this, but this is like a clear-cut example of when the court is

00:01:41.200 finding that the law doesn't say what the law says.

00:01:43.800 I have to tell you, I was completely shocked by this for two reasons. First of all, the plain

00:01:49.420 words in the Canada Elections Act exempt books and the promotion of books from their election finances,

00:01:58.500 which makes sense. I mean, it also exempts news and speeches and letters, because imagine if every

00:02:08.420 newspaper article that was an endorsement of this party or a criticism of that party were to be

00:02:14.040 banned or regulated by the government. It would be madness. So it applies to books or the promotion

00:02:20.040 of books. And as you can see, because you just showed your viewers there, the promotion of books

00:02:25.200 was very simple. That was the front cover of our book called The Lebranos with three added words,

00:02:33.100 by the book. But that enraged Elections Canada. They were obsessed by that book cover and that

00:02:41.200 title. They were obsessed by the drawings on it of Trudeau and his friends. And so they thought it was

00:02:48.500 so critical that the book and the title of the book, they said, were banned and the judge agreed.

00:02:56.640 And so I suppose technically the book itself is not banned. But if you've banned the title of the book

00:03:04.020 and you banned the cover of the book, you sort of banned the book. And by the way, you can buy that

00:03:12.020 book right now on Amazon.ca. But if there were an election called Tomorrow, it would be banned again,

00:03:19.940 or at least the cover of it and the title of it. And I couldn't show it. And I don't know,

00:03:25.740 I was really surprised. And conceivably, you couldn't run like online ads for it as I mean,

00:03:30.000 without being am I do I read that correctly? Yeah, exactly. I mean, they didn't like the lawn

00:03:35.920 sign because they thought it sure felt like a political campaign. And it's true. Lawn signs

00:03:41.240 are something that are used in political campaigns. But we also had online ads. We also had a billboard.

00:03:47.820 We also made videos. We also did emails. Elections Canada only prosecuted this image.

00:03:55.040 But I want to tell you, Andrew, there were 23 other books published about Justin Trudeau during

00:04:03.260 the exact same time period. I'm talking about right before the election in 2019. 23 other books.

00:04:10.340 And they were positive towards Trudeau. They were boosting him. It would be like a campaign ad

00:04:17.240 for them. But of course, they're exempt because they're books. So they were not prosecuted.

00:04:22.260 I asked the Elections Canada people, and my lawyer asked the judge, how is it that those 23 pro-Trudeau

00:04:32.840 books are fine, but my one anti-Trudeau, it's anti-Trudeau book is not? And both the Elections Canada

00:04:41.740 staff and the judge agreed, well, if I didn't like those 23 other books, I should have complained about

00:04:48.260 them. But I don't want to complain about those 23 other books. I mean, I could complain about them,

00:04:52.660 but I don't want to prosecute them. And you know what? The judge said, and if you don't mind,

00:04:58.020 I wouldn't mind reading very quickly from the actual ruling.

00:05:01.440 The judge said, yeah, the judge says it was no big deal. All I had to do was act like a political

00:05:09.180 party, register with the government, disclose my finances to the government, and comply with the

00:05:15.200 government. And I could have the lawn sign in my book all I like.

00:05:19.140 Basically become one of those registered third party political activist groups like Lead Now or

00:05:24.660 you know, whatever.

00:05:26.000 Here, let me, I'm just going to read very quickly. Here's one sentence from the judge.

00:05:32.040 Even if the promotion of a particular book is election advertising, such promotion is not

00:05:38.980 prohibited. She's saying, my book wasn't banned. Quote, the third party, that would be me, must simply

00:05:47.040 comply with the requirements of the act that apply to all third party election advertisers. Authors or

00:05:53.620 publishers comply with the spending registration and disclosure requirements. So, oh, it's no big

00:06:00.280 deal. All I have to do is register my book with the government. Just let me say that again. All I have

00:06:07.580 to do is an author, duh, just register with the government. Let me read one more sentence from the

00:06:12.800 judge. When we argued, well, that would be a kind of chilling effect to require authors to say, hello,

00:06:19.300 government. We'd like to register our book with you. The judge said, quote, it should not be overly

00:06:27.080 onerous for an author or a publisher to demonstrate what their intention was as to the timing of the

00:06:35.100 promotion. As in, I had to justify publishing the book during an election. And because I did so,

00:06:44.460 that's what made it an illegal book. But every political book is published during election. You

00:06:50.380 don't publish a book after the election about the election. That's a totally different book. And like

00:06:55.220 I say, 24 publishers, 24 authors all had the same idea. Let's talk about Justin Trudeau in the 2019

00:07:02.540 election. The judge says, I had to, I just read it to you. The judge said, I should have justified to

00:07:10.260 the government. Why I did it during the election. I don't know. I'm really surprised by this. My fine is

00:07:17.720 $3,000 plus $10,000 for the court case. So I have to pay the government 13,000. That's not the end of the

00:07:27.320 world, although that's a very stiff fine for publishing a book. But both the judge and Elections Canada had a

00:07:33.860 warning for me. They both said that they could have come after me criminally. And theoretically,

00:07:41.080 I could have been jailed. And they both hinted to me that if I do this again, I will be prosecuted

00:07:48.980 criminally. No one in Canadian history has ever been prosecuted for publishing a book critical of a

00:07:55.860 politician. And I say again, it was the fact that I was critical of him that bothered them. They said so

00:08:03.420 again and again. And if you read the ruling, it's 85 pages long. We put up a website for those who

00:08:08.640 want to see it and see my side of the story. The website is saverebelnews.com because I think that

00:08:15.840 this really goes to our freedom. Let me just jump in there, Ezra. Was your legal case, I know you

00:08:23.540 weren't fighting it yourself, you had a lawyer, but was your case a constitutional free speech,

00:08:28.680 you know, freedom of expression case? Or was it just, listen, your own law says that the promotion

00:08:34.200 of books is fine. Therefore, your application of the law against us is completely made up.

00:08:40.560 It was both. And the judge dismissed that second one very quickly, too quickly. And again,

00:08:48.060 How did the judge rationalize that? Because literally, you can see the words right there.

00:08:51.940 Yeah. Well, there's three parts. Your book has to be published at a commercial price. My book was

00:09:00.500 $14, which is commercially fair. And it has to be published, whether or not there was an election.

00:09:07.920 Well, we would have published my book, whether or not there was an election. Of course, we were going

00:09:12.220 to publish it. And I don't even know what it means that there wouldn't be an election.

00:09:15.940 Well, and in Canada also, I mean, the 2019 election was fixed in 2015. But in our system,

00:09:21.580 there can be an election. I mean, there could be an election in 40 days that you have no idea is

00:09:25.480 coming. Right. And listen, I was honest with the judge and I was honest with the cops who interrogated

00:09:31.520 me. I said, we did what every other author did is we coincided with the election, but we would have

00:09:37.220 published it whether or not. I mean, I've published more than 10 books and we publish them during an

00:09:42.540 election. We don't publish them when it's not an election. I have another book coming out about

00:09:46.940 Justin Trudeau. Ideally, I would publish it right before the election. It would be terrible if I

00:09:52.060 was late until after the election. But the judge, sorry, the law does not stop me from timing it.

00:09:59.680 It doesn't. It just says I have to publish it whether or not there's an election. She thought that

00:10:04.160 was a silly difference, that there was no difference. And then. Oh, we have Elections Canada 0.74

00:10:13.780 has to. Oh, there we go. I thought Elections Canada was coming after you, but we appear to have gotten

00:10:17.460 you back now, Ezra. Sorry about that. I'm on the road. The judge said the timing of the publication

00:10:25.060 is one of the things that made it illegal. But like I say, 23 other authors time their books

00:10:30.380 at the exact same time. I'm worried about this, Andrew. Well, you mentioned you have another book

00:10:35.100 coming out. I mean, what are you, not that I would ever say that you are a generally compliant

00:10:39.640 person with government edicts, but what is your plan going to be if you've gotten that far on what

00:10:44.940 to do about that book? Well, I'm going to publish it and I don't want to be charged and I don't want

00:10:50.680 to be convicted and I certainly don't want to be fined and I absolutely don't want to register with 1.00

00:10:54.660 the government, right? I'm absolutely not going to. And, you know, I remember during the COVID times,

00:11:02.520 the lockdowns, I made some personal decisions that I was not going to comply. Now they never came down

00:11:08.240 hard on me like a ton of bricks, but I was on their no fly list because I was unjabbed. I didn't get a

00:11:14.280 vaccine passport and I just decided I was not going to comply. And I am not going to register my next book

00:11:20.440 with the government. I'm just not going to, in terms of the exact timing of the book. Obviously,

00:11:24.740 it's going to be before the next election. We don't know when that next election will be.

00:11:30.020 But if it comes, if we are at the point, Andrew, in Canada, when a critic of the government, when an

00:11:36.740 author is prosecuted and God forbid, convicted of a crime and jailed for writing a book about him,

00:11:43.540 then that person should be mean. Because I say I believe in freedom and I say I believe in fighting

00:11:51.660 back. And just like I felt an obligation to walk the walk during the lockdowns, I feel an obligation

00:11:57.840 here. And if it's not me, who would it be? I mean, God, I don't want you to be prosecuted for your book.

00:12:04.120 I don't want anyone else. But I know that I've got the fighting spirit. And our viewers generally like

00:12:09.500 to crowdfund these battles. So I am going to publish another book before the next election,

00:12:16.420 critical of Justin Trudeau. It's going to be a real book. It's going to be sold at a real price.

00:12:20.420 It's going to be published whether or not there's an election, but we're going to time it

00:12:23.840 before the election. I'm just going to do that. And if that sends me to jail, and God forbid,

00:12:29.600 and I hope it doesn't, Canadians ought to know that's the country we live in now.

00:12:35.400 Will, just on the note of this one, are you going to bring this to the federal court

00:12:39.420 of appeal?

00:12:40.820 Yes, we've hired a great lawyer. Sarah Miller is her name.

00:12:44.380 She's been on the show a number of times.

00:12:45.820 Oh, good. Yeah.

00:12:47.260 I think she's really smart. I chose her because she's had good luck in the court of appeal.

00:12:52.740 She was the one who took Arthur Pavlovsky's case, the Christian pastor who was jailed in

00:12:59.060 Alberta for keeping his church open. She won that on appeal. And I thought, boy, I need a smart

00:13:04.560 lawyer who'll do well in the court of appeal. So she's already, at least she's shown me

00:13:09.400 the notice of appeal. I think she's filed it already. It's an uphill battle. I got to tell

00:13:14.060 you, most appeals in court fail. It's just a statistical thing. I think two out of three

00:13:20.640 lose. And this was a well-crafted ruling by the judge. She wasn't, I mean, 85 pages she

00:13:29.800 took to make her case. So I'm not optimistic. It's not about the fine. I mean, the fine does

00:13:34.940 bother me. It's about the law itself. It's crazy. We would appeal to the court.

00:13:39.400 It says to people that don't have your spirit and frankly, your finances to fight this stuff.

00:13:44.600 I mean, if you're just some, you know, self-published author that wants to make a point and maybe you

00:13:49.060 want to, you know, spend a couple thousand dollars promoting your book, this does have a chilling

00:13:52.840 effect. Absolutely. And I just can't get over the fact that the judge said that, oh, it's no big

00:13:58.220 deal. It's not onerous. I mean, I was, I was called to the headquarters of Elections Canada

00:14:04.220 and two 30 year RCMP veterans interrogated me for an hour. Now, you know me, I don't mind that. I

00:14:10.960 like the sparring of it. You enjoy it. You're, you're, you're, you're, you're bored when you're

00:14:14.540 not being interrogated by a police officer. Yeah. But unless you're a lawyer or a real tough

00:14:20.800 cookie, who's used to fighting. I mean, I, I mean, I, I wasn't terrified, but I think 99%

00:14:28.020 of people would have been really scared by that. And, and the fine, the $13,000 fine. I think that

00:14:35.780 that would dissuade a lot of people. Not, not everyone has $13,000 to pay the fine. Now we,

00:14:42.080 we're going to crowdfund this appeal and hopefully we won't have to pay it in the end.

00:14:45.800 But for the judge to pretend there was no chilling effect here, that really is one of the worst parts

00:14:51.060 of this ruling. I'm just going to read that again for 30 seconds, quote, it should not be overly

00:14:56.600 onerous for an author or publisher to demonstrate what their intention was. As in, you've got to go to

00:15:03.680 the, to the government and say, no, no, no, this is, we're not trying to criticize you.

00:15:10.820 Saint Trudeau, please. This is just a book, you know, to, you know what, that the judge was wrong

00:15:17.260 there. I'm just, I don't want this to become a legal precedent. I fear it will be, but we've got

00:15:22.420 to fight it. Very well said. Ezra Levant, the rebel commander himself. Thank you so much and best of

00:15:27.740 luck. Thanks. Bye-bye. Thanks for listening to the Andrew Lawton Show. Support the program by donating

00:15:33.320 to True North at www.tnc.news.

Juno News - January 05, 2024

Federal court says Ezra Levant book ads broke election laws

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