Juno News - January 05, 2024


Federal court says Ezra Levant book ads broke election laws


Episode Stats

Length

15 minutes

Words per Minute

173.33049

Word Count

2,708

Sentence Count

211

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary


Transcript

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
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
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.