Juno News - Trudeau Replaced Debates with Gov’t-Run System That Tried to Ban Independent Media

00:00:00.000 Folks that don't really understand, like, okay, so this is what happened. Prior to Justin Trudeau

00:00:04.980 being prime minister, these debates during the election used to be organized by the private

00:00:08.660 media companies themselves, right? So CTV might do one, Global might do one, McLean's might do one.

00:00:13.100 And basically every media company kind of like offers to organize them and then they see which

00:00:16.860 leaders agree to show up to them. Justin Trudeau, as he did for so many other issues, decided that

00:00:22.000 the government needed to be in charge of this, that even though the free market was doing a

00:00:25.780 perfectly fine job doing it, he wanted the government to take over. So the government

00:00:28.660 took over and they use that to try to ban independent media and so interestingly before

00:00:33.940 you and I actually worked together we teamed up because in 2019 they banned True Norse Andrew

00:00:38.920 Lawton and then you were working at the rebel that time and they banned you as well and so

00:00:43.300 we decided to sue Ezra heard that we were suing called me up say we're going to sue too the courts

00:00:48.940 decided to hear our two cases together and so we went to Toronto we had our case heard before a

00:00:54.320 federal judge the day of the debates, right? And it was happening on a Monday. We were in court that

00:00:59.360 day. And the judge, a federal judge, ruled in our favor and said, the government cannot prevent

00:01:05.760 citizen journalists from asking questions of their leader. So we got that court order. We used that

00:01:10.740 to get Andrew Lawton into the debate, to get you into the debate. In 2021, they actually let True

00:01:16.000 North in, so we didn't have to sue. Rebel was not allowed in. They sued again. They got in. And so

00:01:21.120 this time around the Debates Commission just didn't even bother trying to block

00:01:24.720 us they knew they saw the writing on the wall that the courts the judges as much

00:01:28.660 as I often disagree with what happens in courts in Canada this time they got the

00:01:33.220 right they got it right they made the right decision saying in a free society

00:01:35.760 Canada still free society is still a democracy we do have freedom the press

00:01:38.760 these are journalists you must let them in

Juno News - April 18, 2025