Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ David Menzies was arrested again — at the request of the Conservative Party!

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. An interesting and rough weekend. Two rebels were arrested. I'll show

00:00:05.840 you video footage of both. Of course, if you're listening on a podcast, you won't be able to see

00:00:09.960 the video. You'll be able to understand some of it through the audio. But this is a perfect

00:00:14.680 example of why I'd like to encourage you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. That's

00:00:19.400 the video version of these podcasts. It's eight bucks a month. You get all of my shows, which is

00:00:24.680 daily, plus weekly shows by Sheila Gunn-Reed, David Menzies, and Andrew Chapados. Just eight

00:00:29.340 bucks. Go to rebelnews.com and click subscribe. Thanks. Here's today's podcast.

00:00:48.320 Tonight, David Menzies is arrested again, this time at the request of the Conservative Party.

00:00:54.080 It's July 26, and this is The Ezra LeVant Show.

00:00:59.340 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:01:03.340 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.

00:01:07.400 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I'm publishing it is because it's

00:01:11.800 my bloody right to do so.

00:01:18.000 I'm getting a bit sick of our reporters being arrested. Two of our teammates over the weekend,

00:01:24.300 first in Australia, Avi Yamini's bodyguard was singled out of a crowd and grabbed by police,

00:01:31.160 smashed to the floor, handcuffed, punched, and kneed. Take a look.

00:01:35.220 Grab that door. Grab that door. Grab this door. 1.00

00:01:39.220 No, no, he's security. He's security. Hey, he's our security, sir. He's our security.

00:01:44.700 I'm at work. He's our security. He's our security. He's our security.

00:01:49.820 All right, then you can go again.

00:01:50.780 What? He's our security.

00:01:52.680 What? What?

00:01:53.220 He's working with us. He's working with us. He's working with us.

00:01:57.640 You've arrested our security.

00:01:59.640 You've arrested our security.

00:02:00.980 Daniel on the ground, who is here as our licensed security guard,

00:02:04.800 who came here licensed, working.

00:02:09.300 And I told you guys at the time that he was working security.

00:02:13.400 Look at what they've got.

00:02:14.660 Capture it.

00:02:16.020 This is police brutality in Melbourne, mate.

00:02:18.320 That's unqualful.

00:02:19.160 He's a security guard working on the job.

00:02:21.940 It doesn't look as bad now.

00:02:23.620 Oh, it's red.

00:02:24.960 Can you see that?

00:02:25.660 Come in here.

00:02:27.640 They were very, very tight.

00:02:29.320 And to me, it felt very malicious and vindictive.

00:02:32.960 He's a licensed, insured security guard whose only job is to stop people from attacking Avi.

00:02:38.800 No one attacked Avi, but the police thought they'd rough up the security guard,

00:02:44.020 give him a fine of nearly $2,000.

00:02:46.120 So frustrating.

00:02:47.920 That was Saturday in Melbourne.

00:02:49.720 But then yesterday, Sunday, in the greater Toronto area,

00:02:53.080 our reporter David Menzies was going to cover two political events yesterday.

00:02:56.660 A conservative event with Melissa Lantzman and the liberal event with Maji Johari.

00:03:02.120 Then I suddenly received a phone call that David had been arrested.

00:03:05.860 Here, watch the actual moment of his arrest.

00:03:08.100 This is what we get in Canada.

00:03:22.160 Look at this.

00:03:22.880 Look at this thug manhandling me.

00:03:25.280 And what was I got?

00:03:26.560 Just asking questions.

00:03:28.720 The assaults were on my body.

00:03:30.360 People running in front of me.

00:03:31.640 And I'm the one that he wants to hand up.

00:03:34.020 What is this?

00:03:35.900 I cannot.

00:03:36.700 You think Justin Trudeau's media party is bad?

00:03:39.220 These are the guys that want to form the next government.

00:03:41.140 No, certainly.

00:03:42.100 It's unbelievable.

00:03:43.360 What kind of a grievous thing is this?

00:03:46.920 Give him the mic.

00:03:47.800 Give him the mic.

00:03:49.320 Give him the mic.

00:03:50.000 This is a disgrace.

00:03:53.000 You know, he asked a lot of questions of that cop.

00:03:59.480 And just for asking those questions, the cop charged him additionally with resisting arrest.

00:04:04.700 I'm serious.

00:04:05.380 Because he was talking and asking questions of the cop, disputing the claim against him.

00:04:10.340 He was charged with resisting arrest.

00:04:11.880 Obviously, that's not going to fly.

00:04:14.140 But watch that video one more time.

00:04:15.780 That same arrest video.

00:04:16.640 And look at what happens to David's notebook when he gets arrested.

00:04:20.260 To help you, we'll put a bright circle around it.

00:04:23.040 That woman is one of Erin O'Toole's campaign organizers.

00:04:26.500 They're the ones who called the cops.

00:04:28.160 When the cops arrested David, they grabbed his notebook and rifled through it and took pictures of every page.

00:04:35.560 This is freedom of speech in Canada in 2021.

00:04:38.640 If you dare ask a prickly question to a would-be politician, this is what happens.

00:04:44.900 Put your hand behind your back.

00:04:47.440 This is what we get in Canada.

00:04:51.380 Look at this.

00:04:52.020 Look at this thug manhandling me.

00:04:54.460 And what was I accused of?

00:04:55.920 Just asking questions.

00:04:57.880 The assaults were on my body.

00:04:59.560 People running in front of me.

00:05:01.480 And I'm the one that he wants to handcuff.

00:05:04.140 What is this?

00:05:05.560 You think Justin Trudeau's media party is bad?

00:05:08.420 These are the guys that want to form the next government.

00:05:11.100 It's unbelievable.

00:05:12.260 What kind of egregious thing is this?

00:05:15.340 Hey.

00:05:16.540 The mic.

00:05:17.020 Yeah, let him.

00:05:17.900 The mic.

00:05:18.460 Put your hand behind your back.

00:05:21.020 This is a disgrace.

00:05:22.980 Change.

00:05:24.140 Change.

00:05:26.000 Change.

00:05:26.640 That's incredible to me.

00:05:27.820 That's like someone putting down their purse.

00:05:29.680 And you know who put down the purse and you saw it and you know who it is and they're right

00:05:36.040 there, but they're behind you or you're behind them.

00:05:38.960 So because they're tied up for a moment, you grab the purse and rifle through the purse and

00:05:42.780 take photos of anything in the purse.

00:05:45.360 Sorry, that's not legal.

00:05:47.780 I think that might be theft.

00:05:49.080 It's probably a privacy violation too.

00:05:51.620 And I think you could say it's actually obstructing a police investigation.

00:05:54.380 That and all other personal items on David were in the custody of police during the arrest.

00:06:00.100 By the way, I think the O'Toole campaign still has David's notebook.

00:06:04.000 I know they're calling up other journalists around town and telling them what's in David's

00:06:08.120 notebook because one of the journalists who received such a call told me that David was

00:06:13.380 pushed and jostled.

00:06:14.600 He was splashed with what I think was water, but I don't know.

00:06:18.320 And all because he asked some prickly questions.

00:06:20.080 It wasn't a particularly important event to cover.

00:06:22.460 Like I say, David was planning to pop by there just for a bit before going to a liberal event,

00:06:27.260 but they called the cops on him saying he assaulted people.

00:06:31.260 Hey, boss, how you doing?

00:06:32.500 Good.

00:06:33.220 I'm looking for my employee.

00:06:34.500 I understand he was arrested.

00:06:35.700 David Manzies?

00:06:36.900 He's probably with the cruiser over there.

00:06:38.300 Are you filming me?

00:06:38.980 Yeah.

00:06:39.720 Cheers.

00:06:40.240 I'm Ezra.

00:06:40.760 Nice to meet you.

00:06:41.940 LeVance.

00:06:43.380 Well, you know what?

00:06:44.400 I just come to free my guy.

00:06:46.280 Do you know how that came to be?

00:06:47.820 Do you know what happened?

00:06:48.480 What I can tell you is that there was an incident during the organized event that led

00:06:55.000 to multiple calls of him causing a disturbance as well as physically, you know, causing assaults.

00:07:01.920 Oh, my God.

00:07:02.600 Yeah.

00:07:02.940 Well, I look forward to seeing the facts.

00:07:06.820 Thanks for your time.

00:07:07.560 No problem.

00:07:07.920 Cheers.

00:07:08.380 Yeah, no, he didn't.

00:07:09.520 And he didn't swear at them either, even though police charged him with that.

00:07:12.440 And the O'Toole campaign, Melissa Lansman, the local candidate, they lied to the police

00:07:19.360 to get the charges.

00:07:21.040 That's a Trudeau-level move.

00:07:23.040 Video footage of David's arrest went viral on Twitter.

00:07:26.600 And so 10 hours later, that O'Toole candidate, Melissa Lansman, put out a damage control memo. 1.00

00:07:32.360 She said she wasn't the one who called police, but she said she'll cooperate with any investigation.

00:07:38.980 I presume that would be our demand that the people who threw things at David and splashed water on him or whatever,

00:07:46.020 that they're charged, the woman who rifled through David's notebook.

00:07:49.660 But Lansman went on the offensive at her late-night memo to switch the subject.

00:07:55.420 This wasn't about David being arrested or David's notebook or David having water thrown at him.

00:08:00.000 It was actually all about David being very homophobic because, you see, Melissa Lansman is gay.

00:08:06.500 You can see Lansman says David was bigoted, and that's why everything went sideways yesterday.

00:08:12.620 She doesn't quite say that's why they called the police on him, but I assume that's why.

00:08:16.120 And we know Lansman's gay because she won't stop talking about it. 0.96

00:08:21.060 It's her central political identity.

00:08:23.100 It's actually not that special in the year 2021.

00:08:26.100 There are openly gay politicians at every level of politics.

00:08:30.500 Being a gay politician a generation ago was probably pretty hard.

00:08:34.840 Sven Robinson, if you remember him, was the first MP to come out as gay back in 1988.

00:08:40.800 And he was punished by being re-elected for 16 more years.

00:08:46.500 I mean, good for you, but being a gay candidate in 2021 is not a substitute for also having good ideas.

00:08:54.620 It's a bit of a thin resume.

00:08:56.780 And the rest of her real resume is pretty rough.

00:08:59.220 I mean, here's how her interview started out with David.

00:09:01.940 So, Melissa, I've got to ask you, how can you run to represent the writing of Thornhill

00:09:13.520 when you were somewhat responsible for so many businesses going under

00:09:17.920 and so many people losing their jobs as a paid lobbyist for Walmart?

00:09:22.560 You made sure your client stayed open at the expense of other businesses,

00:09:27.300 and now you're running for the people?

00:09:29.300 How do you square that?

00:09:30.060 I've actually been quite clear on that.

00:09:33.680 The mandate for Walmart was entirely on vaccines, and that's all available information,

00:09:38.960 and you can seek that information.

00:09:40.440 What do you mean the mandate for Walmart was vaccines?

00:09:42.320 That was our mandate.

00:09:43.400 I didn't speak about it at the time because they were still in active climate,

00:09:46.080 but we allowed Walmart to get into the vaccine pipeline.

00:09:50.980 Melissa, you were in the war room of Doug Ford in 2018.

00:09:54.720 Phrases like, Ontario opened for business and for the people.

00:09:57.940 And then you were instrumental in shutting down businesses, putting them out of business,

00:10:03.060 putting people out of a job so that this multi-billion dollar corporation based in the U.S.

00:10:08.660 could remain open, not only selling essentials, but non-essentials.

00:10:12.500 Why could Walmart sell flowers, but Jane's Flowers couldn't sell flowers? 0.60

00:10:16.340 I'm sure that's a question for the Ontario government on why they made that decision.

00:10:21.160 But again, I told you our mandate was on vaccine procurement.

00:10:25.060 Thanks very much.

00:10:25.700 How much did you get paid by Walmart, by the way, Melissa?

00:10:31.100 Was it five, six, or seven figures?

00:10:33.120 Yeah, that wasn't good.

00:10:38.220 Lansman made her sexuality central to her campaign, and just as much so did Erin O'Toole. 0.90

00:10:45.020 He wanted her to be a living, grieving rebuttal to the claim from the CBC and the media party

00:10:50.380 that the conservatives are anti-gay.

00:10:52.720 Again and again, the conservative party said Lansman is proof that they're all past that.

00:10:59.060 So David asked a simple question.

00:11:00.640 Did you win on merit or on the basis of your sexual orientation?

00:11:04.700 I mean, I think that would be a rude question to any other candidate who didn't talk about

00:11:09.800 their sexuality all the time. 0.51

00:11:11.200 But for Lansman, it's like she's a vegan or on a gluten-free diet.

00:11:15.680 It's all she talks about.

00:11:17.380 So here's David's question about that.

00:11:19.100 Were you chosen based on merit or based on sexual orientation?

00:11:24.000 I think the nomination is over and we won the nomination.

00:11:26.100 No objection by Lansman at the time.

00:11:28.640 Pretty tough to write glowing op-eds about yourself being gay, but then be mad when someone

00:11:32.700 asks you about being gay.

00:11:34.600 David put the question to her in similar phrasing a couple more times, and then he was arrested

00:11:39.400 and the day was over.

00:11:40.400 But it wasn't until close to midnight that the Lansman campaign decided to rebrand that

00:11:47.100 question from David as the real crisis of the day.

00:11:49.480 And to say she was worried for her safety by his homophobia.

00:11:54.960 Yeah.

00:11:55.460 No, I don't think so.

00:11:56.880 I think that's just the standard playbook of the identity politics left.

00:12:02.000 If you have a Black Lives Matter candidate, anyone who criticizes them is a racist.

00:12:07.640 If you have a feminist candidate, anyone who criticizes them is a sexist.

00:12:12.320 That's Catherine McKenna's fallback. 1.00

00:12:14.080 When people criticize her, it must be sexism. 0.90

00:12:15.880 And for Lansman, questions about Walmart or questions about how she won the nomination,

00:12:21.520 questions about if she's just simply an LGBT mascot, that's all called homophobia. 0.58

00:12:27.200 And maybe if she shouts it enough, it'll drown out the concerns about arresting a reporter,

00:12:32.660 assaulting him, and rifling through his notebook.

00:12:35.840 We've set up a page at SaveMenzies.com to crowdfund to fight the charges and to help us go on

00:12:40.740 the offensive to make sure the lady who threw the liquid on David is investigated by police.

00:12:45.060 And to get that clipboard, notebook thief.

00:12:48.000 But this whole affair has me thinking about things.

00:12:51.860 First, why are we always getting arrested?

00:12:54.300 I mean, Saturday in Melbourne, Sunday in Thornhill, Ontario.

00:12:58.680 Drea Humphrey was manhandled by Trudeau's security in Vancouver just a couple weeks ago.

00:13:03.540 Just last week, Alexa Lavoie, our Montreal reporter, was also manhandled by Trudeau's security.

00:13:10.520 We're not committing crimes.

00:13:11.560 We're doing accountability journalism.

00:13:14.680 In the past, that only irritated politicians.

00:13:18.580 But who cares about them?

00:13:20.720 Now, though, it seems to irritate police.

00:13:23.840 And I don't know, either they're woke police or the cops have become political themselves

00:13:28.880 or they're just taking orders from politicians, especially during the lockdown.

00:13:34.480 I mean, a day after Toronto's Mayor John Tory denounced Adam Skelly's barbecue, that's when

00:13:40.740 the police sent in 100 officers to raid the place with riot horses, probably the largest

00:13:45.140 police operation since the G20.

00:13:47.880 Same thing in Alberta.

00:13:48.880 Jason Kenney denounced churches that were open during the lockdown and the police heard.

00:13:55.160 So they arrested and humiliated four pastors, including a spectacular highway takedown of one

00:14:00.780 of them.

00:14:01.480 I think police are more aggressive than ever.

00:14:04.160 Politicians are living out their authoritarian fantasies.

00:14:07.820 And the courts are submissive, all in the name of a pandemic.

00:14:11.980 And at the same time, most of the rest of the media are bought off.

00:14:15.060 They're happy to cash their bailout checks from Trudeau in return for going easy on authoritarianism.

00:14:20.600 So I'm worried, especially if the liberals are reelected with their plans for censorship.

00:14:25.840 I'm worried more of our people will be arrested, Bill C-10, Bill C-36.

00:14:30.760 But I'm not just worried if the liberals win.

00:14:33.080 Here's a tweet from Aaron O'Toole a couple of days ago talking about how they're the only

00:14:37.060 party opposing censorship.

00:14:38.980 But I'm not sure if that's really true.

00:14:41.340 I mean, forget about the arrest yesterday.

00:14:42.820 Look at this video clip from the House of Commons, from Aaron O'Toole's heritage critic,

00:14:47.220 the one who's supposed to fight against censorship.

00:14:50.900 Listen to his speech.

00:14:52.620 But on O'Toole's vote, Alphonse.

00:14:54.880 But we don't see it in the bill.

00:14:56.780 There's nothing in this bill that allows for the regulation of social media or platforms

00:15:02.240 like YouTube.

00:15:03.720 And it's clear we would have liked to have seen this in the bill.

00:15:07.140 The minister even says we have to find a way of preventing hate speech, conspiracy theories,

00:15:15.140 and fake news that's shared.

00:15:17.280 But right now in the bill, unfortunately, we won't even be able to amend it in that aspect.

00:15:25.200 And because it's simply absent from the bill.

00:15:27.300 He's saying he wants to crack down on misinformation and hate speech and all the other political

00:15:32.100 crimes that the liberals want to ban too.

00:15:34.680 I'm worried.

00:15:36.100 But we're going to continue our work.

00:15:38.020 I don't want our people arrested.

00:15:39.660 We'll make sure we're careful and we'll stay within the law carefully.

00:15:42.680 We have lawyers brief our reporters on legal matters all the time.

00:15:46.760 We'll keep doing that.

00:15:48.900 But we're going to cover politicians of every stripe in the upcoming campaign.

00:15:52.640 Trudeau's liberals, O'Toole's liberal conservatives, Singh's NDP, whoever owns the Green Party at

00:15:57.880 this given moment, et cetera.

00:16:00.140 We're just going to do it.

00:16:01.520 And we're going to ask questions, even if the questions are prickly, even if the questions

00:16:04.440 aren't perfect questions.

00:16:06.240 That's democracy.

00:16:07.320 And the right answer to a reporter's question is to answer it or to not answer him, but

00:16:15.760 not to attack him, arrest him, and steal his notebook.

00:16:20.920 Stay with us.

00:16:22.660 More ahead.

00:16:23.060 Look at what they've got.

00:16:36.380 Capture it.

00:16:36.940 That's right.

00:16:37.800 Capture it.

00:16:38.120 This is police brutality in Melbourne, mate.

00:16:40.060 That's uncalled for.

00:16:40.900 He's a security guard working on the job.

00:16:43.520 Did you do that to Channel 9?

00:16:45.000 Did you do that to Channel 7?

00:16:46.260 Did you do that to SBS and ABC?

00:16:48.440 Did you?

00:16:48.800 My members are trying to do it.

00:16:50.240 He's not an offender.

00:16:51.240 And he's not an offender.

00:16:53.180 He's not an offender.

00:16:54.440 He's my security guard.

00:16:56.300 And joining us now is our chief Australia correspondent, our friend Avi Yamini.

00:17:01.120 Avi, great to see you.

00:17:02.540 Thanks for getting up at an odd hour to be interviewed with us.

00:17:06.180 I was upset that they targeted your security guard, Daniel, who's a very professional guy,

00:17:12.080 very low-key.

00:17:13.520 He follows the rule the best fight is the one you never get into.

00:17:17.560 So he's not a troublemaker.

00:17:19.380 He's professional, insured, licensed, the whole thing.

00:17:23.020 I think cops were trying to get at you by getting at your team.

00:17:28.320 It certainly seems that way, Israel. 0.69

00:17:30.380 It seemed, and it felt in the moment, very targeted.

00:17:35.540 It's kind of, they looked past me as in, we know he's untouchable, but how do we get him?

00:17:41.700 We get the next best thing.

00:17:42.780 We get the guy who's there simply to protect him lawfully, even under the health directions.

00:17:47.740 It's outrageous.

00:17:49.640 You say the police might call you untouchable.

00:17:53.180 Of course, no one's untouchable.

00:17:54.600 But you are so compliant with the law.

00:17:57.420 You know the law.

00:17:58.400 In many cases, you know better than the cops.

00:18:00.580 Like, for example, you know there's a specific exemption on masks for journalists who are talking

00:18:06.380 into the camera.

00:18:07.200 Now, that makes sense.

00:18:09.020 Obviously, you can't really be a TV journalist as their mouth is covered.

00:18:12.480 Some of these cops don't know that you've schooled them before.

00:18:15.780 You're very compliant.

00:18:17.460 You're following the rules.

00:18:18.620 And if the cops come at you, we've got several lawsuits against the cops for false arrest.

00:18:23.540 So I think that's what you mean by they can't.

00:18:25.640 I understand that.

00:18:27.460 Go ahead.

00:18:27.800 They know that I follow the rules by the letter of the law and that, like you say, I seem

00:18:35.320 to be more versed than them.

00:18:37.000 So when I say untouchable, I mean on two levels.

00:18:39.200 One, they know that when they cross the line, we take them to court with the help of the

00:18:44.140 viewers and we go directly to the Supreme Court.

00:18:47.740 And then on top of that, it's the embarrassment of if you don't know the rules that you're

00:18:53.040 trying to enforce and you're doing it simply out of a for a power trip, you get schooled

00:18:59.180 and the entire exposed to the entire world as the power hungry person you are.

00:19:06.780 Yeah.

00:19:07.020 Oh, I mean, I think you're doing great.

00:19:08.520 And I'm and I'm very pleased that we are suing the Victoria police.

00:19:13.340 That's the name of the police force in the state.

00:19:15.440 That's also the police in the city of Melbourne, I understand.

00:19:18.360 So they know that they can't push you around with impunity.

00:19:22.060 That's why I'm a little surprised they're going after Daniel, your bodyguard.

00:19:28.080 I have some theories.

00:19:29.720 I feel like, you know, they've been told now, don't don't grab him.

00:19:34.880 He's not worth the pain that we're going to feel.

00:19:38.480 You know, trust me, they're feeling a lot of pain in the courts for, you know,

00:19:42.340 I know what's happening in the back end.

00:19:44.700 So it's clear that they don't like what we're putting him through.

00:19:49.740 So they've given some sort of notice to the people on the ground as in, you know,

00:19:55.260 make sure if you engage, you're 100 percent in the right.

00:19:59.240 But nobody told him that they can't grab my security guard.

00:20:02.820 And that's the kind of behavior we're seeing.

00:20:04.720 Well, as you know, we have a policy, don't leave anyone behind.

00:20:10.000 We really go the extra mile if someone on our team's under attack,

00:20:13.720 either if they're physically attacked in some way or if they're legally attacked in some way.

00:20:18.840 In this case, both things happen to Daniel.

00:20:21.860 So I'll let you reveal anything on your own time.

00:20:25.800 I know we've got some really good lawyers down under.

00:20:28.520 So when you and Daniel and our lawyers are ready to make an announcement about what you're going to do,

00:20:34.760 if anything, let us know, of course, consult with us.

00:20:37.780 I'm sure our viewers would love to crowdfund it.

00:20:40.220 I know you're a big hit down under, but in Canada, the UK, the United States,

00:20:45.260 a lot of people get their Australian news from you, especially on the lockdown.

00:20:51.140 So I think you would, you and by extension, your bodyguard, Daniel, would get a lot of support.

00:20:56.600 I know from Canada you would.

00:20:59.720 I appreciate it.

00:21:00.740 Well, and I've never met Daniel.

00:21:03.340 In fact, he's a really low-key guy.

00:21:06.120 Just make sure he knows that we've got his back.

00:21:08.660 I'm sure he does know that, but you can tell him from me.

00:21:11.160 He does.

00:21:12.540 He does, and he knew straight away.

00:21:15.220 We had Madeline, who's been doing a lot of our fights and some of our civil action as well, 1.00

00:21:20.500 against Victoria Police.

00:21:22.280 She was on the phone immediately.

00:21:24.700 She was speaking to the sergeant.

00:21:25.840 And she was the one who actually organised all that.

00:21:28.260 And Daniel, once we got off that camera, he just goes, can you tell Madeline thank you?

00:21:34.500 Because he felt that he wasn't alone inside.

00:21:38.980 They didn't let me talk to him.

00:21:40.520 They didn't let me even engage with the police that were the arresting officers or whatever.

00:21:45.460 But it was the lawyer could.

00:21:47.040 And he felt that level of comfort because they came in to him and they said, is Madeline Smith your lawyer?

00:21:54.240 And he said, yes, she's my lawyer.

00:21:55.960 And moments later, he was then released.

00:22:00.220 Well, that's really great to hear.

00:22:02.120 And I've never been put in jail or a police cell myself, so I can only imagine what it would be like.

00:22:07.760 But I'm sure worry and risk and, uh-oh, how long am I in here?

00:22:13.660 What do I do?

00:22:14.580 Am I doing the right thing?

00:22:15.520 I'm sure those are all questions that come to mind.

00:22:17.500 So it must have been comforting for him to know there was someone on the case.

00:22:21.560 And we've worked with Madeline before. 0.92

00:22:23.260 I've had the pleasure of talking with her several times on the phone.

00:22:26.200 She's pretty sharp and she's got an excellent record. 0.95

00:22:28.560 Well, I suppose that's the most important thing.

00:22:31.060 She wins.

00:22:32.060 So that's really good.

00:22:34.640 You mentioned earlier that the police sort of have the word out, you know, don't mess with Avi unless you're going in with clean hands.

00:22:41.400 I think police should be that way all the time.

00:22:43.660 But just in case folks are skeptical and they think maybe it's some narcissism on your part, if you watch that whole video, the police clearly know who you are, clearly know your name, and they call you by your first name, first name basis to each other.

00:22:59.300 In fact, there was a moment you caught it on tape where a boss cop tells the other cops, watch whatever he does, and if he does anything more, we'll have to have more enforcement against him.

00:23:07.840 That's not verbatim.

00:23:08.740 But they basically are saying, get him if we can.

00:23:12.440 Exactly.

00:23:14.100 Go ahead.

00:23:14.760 They're setting it up for, and that has a lot to do with the cases we have in front of the courts at the moment, because until now, it's all been unlawful arrests, unlawful detainments.

00:23:26.160 And so now what they try to do, they're trying to, and even in their wording, they try to entrap you, so they lock you into, well, you've set it up that we asked you what you were doing here, you weren't doing journalism suddenly, you were actually here for a purpose that was unlawful.

00:23:43.680 So that's why we all, at least we can say, they don't need, they know why I'm there.

00:23:49.560 They just need to be able to argue that they believed or that they had reason to conduct an investigation.

00:23:56.900 Investigation involves arresting me.

00:23:59.060 And that's what he was doing in that moment.

00:24:00.540 But as soon as he realized I wasn't going to fall for his trick, he just, you know, stomps away.

00:24:07.400 Yeah.

00:24:09.140 Well, listen, we're, it's very interesting.

00:24:12.000 I think you're very effective.

00:24:13.360 Your videos go viral.

00:24:14.640 That video of Daniel being arrested, last I checked, it had over 200,000 views, and that was just after a couple of days.

00:24:20.740 And that's just on the YouTube platform alone.

00:24:23.460 We're on other platforms these days, Rumble, Odyssey, Super U.

00:24:28.120 I appreciate the fact that you are resilient, and same with Daniel, that you're not letting this get you down.

00:24:35.020 Because I think that's part of it.

00:24:36.420 It's sort of a psychological warfare.

00:24:38.040 You and Daniel are both pretty fit guys.

00:24:41.260 I saw the red rings around his wrist where the handcuffs were.

00:24:44.600 That looked like it hurt, but Daniel doesn't seem like a weak, like he seems like almost a tough guy almost.

00:24:51.140 Ezra, it has to do really with the fact that we have the support of the Rebel News team and the Rebel viewers.

00:24:58.060 You've got to understand, I've been doing this now for a few years.

00:25:00.140 And before I joined Rebel September last year, I was getting arrested, and it was going unchallenged at some of these events.

00:25:07.920 And it was a bit tiring, and it was a bit, you know, you did feel alone, and some days you did want to give up.

00:25:15.520 But now, whenever we go into these situations, and we don't go into them wanting to get arrested, we don't go into them expecting to get arrested.

00:25:22.560 We go to these events to cover them.

00:25:24.520 People can go and see that.

00:25:25.960 I did a big report the day later that came out after the Daniel event last night, our time, or today, your time.

00:25:34.420 So we go there for an objective, and we always have.

00:25:39.180 In the past, before I joined Rebel, I kind of had to get arrested.

00:25:44.080 I never got charged because I was still abiding by all the rules and making sure to work within the confines of the law.

00:25:54.540 But they targeted me, and I didn't have the backing of both the Rebel team, the Rebel lawyers, and, most importantly, the Rebel viewers.

00:26:02.440 We didn't have that whole setup and that structure ready to back us when we need it.

00:26:06.680 It was really – I had a lot of viewers, but it was really me alone.

00:26:11.260 So Daniel feels supported.

00:26:13.480 I certainly feel supported.

00:26:14.900 And just the amount of people over this weekend with the Freedom Day rallies in Sydney and Melbourne and the amount of people sending emails that are looking for that support are coming to us because they know that's where the support is garnered to fight for people who the system is trying to intimidate out of standing for their rights.

00:26:36.180 Yeah.

00:26:36.480 Well, I know that you get a lot of news tips because you're one of the few freedom fighters left down under.

00:26:42.720 We've got to go really quick, but give me a quick survey of the different parts of Australia.

00:26:48.540 In Canada, we call them provinces.

00:26:50.040 Down there, you call them states.

00:26:51.160 You're in the state of Victoria.

00:26:53.420 Sydney's in New South Wales, et cetera.

00:26:55.420 Can you give our viewers like a one-minute tour of the Australian map telling us what's under lockdown and what isn't?

00:27:03.280 So it's very hard to know.

00:27:04.940 It's very confusing to know who's under lockdown day by day in this country because Australia has chased this unrealistic goal of zero.

00:27:13.220 They want zero cases.

00:27:13.620 They want zero cases on the entire island.

00:27:15.900 Now, throughout the pandemic, you know, people have pointed to Australia and, wow, you see lockdown's working, you can get to zero.

00:27:21.320 But they don't tell you we're an island and we've essentially been in jail.

00:27:26.480 Both citizens with passports could not leave.

00:27:29.960 I could not.

00:27:30.660 You know, I'm a dual citizen.

00:27:31.660 I've got a lot of family.

00:27:32.600 My mum, my grandma, everyone lives in Israel.

00:27:34.140 I have not been allowed to, through this pandemic, go visit them, for example, and my family.

00:27:40.220 But there's right now 34,000 Australians stuck overseas.

00:27:44.480 You can't get in here.

00:27:45.720 And that's all because we've been chasing zero, a target of zero cases.

00:27:51.100 Now, right now, under lockdown, I believe we have Victoria, where I am, Melbourne.

00:27:56.600 That's been the most locked down city in the world.

00:27:59.060 This is our number five lockdown.

00:28:00.840 And they're not even hiding it anymore.

00:28:02.120 They're saying we are going in and out of lockdown as outbreaks come up.

00:28:07.640 So then you have New South Wales.

00:28:09.020 New South Wales has the big outbreak at the moment.

00:28:13.200 They've been in lockdown for, I think, about five weeks now.

00:28:16.380 And there's no end in sight because, you know, the Delta variant is out of control. 1.00

00:28:20.280 So it'll be interesting.

00:28:22.960 This is only their second lockdown.

00:28:24.540 Their Premier, until this outbreak, was often, you know, attacking our Premier for locking down so much,

00:28:33.280 saying that they kind of managed every outbreak without locking down,

00:28:37.080 but has, you know, taken a full turn and now is locking down.

00:28:41.860 And every day we hear the restrictions are getting tighter and tighter.

00:28:44.680 South Australia, I believe, is also in lockdown over one case.

00:28:49.540 The question is, I think, really what happens in New South Wales.

00:28:55.360 In New South Wales, if they do not manage to bring it back down to zero,

00:29:00.040 which my prediction is I don't believe now they're going to get it back down to zero,

00:29:04.380 only because, not because they're not trying to restrict people's movement.

00:29:09.340 They are trying everything.

00:29:10.540 But I think the people of New South Wales are much less compliant.

00:29:14.640 Victoria is the most compliant city in the world.

00:29:17.400 That's why we've been locked down so many times.

00:29:19.060 People just cop it and people do it and they just they accept what the communist government here says as the word of God.

00:29:27.540 In New South Wales, it's not like that.

00:29:29.400 In New South Wales, we're seeing the spreading by people, you know, just going on about their lives.

00:29:33.740 So I believe that if it doesn't get under control in the next few weeks, then they're going to finally have to learn to live with it just like the rest of the world is learning to live with.

00:29:47.620 And, you know, sadly to say, I think the worst thing that can happen for Australia is if they manage to get it back to zero,

00:29:54.920 because it means we're going to be in and out of lockdown until who knows when.

00:30:01.220 Because if you look at Israel, if you look at countries that are highly vaccinated, you're seeing that they're having spikes in numbers again.

00:30:07.680 So if that is really what you're chasing, we're never going to get out of lockdown.

00:30:12.160 Yeah, well, I think some people would like that.

00:30:14.320 I mean, thanks for the update.

00:30:15.960 Give our best regards to Daniel.

00:30:18.220 And I'm thrilled that Madeline's on the case and look forward to your next video.

00:30:22.000 Thanks for your time.

00:30:23.320 Thank you, Ezra.

00:30:24.200 Right on. There you have it.

00:30:25.140 Avi Amini, our chief Australia correspondent.

00:30:27.300 Stay with us.

00:30:27.740 You know, I like to fight.

00:30:41.180 It's one of the characteristics of Rebel News.

00:30:43.840 Our very first motto was actually fearless.

00:30:46.040 Our motto now is telling the other side of the story.

00:30:48.640 But we like to think we're fearless still.

00:30:52.120 We brief our people on the law all the time, whether it's the law of defamation or the law of trespass.

00:30:57.740 We really like to be legally compliant.

00:31:01.540 So it bothers me that we're getting arrested.

00:31:04.080 And I'm not sure if it's our conduct or if it's that police are getting more trigger happy.

00:31:09.380 And the law itself is getting more censorious, as is popular culture.

00:31:13.280 But what's the worst part of it is that the Conservative Party is now fully aligned with Trudeau

00:31:19.380 in terms of cracking down on Rebel News.

00:31:21.940 I don't know if I should say fully.

00:31:23.140 I hung out with a few Conservative MPs lately who say they're not pleased with the direction.

00:31:27.080 But yesterday's actions by Melissa Lansman and her campaign certainly caused me concern.

00:31:33.100 I want us to be careful.

00:31:34.460 I want us to be well-behaved in terms of the law.

00:31:37.560 But I don't want to bend the knees to politicians who don't want us asking prickly questions.

00:31:43.060 Melissa Lansman has tried to brand David Menzies as a homophobe.

00:31:46.200 He certainly has not.

00:31:47.100 Asking questions about sexuality would, I think, generally be off limits, except for

00:31:52.060 the fact that Melissa Lansman's whole campaign and her whole positioning in the party is

00:31:56.340 the LGBT mascot.

00:31:58.700 And I think questions about it are legitimate.

00:32:00.940 I think she just wants to drown out the larger crisis, which is that the Conservative Party

00:32:05.960 really doesn't believe in free speech anymore.

00:32:08.520 And whether your name is Jim Karahalios or Derek Sloan or even Pierre Polyev, who is

00:32:15.240 demoted for being too much of a tall poppy, I don't think it's just Rebel News that's

00:32:20.460 bearing the brunt of it.

00:32:21.320 We're the canary in the coal mine.

00:32:22.980 We're the ones who are usually censored first because we're the toughest.

00:32:26.180 But if Rebel News is censored today, you can bet you'll be censored tomorrow.

00:32:30.920 That's our report for today.

00:32:33.180 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home,

00:32:37.080 good night and keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - July 27, 2021

EZRA LEVANT ｜ David Menzies was arrested again — at the request of the Conservative Party!

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