Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ I'm in Lethbridge as justice hangs in the balance for the Coutts 4 truckers

00:00:00.000 You're fighting for freedom! 0.99

00:00:03.060 Shame on you, you sensorious bug! 0.96

00:00:14.980 Ezra Levant here. I'm in Lethbridge again. 0.95

00:00:17.720 I tell you, I've been to Lethbridge more than just about any other city besides my hometown

00:00:21.820 over the last two years because Lethbridge is the closest courthouse to Coots, Alberta,

00:00:27.380 where during the national trucker convoy, there was a blockade of the Alberta-Montana border.

00:00:34.520 There were also blockades of the Windsor-Detroit Bridge in Ontario, a very important economic artery.

00:00:42.260 That was cleared within a couple of days because simply so much trade depends on that route.

00:00:47.940 Police moved in and what's interesting to note is they cleared that blockade without the Emergencies Act,

00:00:54.180 without violence. They just convinced the protesters to move on.

00:00:59.560 In Ottawa, the trucker convoy's center of gravity, the roads were kept open by the truckers for emergency vehicles.

00:01:07.940 All that really happened was some parking offenses and some noisy honking that was soon put a stop to by the local judge.

00:01:14.400 But Justin Trudeau was losing face internationally, so he brought in the Emergencies Act and martial law,

00:01:21.760 something that you know he was itching to do for a very long time.

00:01:25.120 But here in Alberta, there was another important blockade, and it was different from the other two

00:01:30.780 because Ottawa is a major city, and so is Windsor and Detroit.

00:01:34.500 But the Coutts border crossing is so small, you'd almost miss if you blinked it.

00:01:40.780 It's a small town, really just a saloon and a few buildings, so there is no large police detachment right nearby.

00:01:49.140 There's no heavy equipment that you would use to remove trucks or agricultural vehicles.

00:01:54.820 And so when that became a border crossing blockade, authorities didn't really know what to do about it

00:02:02.140 because they demanded and they threatened that the truckers leave, but they simply didn't.

00:02:07.020 And one dramatic day, a whole bunch of RCMP walked out in the blistering cold

00:02:11.180 as if their sheer charisma would cause the truckers to leave.

00:02:16.460 It did not.

00:02:17.940 Here's footage shot by our team as part of our documentary on the subject.

00:02:22.140 Look at this, standoff.

00:02:24.820 Here today, RCMP moved in this afternoon trying to break up the tense four-day border blockade at Coutts,

00:02:32.420 but it backfired, and at this hour, the standoff in southern Alberta continues.

00:02:37.560 The truckers were consulting with the lawyer.

00:02:40.860 I guess the checkpoints that were the RCMP set up, they needed the extra guys to come here,

00:02:47.000 so the checkpoints were completely open, and the entire convoy that were blocked by that checkpoint

00:02:51.980 is now on the way here, so the RCMP will have to deal with many, many more truckers

00:02:59.260 who are on their way to support this blockage at the border.

00:03:01.780 There they go!

00:03:24.880 So they came here today Let's five кому-based Judas! 1.00

00:03:28.800 Fucking jump! 1.00

00:03:30.080 Monsters! 1.00

00:03:30.280 Holy proved otra.

00:03:32.660 The ipad growth tego show is to be on the next 2nd side

00:03:37.360 of the east side of the south side of Asia, head of the west side of Asia.

00:03:39.640 zeptiontiontiontion,

00:03:41.000 un imponen속ución!

00:03:42.040 We'll be right back.

00:04:12.040 We'll be right back.

00:04:42.040 We'll be right back.

00:05:12.040 We'll be right back.

00:05:42.020 Freedom!

00:05:43.020 Freedom!

00:05:44.020 Freedom!

00:05:45.020 Freedom!

00:05:46.020 Freedom!

00:05:47.020 Freedom!

00:05:48.020 Freedom!

00:05:49.020 Freedom!

00:05:50.020 Freedom!

00:05:51.020 Freedom!

00:05:52.020 Freedom!

00:05:53.020 Freedom!

00:05:54.020 Freedom!

00:05:55.020 Freedom!

00:05:56.020 They are now moving and they are blocking the highway just behind these trucks here.

00:06:01.020 Basically like they're with their bodies or are you like are they what are they doing?

00:06:06.020 Right now they have just moved into this area here so actually the RCMP and our peers have

00:06:12.020 withdrawn a bit.

00:06:13.020 We've withdrawn a bit.

00:06:14.020 We've withdrawn a bit.

00:06:19.020 The RCMP officers were trying to force the first group of drivers to leave this afternoon when a second convoy cut off the rest of the highway bypassing an RCMP checkpoint.

00:06:34.020 The group says it's refusing to leave until all COVID-19 health restrictions are lifted.

00:06:49.020 Well that didn't go well for the police and to their credit they didn't turn violent.

00:06:56.020 They were simply outnumbered and they didn't have the equipment.

00:06:59.020 By the way in addition to truckers lots of farmers brought their large equipment too.

00:07:03.020 There simply was no way of bypassing it and no truck driver who had any thought for his future would sell out his local countrymen to appease Trudeau's RCMP.

00:07:14.020 But there was one arrest that was different.

00:07:17.020 I'll get to that in a second but first let me backtrack and say that there were a lot of charges emanating from that.

00:07:23.020 And Rebel News and or the Democracy Fund has provided civil liberties lawyers in dozens of cases.

00:07:30.020 Not just for truckers. I believe that we're crowdfunding the defense of 32 truckers.

00:07:35.020 I'll have to check the stats with our external counsel.

00:07:39.020 But also Arthur Pawlowski.

00:07:41.020 You may recall that that Christian pastor came to the truckers in Goots to give a sort of sermon enthusiastic pep rally in the saloon.

00:07:50.020 And he was put on trial in this city and actually convicted.

00:07:53.020 The Democracy Fund is appealing that conviction.

00:07:56.020 My point is Lethbridge is a hotbed for convoy law.

00:08:02.020 Rebel News and the Democracy Fund are representing three other truckers who are being prosecuted in this same courthouse.

00:08:10.020 They include a local town counselor and other people.

00:08:13.020 Again, the charges are all minor criminal offenses.

00:08:16.020 The sort of thing traditionally called civil disobedience.

00:08:19.020 Just like Tamara Leach out in Ottawa also being crowdfunded by the Democracy Fund. 1.00

00:08:24.020 Tamara Leach wouldn't hurt a fly. 1.00

00:08:26.020 She was charged with mischief and other non-violent minor offenses.

00:08:30.020 The government's trying to make it into a big thing and kept her in prison for 49 days. 0.99

00:08:34.020 But that was the mission of the Democracy Fund and Rebel News.

00:08:39.020 To provide lawyers for citizens wishing to exercise their civil liberties, even through civil disobedience, as long as it was peaceful.

00:08:48.020 But four men were arrested in Coots.

00:08:50.020 Not the three that were crowdfunding for, but four others.

00:08:53.020 And the charges there were not minor offenses.

00:08:56.020 In fact, they were shocking.

00:08:58.020 And the RCMP knew this and they were very theatrical about it.

00:09:02.020 You might recall the explosive headlines.

00:09:05.020 Emphasis on the word explosive.

00:09:07.020 A carefully staged managed press conference by the RCMP showing the weapons that were seized as charges were laid for conspiracy to commit murder.

00:09:18.020 Here's a taste of how the mainstream media covered that.

00:09:21.020 Coutts border crossing clears organizers trying to distance themselves from what could have been.

00:09:27.020 The biggest thing for me, and I think for the group, is let's prove this was not violent.

00:09:33.020 And I want a thorough and thorough deep investigation into these gun charges.

00:09:38.020 Guns, ammo, and body armor seized when RCMP arrested 11 people in a pre-dawn Tuesday morning raid.

00:09:46.020 With charges ranging from mischief, weapons offenses, and conspiracy to commit murder.

00:09:52.020 Police alleging connection to an organized group said to have a willingness to use force against police if any attempts were made to disrupt the blockade.

00:10:02.020 Although RCMP have not commented on what group, these patches stood out for the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.

00:10:10.020 Diagalon is a group that, you know, it started off as almost a joke, but has become kind of a quasi-militia with individuals engaged in weapons training.

00:10:20.020 Basically based on an imaginary country that extends from Alaska to Florida.

00:10:25.020 The Anti-Hate Network will be watching to see how these patches play into the larger story of the arrests at Coutts.

00:10:32.020 Saying they classify Diagalon as accelerationists.

00:10:36.020 Who believe that by accelerating the downfall of society by way of assassinations, violent attacks, they would bring about their, you know, ethnostate. 0.86

00:10:46.020 So it's been co-opted by groups. It's not surprising that we're seeing this in Canada.

00:10:51.020 Counter-terrorism expert Mubeen Sheikh says there's been a rise in far-right accelerationists in Canada.

00:10:58.020 Just last October, a former Army reservist from Manitoba, Patrick Matthews, was sentenced to nine years for what the FBI says was his role in trying to trigger a race war with accelerationist group The Base.

00:11:12.020 For Diagalon, their de facto leader is also ex-military.

00:11:17.020 And in a Tuesday night live stream from Ottawa, Jeremy McKenzie addressed the arrest.

00:11:23.020 Keep the boys in Alberta. They got arrested. We haven't heard from them. We don't know what's going on.

00:11:27.020 There's some rumors they're getting charged with some heavy sh**.

00:11:31.020 He's somebody of a concern because the rhetoric he's been using is very accelerationist.

00:11:35.020 The idea that, again, the idea of taking advantage and looking for opportunities to kind of essentially fill in the gap if there's some sort of societal collapse and kind of hoping and helping it to move along.

00:11:46.020 RCMP in Coots arrested two more people on top of those initial 11.

00:11:51.020 One for attempting to ram police vehicles and another arriving at the protest with guns.

00:11:57.020 For Sheikh, he'll be watching for more charges.

00:12:00.020 The threat of violence and the threat or actual use of violence against government in an effort to overturn its policies, that's literally the definition of terrorism.

00:12:11.020 And curious if the U.S. will be involved given what could have been so close to the border.

00:12:17.020 I have no doubt that the city slickers seeing that many weapons and that many bullets is terrifying, especially since they were covered in camouflage colorings.

00:12:26.020 But if you look at those, those are really just bullets and rifles that pretty much every household in the Lethbridge area has.

00:12:35.020 This is not downtown Toronto where only criminals have guns and typically have handguns.

00:12:40.020 This is rural small town Alberta.

00:12:43.020 Everyone has a rifle or a shotgun for hunting, for dealing with varmints on the farm or the ranch.

00:12:50.020 It's part of the culture here.

00:12:51.020 So arresting men and finding that they have several guns and hundreds of bullets may be shocking to downtown Toronto and to liberal voters.

00:13:00.020 But it actually was proof of nothing in itself.

00:13:03.020 But that combined with the RCMP narrative was exactly what Justin Trudeau needed.

00:13:09.020 And as you may recall, within a day, Trudeau had his fig leaf to cover up his invocation of the Emergencies Act, a kind of martial law that stripped people of their civil liberties, including seizing hundreds of bank accounts of peaceful protesters.

00:13:25.020 Well, I'm here in Lethbridge today to cover the trial of those four men.

00:13:30.020 However, the trial will not actually happen for nearly one more year.

00:13:35.020 The events in question were in January and February 2002.

00:13:39.020 It's now almost August 2023, sorry, 22.

00:13:43.020 It's now almost August 2023.

00:13:46.020 And the trial is not scheduled until spring.

00:13:49.020 It's going to be a trial by judge and jury.

00:13:51.020 The jury has yet to be empaneled.

00:13:54.020 And one of the things about a jury trial is the jury cannot have preconceptions about the case.

00:13:59.020 They can't get facts from the media or other sources.

00:14:02.020 They have to get facts put through the legal process.

00:14:05.020 Why?

00:14:06.020 Because certain facts are hearsay.

00:14:08.020 Certain facts are so prejudicial that it's impossible to get a fair trial.

00:14:12.020 Sometimes in trials, entire court cases are moved to another city if the local jury pool is too tainted.

00:14:19.020 To avoid that in this case, the defense counsel have applied for and received a publication ban over some of the more lascivious details contained in part in a legal document filed by police to get the search warrant.

00:14:34.020 That document is called an ITO, an information to obtain.

00:14:41.020 It's a document shown to a judge in secret, as in the target of the search warrant is obviously not there.

00:14:49.020 Search warrants don't really work well if the person who's going to be searched gets a heads up about it.

00:14:55.020 So the documents that were filed with the court were very lengthy and contain unchallenged accusations by the police.

00:15:03.020 The trouble with that is that the defense lawyers were not there in that search warrant hearing to rebut or refute or challenge or question or criticize.

00:15:13.020 So it's a very special kind of hearing called ex parte.

00:15:16.020 In Latin, that means without the other party.

00:15:19.020 There's a saying in law, hear the other side, adi alter impartum.

00:15:23.020 It's really a fundamental in our justice system.

00:15:25.020 You always have to hear the other side.

00:15:27.020 That simply doesn't work in search warrants.

00:15:29.020 And so that is why the one sided accusations by the police are being kept out of the public eye until the jury is impaneled.

00:15:38.020 But that means it's impossible for us to tell you the details, at least as alleged by police, about what the four men in question did.

00:15:49.020 Why were they charged with conspiracy to commit murder, but no other truckers were charged with those same things?

00:15:56.020 They were charged with minor offenses like mischief or obstruction.

00:16:00.020 Why were these four men charged with something differently and how solid are the charges?

00:16:06.020 As we know from our own two reporters being in the smuggler's saloon for more than a week, that place was crawling with cops.

00:16:14.020 Not just police wearing their RCMP uniforms, but obviously undercover agents too.

00:16:20.020 Listening, chatting up the men.

00:16:23.020 In the case of female police officers, maybe batting their eyelashes at the men and seeing what they might say after a few drinks to show off a bit. 1.00

00:16:32.020 And that's another question.

00:16:34.020 If these men said certain things, was it their true belief or were they hamming it up for police, hamming it up to look tough?

00:16:42.020 Sometimes people enlarge their stories to be a little more heroic or a little more brave.

00:16:48.020 The thing is, we can't see that information.

00:16:51.020 It's either being redacted to begin with or it's subject to a publication ban.

00:16:57.020 We cannot weigh the facts of this case until the trial begins and the facts are introduced in that manner.

00:17:05.020 That makes it very difficult and it also makes it difficult for the people gathered here to understand why this case is different in various ways, including one very important way.

00:17:16.020 These men are still in prison.

00:17:18.020 Arthur Pawlowski and Tamara Leach were jailed for an atrociously long period of time.

00:17:24.020 About 50 days each, they were held without bail.

00:17:28.020 But in the end, they did get bail.

00:17:30.020 There were some conditions put on them.

00:17:32.020 They're not allowed to talk to this person or travel to that place.

00:17:34.020 But in the end, they did get bail.

00:17:36.020 It was an embarrassment for the judicial system how long it took.

00:17:40.020 It showed that justice is not quite impartial and it certainly looked punitive.

00:17:44.020 But at the end of the day, every other person charged or ticketed or arrested during the lockdowns was given bail.

00:17:52.020 In fact, most were not arrested at all.

00:17:55.020 Why are these four men still in prison some 500 days after arrest and staring down the barrel at another 400 plus days in prison?

00:18:06.020 They'll be in jail a thousand days before their trial.

00:18:12.020 You know, I saw news the other day that a convicted terrorist, let me say that again, not an accused terrorist, a terrorist who had her trial and was convicted and sentenced and then was let out, was charged with terrorism related offenses again and was given bail.

00:18:29.020 Canada is the country that gives bail to literal convicted, not just accused, but convicted terrorists on their second offense.

00:18:37.020 And yet these four men are still in jail. Why?

00:18:40.020 Well, that's the trouble we can't tell you because to do so would be to breach the publication ban.

00:18:46.020 I was in court yesterday.

00:18:48.020 There was a preliminary matter about whether or not one of the four men, when they gave a confession to police, if they were compelled in some unfair manner to do so.

00:18:58.020 The judge ruled on that saying, no, the confession was given freely.

00:19:02.020 There are preliminary matters like this that will continue on this week.

00:19:06.020 They may or may not have an important effect on the course of the trial.

00:19:11.020 Still in the morning, we haven't gone in and heard them yet.

00:19:15.020 But I think that we are in for a long slog.

00:19:18.020 There is an enormous amount of evidence.

00:19:21.020 I've seen some of it heavily redacted, but there were literally dozens of police involved in preparing the case against these men.

00:19:30.020 I understand that there are terabytes worth of evidence, whether it's wiretaps or police reports or just visual observations.

00:19:40.020 And it's an enormous amount to go through.

00:19:43.020 We don't know, or at least we're not able to say what's going on.

00:19:47.020 And that makes it difficult for people to understand what they feel is an apparent injustice and double standard.

00:19:55.020 I think that one of the problems is giving the justice system the benefit of the doubt is something that these people long ago left behind.

00:20:04.020 They saw how the police became political weapons during the lockdown, enforcing things that have nothing to do with the criminal law.

00:20:11.020 When police enforced unscientific mask mandates.

00:20:15.020 When police enforced ridiculous six feet of separation social gathering rules.

00:20:20.020 The police torched their credibility.

00:20:24.020 The justice system, which has yet to strike down a single lockdown law, a single vaccine mandate law.

00:20:31.020 Has simply put lost the benefit of the doubt amongst people or at least people who are dissidents, who are contrarians, who would call themselves freedom oriented Canadians.

00:20:41.020 They gave the lockdownists and their police enforcers the benefit of the doubt for the two weeks to flatten the curve.

00:20:49.020 When it turned into two years, their benefit of the doubt giving was long over.

00:20:53.020 And so people here who cannot see the facts alleged against the four accused men certainly aren't willing to believe that it's a fair case.

00:21:02.020 Only time will tell when the facts come out in trial.

00:21:06.020 I'm going to go into the court and I'm going to do my best to live tweet the proceedings.

00:21:10.020 I don't think it will be very substantive.

00:21:12.020 Like I say, the trial is almost a year away, but I'll come out and I'll let you know what I see.

00:21:18.020 And then I'll give you my thoughts as best I can without stepping on the publication ban of what I think.

00:21:25.020 You can see that there are some people here who are upset that Rebel News is not championing these four men.

00:21:35.020 I've had a few encounters like that.

00:21:38.020 Someone who, by the looks of them, would probably be a Rebel News supporter and probably was until recently.

00:21:44.020 They don't understand why we're not crowdfunding for these men.

00:21:47.020 And in some ways I can't tell you that because of the publication ban.

00:21:51.020 What I can tell you is that the money raised by both Rebel News and the Democracy Fund was to defend people for civil liberties offenses, people who committed civil disobedience.

00:22:03.020 As you may know, because you may be a donor yourself, we did not crowdfund to defend people accused of conspiracy to commit murder.

00:22:12.020 Now, there is a crowdfunding page not run by us that if you want to give to these four men, you can certainly do so.

00:22:18.020 And I'm not here to tell you to do so or not to do so.

00:22:21.020 But I can explain that neither Rebel News or the Democracy Fund will take our donors money for men who are charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

00:22:31.020 And when the facts come out in the trial, you may see for yourself whether or not this was a wise decision on our part.

00:22:39.020 But you can see the frustration that someone who just by the looks of them would probably be a Rebel News supporter in every other way that they don't understand why we're not throwing our lot in with these men.

00:22:50.020 And unfortunately, it's against the law for me to tell you on camera why that is.

00:22:55.020 I'm going to go back in now and I'll come back during a break to give you more of my report.

00:23:08.020 Well, hi, I'm back. It is 1230 local time. The court is on a break until 2 p.m. for lunch.

00:23:14.020 I should tell you that the bulk of what's been going on today is lawyers and the judge going through arcane details on the law of cracking

00:23:24.020 open solicitor-client privilege. Let me explain what I mean.

00:23:29.020 An email between the Crown prosecutors and the police was inadvertently leaked or given to defense.

00:23:38.020 And they looked at it. And normally those sort of things are confidential. They're private.

00:23:43.020 You could even call them secret. But in this case, it was accidentally given.

00:23:47.020 And the thing about that is the defense counsel claim that it showed misconduct by the prosecutor and the police.

00:23:57.020 That's a pretty big claim to make. They say that after these instructions from the Crown to the prosecutor,

00:24:02.020 they changed how they approached the case. And the defense claims that they did so illegally.

00:24:09.020 So now the defense wants to crack open more solicitor-client communications between the prosecution and the police.

00:24:17.020 That is a very rare thing. It's quite an audacious application by the defense.

00:24:23.020 I would call it high risk, high reward. I suppose there's really no downside.

00:24:28.020 I mean, if the judge rejects it, the judge rejects it. If the judge upholds that application,

00:24:33.020 it would probably be a calamity for the prosecution because when people speak plainly, when they speak candidly,

00:24:42.020 when they expect that their emails will never be seen by the public, they're perhaps rude.

00:24:46.020 They perhaps take liberties. Perhaps they swear or make admissions that they would never do

00:24:51.020 if they thought their publications were going to be made public.

00:24:54.020 That's the whole point of solicitor-client privilege.

00:24:57.020 It means whatever you say to your lawyer is a secret and no one else can say it.

00:25:01.020 Anyhow, I'm just trying to explain the matters that were dealt with in court today.

00:25:08.020 Now, regardless of the result, this is not the trial of the substantive case against the four men,

00:25:14.020 the conspiracy to commit murder. That trial is not until next year.

00:25:18.020 This application today is an attempt to absolutely demolish the Crown's case, though, with this preliminary matter.

00:25:26.020 Anyhow, I just want to explain to you what we spent the morning on.

00:25:29.020 But there's something else very interesting that's going on here.

00:25:33.020 You saw a little taste of that when I was doing my morning opening,

00:25:36.020 and a fellow came up to me who looks like a classic rebel.

00:25:40.020 And he tapped me on the shoulder, and I don't remember his exact wording,

00:25:43.020 but he implied that I'm a sellout and I'm just like the liberal media.

00:25:47.020 I don't think I am. In fact, I think that in many ways we are Justin Trudeau's enemy number one.

00:25:52.020 He's always trying to block us, to ban us, to censor us.

00:25:56.020 I really think he despises us, and I think in the case of me personally, it goes back a while.

00:26:02.020 I don't see how we could be accused of that, especially in this context.

00:26:08.020 Rebel News and our friends at the Democracy Fund are literally defending 3,000 people who had different lockdown or pandemic charges,

00:26:17.020 including dozens of people involved with the trucking convoy.

00:26:21.020 But the one thing that I said earlier was that our offer to help people is limited to civil disobedience.

00:26:29.020 We would obviously, and God forbid may it never happen, not defend someone who committed murder or terrorism

00:26:36.020 in the name of fighting the lockdowns, obviously, and that's such an extreme example.

00:26:41.020 But a real-life example is we would not use our donors' money to defend someone charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

00:26:49.020 That's just not within the scope of what we told our donors we would do.

00:26:52.020 So there's some people here who are very mad about that, who say that we should be taking our donors' money to pay for the legal defense.

00:27:00.020 Now, I have tried to learn a little bit more about the cases here.

00:27:04.020 I've spoken to some of their legal counsel, but it's difficult to get a full read of things.

00:27:10.020 And obviously, they owe me no candor. Their loyalty is to their own clients.

00:27:15.020 I've had, and I don't want to get into the conversations I've had with them, but it did not move the needle for me.

00:27:22.020 As in, I was wondering if maybe this was a stitch-up.

00:27:26.020 Maybe they were framed. If maybe there was nothing here. It was all politics.

00:27:31.020 I mean, who knows? If they succeed in their application today, perhaps it'll be proven.

00:27:35.020 But I haven't seen anything to that effect. In fact, I have learned a number of things that are subject to a publication ban that make me think we absolutely can't get involved with this.

00:27:46.020 But I think that people here are so dedicated to these men. I mean, obviously, they're friends and family, but people who don't understand how they can possibly still be in jail 500 days later.

00:27:57.020 And they've seen the injustices wrought against dozens or hundreds or even thousands of other Canadians, and they say this is the worst of it.

00:28:05.020 These people are still in prison. These people need more coverage.

00:28:08.020 Now, Rebel News has covered these folks, but I think they're mad that we're not cheering for the individual people rooting for them and funding their lawyers as we have been for 3,000 others.

00:28:19.020 And I want to be very careful about what I say because, of course, I don't want to violate the publication ban, but I also don't want to violate the personal conversations I've had, including with one family member in the court today.

00:28:31.020 It was absolutely heartbreaking, and I listened very carefully to her and what she said, and I asked some gentle questions.

00:28:38.020 I put to her some of the accusations from the Crown, and she absolutely denied them and said, in no way is this, does she recognize these charges?

00:28:47.020 Her son would never do that. He was a good young man. Absolutely. She's shocked by this whole thing.

00:28:53.020 She thinks it's like I really listened, and this woman's heart was so full of sorrow.

00:28:59.020 And imagine not being with your son for 500 days and knowing another year plus or almost another year will go by.

00:29:06.020 And so I was very moved by that, but I asked her a couple of questions, and I'm not going to tell you her answers because it was a personal conversation.

00:29:13.020 But let me put the questions that I put to her, let me put them to this larger group.

00:29:19.020 When you have a conspiracy to commit murder, that means people are united in some sort of plan.

00:29:26.020 That's what a conspiracy means. I suppose conspiracy doesn't necessarily mean it's dark or evil, but of course, in a criminal setting, it does.

00:29:34.020 So what's the what's the network that holds these four defendants together?

00:29:39.020 What's the club or the gang or the terrorist group that are like the Hells Angels? Are they all Hells Angels? No, not at all.

00:29:46.020 Are they with Al Qaeda? No, of course not.

00:29:49.020 But there was something, and this came out very early in the media, that the men and some of their weapons had the symbol of a made up joke group in Canada called Diagalon.

00:30:06.020 It's an absurd meme. It's a joke, a prank really. Diagalon being this theoretical country that would diagonally go across North America, and it would be this alt-right place.

00:30:19.020 And it was, I think it started as a joke, as so many goofy things do.

00:30:26.020 And the trouble is, I think people started to believe in it.

00:30:31.020 Or at least if you're going to Diagalon meetings, if you wear a Diagalon crest, if you talk about Diagalon, then maybe it's not a joke anymore, maybe it's actually a thing.

00:30:44.020 And so maybe these pranksters and jokesters at Diagalon created, out of thin air, the narrative that the prosecution here needed, and certainly that the media needed.

00:30:58.020 Now, by the way, I'm not referring to anything subject to the publication bans here.

00:31:02.020 The Diagalon insignia...

00:31:04.020 How about unblocking me and be a good reporter?

00:31:06.020 See, this is one of the folks here who is rebelling against Rebel News.

00:31:16.020 But could you do me a favor and do your own show, and let me continue to talk to my folks.

00:31:21.020 Jason Levine, MP, Member of Parliament, registered as a candidate.

00:31:25.020 But he's actually not an MP.

00:31:26.020 Correct, I'm a candidate.

00:31:28.020 Okay, so give us a break now, talk to your own audience, and I wish you good luck in your approach.

00:31:35.020 Thank you very much for your time.

00:31:36.020 Okay.

00:31:37.020 I appreciate it.

00:31:38.020 Rebel Rebel, everybody.

00:31:39.020 All right.

00:31:40.020 So there are some folks who are very upset about things, and that's one of them.

00:31:44.020 He calls himself an MP, he's not.

00:31:46.020 And listen, I understand why people are very upset about things.

00:31:50.020 And it's because these men have been in prison for more than 500 days.

00:31:54.020 I don't exactly understand that fellow's beef, but there are some real edgy contrarians for whom Rebel News is not rebellious enough.

00:32:04.020 Now, I'm not sure if they've crowdfunded any money at all.

00:32:07.020 I'm not sure if they've done anything at all.

00:32:09.020 I've been to this courthouse, I don't know, a dozen times over the last few years.

00:32:14.020 So many times they've actually accredited me as an accredited journalist here and let me sit at the front row.

00:32:20.020 I really have been to Lethbridge more than just about any other city in Canada.

00:32:26.020 And in fact, in the background, you can see behind me is Arthur Pawlowski.

00:32:29.020 His back is to me, he's talking to a crowd.

00:32:31.020 I've been to this courthouse a half a dozen times for Arthur alone.

00:32:35.020 So I'm not quite sure what Rebel News could be doing that we're not doing other than funding the defense for these people, which we will not do because it's outside our scope.

00:32:44.020 But I think I know what animates that guy.

00:32:47.020 I mean, I think he wants to get some of our audience and I think he wants some of our reputation that we've built up over eight years.

00:32:54.020 And that's fine. I mean, that's the nature of the Internet.

00:32:57.020 He wants to be an influencer.

00:32:58.020 It's a bit weird that he calls himself a member of parliament when he's not.

00:33:02.020 But what I'm sensing here is that people who are desperate for justice and don't understand what's going on have reached out to this Diagilon group and their kooky leader named Jeremy McKenzie. 0.86

00:33:18.020 Now, Jeremy McKenzie had a reputable past in that he served our country in the Canadian Armed Forces.

00:33:29.020 And that should be mentioned every time his name is referred to.

00:33:32.020 But he has set up an explicitly racist organization.

00:33:37.020 I think it's as a joke, but he's gone beyond a joke to really providing the missing glue for those on the left who would accuse conservatives and populists of being terrorists.

00:33:51.020 And it's my belief, and we'll see if it's borne out in trial next year, that the four men here, they were there's a phrase in the Internet LARPing, LARP, live action role playing, that they were sort of pretending to be in the Diagilon.

00:34:08.020 And they got the patches and it wasn't really a thing, but it was a pretend thing, almost like Dungeons and Dragons, except for one day in Lethbridge and in Coots, Alberta, their make believe came true.

00:34:21.020 And they weren't just talking tough about Diagilon.

00:34:24.020 There actually were cops everywhere.

00:34:26.020 And so, you know, some of the evidence, and again, I'm not referring to anything learned through publication ban material, but the firearms and the bullets, which is fairly normal for country people and rural folks in small town.

00:34:41.020 Suddenly, they're transformed from being, oh, that's just a country boy and his rifle and bullets, to, oh, there's a Diagilon patch there. 0.51

00:34:49.020 This is part of some uprising, revolutionary war.

00:34:54.020 I guess what I'm saying is Diagilon, which is a fake joke, because, of course, when it comes to hatred, demand exceeds supply.

00:35:04.020 That's why there's so many hoaxes about racism and so, because the media narrative needs it.

00:35:11.020 But Canadians just aren't hateful.

00:35:13.020 Canadians aren't violent.

00:35:14.020 There was not a single act of violence in any of the convoys other than the RCMP shooting our reporter, Alexa Lavois.

00:35:24.020 But the Diagilon gave that to the media.

00:35:28.020 It proved that there was a right wing hate group out there that we had to be scared of.

00:35:34.020 And Jeremy McKenzie loved it.

00:35:37.020 He loved being on TV.

00:35:39.020 He loved being the star.

00:35:41.020 He loved being an important person.

00:35:44.020 He loved being edgy.

00:35:46.020 But the thing is, everything he got out of it was at the expense of truly contrarian, truly worried people who are scared about the state of the country.

00:35:56.020 And it's my theory.

00:35:57.020 And again, I'm not basing this on any secret documents, but it's my theory based on what I've learned about the men and what I've seen in the media.

00:36:06.020 And frankly, with my conversations with one of the family members, that these young men actually went too far into Jeremy McKenzie's scheme, weird, fake group.

00:36:21.020 And so the police and the prosecutors said, uh-huh, that's the conspiracy.

00:36:27.020 That's the connection.

00:36:28.020 That's the group.

00:36:30.020 They're not Hell's Angels.

00:36:31.020 They're not Al Qaeda.

00:36:33.020 But they are Diagilon.

00:36:36.020 And for all of those who thought it was just a joke, now it's very real.

00:36:40.020 And look, we have guns and bullets.

00:36:42.020 And normally those would just be country boys.

00:36:44.020 But no, no, that's Diagilon.

00:36:47.020 And I was shocked to learn yesterday, while I was literally sitting in this court, it came up on my phone a news headline that that same Jeremy McKenzie, the head of Diagilon, the most hated right-wing alt-right group in Canada that is a talking point for every left-wing journalist and politician, he just had a bunch of firearms charges against him dropped.

00:37:12.020 I mean, he was on video with illegal, restricted firearms pointing them at people.

00:37:18.020 He was transporting guns illegally.

00:37:22.020 He wasn't just a guy who had guns.

00:37:24.020 For example, some of the guys in here, I know for a fact had a PAL license.

00:37:29.020 They had guns, sure, but they were completely legal.

00:37:32.020 I don't know if there were some illegalities, but I know they had a license.

00:37:35.020 This Jeremy McKenzie is transporting guns illegally, having illegal guns, pointing guns at people.

00:37:41.020 Like he was doing a whole whack of things.

00:37:43.020 Isn't it odd that the leader of the Diagilon isn't in jail for 500 days, but these pawns on the chessboard are in jail for 500 days?

00:37:55.020 I tell you, it sure looks like a fed to me.

00:37:57.020 It looks a little bit like in the United States, Ray Epps.

00:38:00.020 Do you know who I mean?

00:38:01.020 He was the guy who was exhorting everyone to storm Capitol Hill on January 6th.

00:38:07.020 Here's a reminder of Ray Epps.

00:38:09.020 We need to go into the Capitol.

00:38:12.020 Into the Capitol.

00:38:14.020 What?

00:38:15.020 No!

00:38:16.020 No!

00:38:17.020 No!

00:38:18.020 Peacefully!

00:38:19.020 Fed!

00:38:20.020 Fed!

00:38:21.020 Fed!

00:38:22.020 Fed!

00:38:23.020 Fed!

00:38:24.020 Fed!

00:38:25.020 Fed!

00:38:26.020 I don't even like to say it because I'll be arrested.

00:38:27.020 Well, let's not say it.

00:38:28.020 We need, we need to go.

00:38:30.020 I'll say it.

00:38:31.020 All right.

00:38:32.020 We need to go in. 1.00

00:38:33.020 Shut the fuck up, Boomer. 1.00

00:38:34.020 To the Capitol. 1.00

00:38:35.020 Based Fed posting?

00:38:36.020 All right.

00:38:37.020 We need to go into the Capitol.

00:38:39.020 I didn't see that coming.

00:38:40.020 Okay.

00:38:41.020 The President is here speaking.

00:38:42.020 We are going to the Capitol.

00:38:43.020 Where our problems are.

00:38:44.020 It's that direction.

00:38:45.020 We spread the word.

00:38:46.020 All right.

00:38:47.020 No, David.

00:38:48.020 One more thing.

00:38:49.020 Can we go up there?

00:38:50.020 No.

00:38:51.020 When we go in.

00:38:52.020 Are we going to get arrested?

00:38:53.020 We go up there?

00:38:54.020 Yeah.

00:38:55.020 We don't need to get shot.

00:38:56.020 Are you going to arrest us all?

00:38:58.020 Is it absurd to say that Jeremy McKenzie is the Ray Epps of Canada?

00:39:24.020 Certainly not absurd.

00:39:26.020 A generation ago, you might recall that CSIS actually created a hate group called the Heritage Front.

00:39:33.020 And a CSIS agent named Grant Bristow led it.

00:39:37.020 The man who actually led Canada's most notorious hate group was working for the government the whole time.

00:39:44.020 He was creating hate even back then.

00:39:48.020 Supply did not meet demand for hate.

00:39:51.020 And so many people profited off that.

00:39:53.020 Well, during the convoy, it was the most peaceful thing I've ever seen.

00:39:57.020 It was led by people like the saintly Tamara Leach. 1.00

00:40:01.020 All those truckers in Ottawa, crime went down.

00:40:04.020 The only crime that was reported were hoaxes like that one where they tried to claim a trucker was trying to burn down a condominium.

00:40:11.020 It turned out not to be true.

00:40:12.020 So demand exceeded supply and Jeremy McKenzie and his diagonal was on everyone's lips for be careful. 0.70

00:40:22.020 These are vicious, alt-right neo-Nazis.

00:40:26.020 And I think that the four guys here, this is my theory. 0.86

00:40:31.020 I think they believed it.

00:40:34.020 I think for them this Dungeons and Dragons role playing became real.

00:40:40.020 And I think that Jeremy McKenzie is the reason that these charges were laid and that these men are in prison.

00:40:49.020 And he may be the reason that they are convicted.

00:40:53.020 He gave the prosecution what they were missing.

00:40:57.020 He gave them the connection.

00:40:59.020 He invented the fake Hells Angels, the fake Al Qaeda. 0.74

00:41:04.020 And what an irony, what a coincidence that the day these men have their hearing is the day the prosecution just decides to drop those charges against the boss of the diagonal line.

00:41:16.020 It's a bit curious, isn't it?

00:41:18.020 Well, we live in a world of skepticism and contrarianism.

00:41:21.020 You saw that guy who calls himself a member of parliament or an MP or whatever.

00:41:26.020 He's really mad at me.

00:41:27.020 I don't know exactly what he's mad at, but people are mad.

00:41:30.020 And I'm mad too because I think that our justice system is not as just as it could be.

00:41:36.020 I've been at this court and I've seen convictions for things that violate the Charter of Rights.

00:41:42.020 I think that so far not a single court ruling in this country has struck down any meaningful lockdown law or vaccine mandate.

00:41:50.020 I think that when I went to law school, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was considered a sacred document.

00:41:55.020 And yet when it comes to real life, it wasn't so.

00:41:58.020 Our Supreme Court still hasn't bothered to spend a minute on any of these matters.

00:42:03.020 But at the end of the day, I still do believe in the justice system.

00:42:09.020 I think it's in trouble. I think it has been brought into disrepute.

00:42:13.020 I think it is losing the support of people, certainly in communities like Lethbridge and Coutts.

00:42:18.020 But I think even now it's the best system we have.

00:42:24.020 That doesn't mean that Rebel News is going to provide lawyers for people accused of conspiracy to commit murder.

00:42:30.020 But it does mean that we're going to report the facts as we see them, as we're allowed to do, as far as we're allowed to under publication ban.

00:42:37.020 I think I'm going to end the show today because by the time the next part of the hearing continues and then the time zones, we'll miss the show for tonight.

00:42:46.020 I really don't think anything astonishing will happen.

00:42:49.020 These are pre-trial hearings almost a year before the court date.

00:42:53.020 It's interesting in there. A lot of people love Rebel News.

00:42:57.020 They've seen us at this courthouse probably, I don't know, ten times.

00:43:01.020 But there are some people who love the Diagalon, who love Jeremy McKenzie, and who believe that terrible wrongs are going on.

00:43:13.020 We'll see who's right in a year's time when it all comes out of trial.

00:43:17.020 That's it for Dead at A.

00:43:19.020 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us at Rebel News, to you at home, good night and keep fighting for freedom.

00:43:43.020 We'll be right back and back and play with you in these days.

00:43:45.020 We'll be right back, and see you later.

00:43:46.020 We Rotten!

00:43:47.020 We're good at α.

00:43:48.020 How are you?

00:43:49.020 We're right now.

00:43:50.020 We're good at a league Hosalan! 1.00

00:43:55.020 provincial Freiwain!

00:44:00.020 cetera!

00:44:01.020 So start with my grand board,

00:44:04.020 inadi vy.

00:44:05.020 Yeni by L ok,

00:44:09.020 to you already be willing to live.

Rebel News Podcast - July 25, 2023

EZRA LEVANT ｜ I'm in Lethbridge as justice hangs in the balance for the Coutts 4 truckers

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript