Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ I took the witness stand for Tamara Lich today — here's what happened

00:00:00.000 Tonight, Tamara Leach goes back to court to bury her sentencing.

00:00:04.760 What will the prosecution say? What will the judges say?

00:00:07.740 It's July 22nd, and this is The Ezra Levant Show.

00:00:13.840 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:00:25.660 Ezra Levant here for Rebel News.

00:00:27.280 I'm in downtown Ottawa at the courthouse.

00:00:30.240 I've been here so many times, almost all of it, for the trial and sentencing of our friend Tamara Leach,

00:00:37.280 the spiritual leader, as I call her, of the Canadian trucker convoy that was the largest and most effective peaceful protest in Canadian history.

00:00:47.220 Tamara was such a gentle and hopeful and positive leader of that.

00:00:52.440 I believe that's the reason why the prosecution has had a vendetta against her for years.

00:00:59.840 In fact, they turned her mischief trial into the longest-running mischief trial in Canadian history.

00:01:05.800 I think it's precisely because she was such a positive face for the convoy, they wanted to besmirch her.

00:01:12.880 Anyways, why am I here now?

00:01:14.720 Because, of course, she was sentenced more than six months ago, sentenced to house arrest.

00:01:19.920 Tamara's lawyers are appealing that they want an acquittal.

00:01:22.840 And the prosecution is appealing that they actually want more prison time for her.

00:01:27.820 So what are we doing today?

00:01:29.360 Well, today is what's called a bail variation hearing. 1.00

00:01:34.420 She's under house arrest.

00:01:36.040 But one of the things about house arrest is you're allowed to work. 0.99

00:01:39.160 And of course, Tamara Leach worked for Rebel News before she was convicted. 0.73

00:01:43.280 She would go to conferences, speak for us. 0.96

00:01:46.900 She would even play.

00:01:48.260 She's in a band.

00:01:49.140 She would play at our events. She was an active part of the Rebel family. Most importantly,

00:01:53.700 she wrote the number one bestselling book called Hold the Line. And so she went on a book tour for

00:01:59.460 us. So after she was sentenced, I approached the corrections officer, the probation officer

00:02:06.040 in Alberta in charge of her file. And I said, look, just because she's sentenced doesn't mean

00:02:11.700 she should stop working. She's got to earn a living. Let's work together to make sure we can 1.00

00:02:16.560 come up with a plan so she can still work because work is an exemption to house arrest that's just

00:02:22.560 the law and i went through it line by line with the probation officer including the fact that

00:02:27.600 we wanted to write another book and go on a book tour and do journalism and it was all agreed to

00:02:34.480 the probation officer in madison hat agreed to it and tamara has gone on almost a dozen little

00:02:42.080 reportorial journeys for us. But one of those was to the House of the U.S. Ambassador on the 4th of

00:02:50.380 July, just a week or two ago. And the sight of Tamara Leach at such a prestigious event freaked

00:02:58.660 out the regime media, and they were apoplectic. The CBC went nuts. Even the New York Times said,

00:03:06.540 how dare this happen? So suddenly, Tamara Leach's right to work was nipped in the bud. For example, 1.00

00:03:14.880 Tamara Leach was going to be in Ottawa today for this court event, and we said, well, since you're

00:03:18.960 in town, let's do some journalism on Parliament Hill. Suddenly, the probation officer said, no,

00:03:24.220 you can't do that. Not only can you not travel outside Canada, you can't even travel outside

00:03:29.640 Alberta. Well, hang on. We have to. We're a national media company. Tamara has reported for

00:03:36.000 us from a multiple of provinces. So today is going to be a showdown on that issue. And I'm actually 0.72

00:03:43.680 not just going to tell you about it. I'm actually going to be on the stand as the witness today.

00:03:50.260 I wrote and swore the truth of the contents of an affidavit explaining to Meryl Leach's role

00:03:56.700 with Rebel News, how it's essential that she be able to travel. How can a journalist cover the

00:04:01.500 country if she cannot leave her own home. I mean, there is some news in Medicine Hat. In fact,

00:04:06.980 we've done a couple of things there, but the news is everywhere. And I see a viciousness and a

00:04:14.380 pettiness in the government. I think they were furious that she was treated with respect by the

00:04:20.040 U.S. Embassy and allowed to attend as a journalist. So I think there's a lot of personal vengeance

00:04:24.560 here. I'm absolutely not blaming the individual parole officer in Alberta who has been very

00:04:30.140 cooperative and supportive of Tamara. I think that the prosecutors here in Ontario

00:04:37.320 reached out to the correction service in Alberta and said, no more trips for Tamara Leach

00:04:44.860 because we don't like her politics or something like that. I don't know, but it's outrageous. 1.00

00:04:50.120 And that's why we're here today. So long story short, in about an hour's time, I am actually

00:04:56.800 going to take the stand, swear to tell the truth on a Bible, and then speak to what I put in my

00:05:03.120 affidavit, how she's worked for us before she was convicted and sentenced. She has to continue to

00:05:08.860 work for us. And that means the ability to travel for work. And it's going to be sort of incredible 1.00

00:05:14.480 to see Doug Ford's prosecutors say, no, she's not allowed to work. And because she's, I don't know,

00:05:21.960 expressing herself too much. She looks happy. I don't know. There's a bitterness and a vengefulness

00:05:28.880 in these prosecutors that I've never seen before. Compare how Tamara Leach is treated with any 1.00

00:05:35.560 violent criminal who's released on any given day. I mean, the bail in this country is a joke. 1.00

00:05:41.860 Even accused terrorists are let out on bail. And here you have the peaceful protester who,

00:05:48.980 because she's a political thorn in the side of the establishment they have such a hate on for her 1.00

00:05:54.520 they're trying to clip her wings. Anyways I'm going to be on my best behavior and my goal is to

00:06:00.020 speak truthfully and to be of assistance to the court. Tamara's lawyer is one of the best around

00:06:06.360 his name is Lawrence Greenspawn. He commends the respect of everyone. I've really enjoyed watching

00:06:11.400 him deal not only with the court but with the media. Believe it or not even haters in the media

00:06:16.860 when Lawrence Greenspan talks, they stop and listen because he's so experienced and knowledgeable.

00:06:22.640 It's like listening to a college professor. I've learned so much just from listening to the man.

00:06:27.240 Anyhow, today, that's what I'm going to do. So I'm going to be on the stand.

00:06:30.860 Normally, I live tweet the proceedings. Obviously, I can't do that if I'm literally in the witness box.

00:06:36.520 So my friend and colleague, Alexa Lavoie, has come to Ottawa along with Guillaume Roy

00:06:41.740 to do the journalism while I do the talking.

00:06:45.940 So that's what's going to happen today.

00:06:48.340 If you want to help us in our battle, please do,

00:06:52.660 because we're up against the unlimited resources of the state.

00:06:56.160 It's been so lopsided.

00:06:58.000 I've never seen such a waste of prosecutorial resources in my life.

00:07:02.080 It was around a 50-day trial,

00:07:04.420 and that was all at the choice and the doing of the prosecution.

00:07:07.680 And all I could think about was how many rape trials, how many home invasion trials were not able to be heard, were dismissed for want of prosecution. 0.93

00:07:23.100 Because, I don't know, four prosecutors spent two years hounding Tamara Leach.

00:07:28.360 It's really a disgrace.

00:07:29.720 And I remind you that the prosecutors doing that were Ontario prosecutors reporting to Doug Ford.

00:07:35.040 They weren't Trudeau's men or Carney's men, remember that.

00:07:38.380 Anyways, if you can help us out, help us equalize the terms, please go to thetamaraproject.com.

00:07:45.200 At thetamaraproject.com, you'll help us keep Tamara on the go, keep her on the road, keep her doing journalism, and help us help her. 0.96

00:07:54.600 For example, we've hired a halftime producer doing nothing but assisting Tamara get around, comply with the court orders, etc.

00:08:03.160 We obviously don't take any government funding as media, so we rely on you, our friends out there.

00:08:08.460 So please go to thetameraproject.com.

00:08:10.640 That's my report from outside the court.

00:08:13.000 When I am going to be in the court, follow my colleague Alex Lavoie on Twitter, or X as it's now called,

00:08:19.080 and I'll have some thoughts afterwards.

00:08:21.700 I don't think we're going to get the result today.

00:08:24.400 That'll probably be a week or two.

00:08:26.900 But I think it's incredibly important because it really comes down to this.

00:08:30.420 is the politics of tamara leach is that enough to change her rights what i mean is

00:08:40.220 she's complying with her sentence everyone who's under house arrest is still allowed to work her

00:08:45.960 her co-defendant chris barber for example is a long-haul trucker so he's obviously allowed to

00:08:52.200 travel including to the united states and i totally support that obviously he's got bills to

00:08:57.260 pay, a family to feed. That's the law. One of the exemptions to house arrest is for work.

00:09:03.400 Does Tamara Leach get the same rights as any other Canadian under house arrest? Is she allowed to 1.00

00:09:09.080 work? Or because she works for Rebel News, because her work is political in nature, 0.98

00:09:14.980 does she lose that right? That's what's at stake in the Ottawa Courthouse today.

00:09:19.920 Help us out at thetameraproject.com and follow along with my colleague, Alexa Lavoie.

00:09:25.380 We'll talk to you later.

00:09:27.260 Hi, everybody. It's about 1.40 p.m. We just got out of court. I'm standing with my friend,

00:09:40.400 Alex Lavoie, who was in the gallery tweeting the hearing while I was on the witness stand.

00:09:46.840 Thanks for doing that. It's sort of a different thing to be the question answerer than just a

00:09:53.080 scribe. Tell me how you thought it went, then I'll give you my thoughts from on the witness stand.

00:09:57.260 Actually, at the beginning, I was like, is it your trial or is it a trial on the affidavit that you actually submitted?

00:10:04.500 Because the whole time, they question you about your own political views that you are posting online.

00:10:11.920 What does this have to do with what you are requesting about a variation of the bail condition of Tamara Lich

00:10:19.460 to give her more freedom to do her journalism?

00:10:23.740 And also the attempt to discredit not only Tamara's ability to do journalism, but also your ability to enforce the bail conditions. 1.00

00:10:34.700 Yeah. Just to recap for folks who didn't watch our earlier segment, we're here in Ottawa because Tamara Leach is seeking more latitude in her sentence so she can continue doing journalism across Canada and into the States. 0.96

00:10:46.860 So I wrote an affidavit as the boss of Rebel News saying, here's the history of it.

00:10:52.400 we've been super compliant with the sentence she needs to travel to do her work and so they have

00:10:58.980 the right to cross-examine my affidavit since i swore certain things were true they put me on the

00:11:03.980 stand and they said well how come you didn't talk about your criticism of the judge i said well that

00:11:08.720 would be absurd to put in an affidavit uh for tamara leach well and and they just they dug up

00:11:15.360 all of my criticisms of the judge some of which were pretty sharp i'll i'll admit but none of it

00:11:21.420 had to do with Tamara Leach. It was all my own political opinions, my journalistic opinions.

00:11:27.440 And as you pointed out, they even took us through our t-shirt store and said, well, how come you're

00:11:32.960 having, you know, there was a, one of our t-shirts says convicted of freedom or something.

00:11:38.200 And the prosecution thought that was just so important and so relevant to whether or not

00:11:43.380 Tamara could, could travel. Um, I think 95% of the time the prosecutor was talking about me

00:11:50.380 and my views and rebel news and almost had nothing to say to Tamara Leach and it's obvious why

00:11:56.400 because she's been perfectly compliant with the sentence yes and the fact that the crown

00:12:02.840 prosecutor say that well are you treating Tamara Leach as a product to sell yeah and I've never

00:12:10.640 referred to her as a product I don't talk about anyone on our team like that we have lots of

00:12:16.500 interesting personalities you're one of them i suppose i'm one of them in my own way i don't

00:12:20.640 call people products we do sell products we sell shirts and mugs and stuff you know what

00:12:25.860 it was just so weird and in a way pitiful that all of the prosecution's questions all of their 1.00

00:12:33.940 case is tamara leach shouldn't be able to travel because ezra levant had some mean tweets during

00:12:40.820 the trial and rebel news claims that tamara shouldn't have been convicted yeah that's our

00:12:47.540 freedom of speech i mean it was i wasn't on trial they couldn't have done anything to me i suppose

00:12:53.760 other than i mean contempt of court wouldn't would have been applied there but it was all

00:12:59.780 about me and my alleged misconduct by having harsh opinions on the judge it'll be interesting

00:13:05.080 to see if the judge can overcome that the prosecution obviously knew that these were

00:13:09.980 relevant points they were just trying to get the judge really mad i mean my my in i did insult the

00:13:18.680 judge on twitter that i'm sorry to say that's part of freedom of speech i think the the judge

00:13:24.440 knows that's irrelevant but will her sense of pride be pricked too much what do you think i

00:13:31.380 mean i guess only time will tell but she literally reacted to some of the tweets and the fact that

00:13:37.760 And Lawrence Greenspoon literally objected to have the deposit of all those tweets.

00:13:44.800 And she said, no, no, no, we will agree to receive them.

00:13:49.140 But it's not relevant.

00:13:50.980 You mentioned it so many times.

00:13:53.160 It's not relevant.

00:13:54.300 It's why it's not in my affidavit.

00:13:56.320 Yeah.

00:13:57.200 Yeah.

00:13:57.720 I mean, it was sort of crazy.

00:13:58.860 The prosecutor was saying, well, how come you didn't mention your criticism of the judge

00:14:02.200 in the affidavit?

00:14:02.960 Well, because that would be insane.

00:14:04.720 That would be irrelevant.

00:14:05.540 that this is an interesting test. You know what? I'm very critical of judges all the time.

00:14:10.680 I think the judges quite often are political like politicians are. The judiciary is one of the

00:14:16.900 three branches of government. There's the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary.

00:14:21.680 I believe in criticizing any public official, including judges. The prosecutor, I think,

00:14:27.980 is counting on an emotional reaction by the judge and that the judge is just so mad at me in Rebel

00:14:34.440 news, she somehow takes that out onto Merrill Leach and maybe says, well, it's not real work

00:14:39.480 she's doing. I don't know. It'll be an interesting thing. I mean, if someone were to show me a bunch

00:14:45.400 of super mean tweets about me and then ask me to give a ruling, it would be hard work to stay

00:14:51.020 neutral. I don't know. It just shows that the Doug Ford prosecutor, because remember this is

00:14:55.500 provincial government prosecutions, they want to effectively criminalize mean tweets. They want to

00:15:04.420 effectively censor what rebel news can say even about the trucker convoy and they're not hiding

00:15:12.020 it like that that was 90 to 95 percent of their content today what you you heard the judge sort

00:15:17.940 of go ha or something at one moment was there any reaction from the gallery i was so focused

00:15:23.460 on listening to the prosecutor what else was it like in the gallery um i was actually really

00:15:28.820 focused to try to write that down but i kind of like felt like everybody was like we know why

00:15:35.800 he's doing it and it seems like it's working yeah i i'm afraid that could be right well here's where

00:15:43.020 things stand right now like i say it's not even two o'clock i thought we would have been out of

00:15:47.840 here much earlier but you know courts are always delayed so there's going to be another hearing on

00:15:52.660 august 14th where they'll both sides will make arguments i think i'm going to come back for that

00:15:57.220 for sure to see how it goes. It'll be really interesting to me how the prosecution plays up

00:16:04.740 my mean tweets, if that's the heart of their argument. It's sort of crazy that in the

00:16:13.040 prosecution's views, Tamera Leach's liberty will hang in the balance of if my tweets are too mean.

00:16:18.980 It's completely irrelevant, but that's the prosecution's play. Listen, we're going to

00:16:24.280 keep fighting like hell because that's what we do. We believe in freedom of speech. And let me just

00:16:28.720 say for the record, I absolutely believe in the right to criticize judges. And I'm respectful

00:16:35.420 when I'm in court and I respect court rulings, but I'm going to say it like I see it. And if I

00:16:41.380 call, I mean, we have called Tamara Leach a political prisoner and I'm sorry if that hurts

00:16:46.400 the judge's feelings. I absolutely believe in that. I believe that the 49 day trial was an

00:16:52.380 absolute circus i'm sorry it was sorry to hurt your feelings for having a political opinion

00:16:57.560 um and we'll see how that goes i i uh i don't want to prejudge how this judge will judge

00:17:05.240 maybe she'll say oh i'm going to prove it's water off a duck's back we'll find out anyways if you

00:17:10.380 want to support tamara leach even with her smaller travel restrictions you can do so at the tamaraproject.com

00:17:17.680 That's a website that the prosecution seemed to be obsessed with.

00:17:21.200 Last word to you, Alexa.

00:17:23.460 We don't know where the judge stands.

00:17:25.340 We heard her make an exasperated sound today, and we saw her overrule the objection Lawrence Greenspan had to the admission of my tweets.

00:17:34.100 How do you feel about this, or do you just maybe not have a good enough read on the judge to know?

00:17:38.780 How do you feel about what you saw in her today?

00:17:41.280 I would say that if she is objective, she will base her decision on facts.

00:17:47.680 what is happening right now and the fact that Tamar Alic needs to work and she needs to do it freely.

00:17:54.920 But if she is more emotional, I think she will, like, go with the mean tweet that she found and she heard 0.96

00:18:02.500 and she might rule in disfavor of Tamar.

00:18:07.020 Well, I sure hope that doesn't happen and we'll be there by her side.

00:18:10.640 We have been there by her side since the beginning, as you know, Rebel News,

00:18:14.660 with our partners at the Democracy Fund, crowdfunded her legal defense, which I can

00:18:18.900 assure you was no small amount for the country's longest mischief trial in history. And by the way,

00:18:26.220 the Crown Prosecution, Doug Ford's prosecutors, they're relentless too. They're appealing her

00:18:31.700 sentence. They want it to be harsher, if you can believe it. So this battle is going to continue

00:18:36.500 for a while, but we're going to continue to be on Tamara's side, paying her to have a job,

00:18:41.600 which I mean she lost her job because of this whole prosecution so giving her a meaningful 0.90

00:18:47.000 job where she can express herself complying with the limits of that sentence in terms of travel

00:18:51.880 we're going to continue to stand by her side and hopefully you'll stand with us at the

00:18:56.040 tamaraproject.com thanks for coming in from Montreal today my friend Alexa Lavoie and I'm

00:19:01.840 Ezra Levant we'll talk to you soon hey one more thing is you know um we thought the court case

00:19:06.760 was going to start at 10 it didn't start till after 11 so I was sitting there listening to

00:19:10.740 some of the other cases and there was one guy in the mornings cases uh from iran became a permanent

00:19:17.980 resident of canada in 2014 so that's 12 years ago he needed a persian interpreter so he's been here

00:19:24.800 for 12 years and he doesn't have a working command of the language he's unemployed his family is back

00:19:31.300 in iran including a 14 year old son and he was there for shoplifting he had shoplifted at the

00:19:39.680 local loblaws and he had five previous convictions and he had other convictions of other sorts and

00:19:45.460 he was supposed to be on good behavior this guy just keeps getting again and again and again and

00:19:50.860 again and again convicted arrested he's not even a canadian citizen and i so i'm baffled again to

00:19:58.040 see our system where you have a foreign national repeat offender just absolutely will not stop 0.64

00:20:06.220 committing crimes and the light, light touch that criminals like him get compared to a political

00:20:14.040 activist like Tamara Leach, who's been put through the wringer. I just couldn't help think there's a

00:20:18.820 guy who shouldn't be in our country, hasn't learned the language, is of no economic benefit,

00:20:24.540 and spends his time stealing. And to compare how he's treated to Tamara Leach is disgraceful. Yeah,

00:20:32.860 that's what I'm talking about. And you're damn straight. I'm going to continue to criticize 0.91

00:20:36.100 Canada's judges. Let me jump in again to give you more of the details of the tweets that were

00:20:42.600 admitted into evidence. Like I saying, the prosecution had nothing on Tamera Leach. She's

00:20:47.080 been 100% compliant with her sentencing conditions. That's not just my point of view. That's the

00:20:53.200 parole officer. So there really was nothing to ask. So the prosecutor filled the time by going

00:20:57.840 after my mean tweets. And they were mean. I called the trial a circus. I said the judge was

00:21:03.060 gross. I said it was an inside job. Ottawa trial, Ottawa prosecutor, Ottawa judge, Ottawa results. 0.96

00:21:10.880 Trying to think of whatever else I said. I called her a Karen to use the negative nickname from 0.64

00:21:16.740 COVID times. It was probably the most critical things that judge has ever heard because everyone

00:21:22.200 in a courtroom is generally very deferential. The only question is, will she brush it off,

00:21:28.240 water off a duck's back, because it's completely irrelevant to the question at hand, or will she 0.85

00:21:33.060 even subconsciously punish Tamera Leach? Because I had sharp words for her on Twitter a year ago. 0.90

00:21:39.100 We'll find out. When the University of Toronto turned a shared all-faith prayer room into a

00:21:48.380 Muslim-only space, we told the story. Then U of T tried to get our video taken down. Today we're

00:21:54.660 following up on what happened after YouTube rejected their censorship attempt. Scarlet Grace

00:22:02.360 with Rebel News. Back in May, I reported that U of T's multi-faith center officially re-designated

00:22:08.460 the convenient ground floor open assembly space in the Bayhen Center for Information Technology

00:22:14.060 as a dedicated Muslim prayer room.

00:22:16.720 They cited heavy daily use by Muslim students

00:22:19.520 and promised upgrades,

00:22:21.780 including prayer mats, storage, and ablution stations.

00:22:25.760 Jewish students who had long relied

00:22:27.340 on that same central location for daily prayers

00:22:30.080 said they were effectively pushed out.

00:22:32.320 The new full carpeting made praying with shoes on,

00:22:34.840 a common Jewish custom, impractical, uncomfortable. 0.80

00:22:38.020 Loud group prayers disrupted quiet individual observance

00:22:41.240 and anti-Israel materials appeared in what was supposed to be a neutral space.

00:22:46.860 When concerns were raised, U of T's response was to point to other rooms elsewhere on campus.

00:22:52.380 When we reported on this, the university filed a copyright complaint against our video.

00:22:57.600 The complaint targeted brief, clearly attributed B-roll of their own public campus spaces,

00:23:03.640 while we covered a story about the university's own policy.

00:23:07.200 The video was removed from YouTube as a result of U of T's copyright complaint and later reinstated after Rubble appealed.

00:23:15.640 We explained that the use was brief, illustrative, and served a clear public interest.

00:23:21.120 It fell squarely within recognized copyright exceptions for news, reporting, criticism, and commentary under Canadian law.

00:23:29.200 law. We also noted that the removal request covered a much broader time range than the

00:23:35.080 actual university footage that appeared. U of T doubled down. After we asked the university to

00:23:41.200 withdraw its complaint, director of media relations, Philippe Devos replied that U of T

00:23:47.940 disagreed, that our use qualified as fair dealing, that attribution, limited duration, and public

00:23:54.280 interests do not themselves make it fair dealing and that the university would not be retracting

00:24:00.700 its copyright removal request. He added that the university reserved all rights and remedies.

00:24:06.640 But YouTube reviewed the claim and reinstated the full video. Even after reinstatement,

00:24:12.360 U of T stood by its position. Was this about protecting creative works or an attempt to

00:24:19.000 intimidate independent journalism and control the narrative on a controversial policy

00:24:23.780 that affects students' religious rights and equal access to campus space.

00:24:28.820 This fits a troubling pattern of institutional overreach at the University of Toronto.

00:24:34.280 A clear example is what happened with Dr. Jordan Peterson, who taught at U of T for decades.

00:24:40.760 Jordan Peterson's controversy at the University of Toronto began in 2016 when he publicly opposed Bill C-16

00:24:48.620 and argued he would not be compelled to use certain gender-related pronouns by law

00:24:53.680 or university policy.

00:24:55.740 Bill C-16 added gender identity and gender expression

00:24:59.200 as protected grounds under the Canadian Human Rights Act

00:25:02.720 and made related amendments to the criminal code.

00:25:05.740 This sparked massive campus protests,

00:25:08.460 intense debates over academic freedom and compelled speech.

00:25:12.620 Peterson argued that university policies

00:25:14.980 and state laws mandating pronoun usage

00:25:18.520 were a violation of free speech.

00:25:20.980 He maintained these demands came more from activist ideology than natural linguistic evolution.

00:25:28.520 The department received widespread media attention as his lectures drew protests from LGBTQ plus student groups.

00:25:35.460 University administrators warned him that refusing requested pronouns could violate the Ontario Human Rights Code

00:25:42.300 and the Ontario Human Rights Commission issued statements noting that insisting on the wrong pronoun could be considered discrimination.

00:25:50.980 Following his resignation in 2022, his ongoing highly publicized statements on social media and podcasts regarding gender reaffirming care and politics in general led to public complaints.

00:26:05.100 So the College of Psychologists of Ontario required Peterson to complete a media training program, a mandate upheld by an Ontario court which rejected Peterson's argument that his public commentary was separate from his professional status as a psychologist.

00:26:23.500 I also think that if there was a naturally evolving solution to the linguistic problem that's being posed by a small fraction of the transgender community, that people would have already adopted it.

00:26:35.160 We've never had a situation in the usage of English before that required legislation to produce a transformation in the manner in which people spoke. 0.97

00:26:45.080 That's a very dangerous precedent.

00:26:46.640 So we're seeing a bit of a pattern here. When someone challenges prevailing campus ideology, whether on religious accommodation, free speech, or public policy, institutions reach for regulatory tools or public pressure to bring them in line.

00:27:06.380 In our case, a major public university tried to use a copyright complaint as a tool to suppress news reporting.

00:27:13.640 Public universities receive taxpayer dollars.

00:27:17.360 Students of every faith deserve equal access to shared spaces rather than second-class treatment based on their beliefs, based on demographics.

00:27:26.700 Canadians deserve journalism that isn't suppressed simply because it may embarrass powerful institutions.

00:27:33.320 YouTube ultimately sided with fair use and reinstated the video.

00:27:37.900 But the question remains whether U of T will respect that decision and stop trying to control coverage of its own actions.

Rebel News Podcast - July 23, 2026

EZRA LEVANT ｜ I took the witness stand for Tamara Lich today — here's what happened

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