Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Injustice in Ottawa： The flawed Freedom Convoy trial continues

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. Big show today. I'm in the field covering the Tamara Leach trial in Ottawa

00:00:03.720 while all my colleagues were across Canada covering the Million Parent March against

00:00:08.740 Gender Ideology. I was trapped listening to the testimony in the trial while my friends were out

00:00:13.260 there doing the good stuff. We've got so much video footage for you today. I want you to see

00:00:16.840 it, not just hear it. So please go to rebelnewsplus.com. Click subscribe. It's eight bucks a month.

00:00:22.320 And that may not be a lot of money to you, but it really adds up for us. Eight bucks a month

00:00:25.760 gives you the video version. That's rebelnewsplus.com. All right, here's today's podcast.

00:00:45.420 Tonight, big day in Ottawa to Tamara Leach's trial and a nationwide march of a million folks

00:00:51.960 in support of parental rights over gender theory. It's September 20th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.

00:00:58.080 You've got it for freedom!

00:01:00.940 Shame on you, you censorious bug! 0.86

00:01:12.460 Hi, everybody. Ezra Levant here for Rebel News. I'm in Ottawa at the continuing trial of Tamara

00:01:18.820 Leach and her co-defendant, Chris Barber. Behind me, if you can see it, that brutalist building

00:01:24.740 is the very ugly Ottawa Courts building. So instead, I'm going to turn around and have a

00:01:29.640 prettier piece of architecture. There is some gorgeous buildings in Ottawa, so let's look at

00:01:34.380 that instead. In court, I came a little bit early, and I saw Chris Barber arrive

00:01:39.520 with his lawyers, and I saw Tamara Leach arrive with her lawyers. 1.00

00:01:43.160 Had a little bit of a chat with him as it came in. And then I went in. The trial was scheduled for

00:01:49.900 10 a.m., but it got off to a slow start and then immediately was bogged down in sort of procedural

00:01:55.400 housekeeping issues. And I started to think, hmm, I thought this trial would be sort of humming

00:01:59.120 along smoothly now as it's been going on for more than two weeks. But I realized what a mess it's been

00:02:05.340 how the prosecution, because they switched Crown prosecutors on this case a few months ago. For

00:02:12.620 the first year, the prosecution was led by an absolutely maniacal, vendetta-driven prosecutor

00:02:21.540 named Moise Karimji, who was so hot-temptered and foul-mooted that I think the Justice Department

00:02:29.120 said, we're going to lose it simply by virtue of this guy's atrocious personality. And so just a few

00:02:36.640 months ago, they sacked Moise Karimji as the prosecutor and put in a new team. But of course,

00:02:43.840 the bulk of the Crown's case had been done. So these new lawyers who, from what I can tell,

00:02:50.240 are sort of normal prosecutors, not motivated by a crazy ideological vendetta. I'm not saying that

00:02:55.840 casually, Moise Karimji, senior donor to the Liberals, just a crazy blogger, tweeter, you know, 0.88

00:03:03.040 really a communist. And, you know, it showed good judgment by the Justice Department to knock him off

00:03:10.080 the case. But, you know, the cake was half-baked. And now you've got these two new prosecutors trying

00:03:15.520 to salvage it. It doesn't look good. You know, the Democracy Fund and Rebel News have crowdfunded

00:03:22.880 literally thousands of court cases for people charged with various offenses during the pandemic,

00:03:29.360 during the lockdowns. And hundreds of them have simply been dropped or stayed or withdrawn by the

00:03:36.960 prosecution because there was nothing there. The tickets were issued by police who were being

00:03:41.200 overly aggressive. The laws were poorly thought through and maybe were unconstitutional. Or,

00:03:48.480 you know, on review, it just wasn't worth the government's time to prosecute and to have

00:03:54.080 judges. So, for whatever reason, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of cases have been dropped

00:03:58.480 without trial. And Tamara Leach's case is obviously one such case. I mean, inciting mischief or whatever. 0.99

00:04:06.240 And, like, it's just so laughable that you would have two prosecutors, a judge, and dozens and dozens

00:04:14.080 of days in court set aside for an incitement to mischief trial. If it weren't for the political

00:04:20.480 reputation and the fact that the Crown and the prosecutors and Trudeau doesn't want to lose face,

00:04:26.160 this would be one of the hundreds of cases that was withdrawn or abandoned, just like the no-name cases

00:04:32.640 around the country. The only reason this prosecution is proceeding

00:04:36.560 is because Tamara Leach is famous, and because so many politicians have demonized her, so they have 1.00

00:04:43.840 to see it through. I actually feel slightly sorry for the prosecutors who have to make that work. I

00:04:50.480 don't think it's working, and that was very quickly evident to me. This trial is sort of broken. And I

00:04:56.880 think this is the third witness, and it's been more than two weeks, and the government says they have

00:05:01.680 20 more witnesses, and if it continues at this laughable pace, this will be a trial that takes

00:05:08.160 the rest of the year. And, you know, there's a judgment call the prosecutors have to make. Is the

00:05:14.320 case, is there a reasonable likelihood of conviction? I'm not sure if that's here. Judging from the witness

00:05:21.200 just sort of rambling on about his personal feelings of the lockdown and the convoy, I don't

00:05:27.040 know if they have a case against her, but the second test is, is it in the public interest?

00:05:32.080 And there is a serious judge on the bench here. She was the same judge that oversaw the prosecution

00:05:38.720 of Vice Admiral Mark Norman. You might remember that case from a few years back. He did something to

00:05:44.240 cross Justin Trudeau. So Trudeau whipped up a case, basically tried to frame Mark Norman, and there was

00:05:52.480 this whole trial, and then there was some prosecutorial misconduct that was discovered

00:05:56.880 halfway through the trial. And so there was a very speedy dismissal, and the government was

00:06:04.320 humiliated. They apologized. I think they paid his legal fees. This same judge oversaw that. So what I

00:06:10.240 like about that is this judge knows the kind of political BS that is sometimes in this tale,

00:06:17.040 and there is no, simply no way that she can't detect that same BS here in this case. And what I want to

00:06:24.000 point out is that the witness who I, I mean, I did listen to this witness. His name was Kim Ayotte. He's

00:06:29.360 the city manager for Ottawa in charge of emergency things. So yes, he was involved with the city's

00:06:37.440 response to the cowboy. Absolutely. But he testified today that he never once had any interactions with

00:06:45.280 Tamera Leach. Never once. I don't think he's ever met her to this day. He had a brief interaction

00:06:50.800 with Chris Barber, the co-defendant, but it was all about how to keep lines of communication open

00:06:56.320 between the city and the truckers, and how to move some trucks away from residential areas to

00:07:01.440 other places. So it was actually a very positive interaction, if I understood his testimony. But for

00:07:08.640 half an hour today, he described a walkabout he did. He just went for a walk,

00:07:14.320 and he went on this street and that street and he saw this truck and he saw that bouncy castle.

00:07:20.720 And the whole time I'm thinking, okay, I'm ready for your point. Okay, this is a trial of two people

00:07:24.960 who are charged with a very specific criminal charge. You have to prove certain elements of

00:07:29.840 the charge, what they did. I'm ready for it. I'm waiting for it. And it never came. It just never came.

00:07:37.680 And he's been going for two or three days now. And he's just sort of meandering. It reminded me of

00:07:43.920 that TV show, I don't know if you've ever heard of it, What We Do in the Shadows. It's a vampire

00:07:49.120 comedy. And it's a very obscure, quirky comedy. And they have these vampires who speak with European 0.92

00:07:56.000 accents. And it's very funny. But there's this character in this comedy called Colin Robinson.

00:08:01.120 And they always call him by his first name and last name. And he doesn't look like a vampire at all.

00:08:06.320 He calls himself an energy vampire. And he's just the kind of person that maybe you know of in your

00:08:12.240 office who is just so irritating and speaks so slowly and just says things that you find frustrating.

00:08:20.560 So this character in this comedy, Colin Robinson is an energy vampire. Here's a quick clip to show

00:08:26.320 you what i'm talking about. Are we having a house meeting? No. No. So your gathering here is just a

00:08:36.400 coincidence? Yes. I am what's known as a psychic vampire or energy vampire. Energy vampires drain

00:08:46.640 people's energy merely by talking to them. Actual versus budget year to date? No thanks. You're gonna be at that all day.

00:08:53.280 The power grows stronger in him by the night.

00:09:01.920 I'm just gonna do a quick mega feed and then I'll be right back. Mr. Robinson, are you here?

00:09:06.880 I'm holding up a finger indicating to hold on a second. I'll be right back. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:09:11.200 Evie. Evie. Emotional vent. Oh, hell. It's on, Evie Russell. Oh, it's on. I like your skirt. 1.00

00:09:32.560 You should be careful because mauve attracts bees. I was wearing this skirt when my sister got her 1.00

00:09:37.360 cancer diagnosis. Cancer isn't usually what kills you. It's the treatment. She was killed by a drunk 0.98

00:09:43.840 driver. He was my fiance. Violence often begins at home. Studies indicate. I've never had a home.

00:09:53.200 We don't have to be enemies. Have you ever considered hunting with a partner?

00:09:57.680 The thought has only recently crossed my mind. 0.99

00:10:07.920 It is a dick clip. What is that? Hey dudes. It's me, Colin Robinson, your roommate. 0.99

00:10:13.920 Yeah, Guillermo's here too. He was running around peeing himself. I didn't pee myself, master.

00:10:18.160 I was walking by this hardware store and I says to myself, Colin, you should go in and see if they have

00:10:23.200 any umbrellas for the well. I made sure to keep the receipt. I'm going to probably take it back.

00:10:27.600 You can do that on non-food items. Is he zapping our energy?

00:10:30.640 He's taking advantage of us. Shut up. Do you not want me to say, I'll go. 1.00

00:10:39.440 Just giving you guys guff. Yeah, that's what I thought of when I saw Kim Ayo just and I walked

00:10:45.120 down this street and I walked down that street and I saw a bouncy castle and they were dancing and that

00:10:50.560 was illegal. He literally said it was illegal to dance in Ottawa without a permit. And at that point,

00:10:56.000 the judge herself just had to weigh in and said, are you serious? But what's crazy to me is this guy's

00:11:01.200 just rambling on and they've got 20 odd more witnesses to go. Just they're just going to ramble.

00:11:07.040 I don't even know what they're going to, what they're going to say. Um, because they, I mean,

00:11:12.960 this is not a trial of the whole convoy. This is a trial of two individual people. Um, most famously,

00:11:18.240 Tamara Leach and this guy has never met or talked to or texted or interacted with Tamara Leach.

00:11:24.800 And even as he was saying when I walked down the street, but I didn't gather evidence, I'm

00:11:28.720 I just did it as for observations. Well, if you, if you just said you gathered no evidence,

00:11:34.160 if you didn't take notes, if you, if nothing, why are you giving evidence? If you just said you

00:11:39.760 didn't collect evidence and the evidence is just a general complaint about the truckers. You heard

00:11:45.440 some honking. We know that Walter Cronkite, we know, you know, thanks for the news update. There

00:11:51.280 was honking. We know that. Can you please tell me how that goes to the criminal charge of inciting

00:11:56.000 the shift of Tamara Leach? And I don't know how long this judge is going to let this go because

00:12:00.560 she's a busy woman, a serious woman. There are serious matters in this court to deal with. There 0.89

00:12:04.800 are real crimes in the city. There are people in prison awaiting their trial. There are real matters

00:12:10.080 afoot. And to give such prosecutorial resources to, to this laughable case. I mean, I, I thought,

00:12:17.440 am I wrong here? I mean, I don't practice law. I'm a former lawyer, but I don't practice law. Do I

00:12:21.920 really know these things? But I, I spoke to two lawyers who said, yeah, this is crazy. And then I

00:12:28.400 walked in and there was a lady who introduced herself to me and said, she's been coming every day. 0.98

00:12:33.600 And I said, well, you certainly must have a lot of patience if you're coming back every day.

00:12:37.760 And she said that she's a former court reporter, like the stenographer who has to listen to all

00:12:42.800 this stuff. And she says, she's never seen anything like it. Let me tell you one more

00:12:47.840 anecdote. I used to know a senior lawyer who practiced defamation law, and he said he was

00:12:53.200 never afraid of the defamation notices that were 20 pages law. He said he was afraid of the ones that

00:12:59.840 were one or two sentences law. He said, because if someone's complaining about one specific thing,

00:13:05.840 odds are they got you. But if they need 20 pages to tell you why you're wrong,

00:13:10.720 odds are they got nothing. And that's what I was thinking about today. They've got more than 20

00:13:16.480 witnesses about how Tamara Leach is guilty, but I'm not sure if any of them have ever even met her.

00:13:23.280 They're just telling these rambling stories like Colin Robinson, the energy vampire. And they're just

00:13:28.800 going on and on and on. And it reminds me of what that senior lawyer said. If you've got the goods,

00:13:33.440 you only need a few sentences. The very fact that they need two dozen witnesses says they don't have

00:13:39.760 anything. And I think it's a sham that this continues as long. I did notice that the judge

00:13:44.800 was starting to lose her patience. And I just can't imagine that she will allow this abomination of a

00:13:50.320 prosecution to continue for the 80 days that will be needed if they stay on this page. I just can't

00:13:56.640 believe that. And I hope that her experience in the Mark Norman case will inform her dealings in this

00:14:03.920 case. Hey, I'm enjoying being in court. I like live tweeting. You know me. I like I was just the other

00:14:08.720 day in court in Lethbridge for Arthur Pavlovsky's case. I love typing as fast as my fingers will fly.

00:14:15.120 I love paying close attention to what the lawyers say and what the judges. I really enjoy it. But I can't

00:14:20.560 say I'm enjoying this because it's there's nothing there. It's like a fog machine. This guy came out.

00:14:26.720 He wasn't saying anything. There was nothing to type. And so I was just left with my own

00:14:31.040 mockery and cynical thoughts on the whole thing. I can only imagine what people who have to pay attention

00:14:36.880 like the lawyers and the judge are thinking we heard from that former court reporter.

00:14:41.200 Anyways, it's lunch break now. So I'll be back after lunch.

00:14:44.800 Hi there. The trial is over for the day, but it will go on for many weeks,

00:14:48.960 maybe even many months. It is going at a snail's pace. I have to say listening to this city bureaucrat

00:14:55.680 testify today. It was excruciating. And I'm not just talking about his tone of voice and his vagueness

00:15:02.160 and his evasiveness. He literally had nothing to say about Tamara Leach. The words Tamara Leach only came

00:15:07.840 up once in the entire day when he confirmed he had never met her, spoken to her, emailed her,

00:15:14.160 texted her. He literally knows nothing about Tamara Leach. And yet she is on trial here. He meandered

00:15:20.880 and talked about all of his deepest thoughts, his personal feelings about the lockdown. At one point,

00:15:25.920 he talked about going for a walk to observe things, but not to collect evidence. Well,

00:15:31.040 why is he giving evidence on that? Lawrence Greenspan, the lawyer for Tamara Leach, the lead

00:15:35.600 lawyer, there's three of them, cross-examined Ayotte. And I didn't understand what was the point of it.

00:15:41.040 I mean, Ayotte really had nothing of substance to say, but what became clear to me is that Greenspan

00:15:46.560 was proving that everything the truckers did when they came into Ottawa was approved by the Ottawa Police

00:15:54.880 Service. Here, listen to what he said in a scrum a moment ago about how, what route they took,

00:16:01.840 where they parked, what they did was all approved by the Ottawa Police. Take a look. You tell me if

00:16:07.520 this is outside the scope of what you feel comfortable answering. I listened to the day's

00:16:13.440 testimony by Kim Ayotte, and I don't know how it touches on the guilt or not guilt of the two accused.

00:16:20.800 It sounds like he's just talking about the convoy. Help me out here. Well, I can't really help you out.

00:16:27.040 That's the job of the Crown is to tie the evidence of this witness and the other ones that have been

00:16:32.640 called and will be called to in support of their charges. That's, that's the Crown's job. And they've

00:16:38.400 got to do it beyond a reasonable doubt. And the only time you heard Tamara Leach's name today was 0.99

00:16:44.800 that he had had absolutely no contact with her. So at what point does, do you object or does the judge

00:16:51.200 say, look, we just can't rehash the whole commission of inquiry? We've got to talk about the, the two

00:16:57.360 accused sitting in the, in the dock. Well, it's, you know, it's, it's completely a different matter. I

00:17:03.280 mean, what the commission was looking at is, as you know, is, uh, the propriety of imposing the, uh,

00:17:08.880 emergency measures, uh, act. And what we're talking about here is a, uh, a trial on very specific

00:17:15.600 charges for Tamara and, uh, for Chris. Thanks. Do you see how that's important? If the Ottawa

00:17:22.080 police were working cooperatively with the truckers and approved everything the truckers did, how is

00:17:27.760 that mischief? In fact, one of the most interesting things was that the Ottawa police said to the city

00:17:32.560 bylaw officers, don't issue any tickets without our approval because we've got an agreement here.

00:17:39.600 Look at Lawrence Greenspan say that in the scrum. Let me ask you, what does it mean when the city

00:17:45.360 was not permitted to ticket without the approval of the police? What's the meaning of that?

00:17:50.400 Well, it's, it's, uh, you heard, uh, Mr. Ayotte say that, uh, the city basically was under the, uh,

00:17:59.520 direction, uh, of the Ottawa police service and that they were completely, the Ottawa police service

00:18:04.320 was completely responsible for operations. Uh, and the, uh, and the city of Ottawa police, uh, told,

00:18:10.720 oh, uh, a told bylaw basically, you don't ticket in the red zone unless you have our approval.

00:18:16.080 And they didn't. What does that, what does that mean though? What, what's the political or,

00:18:20.960 or the import to your clients?

00:18:22.320 I guess that's for us to figure out. Stay tuned.

00:18:27.600 I like Lawrence Greenspan. He's a smart lawyer and he's got patience and he's got an attention span,

00:18:34.160 which he's going to need if this is indeed going to go on for weeks or months. But what I don't

00:18:38.640 understand is how it could do so. Look, I understand the prosecution has an empty gas tank here. I

00:18:44.880 understand they want to throw everything at this in the hope that something sticks. And I understand

00:18:49.520 that they are being pushed to do so by their political masters, Justin Trudeau, the police,

00:18:54.960 the mayors, everyone is demonized to Merrill Leach. So they have to push on with this prosecution,

00:19:00.800 even if it has no legal basis. But does the court have to listen to it? And do the prosecutors have to

00:19:06.960 continue on, even if they themselves come to believe that there is no reasonable prospect of

00:19:11.760 conviction and that there really isn't any public interest in him. It's very interesting. I have to

00:19:16.320 say this. I will not be back at this trial if this is how it goes. I'm delighted that I have colleagues

00:19:23.040 with bigger attention spans than myself, but I simply can't bear listening to these, I'm going to 0.95

00:19:29.360 swear here, to these bullshitters, these bureaucrats, these, these people who have nothing to say 0.92

00:19:36.160 about Tamera Leach because they never interacted with her. I don't give a care about what Kim A 0.99

00:19:41.760 Ott, some city bureaucrat, has to say in slow motion for hour after hour after hour, his personal

00:19:48.880 reflections. And I heard a horn honk and I went for a walk and I saw a bouncy castle. I don't care.

00:19:57.440 This isn't a therapy session. This isn't a dear diary. This is a criminal trial of Tamera Leach and her 0.96

00:20:03.600 co-defendant, Chris Barber. And the two of them were barely mentioned today. I think Lawrence

00:20:09.200 Greenspan is doing a good job by proving that what little Kim A Ott has to say proves that the

00:20:17.760 convoy was actually lawful. So I think he's done a good job in that. But I myself don't have patience for

00:20:23.280 80 more days of fog. And this is actually a disgrace to the prosecution. You know, in this city in recent

00:20:32.880 weeks, there have been murders. There have been shootings. There was a shooting at a funeral in

00:20:37.520 this town. And in this court, police sit and they wait to testify to talk about a trucker convoy that we

00:20:47.440 all know what happened. They're sitting in here countless hours and countless days to come.

00:20:55.680 I've seen enough to know that this is a political trial, a show trial, a sham trial. There is no

00:21:02.480 public interest here. If Tamera Leach was not famous, this matter would have been withdrawn or stayed

00:21:09.040 months ago. I think what happened is an out of control, maniacal prosecutor named Moise Kashimji

00:21:17.200 put this train in motion. He scared his own bosses that they pulled him off the file and handed it to

00:21:23.840 two slightly less maniacal prosecutors. But they're stuck with it. And I think they feel compelled to

00:21:29.120 see it through because they're so they would lose too much face for them to pull out now. But I say this,

00:21:36.080 I have never been as confident as I am now that Tamera Leach will be acquitted. And even watching this

00:21:44.080 judge slowly lose her patience with the BS of these government witnesses is an amazing thing to see. 0.99

00:21:51.760 Every person in this courtroom is getting paid, by the way. The judge, the prosecutors,

00:21:57.360 these government bureaucrats who are testifying, every person except for Tamera Leach and her husband,

00:22:03.120 because the process is the punishment. I think maybe that's it. Maybe the reason the prosecution is

00:22:08.560 calling dozens of witnesses who will take months to go through is simply that this is the sentence.

00:22:16.080 They know she'll be acquitted. They know she'll be vindicated. They know that I think it's 52 days in

00:22:21.840 prison now or 49 days in prison that she served is punishment for a crime she did not commit. So they

00:22:28.800 know that she's going to walk free at the end of this trial. So they're going to make the trial itself

00:22:32.880 the punishment. Taxpayers are being punished a long way along the way. And every other justice-seeking

00:22:40.240 Ottawa and everyone else in this city who says, can I please have some policing for a real crime,

00:22:45.840 they are being taken advantage of too. Anyway, that's my report from here in Ottawa. Maybe I

00:22:50.160 have too short an attention span and I should be listening rapturously when this city bureaucrat gives us

00:22:56.960 his personal take on what it felt like to hear the horns honking. But frankly, I don't give a damn.

00:23:03.360 Luckily, I've got colleagues who will be here to report on the rest of the trial. It's a very

00:23:07.360 important trial for us to do.

00:23:24.400 All right, I'm standing outside the Ottawa courthouse where I was in prison today. No, I wasn't

00:23:28.480 technically in prison, but it sure felt like a prison. I had to hear some bloviating bureaucrat

00:23:33.440 emote all day about how the horn honking made him feel. It had nothing to do with Tamera Leach's

00:23:38.560 trial and everything to do with him expiating his frustration that the peasants came to the capital

00:23:43.840 city and honked their horns at him. Anyways, something else more important and more interesting

00:23:48.400 was going on in this town. I don't know about more important. It's important that Tamera Leach

00:23:52.080 be acquitted and vindicated, which I believe will come. But in Ottawa, in Calgary, in Vancouver,

00:23:57.520 in Edmonton, in Regina, in Hamilton, in Toronto, in Montreal, across this country,

00:24:01.520 we had 14 reporters in seven cities following the Million Person March in support of kids and

00:24:10.160 parental rights against this gender queer extremism that targets kids for... It's just so crazy. And 0.94

00:24:17.760 Lincoln, you were there on Parliament Hill. I was trapped in this courtroom today, so I couldn't

00:24:21.680 really follow it. I was retweeting your stuff. Why don't you give our viewers a couple of minutes

00:24:26.000 of updates of what you saw? And then we'll throw to some video clips that you took. So

00:24:30.800 why don't you just tell us, in your own words, what happened? So today we attended the One Million

00:24:35.040 March for Children. And as you mentioned, these were marches that were happening all across Canada. So

00:24:41.120 myself, Robert Krychek, Kian Simone, we were at the Ottawa March, okay? And I have not seen this many

00:24:49.280 people on Parliament Hill since the Freedom Convoy, the Truckers Convoy. I also haven't seen the amount

00:24:56.160 of police that we saw since the Freedom Convoy. Tons and tons and tons of Canadians were there to

00:25:03.360 basically speak out, protest, demonstrate against the indoctrination and sexualization of their

00:25:10.320 children in schools, whether it's the school curriculum, the gender ideology. They're just here to take a 1.00

00:25:15.680 stance. And it was welcomed with many counter demonstrators who simply believe that there's

00:25:21.680 nothing wrong with what's going on in our schools. So it was a bit of a contrast. Now, as always,

00:25:28.560 or as usual, people who say they're against hate and against violence, well, they're often the haters

00:25:34.800 and the violent ones. Tell us about some of the physical scuffles that happened on the Hill.

00:25:40.080 Yeah, well, one that happened to myself and to Kian and I was, we saw Jagmeet was...

00:25:48.560 The leader of the NDP. Yeah, Jagmeet, sorry. Jagmeet Singh, the leader of the NDP,

00:25:53.040 was standing with the counter demonstrators. So we wanted to hopefully have a chance to speak to him.

00:25:58.080 So we couldn't get very far. We probably stepped about five feet. Let me just explain. So the counter

00:26:04.480 demonstrators are on one side, the demonstrators are on one side. So the police were splitting them up,

00:26:09.200 tons of police. So we tried to step maybe five feet into the other side, I guess, where we're

00:26:16.160 not welcomed, and we were quickly stopped. Stopped by whom? So one of the counter demonstrators,

00:26:22.000 a lady who basically just told us not to go any further, which was followed by another man who was

00:26:28.160 very, very aggressive. I'm sure we'll be able to show some of the footage, but he got right in our face,

00:26:32.640 asked us what the heck we were doing there, why are we there, grabbed my camera, grabbed it again,

00:26:38.000 and tried to toss my camera down. Luckily, I had it around my neck. If I didn't have the camera on my

00:26:43.280 neck, that thing would have dropped for sure because of the amount of force that was used. 0.88

00:26:47.680 So that's the one thing I don't understand. These people, they claim they want rights for everybody.

00:26:53.280 They want to protect their kids, protect, quote unquote, trans kids. But it seems that the

00:26:58.800 demonstrators are the ones that are the peaceful ones. And there's a lot more anger coming from

00:27:03.680 the counter demonstrators. Just my observations. So you say there was a ton of cops and the two

00:27:09.040 sides were kept apart. And that sounds good. Again, I haven't really seen it. I've been in this

00:27:12.320 court all day. But did the police see that Antifa trans guy put hands on you and your stuff? Did the

00:27:20.880 cops see that? No, I don't think any cops saw. I'm not sure for certain, but we were kind of behind a

00:27:26.640 bit of a crowd. So I think we were tucked away. So I don't know if they saw it. Were you hurt? No,

00:27:31.280 we have the footage though. We have my camera angle. We have Kean's camera angle. So we have

00:27:36.800 it all covered, right? So a couple other things to note. There was a few people detained as well

00:27:42.320 at the protest. What were they detained for? So I don't know if they were arrested, detained,

00:27:46.400 but they were definitely taken into police custody for a short period of time. But there seemed to be

00:27:50.240 some sort of a feud between flags being one of the rainbow flags. I'm not sure what type of rainbow flag.

00:27:55.920 I saw that flag get stomped on. Was that one of the things? Yes,

00:27:59.680 which ultimately led to the flag being stomped on and it just led to a kerfuffle. And next thing you

00:28:05.280 know, police were dragging a younger gentleman outside of the protest and they took him away.

00:28:11.200 And ultimately, I don't know if they arrested him or what happened. I guess we might find out.

00:28:15.360 Now, there are some colorful characters on both sides. I think on the pro-family side,

00:28:23.520 the colorful characters, I think, for example, of the young guy, Josh Alexander.

00:28:26.800 Maybe I shouldn't call him a colorful character because that implies that it's a checkerboard

00:28:32.800 color. I mean, there's a principled young man who's been kicked out of his own Catholic school

00:28:36.960 for standing up against a trans ideology. He's routinely physically attacked by the other side,

00:28:42.240 and he sort of takes it as a punching bag. And I've never seen him fight back,

00:28:48.240 which is sort of amazing for him to go in as a kind of sacrificial lamb to prove a point.

00:28:54.800 He's a very interesting young man. Did you see him on Parliament Hill? And if so,

00:28:58.640 was he targeted? Maybe I'm not describing him properly. I like the guy if it's not clear.

00:29:02.880 Tell me what happened to him if you saw anything.

00:29:04.560 I didn't see anything happen to Josh Alexander. I don't think any altercations,

00:29:09.840 any confrontations actually happened with Josh Alexander. But Josh is really a trailblazer in this

00:29:16.800 whole movement. Student activist, kicked out of his high school, has had all sorts of trouble for standing up

00:29:23.520 against the gender ideology that we're seeing being pushed in schools. So kudos to Josh. And we did

00:29:29.680 an excellent interview with Josh. Robert interviewed Josh that you'll be able to see in the full report

00:29:34.240 that we release. Okay, great. And how about other folks? For example, was Billboard Chris there? I think

00:29:39.040 Pastor Henry Hildebrandt was there. Tell me if you saw any other names from the freedom movement.

00:29:43.360 Yep. Well, so we saw Maxime Bernier was the only politician that I saw there. Now, I might be wrong

00:29:53.280 about that. There may have been other politicians. But the only politician that I saw was Maxime Bernier.

00:29:57.760 A lot of people were asking where Pierre Polyev was. A lot of people were asking that wasn't there. I

00:30:03.040 guess people are wondering where he stands on this. So we did also speak to the organizer of the protest.

00:30:08.720 And who was that? I can't remember his name off the top of my head.

00:30:12.000 A student, activist, a Muslim person, I understand. Was that who was? A Muslim activist?

00:30:16.480 Yes. Yes. And I believe he's been running or he's been organizing some of the movements that we're

00:30:20.880 seeing. Well, that's very interesting because in the past, Justin Trudeau has counted on the Muslim 0.97

00:30:25.680 demographic as a voting bloc. I see today Trudeau put out a tweet just calling folks transphobes and

00:30:32.960 homophobes. There was a distinct Muslim presence in many of the cities. In fact, there was a video

00:30:38.480 clip. Maybe it was yours. I saw some Mennonites walking next to some Muslim women in hijabs in 0.63

00:30:45.040 sort of a common cause. If I was Justin Trudeau, I would be careful about calling anyone who objects

00:30:51.520 to gender ideology a transphobe, a homophobe, because I'm going to guess that that's 80,

00:30:57.120 90 percent of the Muslim community. And Trudeau is basically telling them that they're hateful. 0.98

00:31:03.200 Well, yeah, you bring up a really good point that I want to share with the viewers is that

00:31:06.640 this protest, just like the truckers convoy, it's people from all walks of life, all flavors,

00:31:12.880 every single type of person is here. And it's not about vaccines. It's not about anything. This is

00:31:18.000 something that a lot more people are able to jump on board with and stand behind because it's very,

00:31:22.880 very obvious that something really strange and not right is happening in our schools in Canada.

00:31:30.240 You know, the trucker convoy was two things that Trudeau is not. It was ethnically diverse

00:31:35.920 and it was working class. And I sense that this movement here, this parents movement, is ethnically

00:31:44.160 diverse. And it may be working class as well, since the fancy PhD, you need a PhD to believe 0.81

00:31:51.120 gender theory. Like there's some things that are so dumb that you have to have a PhD to believe it. 0.96

00:31:55.280 So I would imagine that there was some overlap demographically between this and the trucker 0.98

00:32:00.960 convoy. And I think it's dangerous business for Trudeau to smear it. When Trudeau starts calling

00:32:06.000 people transphobes or homophobes, you know he's sort of in his go-to panic mode, change the subject,

00:32:11.280 lash out. I don't know if it's working anymore.

00:32:13.200 No, no. And if you're on the ground here, you can really see that the names, the name calling that

00:32:21.520 Trudeau, the labeling that Trudeau, the division that Trudeau tries to create, it's not working.

00:32:28.160 We saw that today. People are very fed up with what's going on with the government and everything

00:32:33.520 that's stemming below because of the federal government, the liberal government. So a lot of

00:32:38.400 people have questions. There's not a lot of answers. And it's kind of a gray area. We don't

00:32:43.360 know if this gender ideology, the sexualization, the indoctrination is going to continue in schools,

00:32:49.600 if there's anybody that's going to be able to put a stop to this. Because right now,

00:32:53.440 it seems like it's full steam ahead. And we don't know what the future has in store.

00:32:57.680 Well, very interesting. And like I say, you were one of 14 journalists that we had deployed

00:33:03.760 across the country, which is actually the largest project we've done since the trucker convoy. When

00:33:08.720 I, if I recall, we actually had like 19 people in the field. It is a huge national movement. It's

00:33:14.880 sometimes I call it the under news. What I mean by that is it's the news that real people talk about,

00:33:20.400 but the regime media, you know, they want to talk about global warming and they want to talk about

00:33:24.720 Ukraine and they want to talk about anything other than what real people are talking about.

00:33:29.120 It's the kind of news that percolates beneath the surface. It's the same way with the trucker convoy.

00:33:32.960 The fancy pants journalists were scared and they stayed up in their towers and they didn't dare come

00:33:38.080 down with the, you know, the ruffians. I think there's a similar, a similar thing going on now. 0.96

00:33:45.200 Let me ask you about that. Did you see any regime media by which I mean, CBC, CTV, global,

00:33:52.480 even these days, I put Post Media in their Globe and Mail, Toronto Star. Did you see any regime media?

00:33:57.120 Yep. Mainstream, mainstream media, regime media, legacy media, whatever you want to call them. They

00:34:01.840 were. Oh, you did? Yep. They were on the ground there. Yeah, they were, they were reporting on it.

00:34:07.920 They were in the streets reporting on it. Now, what's going to come out of those reports? I guess we'll

00:34:12.560 have to wait and see. We'll wait and see if there's a narrative that they're trying to push or a narrative

00:34:16.800 created, but I guess time will tell and we'll, we'll see in the days ahead what kind of perspective

00:34:21.520 they're putting on the, on the protest. Well, that's an improvement over their, uh, convoy

00:34:25.680 coverage where they just huddled under their desks and were afraid of the honking. Well, Lincoln,

00:34:29.600 great to catch up with you. Thanks very much. I'm sorry that you were physically aggressed,

00:34:33.840 uh, today, but it thankful God, it sounds like you were more shocked, uh, and surprised than hurt.

00:34:40.160 Is that right? Yeah, it's just the camera. It was just the camera and it was more of a shock

00:34:43.920 than anything because I never had my camera grabbed so aggressively. I was glad you had

00:34:48.160 the strap on around your neck, although I hope that didn't hurt. You know, the, the violence

00:34:51.520 you just suffered there is more violence than the entire truck or convoy committed in its entire

00:34:56.960 duration. The, if any side calls themselves anti-hate, that's generally code that they are

00:35:02.240 actually the haters. They're co-opting that word. Well, listen, my friend, uh, congrats on your work

00:35:07.200 here. And, um, I have a new respect for what you and Robert Krejcik have been doing every day,

00:35:11.680 covering the, the Tamara Leach trial. Uh, I love covering trials. I've done,

00:35:16.080 I've covered trials in different cities actually around the world, including in the UK. I, I love

00:35:20.320 it. I'm a former lawyer myself. I love digging in, but this is one of the most useless trials

00:35:25.920 I've ever seen in my life. The witnesses have nothing to say about Tamara Leach. They, they had

00:35:30.400 no dealings with her. They're just giving rambling, you know, therapy sessions about the convoy. I,

00:35:35.600 I myself couldn't even stand one day of it. So I salute you guys for, for being there day after

00:35:40.240 day, keep it up folks. Uh, um, that's the show for today on behalf of, uh, all of us here in the

00:35:48.320 nation's capital and across the country in seven different cities to you at home. Good night

00:35:53.520 and keep fighting for freedom.

00:36:10.240 , stay here.

00:36:11.440 We'll see you next time.

00:36:24.240 It's been on Wednesday.

00:36:26.160 Bye.

00:36:27.680 Bye.

00:36:33.820 Bye.

00:36:34.600 Bye.

00:36:35.240 Bye.

00:36:35.520 Bye.

00:36:36.760 Bye.

00:36:38.140 Bye.

00:36:38.660 Bye.

Rebel News Podcast - September 20, 2023

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Injustice in Ottawa： The flawed Freedom Convoy trial continues

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