Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Ireland’s free speech crackdown： A stark warning for Canada

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00:00:30.000 Tonight, fighting for freedom across Ireland is May 21st, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.

00:00:39.500 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:00:51.600 Ezra Levant here for Rebel News. I'm in a beautiful town called Wexford.

00:00:55.740 It's in Ireland. Behind me, an abbey that goes back to the 12th century.

00:01:00.740 Incredible history. And Ireland and the United Kingdom,

00:01:04.740 these are places from which Canada came.

00:01:07.740 In fact, there's three million Irish Canadians.

00:01:10.740 I've fallen in love with Ireland over the last few years

00:01:12.740 as I've come here to report on politics,

00:01:14.740 including the populist rebellion against mass immigration

00:01:18.740 and how the empire strikes back.

00:01:21.740 What I mean by that is the government, to stop criticism of government policies, especially on mass immigration, have brought in more and more censorship.

00:01:30.740 And we're concerned about that.

00:01:32.380 We believe everyone should have freedom of speech.

00:01:34.740 And we also know that if a precedent is set in a place like Ireland or the United Kingdom or, God forbid, the United States, it will reverberate back home in Canada, too.

00:01:44.260 One of the things we hear from Mark Carney, besides his desire for us to be more European,

00:01:49.820 is that his censorship bills are in lockstep with those from other countries,

00:01:55.100 from New Zealand to the United Kingdom.

00:01:57.320 And we have to keep an eye on what those other countries are like.

00:02:00.480 And in Ireland, it's a small country, and there isn't a well-developed independent media.

00:02:06.600 And the freedom parties are few, far between, and divided.

00:02:12.720 The dominant establishment politically and journalistically in Ireland is left-wing, globalist and censorious.

00:02:20.980 So we come here because we like to tell the other side of the story,

00:02:24.000 not just for Canadians and Americans to learn what's going on in Ireland,

00:02:27.620 but also for Irish people to learn what's going on in their own country.

00:02:31.860 Today's been a very interesting day.

00:02:33.880 Today we met three different Irish men who are being prosecuted by the government

00:02:39.100 and who faced the possibility of prison time all for words, not deeds, not for harming anyone, just for mean tweets.

00:02:48.440 I'll tell you more about two other cases on another occasion, but today's focus is the case of Kirk Loco,

00:02:56.080 a man who was part of a neighbourhood watch group and retweeted someone else's post about a danger that a 14-year-old girl faced on a public bus.

00:03:08.500 A migrant man allegedly exposed himself to her.

00:03:12.580 This caused a shock to the girl.

00:03:14.720 The bus driver was asked to stop the bus.

00:03:16.740 The police were called.

00:03:19.180 There were witnesses to it.

00:03:20.400 And what Kirk did is he simply retweeted the sister's post about what happened.

00:03:27.020 Well, he was charged, and he's being prosecuted for a kind of fake news crime,

00:03:33.500 even though what he said seems to be the truth.

00:03:37.400 Enough from me here in beautiful Wexford.

00:03:39.740 Here's my interview with Kirk Loco after court today in the town of Bray.

00:03:47.080 Ezra Levant here for Rebel News.

00:03:48.980 I'm back in Ireland, one of my favorite places.

00:03:51.720 I'm in Bray, but I'm not here for tourism.

00:03:53.960 I'm here outside the court because Kirk Loco has been charged with fake news.

00:03:59.220 He's being prosecuted.

00:04:00.420 He could theoretically end up in prison.

00:04:02.800 and this is your eighth time in court already

00:04:06.420 and the trial hasn't even begun.

00:04:08.500 Yeah, I believe so.

00:04:09.660 I've been in so many times,

00:04:10.760 I think I'm starting to lose count.

00:04:12.480 So I was arrested twice.

00:04:15.700 They also asked me for a voluntary interview,

00:04:18.780 which I actually did as well,

00:04:20.100 and they've conveniently left that out of the evidence book.

00:04:23.860 Today was the first time that we saw a little bit of action,

00:04:26.340 if you will, in the courtroom.

00:04:28.100 My barrister, Alicia de Bruyne,

00:04:30.200 done an absolutely fantastic job there.

00:04:32.500 I watched it, and I'll get into that.

00:04:34.040 But first, just give our viewers a little bit of a refresher.

00:04:36.680 What did you do that has caused you to be called to court eight times?

00:04:42.240 You did something that I think all of us do just almost without thinking,

00:04:45.340 but the police decided to make a federal case out of it.

00:04:48.000 Tell us what you did that's got you into the soup.

00:04:51.820 Yeah, so I got involved with the protests down in Newtown, Mount Kennedy,

00:04:57.940 which you've attended previously yourself, and we had a brief chat down there as well.

00:05:00.920 there was a an illegal migrant center that was being set up and they were going to essentially

00:05:05.940 put up to 160 illegal migrants into tents and these are all military age migrant men like it's

00:05:12.140 all men that's it exactly it was all men you were on site as well you've got the footage there you

00:05:16.380 tried to interview them they wouldn't they wouldn't talk to you at all but um yeah the community set

00:05:20.980 up a watchdog kind of a group a whatsapp group and one of the residents there put some information

00:05:25.920 into a WhatsApp group, and it was already out in the Matrix, shall we say.

00:05:30.400 It was already put out on social media.

00:05:32.000 There was an accusation that her younger sister was on a bus,

00:05:34.980 and one of the migrants there allegedly exposed himself on a bus

00:05:39.120 going towards her hometown of Newtown Mount Kennedy.

00:05:42.640 And she was just a teenage girl.

00:05:44.980 Teenage girl. She was 14 years old at the time.

00:05:46.840 We're two years on now. She's approximately 16 now.

00:05:49.320 And I essentially took a screenshot of that accusation

00:05:52.760 that was already out in the Matrix, if you will, online.

00:05:55.920 and an image of this guy.

00:05:57.740 No, it wasn't indecent or intimate.

00:05:59.820 It was an image of the guy, fully clothed.

00:06:02.800 And yeah, it was already out there.

00:06:04.200 I essentially just retweeted information.

00:06:06.560 So you didn't make this up.

00:06:07.980 You didn't confect it.

00:06:09.180 You didn't cook this up.

00:06:10.600 You saw this being reported by someone who said,

00:06:12.920 my sister had this happen.

00:06:14.700 So it reads to me like a very credible accusation.

00:06:18.380 You didn't rev it up.

00:06:20.680 You didn't exaggerate it.

00:06:22.720 Like you said, it's like a community watch. 0.95

00:06:25.080 you it was basically a warning to other women be careful of this bus that's exactly it and we

00:06:32.760 acted together you know in the sense of a community watch and we thought we were doing the right thing

00:06:38.720 now i think you were but the police disagreed didn't they they do at the moment uh hopefully

00:06:44.680 when this goes to it is due for hearing now in october the 16th and my legal team of leach de

00:06:50.280 They're doing an absolutely amazing job.

00:06:52.280 We're going to fight this all the way.

00:06:54.280 We believe we've done the right thing here.

00:06:56.280 Now, today in court, my barrister, Leesha de Bruyn,

00:06:59.280 she raised two issues.

00:07:01.280 So the first issue was around bail conditions,

00:07:04.280 which we believe they were very, very...

00:07:06.280 They were banning you from any political activity,

00:07:08.280 any protest of any sort.

00:07:10.280 What that has to do with your tweet

00:07:12.280 or getting you to show up in court, I do not know.

00:07:14.280 I mean, the primary purpose of a bail condition

00:07:17.280 is to make sure you show up.

00:07:19.280 up you've shown up eight times and yet they had this weird ban that you couldn't

00:07:25.100 attend any political anything any protests of any sort that's weird yeah

00:07:29.600 it's complete overreach as far as we're concerned it's political persecution I'm

00:07:33.680 a political dissident to them and they just want to shut me down citizen

00:07:37.340 journalists too that's how we first met basically that's it exactly yeah I've

00:07:40.340 got a big mouth basically and I speak well it's the Irish way you got a touch

00:07:44.000 of the blarney in you yeah I suppose so yeah I when I see something that I feel

00:07:47.720 is an injustice I feel I have to speak out and that's exactly what I've done and on the back of

00:07:51.860 my work down in Utah Mount Kennedy my account just exploded and like in the week of the riots back

00:07:56.700 there in April of 2024 like my account had about 10 million views on it and like I think there's

00:08:02.300 you know national broadcasters that would be very happy with those numbers I think that's why the

00:08:06.760 police came for you is they wanted to scare you silence you hassle you the process is the punishment

00:08:12.260 But there's a little bit of good news today. The judge agreed to relax the bail restrictions.

00:08:18.240 You're not allowed near a refugee centre, an IPAT centre as they're called here in Ireland,

00:08:22.520 but you are now allowed to go to any other protest in another location. 1.00

00:08:26.240 So I think that's a bit of a win.

00:08:28.180 Absolutely. I'm delighted with that. A bit of breathing room there.

00:08:31.740 The foot is off the neck just a little bit.

00:08:34.700 So, yeah, they put it into wording on my bail conditions that I cannot attend protest full stop.

00:08:40.580 Now we've got a little bit of breeding room.

00:08:42.660 If it was a protest, as we've had recently, we had fuel protests here in Ireland.

00:08:46.280 We were there for that. That was amazing.

00:08:47.960 Absolutely amazing.

00:08:49.240 And now I'd be allowed to go to something like that,

00:08:51.660 and I wouldn't be breaking my bail conditions.

00:08:53.360 I wouldn't be in breach of them.

00:08:54.340 So I have a little bit of leeway.

00:08:55.500 Now, here's what I thought was so riveting today.

00:08:58.080 And I've been following this case.

00:08:59.360 I read about it in the mainstream media.

00:09:01.220 And then I was here for your court case a few months ago.

00:09:04.520 Today, your lawyer made another application as well for further and better disclosure.

00:09:09.980 because, and here's why I think this is so important.

00:09:13.080 You've been charged with basically publishing fake news,

00:09:16.320 even though, as you've just described,

00:09:18.440 it was a good faith republication of someone else.

00:09:20.760 You didn't make this up.

00:09:21.980 You saw something, it looked credible.

00:09:23.980 There was a photo.

00:09:25.340 Someone said, my sister.

00:09:26.960 So it was very credible.

00:09:29.520 Well, it's not just a theory that it's credible.

00:09:32.100 Apparently, the police came

00:09:34.580 because someone complained to the bus driver.

00:09:37.560 The bus driver stopped the bus,

00:09:39.160 went back and this is all on there was a video camera in the bus there was a security camera in

00:09:45.020 the bus and and the driver stopped and went to talk to the migrant man and that closed circuit

00:09:53.560 tv is evidence and there were five people there a couple of women a couple who was there was but

00:10:00.560 the police did not follow up with any of these witnesses it's as if they don't want a corroboration

00:10:08.160 not only do i think you didn't make fake news i think the underlying story is actually worse

00:10:15.700 than you described that's now listen we haven't had the trial yet i'm just speculating here i'm

00:10:20.960 speculating but the police so vigorously reacted and rejected your lawyer's request for more

00:10:28.880 disclosure why would they do that why wouldn't they want all these facts to come out why wouldn't

00:10:34.180 They want the witnesses to be named because they didn't even name them.

00:10:37.800 But we know they were there.

00:10:39.760 Well, you use an interesting word that you said they don't want to corroborate it.

00:10:43.220 They don't want the truth.

00:10:44.600 That's what they don't want.

00:10:47.080 They're the ones with the fake news narrative.

00:10:49.720 It sounds like you actually caught a big fish here.

00:10:53.480 Possibly.

00:10:54.080 We'll wait and see, as you say, when we go to the hearing.

00:10:55.600 Now, I'm of the opinion that they don't want the truth to come out.

00:10:59.220 so today

00:11:02.080 Leisha de Bruyne

00:11:02.820 mentioned the CCTV

00:11:04.960 and people that were

00:11:06.140 mentioned in that

00:11:06.860 there's at least

00:11:07.660 six people

00:11:08.400 a minimum of six people

00:11:09.520 possibly seven

00:11:10.380 that have not been identified

00:11:11.940 now I was going to

00:11:12.980 but the Gardaí

00:11:13.420 the police know who they are

00:11:14.680 they're claiming

00:11:16.560 that they don't

00:11:17.300 that they haven't been identified

00:11:18.480 now I'm going to rewind

00:11:19.560 a little bit back here

00:11:20.500 so this is my seventh

00:11:21.420 appearance if not

00:11:22.220 possibly my eighth

00:11:23.360 so my very first

00:11:24.700 court appearance here

00:11:25.380 on December the 8th

00:11:26.720 they tried to put

00:11:28.120 fear into me and to take a plea deal instantly of guilty.

00:11:33.220 Well, that's really what they want to do.

00:11:34.480 They want to get you to renege your own views.

00:11:37.760 So on December the 8th, there's a very infamous word that was used on that court appearance.

00:11:41.740 They said that the evidence book was excessive.

00:11:46.980 And, you know, here we are now, what, six, seven, eight months later, and we're pleading,

00:11:51.880 we're begging for a full, proper disclosure.

00:11:54.080 If it's so excessive, show it.

00:11:55.740 Show it.

00:11:56.800 Could it be excessive?

00:11:57.860 when how could it be excessive when we're looking for people to be identified and they're still

00:12:02.380 refusing us that's what happened today we're looking for these extra people that are really

00:12:06.400 really important in this situation to identify to get down to the truth of exactly what happened

00:12:10.340 and they're refusing to identify them and that to me doesn't sound like it's like an excessive or

00:12:17.320 you know evidence book there at all that sounds very nefarious if you ask me in my opinion you

00:12:23.000 You know, Kirk, when I first heard of charges about fake news,

00:12:26.440 I thought, oh, maybe this is artificial intelligence,

00:12:28.900 someone, you know, AI images that are fake,

00:12:32.220 you know, a really good hoax.

00:12:35.020 It's none of that.

00:12:36.440 It was, it's the opposite of that.

00:12:37.940 It's a teenage girl saying what happened to her,

00:12:40.060 her sister publishing it, a photo,

00:12:42.620 closed circuit TV showing something dramatically wrong on that bus.

00:12:46.880 The police intervening, I mean,

00:12:50.180 inspecting, reviewing, investigating.

00:12:54.100 But instead of charging the migrant, man, they charged you.

00:12:57.200 That is so upside down.

00:12:58.920 And I think this case is bigger than just you.

00:13:01.500 Obviously, you're the one in jeopardy.

00:13:03.360 You're the one whose freedom is at risk.

00:13:05.040 You've already been living under these bail conditions.

00:13:07.200 You see your eighth visit.

00:13:08.460 But I think people around the world should know

00:13:10.840 that the Irish government is abusing its laws

00:13:14.880 to silence citizens and journalists.

00:13:16.340 My God, that's what it looks like to me.

00:13:18.820 I would agree, yes.

00:13:19.980 And I'm certainly not the only one.

00:13:21.740 I have mentioned other cases as well.

00:13:23.300 There's a lot of lawfare cases

00:13:26.460 against ordinary, decent,

00:13:29.260 hardworking Irish citizens that are happening across this country.

00:13:33.060 You know, we've had people... 0.59

00:13:34.340 I'll just drop some names like Angela Ray.

00:13:37.380 Lisa Temple is another one recently.

00:13:39.780 There's just so many.

00:13:40.980 Poor Graham Carey as well, who was recently convicted as well.

00:13:44.660 This is a rinse and repeat situation, you know,

00:13:46.620 that's happening day in and day out across Irish courts.

00:13:49.900 And I just want to say thank you again for reaching out and trying to help me with this situation

00:13:55.560 and setting up a crowdfund and trying to help out some of these Irish citizens like myself

00:14:00.200 and getting us out of this spot of bother.

00:14:02.880 But, yeah, I just can't believe I'm eight appearances in for a retweet.

00:14:08.900 And you don't even have done.

00:14:10.220 I mean, the trial isn't even here.

00:14:11.740 Well, listen, we are crowdfunding your lawyers,

00:14:14.380 and it was a pleasure to watch Leisha De Bruyne in action today.

00:14:17.120 We sat in the courtroom as case after case came forward, and it was very different when Leisha stood up.

00:14:24.900 She had a charisma.

00:14:27.200 She had a strong command of the law.

00:14:30.060 She was referring to important precedents and got your bail reviewed and adjusted.

00:14:36.720 I was actually quite enthused by that.

00:14:39.440 I was frustrated that the judge didn't give you more disclosure now, but it sounds like that's something you can ask for at trial.

00:14:45.400 I'm hopeful. This is not a lost cause. And I think that it's important to fight with strong lawyers, because when you said they were trying to press you to get a plea deal, that's what they want, not just to get another win, because they want you to recant your views.

00:15:02.120 They want the headline. That's ultimately what they want. You know, it's not just being guilty in a court of law. OK, that's horrifying. But then you've got the court of public opinion.

00:15:11.900 And once they get, you know, your name, your image out there in the red top tabloids, that's it.

00:15:17.720 You're done for in the court of public opinion.

00:15:19.740 And just to make a point on the disclosure as well, you mentioned about the 14 year old girl.

00:15:26.340 Let's be perfectly honest about this here.

00:15:28.080 We've got a 14 year old girl that, you know, has made a claim and she has not been identified in the in the evidence.

00:15:36.660 The Gardaí have not gone and sought out her opinion.

00:15:40.440 really they're so incurious they want they deliberately they deliberately are not asking

00:15:47.980 the right questions that's crazy so you've got a 14 year old you know who allegedly was exposed by

00:15:55.480 this migrant or to this migrant and they've gone straight to the migrants and they've got his

00:16:01.000 statement there we know if he's being charged at all as far as we know it's not obviously

00:16:06.500 help me for the hearing but yeah so you've got this 14 year old girl that makes this claim and

00:16:11.080 they've gone rushing to this migrant and it feels very much like a rehash if you will to a lot of

00:16:18.220 cases that happened in the UK and we've got things like the grooming gangs and things like that nature

00:16:22.800 where young girls that were very vulnerable they were not they were not trusted yeah they have not

00:16:27.640 been listened to and it's still ongoing now with the likes of Rupert Lowe who had the rape gang

00:16:31.760 inquiry recently and sammy woodhouse um you know obviously this was not a of that uh degree it was

00:16:40.740 it was an alleged exposure as opposed to a rape but but i understand your analogy that those girls

00:16:47.400 were told shut up for community cohesion reasons do not talk about and that's that's why they're

00:16:52.780 trying to shut you up i want to get your case crowdfunded i really like your lawyers and it

00:16:58.880 It was a pleasure to see Leisha in action today.

00:17:01.380 She's your barrister, and I met your solicitor, Patrick, as well.

00:17:06.620 It costs money, though, to hire quality lawyers,

00:17:09.160 and that's why we thought, well, this is what we do.

00:17:11.200 You know, we've done this for people in other countries.

00:17:13.340 Folks, if you want to chip in, go to irishfreespeech.com.

00:17:18.280 Kirk is the first person we're helping,

00:17:19.800 but there's other people we're actually going to meet on this trip

00:17:23.040 after we say goodbye to Kirk.

00:17:24.540 I don't want to talk about their cases yet.

00:17:26.520 I want to meet with them and make sure we can agree on what we're going to do.

00:17:31.140 But it's my hope that Ireland can push back against censorship.

00:17:35.500 Censorship in the UK gets a lot of publicity because the UK is so big.

00:17:39.560 And Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are really poking at the censorship in the UK.

00:17:45.920 But in some ways, Ireland is just as bad.

00:17:49.200 I personally think it's worse because obviously you're saying the UK is a lot bigger.

00:17:53.620 We actually have to rely on you. 1.00

00:17:55.160 You're coming from the other side of the world.

00:17:56.520 you know, in Canada, and we're having to reach out to places in the UK, across Europe,

00:18:01.440 to get our stories out. You know, I've got two guys here that are supporting me here today,

00:18:06.380 Tom McDonnell, who's a councillor in Kildare, and John Wilson. They went over to Tommy Robinson's

00:18:11.160 United Kingdom protest at the weekend, and they're getting serious heat for attending that.

00:18:16.540 Well, I was banned.

00:18:18.060 And you were banned, yes. And they went there, you know, to highlight the issues that are

00:18:23.660 happening here in ireland we don't have a voice there's very very little media outlets we have

00:18:29.580 grip media which is a very small funded and relies on subscriptions to get air stories out there

00:18:35.760 all the wrongs that are being done for political dissenters and it's very difficult for us to have

00:18:40.800 a legitimate voice to have it amplified in this tiny little island well i should tell you i mean

00:18:44.940 i've been doing the same sort of thing in the uk for a decade and a decade ago there were very few

00:18:50.740 citizen journalists in the UK now there are dozens maybe even a hundred and I know Phil Dwyer is a

00:18:57.220 citizen journalist and I and I love the team at Gripped so there is little seeds little shoots

00:19:03.420 and you're a citizen journalist too I think that is a big part of the answer we're based in Canada

00:19:09.580 but we care about this theme around the world so this is something we want to tell the world about

00:19:14.580 and Irish people too you know I I agree with you a lot of people in Ireland would like to know the

00:19:20.360 other side of the story kirk we're going to stand with you we've come to terms with your lawyers

00:19:24.220 about paying the bill your job is to stand with your conscience now don't take the plea bargains

00:19:31.180 if they require you to recant your views follow the truth the guardee that's what they call the

00:19:36.200 police here they should be seeking the truth i believe that you and your team are and that's

00:19:40.780 why you have to be supportive folks i i this is a crazy case you could go to jail am i right

00:19:46.500 yeah the sentence I don't think it would but I mean

00:19:49.500 the law permits it am I right? 100% it permits it

00:19:52.940 I believe and I stand to be corrected I could face up to two years in prison

00:19:56.500 for essentially resharing information that was already out

00:19:59.540 in the public sphere which is just absolutely insane

00:20:02.360 and that's something a crime you know that I think

00:20:05.440 everybody is guilty of now I say that you know

00:20:08.700 tongue in cheek we've all taken information and reshared it

00:20:11.360 there is more stuff as well obviously I can't say it now

00:20:14.280 but yeah I took that in good faith that that was entirely true and there is evidence there to prove

00:20:19.880 that I so you had no mental intent intention one of the things about criminal law did you intend

00:20:25.020 like it's not just a physical act like if you brush up against someone by accident that's not

00:20:29.740 assault you retweeted something because you thought in your heart it was real you didn't

00:20:33.920 you had no malafides no bad faith in you this is an important case I it's great to see you again

00:20:40.160 we will come back in October for your next hearing, and we will continue to report on this

00:20:45.480 case all the way to trial. And God forbid, if you're convicted, and I hope that doesn't happen,

00:20:49.900 we'll continue all the way to appeal. I think that this case is something that the Irish government,

00:20:56.520 they made a conscious decision to silence you for political reasons, and you must stand strong,

00:21:02.800 and we'll stand strong with you. Folks, go to irishfreespeech.com, and we'll have more clients

00:21:07.420 ahead with your support you're the only reason we can do this i'm not personally in a position

00:21:12.700 where i can pay for kirk's legal fees myself but with the support of grassroots people we can get

00:21:18.540 it done as we've done in other countries including with tommy robinson that's it for now from the

00:21:23.420 bray courthouse for rebel news i'm ezra levant well that's our show for today today the story

00:21:30.700 the focus was kirk loco and his prosecution under ireland's fake news law his eighth court

00:21:37.180 appearance his ninth court appearance the process is the punishment we'll have two other stories

00:21:42.620 that we've recorded in ireland today we'll show them to you in the days and weeks ahead

00:21:47.260 we're starting something called irishfreespeech.com and i know our main focus as canadians

00:21:53.580 remains canada but we're also involved in fighting for freedom around the world because we know how

00:21:58.220 to crowdfund and we know how to tell the stories of freedom if you believe in helping to defend

00:22:03.580 Kirk Loco, and we'll tell you about the other two cases in the days ahead. Do me a favor and go to

00:22:08.300 irishfreespeech.com. I keep thinking of that poem by John Dunn, do not ask for whom the bell tolls,

00:22:14.940 it tolls for thee. We do owe our first loyalty and our first priority to our home country and

00:22:21.740 our families and our communities, but I think it behooves us from time to time to help fight

00:22:26.460 for freedom around the world especially in a cousin country like ireland good night keep fighting for

00:22:34.620 freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - May 21, 2026

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Ireland’s free speech crackdown： A stark warning for Canada

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