Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Is free speech dead？ My depressing day in court

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. I was in court today at the Federal Court of Canada fighting

00:00:03.440 against the censorship of my 2019 best-selling book, The Libranos. What a weird battle,

00:00:10.260 four and a half years later, to be fighting seven lawyers and bureaucrats on the government side,

00:00:15.360 just one lawyer on our side. I'll tell you how the trial went. Before I do that, let me invite

00:00:20.440 you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. That's the video version of this podcast. Just

00:00:25.000 go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe. It's eight bucks a month, which doesn't sound like a

00:00:29.800 lot of money, I know, but it really adds up for us, so it makes a difference. Please consider

00:00:33.760 supporting us. All right, here's today's podcast. Tonight, I'm in court all day here in Toronto about

00:00:54.260 my book, The Libranos. Is it, in fact, an illegal publication? It's September 21st,

00:01:00.540 and this is the Ezra LeVance Show.

00:01:03.220 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:01:08.700 I'm standing outside the Federal Court of Canada building in downtown Toronto's concrete jungle. 0.62

00:01:24.040 I've just spent the morning in courtroom 7C. We have one lawyer. There are four lawyers for the

00:01:31.920 government, two lawyers for the Elections Canada office, two lawyers for Trudeau's Justice Department,

00:01:38.580 and then three bureaucrats supporting them. There are seven government lawyers and bureaucrats

00:01:45.480 fighting against our one lawyer, and of course, there's the entire investigative staff of Elections

00:01:51.700 Canada behind them. I estimate that between the lawyers and the bureaucrats, there are 20 people

00:01:58.280 on the Canadian taxpayer's dime prosecuting me for the book I published more than four years ago called

00:02:05.960 The Libranos. It's actually the most best-selling book that I've ever published. It was a criticism

00:02:11.580 of Trudeau and his corruption, and I footnoted the book intensively. Not a single fact in that book

00:02:18.900 has ever been disputed. It's got that really fun cover for anyone over 40. They know what it refers to,

00:02:27.400 the Libranos. It's a takeoff of The Sopranos, a classic TV show about a mob boss from New Jersey

00:02:36.440 called Tony Soprano. I don't think anyone under 40 knows what that's about, but Trudeau certainly

00:02:43.740 knows what it's about, and he hated that book. And so very early on, I remember it was over Christmas

00:02:50.660 2019. He had Elections Canada investigate me as the author and publisher and that book,

00:02:59.660 and he actually retained two 30-year veterans of the RCMP to come after me. These weren't just,

00:03:07.920 like, I mean, to go after an author and a publisher? Who do you even choose? Well, he found two of the

00:03:13.180 most senior Mounties he could, and he actually got them to go after an author, and they summoned me

00:03:19.820 to their secure headquarters in Hull, Quebec, and they interrogated me for an hour. As you know,

00:03:26.740 I brought a hidden camera in there and recorded some of the crazy things they said, and I want to show

00:03:32.580 you some excerpts from that just to remind you. I'll tell you some of the things they said.

00:03:36.620 They acknowledged there were 24 books published about Trudeau during the 2019 campaign. That's

00:03:44.900 when you publish books about politicians during an election. After the election is over, people aren't

00:03:50.040 that interested in a campaign book. They acknowledged that my book was the only one being prosecuted.

00:03:56.280 They asked me questions about my editorial plans. They asked me about all sorts of ideas that were

00:04:02.320 Rebel News business, and they asked me, and this was very key, why didn't I register the book with

00:04:08.380 the government? Here's some excerpts from that hidden video. Today we're here about Rebel News Network

00:04:14.800 Limited. Oh, I know that, and I'm just asking you to confirm that not a single other loving book of

00:04:23.980 Trudeau is being investigated. But once we're done, if you believe that there should be complaints that

00:04:27.780 No, because I'm not a censor like you. I'm not a bully and a censor. I'm not a bureaucrat

00:04:33.420 looking to justify my budget like you. I go out and earn my living every day, fella.

00:04:41.320 You call in authors to grill them about a book criticizing your boss. Think about who you are.

00:04:47.720 We call the director of Rebel News Network Limited. Yeah, who happens to be the author of the book.

00:04:52.880 I think there's going to be a chapter about you two fellas in the next edition.

00:05:03.520 Do you have any more questions there?

00:05:06.060 Certainly do.

00:05:06.780 The knowledge that you would have or not have of the election act, the Canada Elections Act,

00:05:12.020 when you are planning the book, and you, the new third party rules, because I believe there's

00:05:20.140 some comments on your stuff as well about that. Did you give any consideration of saying,

00:05:25.520 maybe I should register as a third party for this circumstance, or maybe I shouldn't,

00:05:31.920 because of my interpretation of what I'm going to do, or did you not make that determination?

00:05:39.600 Tim, I appreciate the question. Yeah, I absolutely did think about that at great length.

00:05:43.540 Do you want to share any of those thoughts?

00:05:50.280 Well, sure, some of them. I mean, I thought the day I register with the government to write a book

00:05:59.180 is the day we no longer are the true north strong and free. 0.99

00:06:04.400 And if elections Canada's commissioners are stupid enough to prosecute me for writing, 0.99

00:06:13.820 publishing, and promoting a book about an election during an election, then that's an 0.99

00:06:18.340 important fight to have, because we need to roll back these pencil-neck bureaucrats and their 1.00

00:06:24.180 blackface boss, and we need to remind them that we're still a free country. So I thought about it 0.83

00:06:30.400 long and hard, Tim.

00:06:31.340 Well, I enjoyed giving them a bit of a tongue lashing, but they got the last laugh, didn't they?

00:06:35.960 Because they convicted me of publishing an illegal book, and they fined me thousands of dollars. By

00:06:42.400 illegal book, here's what I mean. They claim that that book was actually a campaign document that

00:06:50.100 needed to be registered with the government as if I was a political party. But like I say,

00:06:54.960 there were 24 books published during the election season of 2019. 23 of those 24 books were either

00:07:02.760 neutral or positive towards Justin Trudeau. For example, Aaron Wary at the CBC State Broadcaster

00:07:09.360 published a loving hagiography of Trudeau. That could be called liberal partisan propaganda,

00:07:16.080 but of course it's not, because it's a book. And the Canada Elections Act itself specifically,

00:07:23.840 as you can see here, exempts books and the promotion of books, as long as two things are

00:07:30.400 met. Number one, are they sold for a commercial price? Yes, that's the case of Aaron Wary's love

00:07:35.780 letter and my criticism. And number two, whether they would be published regardless of an election.

00:07:41.600 And I don't really know what that means, because regardless of an election now, an election coming,

00:07:48.160 I mean, there will always be an election. There's always the next election. I don't really understand

00:07:52.780 that. Rebel News publishes books about Trudeau all the time. I publish one called Trumping Trudeau.

00:07:58.720 I publish one called China Virus. We talk about Trudeau every day. This one was time to coincide

00:08:05.960 with the election campaign, like the other 23 books published about Trudeau. I was never asked

00:08:12.340 if I would publish it regardless of an election, because I don't even think the question makes

00:08:17.280 sense. There will always be an election if elections were somehow suspended in Canada. Well, I think we

00:08:22.320 would publish that book and many more, don't you think? But instead, in order to convict me,

00:08:29.680 because my book was totally legal, it was sold out of commercial value,

00:08:33.240 and it was published regardless of an election, they needed to change the law just for me to

00:08:40.380 weaponize the Canada Elections Act against an author for the first time in history. Never before in

00:08:46.520 Canadian history has a book been prosecuted or fined under the Canada Elections Act. It's never

00:08:52.920 happened before. And my book, I mean, I like the book. I think it's a good book, but it wasn't

00:08:57.340 particularly startling. It wasn't particularly innovative. It just criticized Justin Trudeau.

00:09:02.620 The same way books historically have criticized Stephen Harper or Brian Mulroney or Jean-Cretien

00:09:08.600 or whomever. So Elections Canada made a sneaky little change. Although, and let me put it on

00:09:15.300 the screen one more time, as you can see here, Canada Elections Act says the test is, was it

00:09:21.060 published at a commercial rate? And number two, would it have been published regardless of whether it's

00:09:25.560 an election? Yes and yes. But Elections Canada changed the rule just for me. They said, no, no,

00:09:33.600 no. If you timed the election to coincide with a campaign, that's against the law. And Levant

00:09:40.700 admitted he did that, so we got him. Yeah, that's not what the law says. And like I say, all 24 books

00:09:47.380 about the 2019 campaign were published during the 2019 campaign, that is when you publish

00:09:52.880 books, it would be sort of crazy to write a book about the election campaign and then wait until

00:09:57.720 the election is over to publish a book about the election campaign. That doesn't make any sense.

00:10:02.080 That's why that's not in the law. But that's how Elections Canada's sneaky little lawyers changed 0.99

00:10:07.580 the law to get me. They couldn't get me under the law, so they changed the law and they fined me

00:10:14.100 $3,000. Now I'm in this position from time to time. $3,000 is a lot of money, but it's not going

00:10:21.080 to bankrupt Rebel News, thank God. And so we had a choice, just pay the $3,000 and grumble and move

00:10:27.700 on or say, whoa, what are you doing? Why are you criminalizing books and writing them? And since

00:10:36.860 when do we summon authors to secret meetings where they're being interrogated by senior RCMP

00:10:44.020 officers about their politics? And they went through our tweets and they went through our

00:10:48.860 videos. When does that happen? Since when do police do that? And so we did the principal thing

00:10:55.540 that we like to do is we go to court and we appeal. Now the first time you appeal an Elections Canada

00:11:00.480 ruling, you appeal it within Elections Canada itself, which is rather ridiculous. The same people

00:11:05.920 go through it and review it. So obviously we were convicted a second time. Today we're in the Federal

00:11:11.860 Court of Canada. And like I say, there are seven Trudeau staffers in court versus our one lawyer.

00:11:19.460 I'm excited to be in court and I'm excited to test this and I'm excited for the fact that we're the

00:11:23.480 only people who would do this. I'm also sad that we're the only people who would do this.

00:11:29.020 I got to say in Canada, I can think of five organizations off the top of my head that are

00:11:33.660 supposed to care about freedom of the press and freedom of speech. There's something called the

00:11:37.760 Canadian Association of Journalists. There's something called Canadian Journalists for Free

00:11:41.820 Expression. There's a Canadian Civil Liberties Association. There's Penn Canada, of which I'm a

00:11:47.480 dues-paying member. There's Amnesty International. There's five right there. Not one of them has even

00:11:53.500 said a word, even tweeted a word, let alone put out a press release, let alone sent lawyers to intervene

00:11:59.900 in court, let alone said, hang on a second, since when do we summon authors to an interrogation? Since

00:12:07.260 when do we find authors for a book? And this, of course, was a book. It's for sale as a book. It

00:12:13.120 was an Amazon bestseller. It actually sold more copies than the other 23 books combined. It's a real

00:12:19.560 book. And by the way, who's right is it for the police to determine what's a real book or not?

00:12:25.060 Anyways, but obviously the Libranos is a real book. You yourself might even have one. By the way,

00:12:29.740 it's still for sale on Amazon. So none of those five so-called civil liberties groups were there

00:12:36.180 or were anywhere. I was sitting in the court alone with my lawyer. That's okay. Sometimes we're alone

00:12:43.980 and we fight those lonely battles and we win. It's a wonderful feeling. A couple of weeks ago,

00:12:48.840 we beat Stephen Gilbeau. We had a consent order commanding him to unblock us on Twitter and pay

00:12:55.420 us $20,000 in costs. And the reason I call that a victory is it depoliticizes the government.

00:13:01.860 Politicians can't block or ban their enemies list just because they don't like people. I thought that

00:13:06.600 was a big win. We're in court today, but I have to say, and this is, I'm talking to you now at noon.

00:13:12.440 I'll do an update later after court. I have to say, I don't think it's going well. Our lawyer is making

00:13:19.520 the case, but the judge, there was one moment where the judge in particular said, and I'm

00:13:24.700 paraphrasing, well, what's the big deal of having to show the government your plan, your plan for the

00:13:30.260 book, your marketing plan, your editorial plan? What's the big deal? Are you kidding me? What's

00:13:36.360 the big deal? Now, by the way, look at the Canada Elections Act, the line before the book exemption.

00:13:41.280 And by the way, it's an exemption, not just for books, but for the promotion of books. And they

00:13:46.360 really hate the fact that we promoted this book with a lawn sign that had three words on it,

00:13:51.360 buy the book. They hate that lawn sign because it was so much fun. Anyways, both books and the

00:13:57.100 promotion of books are exempted, but look at the line right before it in the Canada Elections Act.

00:14:02.140 Obviously, it exempts editorials, letters, opinions, because if anything weighing in on an election

00:14:08.400 is a government regulated activity, well, then every single human with an opinion would be treated

00:14:14.480 like a government problem. So imagine a judge saying, oh, what's the big deal of an author

00:14:21.300 having to go down to the police and explain them? So what's the big deal to tell your plans? Well,

00:14:25.960 what's the big deal about any journalist? What's the big deal about anyone having, you know what,

00:14:29.780 we live in a free country. That's a big deal. And the idea of journalists being summoned to talk to

00:14:34.240 the police is what they do in dictatorships, not in Canada. And I'm really worried. Now, I got to say

00:14:39.040 that maybe the judge was just asking these difficult questions to see what my lawyer would

00:14:43.320 say in response, but I'm not sure. She seemed to genuinely think it's no big deal for us to have

00:14:50.060 to go and sit down and answer questions and be grilled by a couple of 30-year RCMP vets just because.

00:14:57.480 And there was one moment where an Elections Canada lawyer said, yeah, we most likely violated

00:15:03.620 Rebel News's charter of rights and charter rights under the charter of rights and freedoms. She

00:15:09.080 actually said that. And there wasn't there weren't gasps in the courtroom, the courtroom being just

00:15:15.120 me and a bunch of lawyers. It was just a matter of fact. Yeah, sure. We probably did violate Rebel

00:15:20.400 News's civil liberties. Yeah. Welcome to Canada in 2023. Now, the day's not over, but I'm not sure if

00:15:28.140 it's going to get any better because up next are the Justice Department lawyers who are going to be

00:15:33.320 arguing that this is fine and this is normal and that's Canada. Look, I'm a little bit depressed

00:15:38.320 about this. I mean, I think that part of Rebel News is to fight the uphill battles, to fight the tough

00:15:44.420 battles, to be contrarian, to be non-compliant. We never take the easy way. It's just not in our blood.

00:15:51.820 For the last three years during the lockdown and the forced vaccine mandates, we didn't take the easy

00:15:57.240 way. We stood with those who had no friends. We were friends to them. We, in fact, created a whole

00:16:03.480 civil liberties group ourself to provide lawyers for people charged with lockdown offenses or pandemic

00:16:08.960 offenses. So we are with the friendless. Today, it just feels odd to be the friendless one myself.

00:16:17.600 I mean, listen, I know you're my friends, but it feels odd to have the establishment institutions

00:16:22.200 so unfriendly, to have a judge who's just so blasé about government being able to interrogate

00:16:28.680 journalists, to have an Elections Act lawyer so blasé about violating our rights. And, of course,

00:16:35.280 all this happened in 2019. That's when the election was. That's when the book came out.

00:16:40.800 But since then, we've learned so much about election interference in Canada, especially by the

00:16:44.860 Chinese Communist Party. And just a couple of weeks ago, Elections Canada put out a report,

00:16:50.300 and they didn't even mention the word China. Blacklocks had that story. So here we are with 1.00

00:16:56.900 seven lawyers and 10 investigators. We've got close to 20 people bearing down on little rebel news from

00:17:03.840 my little book. And that's a higher investigative priority for them than the Chinese Communist Party

00:17:11.360 literally interfering in elections and probably tilting the outcome in several of them. I don't know.

00:17:17.920 Sometimes people say, why do you fight? Move to Florida, they say. I heard that a lot during the

00:17:22.520 lockdowns. We fight because this is our home. We fight because we know it can be better. We fight

00:17:27.960 because you never know when a victory will come. We've had some surprise victories before. In this

00:17:34.580 same court in 2019, Justin Trudeau tried to block us and our reporters from attending the election

00:17:41.360 debates. We went to this court and we won. It happened again in 2021. Like I say, just a couple of weeks

00:17:46.960 ago, we beat Stephen Gilboa. So you can win these David and Goliath battles. I think though, when you

00:17:53.840 look at the numbers, we probably lose more than we win because we're going uphill, because we're going

00:18:00.640 against the grain. I don't know. I think this is an important fight. What do you think? Maybe it's

00:18:07.060 not important. Maybe it's just one book and the fines are only $3,000 and just pay it and grumble and move

00:18:11.340 on. But I can't stand the thought of a country where police do that and get away with it and they

00:18:16.520 do it at the behest of a politician. There was a moment in court today when the lawyer for the

00:18:23.060 canon elections was going through one of David Menzies' videos and was so mad that David Menzies

00:18:29.120 said, we got to get rid of Trudeau. Going through our tweets. And I thought, frankly, who the hell are you?

00:18:35.840 Who the hell are you? I'm not interested in your opinion about my political views. 0.98

00:18:41.900 And back to what I think this turns on, the law itself.

00:18:49.020 The fact that the government cannot get me under the law because we published the book

00:18:53.720 for a commercial price and we would have published it regardless of whether there was an election or

00:18:58.720 not. It doesn't even make sense, but of course we would have. They had to change the law in their own

00:19:04.640 mind to get us. Well, you scheduled the book for the election. Yeah, us and everyone else. That's

00:19:10.140 what publishers do. I know I'll be deeply dispirited and my faith in justice will be shaken

00:19:18.580 if some partisan weaponized bureaucrats can make up a new law and go after Trudeau's enemy and tag him

00:19:27.200 just to please Trudeau. And if the courts shrug about it, I don't want to be depressed. The trial is

00:19:33.220 only half done. And who knows? Maybe the judge has a poker face. Maybe those tough questions for my

00:19:38.020 lawyer were just the judge putting my lawyer to the test. Maybe the judge has within her heart 0.99

00:19:42.980 a love for civil liberties that I just don't know about.

00:19:47.320 We're going to go back into the court now because we're only on a short lunch break.

00:19:50.780 I'm going to leave you with an update from another trial that's going on today,

00:19:55.720 namely the trial of Tamara Leach in Ottawa. I was there yesterday and I felt very confident for

00:20:00.680 Tamara Leach because the prosecution's case is so pitifully weak. By the way, yesterday in Calgary

00:20:07.280 was the trial of Derek Reimer, the pastor who protested peacefully outside a drag queen story

00:20:13.240 hour. Rebel News is also crowdfunding that legal fight. We're into so many legal fights. Sometimes

00:20:18.560 I think we're a law firm that actually occasionally does some journalism as opposed to the other way

00:20:24.180 around. Let me leave you with an update from Ottawa and then I'm going to come back to you

00:20:29.900 after court here is done for the day. And I'll let you know if the second half of our hearing

00:20:35.620 is more encouraging than the first half. But let me promise you this either way. You know me.

00:20:40.620 You've known me for a while. I've been running Rebel News for almost nine years now and I was a

00:20:45.500 political activist and journalist for years before that.

00:20:48.540 Even if we lose, you know I'm not going to stop fighting. I'll appeal this if we lose

00:20:54.800 and we will fight. You know what? I'm going to write another book about Trudeau and if he wants

00:20:59.280 to arrest me for it or jail me or sentence me, bring it on. I'll come back to you in a moment.

00:21:05.820 Robert Krejcik here for Rebel News in Ottawa, Ontario, the nation's capital at the one million

00:21:23.800 March for Children. It was a massive demonstration. Looks like thousands of people to me.

00:21:29.200 People came out here to oppose what they described as sexual indoctrination of children

00:21:34.460 being thrust upon them within public schools. The message that I heard over and over again was

00:21:41.360 that people are not here to hate anyone, to denigrate anyone, to suppress or segregate or

00:21:47.680 dehumanize anyone. It's a peaceful protest simply to defend the innocence and sanctity of children

00:21:53.900 against what I call the LGBTQ enterprise. If you value and appreciate our on the ground work 1.00

00:22:00.280 reporting that you won't get anywhere else, please understand that we can't do this for free

00:22:05.240 and stay up to date with our coverage at stopclassroomgrooming.com and please contribute

00:22:11.560 what you can. So we were here on the ground from the beginning of this demonstration.

00:22:17.060 We got to speak with all flavors of Canadians, many of them, all sorts of backgrounds, professional,

00:22:23.260 geographical, religious, ethnic, racial, professional backgrounds. And we're going to share some of

00:22:28.080 those amazing talks with you right now. We also got to speak with some interesting figures

00:22:32.840 of public interest, such as Maxime Bernier. We also spoke with Camille, one of the organizers

00:22:37.840 and others. So stay tuned and enjoy the video.

00:22:40.520 I'm here today, like a lot of these people, because of a breakdown in the political system.

00:22:58.280 Doug Ford was elected two terms ago to scrap the liberal sex ed agenda, despite, you know,

00:23:05.200 so many people just wanting to be focusing on math and science and literacy, and it didn't happen.

00:23:11.760 So there's really no solution right now, I think, for a lot of these people.

00:23:14.880 What's important is that kids get the education that they need, not that somebody else wants them

00:23:20.040 to have. I've got 10 grandsons who the younger ones don't need to know this. They need to know

00:23:28.880 how to survive in life with education, not indoctrination.

00:23:34.400 I just don't think that children like me should have their decisions made by a corrupt school system

00:23:42.080 or a corrupt government. I think that my parents know best for me. I don't think that the government

00:23:49.220 knows what's best for me.

00:23:50.840 Well, the issues are my children being in schools where they promote sexualization.

00:23:59.400 This is something that is very inappropriate. It should stay closed. And why are you promoting

00:24:04.920 in schools? And they say, oh, you know, they're the minority and they're being discriminated

00:24:10.200 against. I'm a minority too. Where's my flag?

00:24:12.520 It's about our kids. As you know, we want to be sure that kids would be protected because right now,

00:24:21.640 education is not education anymore. It's indoctrination. We must stop that.

00:24:26.200 Well, I got a 16 year old in public education. She's coming home with horror stories about teachers 0.96

00:24:33.080 encouraging students before class to get up and either identify or, you know, come out as you will.

00:24:40.440 And no, I don't agree. We need to keep that out of schools. We need to keep it academic,

00:24:44.600 chemistry, math, science, physical education.

00:24:47.160 Well, we don't agree with gender ideology being taught in schools. 0.64

00:24:54.040 Teachers are there to be teaching math, science, history. Leave the kids out of this gender ideology. 1.00

00:25:02.920 You know, this event is an innocent event for families from coast to coast, for fathers and mothers.

00:25:08.920 And we're just trying to protect Canada's kids, at least up until the age 18. We're not looking to

00:25:14.600 oppress or we're not. This is a peaceful protest. But what's happened right now, I saw Jagmeet Singh and

00:25:21.480 the opposition with the counter protesters going like this to me. And that was incredibly disheartening.

00:25:31.000 For me, it has to do with the parents and the parents rights. We see a lot of counter protests here.

00:25:36.840 And my heart goes out to them in their confusion about what this is about.

00:25:41.480 And that is maintained. The narrative is maintained by a small group of people that don't understand

00:25:48.520 what we're trying to do. We absolutely respect all communities, all faiths, all walks of life in

00:25:55.560 this country, this beautiful country. What we are here to do is to voice our concerns as parents,

00:26:03.000 to protect the children and the indoctrination of children, of things that are not appropriate.

00:26:09.240 I think we've seen quite an incredible march here today. Even I didn't expect it to be that big.

00:26:15.400 Because we had the march spread out through small towns all across the country and cities and everywhere.

00:26:19.960 So I wouldn't expect it to be actually this big in Ottawa. So I'm happy to see that. And I think

00:26:25.640 it was it was interesting to see that face off that happened at the start when the crowds were growing

00:26:29.640 there. And we had we had Jagmeet Singh on the one side and he was he was looking at me making eye

00:26:36.200 contact and like mouthing words at me and stuff. Well, I'm here because the education system and the

00:26:42.040 government is trying to push this sexual indoctrination to our children. How can you teach

00:26:48.360 sexual education about adult teams for sexuality to grade ones to grade eight? This has to stop. And

00:26:56.920 we're concerned grandparents, parents. I mean, our children are there to learn in school, not to be

00:27:02.680 indoctrinated with something that's not theirs. They're taking away our parental rights. They're asking

00:27:07.880 the kids in school, young kids to decide on the gender. I don't think that's right. The kids can't 1.00

00:27:13.400 wake up their minds at that age. And this is just grooming in my eyes. How can we be silent? It says

00:27:20.360 in the Bible, who shall arise against the evil doers in the land? So this agenda is absolutely anti-biblical. 0.55

00:27:30.440 I just want to say that we're not spreading hate. We only spread love. But everyone's free to do what they

00:27:35.720 want. People that don't procreate have absolutely no right to tell us how to raise our children. 0.99

00:27:41.000 They do them and we do us. That's it. You do you, boo, and we do us. We want freedom. That's it.

00:27:47.480 Well, I feel like now it's time to talk because things are going crazier. People have been silent

00:27:54.600 for a long time and then not taking a stand from whatever is happening all around the world, especially

00:28:00.360 in Canada regarding that LGBTQ and stuff like that. But now they're getting so far that they want to 0.99

00:28:08.920 indoctrinate our kids in the school. This is not acceptable.

00:28:12.360 No more silence. No more silence. No more silence.

00:28:17.720 So I think I'm here today to tell that the education level in schools is very bad and they have to focus

00:28:25.160 on math, English and French. As a mom, I'm paying a lot of money for private lessons, private classes for

00:28:30.760 my kids. And instead of sending my kids to learn if they are a boy or a girl or about the sexual

00:28:36.680 identity or the orientation about this, I think they have supposed to focus more on the on math,

00:28:43.320 English, French. It's important to understand that the most important thing in a country is their next

00:28:51.720 generation. Education system is paid by our taxes and we need to be aware what is happening right

00:29:01.160 now in public school. It's anti-science.

00:29:08.040 The medicine by these people, the proponents of puberty blocking, little boys are not little boys,

00:29:17.000 little girls are not little girls. These people are dangerous. 0.99

00:29:21.480 Do you want to share some remarks with us as to why you're here today?

00:29:24.040 Tell us what's on your mind, what the... I'm asking this guy.

00:29:31.000 Trans rights are human rights.

00:29:33.160 Do you want to tell us why you're here today?

00:29:34.280 Trans rights are human rights.

00:29:36.040 Any comment as to...

00:29:36.920 Trans rights are human rights. 1.00

00:29:39.320 Yeah, you're a fucking word. 1.00

00:29:40.600 Anything else? 1.00

00:29:42.440 Anything else?

00:29:43.400 You get this?

00:29:44.280 Trans rights are human rights.

00:29:46.440 Do you want to share some remarks with us?

00:29:47.560 Trans rights are human rights.

00:29:49.800 I guess not. Nobody wants to talk to you for some reason.

00:29:52.120 What's this going on?

00:29:52.840 You don't need to be here.

00:29:53.720 We don't want to be taken.

00:29:54.440 What are you doing?

00:29:55.320 What are you doing?

00:29:56.040 Get out of here.

00:29:57.000 Get out of here.

00:29:57.480 Let's go.

00:29:57.800 Get out of here.

00:29:58.440 Get out of here.

00:29:59.000 Go.

00:29:59.560 Get out of here.

00:30:00.840 Get out of here.

00:30:01.720 What are you doing?

00:30:02.680 You harassing someone?

00:30:03.960 No.

00:30:04.440 Get the in.

00:30:05.960 Is this your friend?

00:30:06.680 People don't want their pictures taken.

00:30:08.760 I don't know.

00:30:09.240 Get the out of here.

00:30:10.840 Oh, you little... 1.00

00:30:12.840 Get out of here. 0.99

00:30:17.000 Go home trans folks! 1.00

00:30:29.880 Go home trans folks! 1.00

00:30:33.960 Come on, drags, folks! 1.00

00:30:35.960 Come on, drags, folks! 1.00

00:30:41.960 We're doing it again! 0.98

00:30:49.960 Drop the head! 1.00

00:30:51.960 Drop the head! 1.00

00:30:53.960 Drop the head! 1.00

00:31:03.960 Try this!

00:31:06.960 Why not how we do this?

00:31:09.960 Free my boy!

00:31:11.960 Free the gang!

00:31:15.960 One out!

00:31:16.960 One out!

00:31:18.960 What did he do?

00:31:20.960 Here!

00:31:24.960 I grew up perfectly fine without any of this, none of it.

00:31:41.220 And it was left up to me the same way it should be left up to them.

00:31:46.000 It almost feels like it's parents against the establishment.

00:31:49.640 So I think that's why a lot of people are here today.

00:31:51.200 It's really not about homosexuality or transgenders or anything like that.

00:31:55.440 I think kids should go to school to learn.

00:31:57.300 I don't think that this stuff should be shoved down our throats.

00:31:59.980 I think we should be learning math and English and things that should be taught at school

00:32:03.360 and not this corrupt sex education stuff.

00:32:06.260 Where is Pierre Polyev?

00:32:08.960 If Pierre Polyev believes he can ignore this, everyone who's here today,

00:32:14.520 they're not here because of the CBC.

00:32:17.000 They're not here because of the print medium.

00:32:19.240 They're here because of their beliefs and their defense of human rights, human dignity.

00:32:26.760 But right now you can hear it.

00:32:28.840 We're here to defend innocent children.

00:32:32.400 Pierre Polyev obviously is still hiding, but I think we'll eventually get the politicians out.

00:32:37.380 They're going to have to pick a side.

00:32:39.700 They're standing there right now with their finger in the wind wondering whether they should join us or not.

00:32:43.800 It's been long enough.

00:32:44.860 I really started being vocal about this about 10 months ago, right, when I got kicked out of school and I'm still not allowed back.

00:32:51.180 The fight is still on, but we're certainly seeing a change in the culture war here and we're winning.

00:32:55.420 I'm looking for Pierre Polyev today and he's not here, but he told the Canadians that he will fight for parental rights.

00:33:04.380 And the best thing to do is to start right now here in Ottawa.

00:33:08.760 And I'm the only national politician that is ready to do that fight, that common sense fight.

00:33:15.740 You know, I get it.

00:33:16.420 We need to be tolerant.

00:33:17.400 We need to be loving to our children.

00:33:18.740 But we cannot be forcing and indoctrinating them in our education system.

00:33:23.420 That's where it needs to stop.

00:33:24.860 These conversations can happen over a dinner table, at home, with family, close people that you love.

00:33:30.120 Sure, certainly.

00:33:31.060 We're not going to stop that.

00:33:32.260 But in our schools, that's where it needs to stop.

00:33:35.020 I'm not a parent, but I'm here for parental rights.

00:33:37.820 To me, that's what the issue is.

00:33:39.460 I don't think that the government, through the form of school boards, should be indoctrinating children behind a parent's back.

00:33:47.900 It's a parental rights issue for me.

00:33:50.700 If you look around, Robert, Canada is united coast to coast.

00:33:55.280 We got Jews, we got Christians, we got Buddhists, we got Middle Easterns, we got whites. 0.94

00:34:01.200 And what we're trying to do is we're trying to preserve Canada's kids for Canada's parents.

00:34:08.760 And we're trying to uphold one flag, and that's the Canadian flag.

00:34:13.780 We have brought them into this world.

00:34:16.400 They are our children.

00:34:17.880 We instill our values within them.

00:34:20.260 And the government needs to respect our rights as parents about what our children are exposed to.

00:34:25.900 I'm not against gay people. 0.52

00:34:27.240 I have gay friends.

00:34:28.240 But this is about pushing this agenda to little kids.

00:34:32.080 That is not okay.

00:34:33.380 I am here because of the kids.

00:34:35.020 They don't deserve to be sex changed. 1.00

00:34:37.740 Any of that bullshit. 0.99

00:34:38.860 Really, it's amazing the things that they are doing against our kids, and I'm against it. 0.98

00:34:43.700 It's about our grandchildren, and not about various small interest groups.

00:34:50.580 It's about the kids.

00:34:52.280 It's called ABC, not LGBTQ. 0.92

00:34:55.080 Well, I've read about all the books that are in the school curriculum that should not be targeted for grade five and six children.

00:35:03.180 Very hyper-sexualized books.

00:35:05.460 And it's not right what they're doing to children.

00:35:07.920 It's against humanity and the children that brings confusion.

00:35:14.240 Therefore, how can we be silent?

00:35:17.120 They're trying to get every single piece of thing they can divide people so they can conquer. 0.51

00:35:22.840 This is exactly what's happening right now.

00:35:24.800 Different from what other people are pushing on you, I think it's really important to show that people actually do care about it.

00:35:31.460 The kids need to be kids.

00:35:33.920 Please keep those things out of our school because let the kids be kids.

00:35:38.380 That's all we're asking.

00:35:39.240 Leave against the Lord!

00:35:41.080 Leave against the Lord!

00:35:41.860 That's the stuff, right?

00:35:42.800 Leave against the Lord!

00:35:44.300 Leave against the Lord!

00:35:49.420 Well, that was an update from our friends in Ottawa.

00:35:58.940 There's a lot of legal action going on this week.

00:36:01.180 It's actually overwhelming.

00:36:02.640 I can't even believe way back on Monday it was Arthur Pawlowski's sentencing in Lethbridge.

00:36:07.800 Tuesday, I was in Calgary fighting against the Calgary Police Service production order yesterday to Meryl Leach.

00:36:14.160 Today, my own matter.

00:36:15.320 It just never seems to end.

00:36:18.180 But I think that's because we've filled a void that has been left by so many others.

00:36:24.060 The court hearing is adjourned.

00:36:27.140 It's done in the matter of Rebel News and the Elections Canada office.

00:36:32.360 The judge has said she's going to reserve her ruling, which means she's going to go back, think about it, do some research, and write it out in long form and send it to us written.

00:36:42.080 Obviously, you wouldn't have a complex constitutional matter like this just spoken off the cuff by a judge.

00:36:49.520 So that's not surprising.

00:36:50.840 It might take days, more likely weeks, or even most likely I'd say months.

00:36:54.680 But I think I know how it's going to go for a couple of reasons.

00:36:58.920 First of all, I learned that some of the lawyers in there for the government, you had some Justice Department lawyers.

00:37:04.160 You also had extremely expensive private sector lawyers hired by the government to squash us.

00:37:10.820 It really was seven against one in there.

00:37:12.820 And, you know, there's this line in the Coen Brothers remake of True Grit.

00:37:18.980 That's a great movie if you haven't seen it, where there's some bandito they're trying to get to do the right thing.

00:37:24.760 They say, we'll give you a good lawyer.

00:37:26.600 He says, I don't need a good lawyer.

00:37:28.160 I need a good judge.

00:37:29.160 And that's sort of how I felt today, because the judge, Justice Strickland is her name, never seemed perturbed at all by the onerous and invasive positions that Elections Canada was taking about books.

00:37:46.460 She thought it was completely normal and acceptable that authors and publishers should have to disclose their plans to Elections Canada to avoid prosecution.

00:37:57.120 I found that very odd and unsettling.

00:38:02.860 The bulk of this afternoon's hearing was the Justice Department of Canada.

00:38:07.540 So that's Trudeau's in-house lawyers.

00:38:10.660 And they were talking a lot about election law and election finance law in general, which is fine, I suppose, as long as it goes.

00:38:19.180 He said some terrifying things, which are, I guess, the position of the government of Canada.

00:38:22.960 He said, for example, unregulated speech is a threat to democracy.

00:38:29.460 That's what he said.

00:38:30.460 I think I have that verbatim, actually.

00:38:32.480 Unregulated speech is a threat to democracy.

00:38:35.560 Really?

00:38:36.320 Or maybe he said a threat to elections.

00:38:38.640 No, that's actually the stuff of elections.

00:38:40.460 It's the regulated speech.

00:38:42.060 The regulations, it's the censorship that's a threat to elections.

00:38:45.940 And this guy represents the government of Canada, and the judge was sort of just taking it all in.

00:38:51.320 No questions, no pushback at all.

00:38:54.300 One of the leading cases that the federal government talked about today was a case actually brought by Stephen Harper about 20 years ago.

00:39:05.160 You might recall that before he was prime minister, Stephen Harper was the leader of something called the National Citizens Coalition.

00:39:10.920 And one of the things they did is they challenged a limitation on election spending, and they lost.

00:39:18.940 Stephen Harper went on to become prime minister and amended some of the laws, if I recall.

00:39:24.400 But it made me think Stephen Harper had to champion free speech 20 years ago.

00:39:31.800 20 years ago, there were still some other civil liberties groups in Canada.

00:39:35.200 Here we are in 2023, almost 2024, and it's fallen to us.

00:39:42.560 Stephen Harper had to fight to the Supreme Court of Canada for freedom of speech, and he lost.

00:39:48.600 And here we are 20 years later, Rebel News is fighting, so far only at the federal court.

00:39:53.800 I hope we don't lose either, but maybe it's a burden that's fallen to us,

00:39:58.680 because maybe just like Stephen Harper knew, if he didn't fight that fight, no one would.

00:40:03.520 Well, maybe if Rebel News doesn't fight this fight, no one would.

00:40:07.160 Again, I'm just, the silence of that room, it was actually a very large courtroom.

00:40:11.320 It was sort of ironic.

00:40:12.440 On Monday, I was in court in Lethbridge.

00:40:15.100 They chose a very small courtroom because it was packed.

00:40:19.300 They could have had 150 seats filled.

00:40:21.920 There were so many supporters for Arthur Pawlowski, and the judge put everyone in the smallest room possible.

00:40:27.600 Here in Toronto, it was a huge room and a beautiful courthouse, actually.

00:40:33.740 The federal court building in Toronto is actually beautiful and modern and huge, and it was empty.

00:40:41.080 On my side, it was almost like the bride and the groom, you know, you sit on which side.

00:40:45.660 So the Rebel side was me and my lawyer Aaron, and then his paralegal was sitting there.

00:40:51.840 And on the government side were four lawyers and three lawyer bureaucrats, and it was like, but still, the room was tabernous.

00:41:00.940 No one cared.

00:41:03.500 I just worry about that because I believe that freedom is a Canadian character.

00:41:10.620 I believe, you know, don't take it from me.

00:41:12.380 Take it from Laurier.

00:41:13.300 Take it from Diefenbaker.

00:41:13.840 Diefenbaker, I think it was Laurier who said, freedom is part of our national identity.

00:41:20.780 Diefenbaker went so far as to enshrine the Bill of Rights in Canada.

00:41:24.920 Even the Liberal Party of Canada 40 years ago enshrined the Charter of Rights in Canada, Pierre Trudeau in concert with the premiers.

00:41:33.820 I'm worried that's slipping away.

00:41:35.580 And the thing is, a radical law student today, in five years becomes a radical lawyer, in 10 years becomes a radical law firm partner, and in 20 years becomes a radical judge.

00:41:51.000 And so the left has planted these seeds of tyranny and authoritarianism, and they wait, and they water them, and they grow over time.

00:41:59.600 And in the 20 years since Stephen Harper's free speech case, I think the courts and society has moved towards authoritarianism.

00:42:09.340 I find it troubling, and it's a burden that falls to us at Rebel News.

00:42:13.420 I'll pick it up.

00:42:14.520 I don't want to be too morose.

00:42:16.220 I mean, by the way, we still might win, although I certainly got the feeling that this judge was going to side with the censors.

00:42:22.460 It was really creepy to me to hear the Justice Department say that the $3,000 fine and the lengthy investigation and the $100,000 in legal fees, that none of that was a charter violation at all.

00:42:37.180 It was just, that was very Orwellian.

00:42:39.060 In fact, Trudeau's Justice Department lawyer invoked Orwell's name and said, no, it's got nothing to do with that.

00:42:46.800 It's absolutely not Orwellian to investigate an author and fine him $3,000 for wrong think.

00:42:55.000 And I thought to myself, that's an excellent lawyer for Justin Trudeau, because that is Justin Trudeau's own approach.

00:43:03.080 Say something with a straight face, just a brazen statement like, it is not Orwellian to prosecute, convict, and fine an author of $3,000 for a book.

00:43:13.640 That is not Orwellian.

00:43:15.400 You are wrong.

00:43:17.460 Yeah, perfect lawyer for his client.

00:43:19.800 He'll probably get a promotion.

00:43:21.080 He'll probably be made a judge.

00:43:22.800 Well, that's it.

00:43:23.660 If you want to see any background of this, all our court documents, you can go to thelebranos.com.

00:43:30.480 And even though the book is considered contraband, I guess, it's still for sale if you want to read it on Amazon.ca.

00:43:39.060 The book's not that up to date anymore.

00:43:40.840 I mean, I wrote it in 2019.

00:43:42.740 It's four and a half years later, so obviously so much more has happened.

00:43:46.880 But as I was sitting there in court, I thought to myself, I'm going to write another book.

00:43:55.040 I'm going to write another book about Justin Trudeau, and I'm going to publish that other book.

00:44:01.600 And if they want to come for me again, let them.

00:44:05.400 Because I am not going to accept this censorship as either Canadian or certainly as a condemnation or a stigma.

00:44:16.840 I simply disagree, and I'm going to continue writing, and frankly, I think they're going to have to throw me in jail.

00:44:25.220 Or even then, you can write in jail, can't you?

00:44:27.640 I don't know what they're going to do, but I'm not done writing, and I'm not done talking, and I know you're not either.

00:44:33.960 Thanks for your support.

00:44:35.360 You can find out more info about this at thelebranos.com.

00:44:38.240 And if you can help me pay my legal bill, I'd appreciate it, because there were seven lawyers on the taxpayer's teat there today,

00:44:45.040 and I got to pay our bill just from Rebel News.

00:44:48.660 That's the end of our show today.

00:44:50.100 Thanks for your help.

00:44:50.920 Until next time, on behalf of all of us at Rebel's Capital City of Toronto and across the country, to you at home, good night, and keep fighting for freedom.

00:44:59.060 We'll see you next time.

Rebel News Podcast - September 22, 2023

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Is free speech dead？ My depressing day in court

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