Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Ottawa’s $342M gun grab built on ghost data — while violent crime surges

00:00:00.000 Tonight, a tale of two different gun stories and defense lawyer Ian Runkle joins the show

00:00:20.640 to break it down.

00:00:21.680 It is June 20th, 2025.

00:00:24.220 I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed, but you're watching The Ezra Levant Show.

00:00:30.000 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:00:41.980 The Trudeau-Carney government's so-called assault-style firearm buyback is now projected to cost $342 million,

00:00:51.080 and I don't like calling it a buyback because the government never owned these firearms in the first place.

00:00:57.020 They were yours, and you legally acquired them.

00:00:59.400 But all of this is based on firearm ownership estimates from 2012.

00:01:05.220 You heard that right.

00:01:06.040 The bureaucrats testified this week in the Senate that they're planning a national confiscation program

00:01:10.520 using records from 13 years ago pulled from the long gun registry Parliament ordered destroyed.

00:01:18.160 Now, that's like counting the number of landlines in this country to determine how many cell phones are out there.

00:01:23.960 That registry was scrapped by the Harper government for being invasive, expensive, and inaccurate.

00:01:30.500 And now it's back from the grave like some sort of zombie to justify another bloated federal program

00:01:36.340 and attack on your firearms rights.

00:01:38.520 So far, the feds have spent millions buying 12,000 firearms from licensed gun shops.

00:01:45.600 These were stranded assets.

00:01:47.440 These gun shops could no longer sell.

00:01:50.060 The feds have earmarked $260 million more to compensate law-abiding gun owners

00:01:56.300 and $75 million to help convince provinces to do their dirty work.

00:02:02.120 Meanwhile, actual violent criminals still armed, still ignored, still caught and released.

00:02:08.160 Which brings us to Ontario this week where a Lamborghini owner fired shots at a would-be carjacker

00:02:14.020 or series of carjackers.

00:02:15.840 Now, we don't know whether the firearm used was entirely legal, but we do know this.

00:02:22.260 Violent crime is out of control.

00:02:25.200 And Canadians are increasingly being forced to defend themselves,

00:02:28.480 with a justice system waiting to punish them for trying.

00:02:33.000 This government is throwing hundreds of million dollars at confiscating legal guns from people who follow the rules

00:02:38.600 while turning a blind eye to gangs, organized crime, and street violence.

00:02:43.060 Joining me tonight to break down the legal side of that carjacking case

00:02:47.600 and what it tells us about the right to self-defense in Canada

00:02:50.660 is criminal defense and firearms lawyer, Ian Runkle.

00:02:54.860 Take a listen.

00:03:02.820 You hear about the guy that these thugs came up, you know, ready to steal his car.

00:03:08.320 They're all in their masks and everything.

00:03:10.300 So I guess he was a hunter or something.

00:03:11.740 He shot up in the air.

00:03:14.080 I don't recommend that, by the way.

00:03:16.360 But he gets charged.

00:03:18.060 I've got to find out this guy's name and number.

00:03:20.740 And I'm going to hold a fundraiser for lawyer fees for him.

00:03:23.800 He should get a medal for standing up.

00:03:25.740 It's like down in the U.S. we should have the castle law.

00:03:28.940 Someone breaks into your house.

00:03:30.660 And I know any of these people here.

00:03:32.220 Someone breaks into your house and they're coming after your kids.

00:03:35.100 And you're coming after your spouse.

00:03:36.640 You're going to fight like you've never fought before.

00:03:39.360 You're going to use anything that you have, be it weapons, baseball bats, knives.

00:03:44.120 You're protecting your family.

00:03:45.340 So what we just saw there was a clip of Ontario Premier Doug Ford remarking on the case of the Lamborghini owner defending his property against auto theft by using a firearm.

00:03:58.800 But since Doug Ford made those remarks, more details have come out about the situation as that tends to happen.

00:04:09.160 It's probably why people should reserve comment until all the facts are out.

00:04:14.280 But joining me now is Ian Runkle.

00:04:16.260 He's a criminal lawyer with a special interest in firearms law.

00:04:20.220 And I saw his incredible video on his YouTube page just breaking down what we now know since Doug Ford indicated that he thinks Canadians should be able to defend their home and property using firearms.

00:04:35.780 A statement I actually don't disagree with whatsoever.

00:04:39.100 But Ian, thanks for coming on the show.

00:04:41.420 It's a real pleasure to talk to you.

00:04:43.180 And thank you for allowing us to lean on your expertise here.

00:04:46.260 Tell us what we know now about the case of the Lamborghini owner.

00:04:51.620 So what we know now is actually very little.

00:04:54.880 And this is the problem.

00:04:56.100 They've said that he's a renter, that he owns this Lamborghini.

00:05:00.380 He was targeted by five people who came.

00:05:04.020 We don't know if those five people were armed.

00:05:06.300 But frankly, five people is armed in and of itself in the sense that five people can pretty easily kill one person.

00:05:13.820 You know, whether or not they're armed with, you know, knives or guns or anything else.

00:05:19.480 Five people is a potentially lethal threat.

00:05:22.440 It's certainly a concern.

00:05:25.360 But they've charged him.

00:05:28.380 And we have to assume, you know, everyone's innocent until, you know, until and unless proven guilty.

00:05:35.140 But if you assume that the police had some basis to lay the charge, they've charged him with what they've described as discharging a firearm.

00:05:43.080 Now, discharging a firearm is a problem because there's multiple discharging a firearm offenses.

00:05:49.040 It could be discharging a firearm at a person if he was shooting at them.

00:05:53.300 And that would put him, you know, pretty clearly outside the law because the law says you're allowed to use reasonable force.

00:06:00.640 And the courts have been pretty unanimous in saying that it's not reasonable to kill somebody who's taking your property.

00:06:06.700 Now, that's a, you know, people disagree with that.

00:06:09.160 But that's the court's position.

00:06:10.740 And that's sort of the established law.

00:06:12.620 If you want to change that, that would require, you know, legislative amendments that we're probably not going to see from this government.

00:06:19.840 And we'd have to have a serious discussion as to whether they were a good idea or not.

00:06:24.700 But they could also be discharging a firearm recklessly, which could, for instance, be firing warning shots into the air.

00:06:31.960 That would be ultimately something the court would have to decide if it was reckless.

00:06:35.720 And one of the factors they'd consider is that this apparently happens in a city.

00:06:39.520 And when you put lead into the air, it comes down.

00:06:43.680 Now, we don't know anything about the type of gun that was used, except that it was a long gun.

00:06:50.320 And there's all sorts of considerations there, too.

00:06:53.580 Because if he fires a shotgun with shot into the air, it's not really going to cause any damage when it comes down, especially if it's something like birdshot.

00:07:04.560 But so that would probably defeat the reckless discharge if it was into the air and if it was, you know, all of these things.

00:07:12.680 But they've charged him as well with unauthorized possession of prohibited or restricted weapon.

00:07:18.020 Now, a lot of people have said that this means that he's unlicensed, and that is a possibility.

00:07:24.000 It could be that this is a guy.

00:07:25.760 And in that case, we think, well, maybe this guy is involved in some sort of crime.

00:07:30.760 You know, maybe that's where he got the Lambo.

00:07:32.960 Because the Lambo could be that he's a successful person. 0.86

00:07:35.440 It could be that he's a person who takes on a lot of debt.

00:07:38.480 Or it could be, you know, proceeds of crime.

00:07:40.980 We don't know anything to put him in one category versus the other.

00:07:44.880 So one possibility, if the guy has an unlicensed firearm, is that he could be in that category.

00:07:52.100 But it could be somebody who's a lawful gun owner who has one of the guns that was banned by Trudeau's orders in council.

00:08:01.000 Could be an AR.

00:08:01.680 And so it could be an AR, but it could be any number of other things.

00:08:06.460 Because, you know, they banned...

00:08:07.520 There's a 410 on that list.

00:08:10.600 They've got 22s on that list.

00:08:12.780 You know, they've got all sorts of things.

00:08:14.420 So he might have grabbed, like, a bright pink GSG-16 and gone out there.

00:08:21.040 And, you know, we just don't know what he had.

00:08:24.380 But because of the way the amnesty works, if he's using the gun for something that's outside of the permitted purposes in the amnesty...

00:08:32.420 Right.

00:08:32.920 ...which are largely things like, you know, taking them to a place to have them destroyed, etc., etc., etc.,

00:08:39.200 then he'd be in violation of the law that says that he can't have this.

00:08:44.420 And the amnesty provides them with a protection on this.

00:08:47.540 I've already seen a number of people who've been charged for possessing a firearm.

00:08:53.140 And this is even in situations where they were covered by the amnesty, because often what'll happen is, you know, you've got a gun, the police somehow catch wind of it.

00:09:03.960 But, you know, they...

00:09:05.460 And when they run it in their system, their system only comes back with prohibited firearm.

00:09:11.000 Right.

00:09:11.480 And it doesn't explain to them the whole complexities of the amnesty.

00:09:15.400 So people get charged, and then it's up to a lawyer later to sort it out and go, whoa, whoa, whoa, this guy's covered by the amnesty.

00:09:22.420 You can't... you can't do this.

00:09:25.160 So, you know, it could be that.

00:09:27.380 If the guy grabs his AR, if he grabs any of these banned guns, then that charge would also almost certainly be laid.

00:09:34.020 And he might, in fact, be able to be convicted of it.

00:09:37.620 They charged careless storage, I noticed, but they didn't report that they charged storage contrary to regulations.

00:09:43.460 And so if we assume that that wasn't just an oversight, that suggests somebody who was storing it within the regulations.

00:09:49.860 And we've seen this in the past, where somebody who's got it stored in a way that meets regulations, but ends up using a firearm for some sort of defensive purposes, either defensive self or property.

00:10:02.780 And they say, because you could get to the gun, it must not have been stored legitimately.

00:10:08.820 And the thing is, is that in the... it's actually not all that hard to get a gun that is properly stored and get it ready to operate and ready to use.

00:10:21.380 And especially, I don't know how long these guys were at the Lambo, right?

00:10:24.780 If they're sitting there and if they're spending five minutes trying to get into it, well, five minutes is a lot of time to, you know, to get into a gun safe and so forth.

00:10:34.020 So he may well have been able to, in fact, you're probably more likely to be able to get into your safe to protect somebody stealing your car than you are for somebody who's like breaking in and attacking you.

00:10:47.140 But my concern is, is that if this guy is a licensed firearm owner, that really, they probably should have exercised some discretion here and said, hey, now it depends.

00:10:59.040 Like, if this guy is endangering people, then maybe the charges are legitimate and righteous and, you know, a good idea for society.

00:11:07.360 You know, if he comes out with an AR and his warning shots are fired into another building, then that's not cool because somebody lives there and they don't want to get shot.

00:11:16.780 And similarly, the law does not allow for lethal force in defense of property, but warning shots in defense of property have been supported by case law.

00:11:28.880 Now, I don't recommend warning shots as a general principle, but if you're ever in a situation of firing a warning shot, make sure it's as safe as possible.

00:11:38.480 Like, not into the air, into something that is a backstop.

00:11:43.440 Because once, you know, both morally and legally, once you pull a trigger, you own that bullet and the consequences of it up until it stops somewhere.

00:11:53.760 So, this applies even if you're hunting.

00:11:57.040 If you are out there and you see, like, you know, a majestic buck and you've got your tag, you better be real sure of not just the buck, but also what's behind the buck.

00:12:08.140 Because if there's unknown land out there, you really don't want to put a hole in some other hunter.

00:12:14.840 You'd have both moral and legal responsibility for that.

00:12:18.440 So, but we don't know any of this, right?

00:12:22.960 The police in Canada tend to be very, very stingy with information and our courts are very stingy with information.

00:12:31.160 If you compare with the U.S., in the United States, when they charge somebody, you get a whole charging document that lists a narrative of what the police think happened.

00:12:39.380 In Canada, you can pull those charging documents and they're fundamentally useless for reporters or, you know, YouTubers or the like, because they'll just say, on or about the 16th day of whatever, you know, in the town of whatever did discharge a firearm.

00:12:57.060 And you're like, cool, great, fantastic.

00:13:00.500 Thanks.

00:13:00.760 So, I really, and this also sort of plays into this, because the public looks at this and we can see these thieves and we want to know what's happening in terms of this guy as well.

00:13:14.560 And we can't get any of that.

00:13:16.320 We don't, you know, I've got requests in myself as, you know, media going, you know, which count, like which charge of discharging a firearm is it?

00:13:25.960 Um, what kind of firearm is it?

00:13:28.120 Did he have a firearms license?

00:13:29.760 These kinds of things that are really important for us to determine, we don't know.

00:13:35.500 And that's a problem.

00:13:37.900 Yeah, there's very little context in all of this.

00:13:41.300 But, and I think the reason people weighed in immediately on this, it seems to be this, uh, rising severity and boldness of criminals in this country.

00:13:53.860 And the, the, the, I think police so often are overwhelmed, but then we sort of have a catch and release bail system in this country where bad guys are out committing crimes while they're on bail for other crimes.

00:14:10.480 Um, and it feels as though people are left to take matters into their own hands.

00:14:17.180 He talked, we talked before we started recording and I think he touched on it a little bit of the case of Ian Thompson.

00:14:24.560 Um, but he's not alone in, you know, people who are confronted with home invaders who then have to act in defense of their own lives, be it by firing warning shots.

00:14:37.360 Or in the case of, uh, at least two recent cases here in Alberta, uh, Eddie Maurice, and then an unnamed homeowner in Red Deer, Eddie Maurice fired a shot.

00:14:47.800 He was a farmer in Southern Alberta.

00:14:49.760 He winged the home invader and then he was sued by the home invader after he was charged.

00:14:55.600 Um, we, luckily we changed the laws here in Alberta to prevent, uh, those sorts of lawsuits from going forward.

00:15:01.580 And then, uh, a Red Deer homeowner, uh, beaten with a baseball bat in his own home in the middle of the night.

00:15:07.820 He was miraculously able to get to a firearm.

00:15:10.380 He was not charged.

00:15:11.700 He killed his home invader, but Ian Thompson wasn't quite so lucky, was he?

00:15:16.100 He, uh, he did get charged and initially they charged him for, so the, for the people who don't sort of know his background, uh, some criminals, uh, attacked his home and they were firebombing it.

00:15:29.340 He was a firearm instructor and managed to get into his safe, loaded a gun and exited the house and fired warning shots into the air.

00:15:38.380 They initially charged him with like discharging the firearm and, you know, various other things.

00:15:42.920 And then eventually they just boiled it down to charging him with careless storage because their theory was, is that if he could get to the gun before he burned to death, that that meant that he couldn't possibly have had the gun legitimately stored.

00:15:58.280 Which is kind of a crazy thing.

00:16:00.840 You being alive here is proof of the offense.

00:16:04.840 It's, uh.

00:16:06.080 Right.

00:16:06.360 Now, that was also a case that was marked in part by some very startling, um, misapprehensions of like fact by the, because there's a moment that happened in court where they thought he was, uh, picking up his brass to show that he had, um, you know, a consciousness of guilt because otherwise, why would you pick up the brass from outside?

00:16:28.860 When it was actually revealed that what he was actually revealed that what he was actually revealed that what he was using was a revolver, which doesn't eject the brass, which, um, the people charging in these circumstances don't necessarily have a very thorough knowledge of firearms and that can lead them to make some serious, um, you know, assumptions.

00:16:48.120 Ultimately, um, ultimately he was cleared.

00:16:51.420 We have Peter Cahill, who was, um, convicted of, uh, manslaughter with respect to, um, confronting a, somebody who was stealing his vehicle.

00:17:01.560 And this also indicates the dangers, right?

00:17:04.340 You don't, um, you don't want to be in a situation where you're trying to defend a, cause the law allows for reasonable force, but they will never find reasonable force in defense of property.

00:17:16.860 Now it might be in defense of life.

00:17:20.620 So that's the other thing, but the law in Cahill essentially changed such that the jury was able to say, um, that the defensive strategy he should have taken was just never to go out there in the first place.

00:17:34.980 Like just let them steal your truck, which, um, is not a satisfying option for a lot of people.

00:17:41.880 And we have a case just reported, I'm just seeing it was reported, um, June 18th.

00:17:48.380 So yesterday is when this story, uh, dropped.

00:17:52.340 Um, there was a guy in Barhead who went to check on his neighbor's property and he was armed with a phone.

00:18:01.340 That's, that's what he had.

00:18:02.860 But, um, the people who were there breaking into the property, they took a shot at him with a rifle, which thankfully seems to have missed.

00:18:10.120 They ran him over with their pickup truck.

00:18:13.120 They struck his pickup truck.

00:18:14.900 And that was because they weren't okay with being confronted, uh, with, you know, somebody who's taking video evidence.

00:18:22.960 His leg was broken in five places.

00:18:25.300 And I can tell you, like, if I'm out in one of these rural properties, you know, that when you call the police, the police are probably half an hour away.

00:18:34.020 For sure.

00:18:35.020 It's, um, you know, sometimes the police are not close, especially if there's, and it gets even worse, the more remote you are.

00:18:44.620 And, you know, if you go out there and confront people, it might be that your, you know, your body is found a long time later.

00:18:52.820 I probably would not have felt comfortable if my neighbor out in a rural property like that said, I think my place is being broken into.

00:19:01.380 I'd bring the camera, but I'd also want something not to defend the property, but to defend myself.

00:19:06.900 Right.

00:19:07.280 If somebody is going to start taking shots at me with a rifle, I don't want to, you know, I want my options to be more than just die.

00:19:14.480 And, I mean, this guy's, you know, in the hospital, he's, you know, all of these things, and he wasn't charged because he didn't have a firearm.

00:19:23.120 But I go, is this, um, is this the society we want?

00:19:29.080 Numbers wise, things don't seem to be picking up that much.

00:19:32.960 But the problem is that the numbers as reported seem to be concealing sort of an increase in severity in things.

00:19:40.320 Because we see more people are willing to kick down doors or try to kick down doors while the homeowners are home, for example.

00:19:49.200 And that's a, that's an inherently dangerous situation because at that point, you know, you're in a confrontation, you're in a dangerous situation, and those can go quite badly.

00:20:00.720 Even simply, um, there was a case that was reported, and this was a US case, but a lot of the commentary online was people saying,

00:20:10.020 this guy managed to get a gun and shot them rather than letting himself be tied up.

00:20:15.500 And there were people saying, well, why not let yourself be tied up?

00:20:18.560 You know, they'll tie you up, they'll take your stuff, and they'll go. 0.51

00:20:22.200 Well, if they tie you up, then they can kill you fairly easily. 0.69

00:20:26.240 Yeah.

00:20:26.420 And the other thing is just being tied up itself can be fatal.

00:20:30.280 Lots of people have died from being tied up because, you know, they put a rope around your, you know, your chest,

00:20:36.480 and it restricts your breathing, and, uh, positional asphyxia can, you know, can be a cause of death.

00:20:43.500 All of these are very concerning, and people are all the more concerned because they, um,

00:20:51.100 because they feel that the justice system may not have their backs and, in fact, may be, um,

00:20:56.760 may be sort of even-handed in a situation where even-handed is not called for,

00:21:02.720 or, in fact, lean more on them.

00:21:05.740 Because you get situations where, like, the criminals have fled,

00:21:08.880 and the police don't know who they are, but it's really easy to pick out the guy whose, uh,

00:21:13.840 whose home it was, because he's the person who called, he's right there, he's an easy charge.

00:21:20.140 Um, I mean, I, in terms of the bail system, I am a big believer in bail.

00:21:25.680 We need a bail system.

00:21:27.360 Yep.

00:21:27.580 Because, you know, the police can charge people wrongly.

00:21:31.420 I have seen so many cases of wrongful, and all of these people who are defending themselves

00:21:36.840 who get charged, they need bail, too.

00:21:39.500 Absolutely.

00:21:39.980 The problem is, our system has gotten really bad at identifying the difference between

00:21:44.380 somebody who's dangerous and somebody who just makes us mad.

00:21:49.200 And sometimes we'll deny bail for people who make us angry and approve bail for people who

00:21:57.800 are potentially a dangerous threat.

00:22:00.620 So, I don't know if we can fix this through legislation, but maybe, you know, education

00:22:06.080 of judges or something like that, some sort of, um, you know, risk assessment instrument.

00:22:11.960 Because if somebody's committing, you know, very simple property crime that avoids people,

00:22:17.940 they might be a lower threat.

00:22:19.160 But if they're committing crimes that involve confronting people or potentially confronting

00:22:24.160 people, or if they're committing offenses or, you know, um, that, and we have to weigh

00:22:30.260 the evidence because at the bail stage, nobody's been convicted.

00:22:34.280 They're presumed innocent.

00:22:35.280 That's why we have bail.

00:22:36.900 But you can weigh some of the considerations like, you know, is this person carrying a weapon?

00:22:43.240 Does this person have a past history in terms of, you know, if sure, it might be just a

00:22:49.420 burglary into a shed, but if this guy has three priors where he's been stopped and he's beaten

00:22:54.540 somebody, then maybe this is a situation to deny bail.

00:23:00.740 But, um, you know, the person who's acting in self-defense, maybe we should be more liberal

00:23:07.180 on bail, and particularly, um, maybe we should be also considering whether we have to charge

00:23:13.640 somebody right away.

00:23:15.400 Uh, lots of these cases, the statute of limitations is either forever because it's, you know, certain

00:23:22.780 offenses or effectively forever based on technicalities in the law that the, uh, government

00:23:28.400 is able to sort of manipulate to extend the statute of limitations to perpetual.

00:23:33.520 In these cases, you go, well, they have all the time in the world.

00:23:38.340 So somebody like your Ian Thompson, you don't have to lay charges right away.

00:23:42.680 You can say, let's investigate this.

00:23:44.520 Let's determine who the bad guy is here.

00:23:48.180 And if there's a case where you've got somebody like a homeowner who might have technically

00:23:52.780 violated the law, but is still clearly the good guy, you know, in the Western nomenclature,

00:23:59.260 if you've got your black hat and your white hat, this guy might have, you know, you might

00:24:03.780 have somebody who, for instance, didn't store their firearm properly, a fairly minor offense

00:24:09.060 in the scheme of things, but prevented himself from getting murdered.

00:24:13.600 And you go, well, we've got a pretty clear black hat, white hat situation.

00:24:19.620 Maybe we can just let the guy who didn't have his firearm stored properly off with a lecture

00:24:24.800 instead of like trying to proceed with charges, especially because we should recognize that

00:24:30.740 the impact of charges can be disproportionate.

00:24:33.900 If you're a gangster who's got an, you know, a lengthy criminal history, you may not care

00:24:40.060 if you get charges, but if you're a homeowner and you get, you know, if you get charged with

00:24:45.860 something and held without bail for a month, a lot of your life will have fallen apart by the

00:24:50.860 end of that month.

00:24:52.380 You know, you're, you're going to have been fired from your job.

00:24:55.340 You're going to have missed bills.

00:24:56.960 You're going to, you know, have missed rent, all of these things.

00:25:01.740 And so we end up with an uneven playing field in that the consequences are so much more severe

00:25:09.880 for the people who try to follow the law gently.

00:25:13.320 And this is, um, it ends up with a system that I think is very well-intentioned.

00:25:21.000 And I don't think anybody in the system is like trying to make it not work, but it also

00:25:26.860 doesn't feel like it's working for a lot of people.

00:25:29.680 Yeah.

00:25:30.300 And that's a problem.

00:25:32.160 Yeah.

00:25:32.300 I think with Ian Thompson, the process really was the punishment.

00:25:35.260 Like they, his life was sort of held up for several years.

00:25:40.600 And in the end, I mean, his crime was not dying, I guess, in the attack.

00:25:46.780 And I mean, I've seen people who were clearly like the victims of a sort of hate motivated

00:25:52.800 offense and, you know, they were targeted and they end up getting charged.

00:25:57.240 And in some cases they get charged and the, the actual offenders are just never discovered

00:26:02.560 because somebody, for instance, gets like, you know, bricks thrown at them and, you know,

00:26:08.460 they display a weapon, something, you know, like a knife or something to ward that off.

00:26:14.560 And when the police arrived, the guys who were throwing bricks are gone.

00:26:18.940 They've vanished.

00:26:20.040 Like, and the guy doesn't recognize them.

00:26:22.160 They don't know who this is, but they tell their story to the police and the police are

00:26:27.660 like, well, so you had a knife and you displayed it in self-defense.

00:26:31.800 Well, we'll charge you.

00:26:34.960 Does that make that person feel safer?

00:26:37.260 Does that make the members of that community feel safer?

00:26:40.000 I don't think so.

00:26:41.180 It's one of those things where the police should maybe go, maybe the knife isn't a great idea,

00:26:47.220 but we're really glad you're alive and we're going to look for those people, but we're,

00:26:50.720 we're going to let this slide.

00:26:52.200 The police have a lot of, you know, a lot of leeway and the prosecutors have a lot of leeway.

00:26:57.400 You know, the, I'm not just going to blame police here because you get situations where,

00:27:02.800 you know, the Crown Prosecution Service gets something and they go, well, this is a viable

00:27:07.740 charge and there should be more consideration of, is this charge a good idea?

00:27:12.940 Even at the early stages, right?

00:27:14.820 Is it in the public interest?

00:27:17.120 Yeah.

00:27:17.540 And, you know, maybe could we wait on this?

00:27:21.700 There was a case that was reported, I believe out of Ontario, where a woman was nearly murdered

00:27:26.860 by her boyfriend and stabs him in self-defense with his knife and she goes and seeks help.

00:27:35.600 She ends up charged and denied bail, notwithstanding that she went to seek help.

00:27:42.940 She was covered in so much blood that apparently the neighbors that she went to thought that

00:27:47.460 it was a Halloween costume because it was October and they just thought that there's no way anybody

00:27:52.300 could have that much blood on them.

00:27:55.040 And the thing is that she'd stabbed him in the leg and managed to tag an artery and he

00:28:01.340 bled out.

00:28:02.660 You know, he didn't survive, but she wasn't trying to kill him.

00:28:05.400 She was just trying to get him off of her because he was smashing her head into a concrete 1.00

00:28:10.600 floor.

00:28:11.440 The prosecution later called it one of the clearest cases of self-defense that they'd ever seen,

00:28:16.060 but she spent a substantial amount of time in jail. 1.00

00:28:20.040 And it would have been nice if they'd figured out that it was one of the clearest cases of

00:28:24.000 self-defense that they'd ever seen before they decided to proceed with charges.

00:28:30.120 And then they could have just not blown up her life like that.

00:28:35.580 You can never take away the trauma of being in jail.

00:28:38.640 You can never take away the damage.

00:28:40.540 And ultimately, when somebody's cleared, people ask me this as a, you know, I do criminal

00:28:45.520 defense, which means you're defending people who are both, you know, the guilty and the

00:28:50.380 innocent.

00:28:50.680 But the question you'll often get from people who've been wrongfully charged is, so what

00:28:57.060 are they going to do to make this right?

00:28:59.100 And the difficult conversation you have at that point is, well, nothing.

00:29:03.520 Yeah.

00:29:04.220 They won't even give you an apology, right?

00:29:07.000 They're just going to, that's it.

00:29:09.820 You just, you, it's on you to rebuild.

00:29:12.540 They're not going to give you a dollar.

00:29:13.680 They're not going to give you, um, they're not going to give you a reference to go back

00:29:18.140 to your employer and say, Hey, this guy isn't actually a bad dude.

00:29:22.400 Um, so that's, that's where things sit.

00:29:27.560 Now, Ian, what's your advice for people who just want to be safe in their own homes?

00:29:35.540 How do we make ourselves just a little bit safer?

00:29:38.260 I mean, the starting place I would always say, and this is for a couple of reasons is

00:29:43.260 good locks and good perimeter security.

00:29:46.620 So, um, there have been, you've seen, I've seen videos, I'm sure your viewers have seen

00:29:51.720 some of them as well, where you get people who try for a home invasion and they kick

00:29:56.580 the door and they kick the door and they kick the door.

00:29:58.680 And after about four or five kicks, they give up and they leave.

00:30:01.680 And that's really the best case scenario for a home invasion is they tried, they failed.

00:30:08.180 Um, so I would say, check your, your door.

00:30:11.720 If you've got a little tiny, the strike plate, which is what the deadbolt goes into.

00:30:15.960 If it's, you know, two, two and a half inches long, you're going to want to have that replaced

00:30:20.820 with a security strike plate, which is six inches long or longer, or, you know, possibly

00:30:26.460 even security door frames.

00:30:28.140 That'll make it much more difficult for somebody to kick, you know, kick their way through and

00:30:32.500 also, um, makes it so that if they do kick their way through, you've got a better, um,

00:30:39.160 better case for self-defense.

00:30:40.980 The, um, the other thing I'd say is video doorbells are fantastic because your door and

00:30:48.000 it's, you know, doesn't do you much good if you open the door and somebody can then, because

00:30:54.420 sometimes what they'll do is they'll knock on the door.

00:30:56.720 They might be wearing like high vis vests or something that looks really official.

00:31:01.860 And so with a video doorbell, you can speak to those people ahead of time.

00:31:05.520 And if they're saying, oh, you know, we're with your, um, you know, we're with your gas

00:31:10.840 provider, you can call the gas provider and be like, um, do you have guys sitting on my

00:31:16.120 porch right now?

00:31:17.880 And, you know, if you didn't ask for them and they didn't send you a notice ahead of

00:31:23.060 time, you probably don't have any interest in these people.

00:31:26.760 Um, when you get a notice, you can call like, because they'll send a note, like I've had notices

00:31:31.960 where they're like, we're going to have gas technicians in your area.

00:31:34.860 They'll be on your property.

00:31:36.460 And I've called and been like, is this a legit notice?

00:31:38.560 And they go, yes, it is.

00:31:39.520 Cool.

00:31:40.100 Excellent.

00:31:40.600 I've called the company on my thing.

00:31:43.680 If you're ever in a situation of defending property, think real hard about whether the

00:31:49.080 property is worth the, um, worth the hassle.

00:31:51.980 And I hate that I have to say this, but, um, most of the clients I've had who've, you

00:31:57.500 know, have just said, I wish I'd let them take my truck.

00:31:59.840 And I hate that I have to say it, but you know, it's a bad situation.

00:32:05.460 And if you are ever in a situation of self-defense, the number one sort of tip is make sure you're

00:32:12.160 retreating and make sure you're verbally disengaging.

00:32:15.140 And what I mean by that is that if you're moving backwards, that is some of the most

00:32:19.760 powerful evidence of self-defense that you can get backwards is always the direction you

00:32:25.260 want.

00:32:25.600 And you want witnesses to a, see what's happening.

00:32:28.480 B, see that you're moving backwards and see, see that you're saying things like, I don't

00:32:33.300 want to fight and leaving because your version of events will probably not be believed by

00:32:38.900 police, but the bystander beside, you know, away.

00:32:43.460 And if you're not retreating, you should have a good reason why you're not retreating because

00:32:48.220 there may be situations like, you know, you've got a child who's, you know, child in a bassinet

00:32:54.720 and you have retreated into the child's room, but you can't retreat any further, right?

00:33:01.500 You cannot retreat abandoning your child.

00:33:03.940 That's something that you could, you know, as a lawyer, you know, if they're saying, well,

00:33:08.120 why didn't he leave?

00:33:08.840 It's like, cause his child is right there and he's clearly not abandoning the child.

00:33:13.880 But, um, keep in mind, if you are ever pulling a trigger, you should imagine that that's a

00:33:20.320 hundred thousand dollars easily, you know, the cost of pulling that trigger.

00:33:25.240 So, and it might be the rest of your life is the other thing.

00:33:29.660 So lots of times people will say, well, I couldn't, you know, couldn't do this.

00:33:33.880 And it's like, well, understand the consequences.

00:33:37.560 If I, and I, I hate that that's the scenario that we're in.

00:33:43.220 Um, but I've had people who have taken serious beatings who are just like, well, I kind of

00:33:48.480 wish I'd taken more of a beating.

00:33:49.780 So, yeah.

00:33:52.820 You know, there are, there are things in Canada that you go to jail for that they would give

00:33:57.300 you a parade for in Texas, but unfortunately that is the culture.

00:34:02.500 Ian, I could talk to you all day, but, uh, you talk all the time on your YouTube channel.

00:34:09.060 Um, how do people find your work, um, and, uh, find you out there in the world?

00:34:15.320 I'm on YouTube at Runkle of the Bailey.

00:34:17.820 I think you'll find me if you search the same thing on Twitter.

00:34:21.300 Um, and you know, if you, I think the Twitter handle is just Ian Runkle.

00:34:26.020 Um, but yeah, Runkle of the Bailey, I'm on YouTube.

00:34:29.820 I do legal discussions, including self-defense firearm discussions.

00:34:34.520 I've got some firearm videos coming out soon.

00:34:37.380 And I plan to do a, um, a more expansive discussion of like self-defense principles soon,

00:34:42.980 because I get a lot of these questions and people are saying, well, how do I defend myself

00:34:47.900 against a home invasion?

00:34:48.900 I think it's probably time that I get that video out because it's, um, it's worrying.

00:34:55.200 A lot of people are afraid and it's kind of bad that they're afraid both of the criminals

00:35:01.720 and what the justice system might do to them if they are forced into that situation.

00:35:07.240 So, well, yeah, well, Ian, thank you so much for coming on the show and explaining all of

00:35:11.020 this to us.

00:35:11.480 I can't believe that your YouTube channel is free because it is just an incredible wealth

00:35:16.640 of information specifically on these topics.

00:35:19.960 And, uh, hopefully we can have you back on, on rebel very soon.

00:35:24.620 Sounds good.

00:35:25.320 Thank you so much.

00:35:26.340 Thank you.

00:35:33.860 As I said yesterday, we normally close the show with your letters to Ezra, but I am neither

00:35:38.760 Ezra Levant, nor am I the holder of the letters.

00:35:42.100 So we're not doing that today.

00:35:44.080 We're breaking from the mold a little bit.

00:35:46.420 And I thought I would show you some of our independent journalism from the G7 summit.

00:35:52.180 Now the summit itself was held in Kananaskis.

00:35:54.480 The media, like me, we were holed up in Banff, far away from the leaders where only the hand

00:36:00.500 selected pooled media, CBC, BBC, Reuters, and the like, only they were allowed at Kananaskis.

00:36:09.340 In fact, only their photographers were allowed to take pictures of the leaders.

00:36:12.720 It was very bizarre, very controlled, but they wouldn't want anybody like me with a prickly

00:36:17.820 question, embarrassing all the fancy people.

00:36:20.600 And there was a lot of action actually happening in Calgary as well around the airport at the

00:36:26.760 designated protest sites, the designated free speech sites where people could protest, frankly,

00:36:34.100 I guess, whatever they want.

00:36:35.940 There was also a designated protest site in Banff.

00:36:39.400 It didn't see a lot of use, but I want to show you this report from Sid and Angelica.

00:36:47.220 So Sid Fazzard, Angelica Toy, also accredited with me.

00:36:50.440 They went down to check out the protest site in Banff while I held down the fort with all the

00:36:57.840 mainstream media in the media lockup.

00:37:00.660 And they ran across some protesters against the Chinese Communist Party.

00:37:06.480 So we will close the show out on their journalism.

00:37:10.320 I'll say goodbye.

00:37:11.840 And I will also say Ezra's famous tagline, keep fighting for freedom.

00:37:20.140 Sidney Fazzard for Rebel News here in Banff, Alberta.

00:37:22.700 It's the second day of our coverage here for the Kananaskis G7 Summit.

00:37:27.000 And here is a designated protest site set up in the town of Banff.

00:37:30.500 As you can see, there are a couple of people around, a few people behind us.

00:37:33.240 And in this report, I want to share with you an interview from the Falon Chinese group

00:37:38.020 here behind us.

00:37:39.080 They're fighting against a very totalitarian government back home in China.

00:37:43.520 And their roots extend all the way into Canada.

00:37:46.800 There are Chinese police stations here that actually come after people that go against

00:37:50.880 what the Chinese government has to say.

00:37:52.640 And the main highlight, the big concern here is the fact that based on your religious beliefs,

00:37:57.160 as you can see, the killed for their beliefs, there's an important message here that people

00:38:02.380 in China are being targeted.

00:38:04.340 They're being harvested for their organs by the government.

00:38:07.860 This is this is Maids 2.0, but it surely might come here if we're not prepared.

00:38:12.780 So here's our interview with the organizers of this event behind us.

00:38:16.060 We are, you know, Falun Dafa Association of Calgary.

00:38:20.200 We are here, all the Falun Gong practitioners, you know, we stand on the truthfulness, compassion

00:38:30.260 and tolerance.

00:38:31.400 We do, you know, traditional Chinese, you know, meditation called Falun Gong.

00:38:38.440 Falun Gong and Falun Dafa is the same thing.

00:38:41.700 But formerly, we called Falun Dafa, you know, this is a traditional Chinese culture.

00:38:49.220 So we are here now since, you know, we want to show people, especially to show G7 leaders,

00:38:59.260 you know, some messages to ask them to help us to stop the persecution on Falun Gong in China

00:39:08.700 and oversee here and also to stop the organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners and 0.90

00:39:16.840 the Chinese people, you know, this is our purpose coming here.

00:39:23.300 Well, and obviously the Uyghurs, they were became, you know, very well known for being

00:39:28.540 harvested for their organs in China.

00:39:30.680 But you said it's not just them.

00:39:32.180 It's actually more widespread, the organ harvesting.

00:39:34.400 Yeah, before, you know, very, you know, when I was young, it was quite little people, you

00:39:43.360 know, little crime, crime guy, you know, they were killed and for organ.

00:39:50.240 But later, after culture revolution, maybe 20 years ago, later, you know.

00:39:56.540 July 1999, it has been over 25 years and ever since then, you know, not only practitioners,

00:40:05.000 Uyghurs, Christians, their organs, they were put into concentration camps and their organs 1.00

00:40:10.060 were taken without consent and they were forced to do hard work in the in in the constant in

00:40:16.100 the concentration camp.

00:40:17.360 And also, you know, I think that we hope that the Canadian government could get more attention

00:40:24.500 to this issue and so that in the future, maybe bring up this to President Xi or someone else

00:40:30.940 so that we we can.

00:40:33.440 So in the future, hopefully there won't because this persecution has been over 25 years and

00:40:40.780 it's still going on.

00:40:41.680 And like we caught in the Western world because in China, there's no journalistic autonomy or

00:40:47.500 press freedom.

00:40:48.860 Well, speaking of which, we even had to fight.

00:40:51.240 We had to take the federal government to court just to get our accreditation.

00:40:54.280 So it's coming here, the lack of freedom of the press.

00:40:58.300 But if I could ask a question for you, why is it that the CCP, why is it an acceptable practice

00:41:05.140 to do the organ harvesting?

00:41:06.340 Is there not a moral barrier there that they should consider?

00:41:10.460 Because, you know, the CCP is is anti-divine.

00:41:13.540 It's basically it's anti-divine.

00:41:15.060 You know, you know, most in like in most countries believe in Christianity, Catholic, Catholicism and like for CCP believe in none except for materialism.

00:41:25.920 And that is the true evil because if you're if you don't believe in anything, you can't do anything.

00:41:33.060 So this is this is a root cause of this issue.

00:41:36.660 And I guess for for us, like we need to bring more like this in China, people don't know that.

00:41:44.040 And because there's, you know, scrutiny over the Internet, like everything is under control.

00:41:50.160 Like it's a it's a totalitarian state.

00:41:53.340 So what we are doing here is like we need to bring up this attention to the Western world, to the media, like so that we can get to know like more people get to know like what we are like.

00:42:06.040 We are suffering like many of us like we are like we can't really like in in Western world what we can do here.

00:42:13.760 But in China, if you're doing this, you're like you will be imprisoned at once.

00:42:18.440 Well, they'll be harvesting your organs if you protest it. 1.00

00:42:20.840 I imagine the Chinese government, they just care for the practitioner for their organ. 0.77

00:42:28.040 And even in the one week, you can get to the Sydney and whatever, you know, organs like that.

00:42:38.320 This is terrible.

00:42:39.680 As a former the officer, Ottawa officers called David Kirgo, you know, he said, you know, the organ harvesting in China, this is the this star.

00:42:58.640 You never see that kind of crime, you know, so this is terrible.

00:43:03.280 So many people died, you know, just because for a few people, they can pay a lot of money.

00:43:10.960 You know, so this is something very, you know, terrible.

00:43:14.720 Yeah, true.

00:43:15.520 And I hope that, yeah, in the future, more people could support us and get to know us because I guess this is this is very important.

00:43:24.840 Now, nowadays, many people don't believe in God anymore.

00:43:28.400 Like even in Western world, you're you're going to church like you're just doing it for like on weekends.

00:43:34.640 This is a form of like you're civilized.

00:43:38.000 But but most people, they trust in science.

00:43:40.520 They don't believe in God.

00:43:41.480 So this is a problem.

00:43:42.680 Like, I guess there's an experiment like once conducted, the science scientists has separate, separated like two groups of children.

00:43:51.680 One group, like they told them, don't eat the candy and the other group, don't eat the candy.

00:43:56.680 And there's this invisible man watching you.

00:43:59.760 And for the second group, the children ate the candy.

00:44:03.200 Yeah, so that's a function of religion, I guess.

00:44:07.400 Yeah, that's what we are doing.

00:44:08.800 So what would you tell Canada's prime minister, Mark Carney, what would you say that he needs to do to better recognize your fight?

00:44:16.880 Yeah, I hope the new leader to, how do I say, hope them to stop the, to hyper us, you know, just stop the persecution on Falun Gong, not only on Falun Gong, for some, you know, Uyghurs, Christians.

00:44:39.880 Yeah, this is a revival of, we hope there will be a revival of tradition and culture, truthful, like, because the Epoch Times, what we are doing is, is focused on truth and tradition.

00:44:53.920 Are you guys with the Epoch Times as well?

00:44:55.960 Yes.

00:44:56.400 Yeah. Okay.

00:44:56.960 I like the Epoch Times.

00:44:57.960 You guys are great.

00:44:58.460 Yes.

00:44:58.960 Yeah. Yeah.

00:44:59.500 And he is a reader of Epoch Times.

00:45:03.280 Yeah.

00:45:03.580 She likes, she likes.

00:45:05.900 But our, you know, purpose also want to show people don't believe CCP.

00:45:13.040 They are not normal human being. 0.97

00:45:16.220 They are evil. 0.95

00:45:17.520 But most people, they don't know that.

00:45:21.580 This is why we are here, stand up, tell people the truth.

00:45:26.120 So, if you know the more Chinese history, modern history, this is how the CCP's, you know, government, they just use the killing. 0.98

00:45:37.740 When they're strong, they kill people.

00:45:40.760 When they're not strong, they lie to people.

00:45:44.080 This is the basic, you know, nature of the CCP.

00:45:47.300 Yeah, they always like, for instance, they will group up 40% of the population to fight against the 60% of the population.

00:45:55.940 And, you know, back in the 50s, 60s, you know, the CCP told the farmers, like, if you support me, like you can get the land.

00:46:05.420 But as a result, when the farmers has demolished the landlords, the Chinese Communist Party started the People's Commute.

00:46:17.840 Have you heard of it?

00:46:18.600 I have not heard of it.

00:46:19.260 The People's Commute is pretty much run by the government, the community.

00:46:24.100 And no private land or properties, like, you could, everything belongs to the government.

00:46:32.280 And I've seen videos from China as well, where they have people within every community, and they kind of watch everyone else to make sure their, you know, social credit score is good.

00:46:41.120 They're not doing things they shouldn't be doing.

00:46:42.780 That's true.

00:46:43.320 Like, in China, there's, you know, there's several, like, the power, the power hierarchy is like province.

00:46:54.100 The city and county, and under that, there's, like, small groups in, like, villages, villages, and usually there's, like, 50, 60 people, and there will be a party leader, like, watching people's, like, actions, speech, like, even, you know, in companies, if you want to set up a company in China, like, if the company, like, I can't come up with the proper figure,

00:47:23.200 but over 300 people, there will be a section from the, I think it's called the parties, like, they will send someone there to manage the company.

00:47:35.880 Like, it's, like, it's, like, it's, like, it's pretty much a parallel system.

00:47:38.980 Well, and it, it seems, oh, yeah.

00:47:40.880 Yeah, you know, uh, why they can lie people, lie to people, you know, because they have only, uh, one, uh, one broadcast cutter.

00:47:49.880 Yeah.

00:47:50.880 One CCTV.

00:47:51.880 So, if you are, if you have different idea, uh, from, uh, you know, uh, private media or what, you can, you know, if you do so, you will be, you know, the peer sometime.

00:48:04.880 Yeah, there's no journalistic autonomy or press freedom in China.

00:48:08.880 Yeah, only one voice.

00:48:09.880 Only one voice.

00:48:10.880 Who is, um, is it Apple Daily, uh, in Hong Kong that he got a, yeah.

00:48:13.880 Jeremy, Jeremy Lai, uh, he has been arrested, I think, back in 2019, I guess.

00:48:19.880 Yeah.

00:48:20.880 Just after the pandemic, right?

00:48:21.880 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:48:22.880 Right.

00:48:23.880 And he's still there.

00:48:24.880 Again, I'm not sure he's alive, though.

00:48:26.880 It's, and the problem is, like, in, in Western world, the media, the function of the media is to control, like, to watch the government, to make sure it's the voice of the people, to make sure that they're doing their job.

00:48:39.880 But in China, no, there, it's the propaganda machine of the government.

00:48:42.880 Well, I was gonna say, that's what it's supposed to be.

00:48:44.880 But like I mentioned earlier, you know, we had to fight even to get our accreditation.

00:48:47.880 Uh, and still, we need the Prime Minister's permission, uh, just to get into the press conferences to ask questions.

00:48:52.880 Um, but I have a last question for you guys.

00:48:54.880 Um, and that is, in Canada, we've seen recently that there are the Chinese police stations in Canada.

00:48:59.880 Uh, and they're targeting, uh, Chinese, uh, Canadian citizens.

00:49:02.880 Uh, how do you, uh, combat this?

00:49:04.880 Are you concerned that there's gonna be, uh, C, uh, CPP, pardon me.

00:49:07.880 Uh, yeah, CCP, um, uh, people that come here to watch you.

00:49:11.880 You guys, to inspect you, to find out more about you for the government.

00:49:15.880 Yeah, we know, uh, uh, exactly, even myself.

00:49:19.880 When, uh, last time, at least 10 years ago, when we had the organ harvesting, uh, uh, how do I say, uh, uh,

00:49:29.880 foreign?

00:49:30.880 Yeah.

00:49:31.880 When we had the, uh, you know, uh, forum for organ harvesting, a lot of people, you know, more than 200 people attended that meeting and see the TV.

00:49:46.880 Yeah.

00:49:47.880 You know, at that time, my car, you know, punched out by the, you know, by knife.

00:49:53.880 Yeah.

00:49:54.880 So, a white knife.

00:49:55.880 So, four times, one month only.

00:49:58.880 Yeah.

00:49:59.880 They also, uh, monitor you.

00:50:01.880 You monitor my home.

00:50:02.880 I know that, you know.

00:50:04.880 Here, quite a lot of people, not everyone, but they don't know.

00:50:09.880 So, the, uh, Chinese, uh, uh, police station here, we know.

00:50:16.880 Yeah, even in Toronto and, uh, you know, Vancouver, that's for sure.

00:50:21.880 But, uh, you know, this is why quite a lot of Chinese guys here, they can't speak out. 1.00

00:50:28.880 You know, they are frightening to speak out.

00:50:30.880 When they speak out, you know, they will be trouble, in trouble for their relative in China.

00:50:36.880 You know, this is terrible things.

00:50:38.880 So, when you talk with Chinese guys, they usually wouldn't like to say that.

00:50:45.880 But for us, I'm okay.

00:50:48.880 Yeah.

00:50:49.880 I don't stand up to say the truth.

00:50:51.880 But most people will be dangerous.

00:50:53.880 Yeah.

00:50:54.880 Yeah.

00:50:55.880 And then things will get worse, right?

00:50:56.880 Yeah.

00:50:57.880 Okay.

Rebel News Podcast - June 20, 2025

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Ottawa’s $342M gun grab built on ghost data — while violent crime surges

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