Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Quebec’s atrocious legal system pursued a 'vendetta-driven' case against our reporter... and lost

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. We had a court victory in Montreal, and we just got the ruling today.

00:00:03.980 It's in French, but I'll translate it for you. We won a freedom of speech battle against the

00:00:09.780 police and the prosecutors. I'm pretty excited. I want to tell you about it. Let me invite you,

00:00:13.920 though, to get the video version of this podcast. Just go to rebelnewsplus.com,

00:00:18.460 click subscribe. It's eight bucks a month. You get my show every weeknight. Sheila Gunn's

00:00:23.180 Reads show every week. And most importantly, in my mind, you help Rebel News survive because we

00:00:30.680 don't get any government money, and we don't get any ad money from YouTube. It's really just you.

00:00:36.400 Please go to rebelnewsplus.com to subscribe. All right, here's today's podcast.

00:00:53.180 Tonight, Quebec's atrocious police and prosecutors went after our reporter, a judge,

00:01:02.080 threw out their vendetta-driven case. It's November 21st, and this is The Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:07.780 You're ready for freedom! Shame on you, you censorious bug! 0.62

00:01:23.180 I've got some good news for you. It's taken two and a half years, but we won an interesting court

00:01:28.440 battle in Quebec. I'll tell you about it in a moment. You know, we have so many court cases

00:01:33.740 defending our journalists, I honestly lose track of them. Some of them, it's us suing the police.

00:01:39.880 Like when Trudeau's RCMP shot our reporter, Alexa LaVoie, with a riot gun. That was absolutely awful.

00:01:46.960 Or when Trudeau's bodyguards beat up our reporter, David Menzies. Just beat him up and dumped him on the

00:01:51.960 side of the road. No arrests, no charges, just being the thugs they are. So obviously, in those cases, 0.98

00:01:58.400 we're suing the police. Justice moves slowly, though. In other cases, we're on defense. That is,

00:02:05.960 the government is coming after us in the courts. One of those times was when we were reporting on

00:02:10.800 the authoritarian curfew imposed on the people of Quebec. It was atrocious, and it should never be

00:02:17.680 forgotten. Quebec, which always claims to care so much about civil liberties, which

00:02:21.760 not only has the federal charter of rights and freedoms, but they also have their own

00:02:25.200 provincial charter of human rights and freedoms. And they have their human rights commissions. Oh,

00:02:30.320 if you ask the Quebec politician, they'll tell you just how much they care about rights and freedoms

00:02:35.020 and how noble they are and how progressive and tolerant and high-minded they are. But I should

00:02:40.180 tell you, dear viewer, that it is a lie. That province literally sentenced their entire population to

00:02:46.560 house arrest, a curfew, like what you would give a wayward child or like a prison would give an inmate.

00:02:53.220 They put the whole place on lockdown. You couldn't even leave your house, even if you were healthy,

00:02:58.200 even if you were vaccinated. They had a curfew from 10 p.m. till 5 a.m. They even had a rule that

00:03:03.760 you couldn't walk your dog. Of course, walk your dog is code for letting your dog go out to the bathroom.

00:03:08.620 Imagine making such a stupid, unreasonable, unscientific rule in the name of health. 0.99

00:03:14.860 By the way, by what possible measure did this make any sense? Banning people from literally 0.99

00:03:20.420 going out of their homes, even if they weren't sick? Why? What for? It made no sense. There was

00:03:25.700 no rationale to it. It did untold damage commercially, socially, mental health. It was probably the

00:03:31.780 stupidest thing during the entire lockdown, except for Trudeau's brilliant plan to make truckers get the 0.98

00:03:37.720 vaccine truckers who live, eat, and sleep in their own truck, maybe the most solitary people in the 1.00

00:03:42.900 whole country. So yeah, don't ever let a Quebec journalist or a Quebec politician or a Quebec

00:03:48.600 lawyer or a Quebec judge tell you how much they care about civil liberties. They put their entire

00:03:53.500 province on lockdown like a prison ward after a riot. And no one complained. No one official, that is.

00:04:00.200 In fact, the so-called watchdogs of civil liberties, they loved it. They morally enforced it. They called for

00:04:05.860 more of it. What a disgraceful moment that was. So this Quebec curfew came into effect, and we had

00:04:13.200 one Rebel News staffer living in Montreal in the time. This was before we had met Alexa Lavoie, our

00:04:18.520 star Montreal reporter now. But back then, a reporter named Yankee Pollack, he lived in Montreal, and he

00:04:24.740 worked on our social media by day. But by night, he went out to record the sights and sounds of the

00:04:30.020 lockdown on his cell phone as a journalist. Now, it turns out there was a special legal exemption to

00:04:36.600 the curfew for journalists. That's a disgrace in itself, in my mind, when you think about it. Why

00:04:41.180 should journalists have more civil rights than anyone else? Does the virus treat journalists in a

00:04:46.620 different way than it treats you or me? Or are they just above the rules? Are the rules just for the

00:04:52.200 little people? So Yankee had an exemption because he was a journalist. And the government of Quebec had a

00:04:59.140 special form to be filled out by journalists and their bosses, confirming that the journalist was a

00:05:03.840 journalist, and that they indeed were on assignment to do reporting during the times in question. We had a

00:05:09.340 lawyer review the form, and we filled out the paperwork, and I signed it, and Yankee was good to go. But the

00:05:14.580 cops just kept stopping him and pulling him over and giving him tickets and insulting him and harassing

00:05:19.380 them, even though he showed his exemption letter to them every time. Here's how some of that looked. At some point, the

00:05:24.900 cops called me over to the car, and they were like, hey, where's your credentials, or why are you out?

00:05:30.360 And I was like, I'm media. Media is exempt.

00:05:32.700 Why are you in the streets at this time?

00:05:34.800 Because I'm media.

00:05:35.800 Okay.

00:05:36.800 You're gonna, you want to see my media press credentials again? I'll give it to you.

00:05:42.600 Here are my press credentials, my notes.

00:05:48.500 Okay, and what's the...

00:05:50.500 Rebel News. I've been pulled over like three times tonight.

00:05:53.500 Rebel News?

00:05:54.500 Yeah.

00:05:55.500 What's that?

00:05:56.500 It's a news agency based out of Toronto.

00:05:58.500 And I was issued a ticket for that night for being out.

00:06:01.500 Mr. Pollack.

00:06:02.500 Yes, sir.

00:06:03.500 You got a fine.

00:06:05.500 I got a fine?

00:06:06.500 You got a fine.

00:06:07.500 Okay, no problem.

00:06:08.500 There you go.

00:06:09.500 You got 30 days to contest it.

00:06:11.500 I will contest it. Thank you very much.

00:06:13.500 Have a good day, sir.

00:06:14.500 You too.

00:06:15.500 You gave a ticket to a person of the media? Is that right?

00:06:19.500 You can log with your YouTube channel.

00:06:21.500 Oh, I will fight this and I will win this. This is shameful.

00:06:26.500 It was so gross.

00:06:27.500 We wrote a letter to the police chief. It didn't make a difference.

00:06:30.500 The police hated us and hated Yankee in particular.

00:06:33.500 They started calling him Media Juif.

00:06:36.500 Jew Media. 0.68

00:06:37.500 Jew Media? 0.84

00:06:38.500 I'm filming.

00:06:39.500 Okay, sir.

00:06:40.500 Do you have an idea with you?

00:06:41.500 Yes.

00:06:42.500 Do you have an idea with you?

00:06:43.500 Yeah, I'm media.

00:06:45.500 Yeah, we'll take a piece of idea with you, sir.

00:06:46.500 Sure.

00:06:47.500 Yeah, okay.

00:06:48.500 Go on the sidewalk.

00:06:49.500 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:06:50.500 You cannot be on the street.

00:06:51.500 Yeah, yeah.

00:06:52.500 I'm in the middle of moving. You're talking to me.

00:06:53.500 Can you not shine at it?

00:06:55.500 I don't know who you are.

00:06:56.500 I also don't know who you are.

00:06:57.500 I also don't know who you are.

00:06:58.500 I'm constable Robert, 6473.

00:07:00.500 Okay.

00:07:01.500 And who are you?

00:07:03.500 I'm giving you my papers. No problem.

00:07:05.500 Just...

00:07:06.500 Okay.

00:07:07.500 What?

00:07:09.500 Who are you, sir?

00:07:11.500 I'm with Rebel News. I'm not media Jewish.

00:07:14.500 What did him being Jewish have to do with anything? 1.00

00:07:16.500 So stupid. 1.00

00:07:17.500 Such bullies. 1.00

00:07:18.500 Such a perfect encapsulation of Montreal's police.

00:07:21.500 So, you know how it went.

00:07:23.500 We sent a few more reporters to accompany Yankee.

00:07:26.500 They weren't Jewish, by the way.

00:07:28.500 They had their journalistic exemptions, too.

00:07:31.500 And the police hated them, too, and arrested them, too,

00:07:34.500 and even roughed them up a bit. Take a look.

00:07:36.500 Yankee was talking to the officer, or both of them,

00:07:39.500 and he was like, hey, so what's going on here?

00:07:41.500 I just want to, you know, assess the situation,

00:07:43.500 report on the situation.

00:07:45.500 And they did not take too kindly to that.

00:07:47.500 I'm media.

00:07:48.500 I see you guys putting some on the back of the car.

00:07:55.500 Guys, give the paper.

00:07:57.500 Long story short, we were held up for about 40 minutes

00:08:01.500 in freezing cold temperatures,

00:08:03.500 only to be ticketed thousands of dollars

00:08:07.500 for simply doing our jobs.

00:08:15.500 Yeah, by the way, none of those guys were Jewish,

00:08:16.500 but they were called media juif.

00:08:18.500 Really weird.

00:08:19.500 It got worse and worse,

00:08:20.500 even though all our guys had the paperwork

00:08:22.500 and weren't doing anything wrong.

00:08:24.500 But you know, no other journalists in Montreal

00:08:27.500 were going out to report on the lockdowns.

00:08:29.500 They were either lazy, or were instructed not to do so,

00:08:32.500 or they agreed with locking up their fellow citizens,

00:08:34.500 because honestly, some of the cops

00:08:37.500 had never seen a journalist on the street,

00:08:39.500 had never seen the exemption letters before.

00:08:41.500 Isn't that pitiful?

00:08:43.500 And they kept arresting and roughing up our people.

00:08:46.500 And that's when we decided to send a huge team out there

00:08:50.500 to assert our rights.

00:08:51.500 17 of us went out, if I recall the number correctly.

00:08:54.500 That turned into a bizarre standoff

00:08:56.500 when 50 police sounded our Airbnb.

00:08:59.500 We rented an Airbnb houseboat,

00:09:01.500 so we were all together.

00:09:02.500 And the cops demanded to be able to search

00:09:04.500 all of our reporters and their rooms.

00:09:07.500 Why are you pushing me?

00:09:20.500 Why are you pushing me?

00:09:21.500 I'm not pushing you.

00:09:22.500 You're pushing me with your hand.

00:09:23.500 You're assaulting me.

00:09:24.500 No, go this way, sir.

00:09:25.500 Everything is filmed.

00:09:26.500 Oh, look at this.

00:09:27.500 The affirmative action hire. 0.50

00:09:28.500 Are you stealing beyond?

00:09:29.500 Hey.

00:09:30.500 Hey.

00:09:31.500 Hey.

00:09:32.500 Hey.

00:09:33.500 Hey.

00:09:34.500 Hey.

00:09:35.500 You're not touching you.

00:09:36.500 You're pushing me with your hand.

00:09:37.500 You're assaulting me.

00:09:38.500 No, go this way, sir.

00:09:39.500 It's all.

00:09:40.500 Everything is filmed.

00:09:41.500 Oh, look at this.

00:09:42.500 The affirmative action hire. 0.50

00:09:43.500 Are you stealing beyond?

00:09:44.500 Hey.

00:09:45.500 Hey.

00:09:46.500 You don't touch their people.

00:09:47.500 Go government.

00:09:48.500 You don't touch you.

00:09:49.500 Oh, here comes the real government.

00:09:50.500 Did you touch him?

00:09:51.500 Did you touch him?

00:09:52.500 Did you touch him?

00:09:53.500 Why did you touch him?

00:09:55.500 No, no.

00:09:56.500 He drove into me.

00:09:57.500 He drove into me.

00:09:58.500 Are you hiding your name?

00:10:00.500 Keep your distance.

00:10:02.500 Hey.

00:10:03.500 Hey.

00:10:04.500 You want to get arrested for us?

00:10:06.500 You touched me.

00:10:08.500 Here are the bugs.

00:10:09.500 What?

00:10:10.500 Here are the bugs.

00:10:11.500 Here are the bugs.

00:10:12.500 Shame.

00:10:13.500 Shame.

00:10:14.500 Shame.

00:10:15.500 Shame.

00:10:16.500 Shame.

00:10:17.500 Shame.

00:10:18.500 Shame.

00:10:19.500 Shame.

00:10:20.500 Shame.

00:10:21.500 Shame.

00:10:22.500 Shame.

00:10:23.500 Shame.

00:10:24.500 Shame.

00:10:25.500 Shame.

00:10:26.500 Shame.

00:10:27.500 Shame.

00:10:28.500 Shame.

00:10:29.500 Shame.

00:10:30.500 Shame.

00:10:31.500 Shame.

00:10:32.500 Shame.

00:10:33.500 Shame.

00:10:34.500 Shame.

00:10:35.500 Shame.

00:10:36.500 Shame.

00:10:37.500 Shame.

00:10:38.500 Shame.

00:10:39.500 Shame.

00:10:43.500 Look at this.

00:10:44.500 More cuffs. 1.00

00:10:45.500 More fucking. 1.00

00:10:46.500 More cuffs. 1.00

00:10:47.500 You clean the fuck off. 1.00

00:10:50.500 Shame. 1.00

00:10:51.500 Shame.

00:10:52.500 Shame.

00:10:53.500 Shame. 1.00

00:10:54.500 How many guys does it take to fucking hold the guy, huh? 1.00

00:10:57.820 This is what you go to school for. 1.00

00:10:59.560 Shame, shame, shame, shame, shame, shame, shame, shame, shame, shame, shame, shame, shame, 0.98

00:11:08.660 They called us Jew media. 0.99

00:11:14.700 These crooked bigots, when they came to our reporters, they called us Jew media. 0.97

00:11:19.740 They asked if we were Jews. 1.00

00:11:21.300 They're anti-semitic, crooked, and corrupt, shame on them, these wicked men and women. 1.00

00:11:29.300 Yeah, Montreal's police are so corrupt and so gross, anyways, there are a lot of lawsuits 0.99

00:11:35.140 that came out of that event, but one of them resolved itself just last week, and today we

00:11:41.180 received a copy of the verdict.

00:11:43.940 It was the prosecution of one of our young reporters, Sidney Fazzard is his name, and he was prosecuted

00:11:49.260 for being out during the curfew, even though he had an exemption letter, an exemption letter

00:11:55.760 drafted by the province of Quebec that we filled out the form.

00:11:59.020 So the cops didn't care about this exemption letter, but all the cops can do is arrest you

00:12:04.220 and give you a ticket, and I guess rough you up, but the cops themselves can't prosecute

00:12:09.760 you.

00:12:10.260 Then you need the Justice Department, the prosecutors, and they decided to go after Sidney Fazzard also,

00:12:15.520 not in the heat of the moment like the cops might have done.

00:12:18.760 The prosecution looked at the facts in the cold light of day and made the willful decision

00:12:24.200 to push aside all less important matters, you know, robberies, vandalism, whatever the

00:12:28.180 problem in Montreal is, to focus prosecuting the great crime of Sidney being out after

00:12:33.520 10 p.m. with his camera.

00:12:35.440 They prosecuted another one of our reporters too, Yankee in fact.

00:12:40.420 Now this all happened in the spring of 2021, so you might think that the government had moved

00:12:45.580 on from that, that it had better things to do with their time and resources, and the court's

00:12:49.120 time, and the judge's time, but if so you would be wrong, literally two and a half years after

00:12:54.080 that madness, well the new madness continued, the government of Quebec made the calm, rational

00:12:59.900 decision to prosecute our journalist Sidney.

00:13:02.680 This isn't the heat of the moment thing where the cops didn't know what was up and hadn't

00:13:06.280 seen the form before, this was years later, the government of Quebec wanted to get us.

00:13:13.000 So this thing actually went to trial, and that my friends is my story today.

00:13:18.580 I'm showing you now the judgment issued by the court, I'm told that the verdict was actually

00:13:25.340 issued in English, but it was translated into French for the official version, that's Quebec

00:13:30.240 for you I guess.

00:13:31.240 Now my French is good enough that I can read it, but it's not great, so I put the judgment

00:13:36.680 through Google Translate, if you know what I'm talking about, and I'm going to read that

00:13:41.120 translation to you.

00:13:42.260 So please understand, that's where I'm getting these English words from, a machine translation

00:13:46.720 from French to English, it's not perfect, but it's pretty good.

00:13:50.060 So let me start, Court of Quebec, Canada, Province of Quebec, District of Montreal, Locality

00:13:56.300 of Montreal, Criminal and Penal Chamber, date November 15th, 2023, under the presidency of

00:14:05.540 Mrs. Johanna White, Justice of the Peace Magistrate.

00:14:09.040 So that was the judge, and the prosecutor was the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions,

00:14:14.480 following Sidney Emmerich Richard Fizzard.

00:14:19.160 That's our reporter. 0.97

00:14:20.680 Seriously, this was important enough to take up a day of court in 2023.

00:14:25.860 So the judge starts out the verdict, recalling what the world was like back there.

00:14:29.480 Here are her words.

00:14:30.420 Again, they're a bit mangled by Google Translation, but I think you can get the point still.

00:14:35.300 I'm quoting now.

00:14:36.120 World Health Organization declares global pandemic in 2020 caused by the COVID-19 virus.

00:14:41.480 Consequently, on March 13th, 2020, the government of Quebec declares a state of health emergency

00:14:45.940 throughout the province.

00:14:47.740 Political and health authorities inform the public daily of the evolution of the situation,

00:14:52.080 as well as the decisions taken to fight the pandemic caused by COVID-19 and the measures

00:14:56.060 put in place to enforce them.

00:14:57.940 Among the measures taken by the state to counter the spread of the virus, such that stated by decree,

00:15:04.420 there is this one.

00:15:06.080 So again, the translation is not perfect, but here they're citing the decree, the curfew.

00:15:11.760 It is forbidden between 9.30 p.m. and 5 a.m. to be found outside of one's residence,

00:15:18.160 unless one demonstrates being outside this place to provide work or professional services

00:15:22.700 necessary for the continuity of activities or services that are not subject to suspension

00:15:27.340 under decree or order made under Section 123 of the Act, respecting public health, blah, blah, blah.

00:15:32.380 So it's basically saying, unless you are exempt, unless you're doing an essential service,

00:15:39.340 you have to be in.

00:15:41.540 You have to be inside.

00:15:43.260 So again, apologies for the rough translation, but basically, everyone was ordered to stay

00:15:47.960 at home other than those who were specifically exempt.

00:15:50.860 So the default was house arrest.

00:15:54.120 That's nice.

00:15:55.680 I'll keep reading the ruling.

00:15:56.800 Again, this is Google Translate.

00:15:57.860 Considering that many citizens are infected by the virus, the collaboration police officers

00:16:02.340 are requested by public authorities to ensure compliance with measures put in place to curb

00:16:06.660 the spread of the disease.

00:16:08.760 On March 21st, 2021, Mr. Fizard was intercepted twice at a few hours apart during the curfew and

00:16:15.440 received two tickets.

00:16:16.840 He claims to be exempt from respecting the curfew because he is a journalist and in the exercise

00:16:21.340 of this function at the time of police interventions.

00:16:24.060 Obviously, he was.

00:16:25.080 And here's what the judge says, the issue in dispute, does Mr. Fizard's explanation constitute

00:16:31.600 one of the exceptions to the decree exonerating his criminal liability?

00:16:36.640 Now, I'm not going to read the whole thing to you.

00:16:39.020 You can see the whole thing on our website, and you can put it through Google Translate

00:16:43.180 yourself.

00:16:44.180 But let me read part of it to you because there's some interesting parts in here.

00:16:47.880 Paragraph seven, the offense alleged against Mr. Fizard is one of strict liability for which

00:16:52.860 the prosecutor does not have to demonstrate that a defendant intended to infringe the law.

00:16:57.540 However, when the prosecutor has discharged his burden of proof, a defendant can claim that

00:17:01.820 he took all reasonable means not to infringe the law or that he benefits from an exception

00:17:06.180 or exemption permitted by law or decree.

00:17:08.500 It is then up to him to demonstrate by preponderance of evidence that the exception or exemption applies

00:17:14.000 to his situation.

00:17:14.680 In other words, if you're spotted outside, you're guilty right off the bat.

00:17:21.260 The government doesn't have to prove anything more.

00:17:23.280 It falls to you to prove that you were exempt.

00:17:25.760 That's what the judge is saying.

00:17:28.340 Paragraph eight, the court emphasizes that the essential elements of the offense that a

00:17:32.140 prosecutor must prove beyond a reasonable doubt are the identification of the defendant and

00:17:36.180 his presence outside the residence during curfew hours.

00:17:38.660 A defendant does not have to raise a reasonable doubt having regard to all the evidence as

00:17:44.180 to one of these elements in order to be acquitted of the offense.

00:17:47.560 It can also be demonstrated by preponderance of evidence that one of the exceptions is provided

00:17:51.620 for and the decree applies.

00:17:53.240 So basically, then it's on 50-50.

00:17:56.300 Can our reporter demonstrate 51% to 49% that he was exempt?

00:18:02.120 Mr. Fizard admits the facts but maintains that he was in the execution of his work.

00:18:07.060 Journalist for Rebel News.

00:18:09.520 So it's a pretty simple case, isn't it?

00:18:12.300 The police knew he had an exemption, but they said Rebel News isn't real news.

00:18:18.760 They just refused to accept it, refused to believe it.

00:18:21.220 And the prosecutors agreed and sent this thing to court for 30 months they invested in it.

00:18:29.480 At the very beginning of the pandemic, the Quebec government established a state of emergency.

00:18:32.900 I'm reading from the ruling again.

00:18:34.120 And decrees the suspension of all activity in the workplace except for those where priority services are offered.

00:18:40.260 Among these, we find the media and telecommunications, including national and local media.

00:18:45.300 So there you have it.

00:18:46.320 The media were exempt.

00:18:47.360 Couldn't be clearer.

00:18:48.100 Again, I think that's gross.

00:18:50.760 Everyone has the same rights.

00:18:51.860 Why should a fancy elite, as if journalists are fancy, be exempt and ordinary people are not?

00:18:57.660 But we were exempt, and that was the law we were relying on.

00:19:00.200 Now, let me skip down a little bit in the ruling here.

00:19:02.040 Again, I'm reading the translation.

00:19:03.580 The exception relating to local and national media remains in force, having not undergone any modifications.

00:19:10.240 The opposite would have been very surprising, given the fact that the authorities relied heavily on these to inform the population,

00:19:16.260 the evolution of the pandemic, and the health measures decreed to combat it.

00:19:20.020 Still on March 21, 2021, in the early hours of the morning, the defendant received a first report of infraction.

00:19:26.480 Detective Sergeant Collar testifies about his intervention and the issuance of this first observation.

00:19:32.440 Okay, so we're getting into the police testimony.

00:19:35.680 Imagine, two and a half years after this happened, this is so important,

00:19:39.320 that a cop is taken off the beat to come to court to testify against a journalist in Canada.

00:19:45.240 I'll keep reading from the ruling.

00:19:46.740 Thus, the police officer assigned to night shift assists colleagues following a call regarding a gathering on St. Antoine Street.

00:19:53.900 He stuck on street corners St. Louis and Guilford when he saw two men on the sidewalk filming with their cell phone the police vehicle.

00:20:00.980 So he asked the two men what they are doing at this place.

00:20:04.660 They respond that they are journalists and that they have heard of an important police intervention in progress.

00:20:10.420 The policeman asked them how they obtained this information, to which they respond,

00:20:14.440 We were just walking outside and we saw lots of police cars, so we decided to stop and see what was going on.

00:20:19.480 Sounds like a pretty good answer to me.

00:20:21.860 Back to the ruling, paragraph 15.

00:20:23.700 The police officer asked them to identify themselves.

00:20:26.920 Mr. Frizard identifies himself with a license to drive from Ontario.

00:20:30.960 He then provides a form from his employer, Rebel News.

00:20:34.720 According to the police officer, this form is written in French and states that the defendant is exempt from curfew

00:20:39.300 and is allowed to travel from his place of work to his address, personal address.

00:20:43.440 His home address is in Toronto and the Rebel News address is at Toronto.

00:20:46.880 The police officer confronts the defendant about this, but he maintains that his location of work is here.

00:20:52.680 On the other hand, he admits not understanding the content of his letter from the employer since it is written in French.

00:20:57.960 He refuses to leave a copy with the police officer.

00:21:01.200 All right, well, fair enough.

00:21:02.060 I mean, we filled out the form in French.

00:21:03.660 Sidney doesn't speak French.

00:21:04.580 We filled it out in French because the form was only made available in French.

00:21:07.940 I say again, this was a Government of Quebec form that we downloaded from the internet,

00:21:11.920 and there is no denying that it was filled out properly and that Sidney had it.

00:21:16.020 The law exempts local and national media.

00:21:18.780 That's us, baby.

00:21:21.100 They have a talk about different forms because we actually had three different forms, but I'll just read this part.

00:21:27.540 Another letter, D5, also signed by Ezra Levant, president of Rebel News in Toronto,

00:21:31.920 stipulates that during the curfew decreed by the Government of Quebec, the person identified in this document is recognized as an essential resource

00:21:39.440 and that Mr. Sidney Fouzard must therefore travel between his home and his place of work or any place where the presence and the professional capacity is required.

00:21:46.760 This letter, obtained only after the police officer's testimony, is dated March 18, 2021, and valid from March 19 to April 30, 2021.

00:21:54.860 Finally, a third letter is produced and has the same effect as the previous, but dated March 5, 2021, and is valid from March 6 to March 8.

00:22:04.080 All right, so we're legal.

00:22:05.000 I was signing all these forms whenever our people went out there.

00:22:07.840 I was filling out the paperwork.

00:22:09.080 Could you imagine being a journalist and having to fill out government paperwork to do your work?

00:22:12.820 That sounds like something you would do in China.

00:22:15.540 My point, though, is that we were following the law.

00:22:18.340 We had the paperwork, en français.

00:22:21.500 But the cops didn't like us.

00:22:22.920 They were angry.

00:22:23.560 You saw that.

00:22:24.480 They hate us because we were there to shine the light of scrutiny on them, something that not a single Quebec journalist had done.

00:22:33.080 Now it gets interesting.

00:22:34.420 Look at this.

00:22:36.540 A group of people are arrested for offenses related to curfew.

00:22:39.880 I'm reading the judgment again.

00:22:41.220 Wearing a mask and noncompliance with distancing required by health measures.

00:22:45.920 During his arrest, Mr. Fouzard was in the presence of three other people and all claimed to be journalists employed by Rebel News.

00:22:51.940 In his report, the police officer indicates that their presence outside during curfew is not part of the list of exceptions.

00:22:58.360 Because there were no media events to cover in the sector at this time.

00:23:04.680 And the far right Rebel News website is not a source from recognized media.

00:23:08.800 Did you get that?

00:23:10.060 The police are deciding what is and isn't a media event in this policing sector.

00:23:15.580 They said there was nothing to cover.

00:23:18.400 Why didn't we just obey them?

00:23:20.020 Oh, and they said we're far right.

00:23:21.700 What does that mean?

00:23:23.080 We're for civil liberties.

00:23:24.120 Is that far right now?

00:23:25.060 I thought that was a liberal idea, actually.

00:23:27.460 And because they didn't like us, because they had political opinions about us, they didn't have to grant us the media exemption.

00:23:32.640 Can you believe that?

00:23:33.700 Well, I can believe it.

00:23:34.720 And the fact that this was pursued by the police and the prosecution for 30 months shows that, yeah, they absolutely were in the business of deciding who is and isn't journalists.

00:23:43.880 How gross is that?

00:23:45.200 The police telling us who and who isn't a journalist.

00:23:48.660 And look at this snobbery here.

00:23:51.020 Snobbery by the police of prosecution and, I would say, by the judge, too.

00:23:54.040 Back to the ruling, questioned about his status as a journalist during the trial.

00:23:59.460 Mr. Fouzard admits, not having done any study for his job since before being hired at Rebel News, he was a cook.

00:24:07.680 It therefore appears that no training is required to be able to grant yourself the title of journalist and obtain accreditation from Independent Press Gallery of Canada.

00:24:17.020 As in, Sidney didn't go to journalism school.

00:24:20.680 What do you think they teach you at journalism school for four years?

00:24:24.040 They teach you left-wing ideology.

00:24:26.200 So, luckily, no.

00:24:28.400 You don't have to spend four years being indoctrinated in order to have the right to film what police are doing in the dead of night to poor Montrealers.

00:24:36.360 Oh, and he was a cook before he worked for us.

00:24:38.820 How dare a lowly cook have the audacity to think that he could be a journalist?

00:24:45.160 Oh, and that shot at the Independent Press Gallery.

00:24:46.860 Well, by the way, you don't need a journalism degree to work for any media outlet.

00:24:50.740 The CBC, for example.

00:24:52.360 Or to be part of the government's parliamentary press gallery either.

00:24:55.500 And who the hell would a cop or a prosecutor or a judge be to say who can or can't do journalism? 0.94

00:25:01.440 That's so gross.

00:25:01.980 By the way, Peter Mansbridge didn't go to journalism school.

00:25:04.900 He didn't go to university at all.

00:25:06.380 Imagine the police saying, how dare you think you can be a journalist?

00:25:10.100 Look at this.

00:25:10.620 This part's just embarrassing.

00:25:12.200 I'm back to the judgment here.

00:25:13.120 At the time of the events, none of the people arrested with the defendant use equipment normally used for reporting.

00:25:21.760 They just film police intervention using their cell phones.

00:25:26.160 Moreover, it is clear that their presence at outside during curfew mainly aims to provoke police intervention to film it and offer it as a report to Rebel News.

00:25:35.480 Oh, is that a fact?

00:25:36.620 Is that a fact?

00:25:37.280 So these are experts telling us what we can or can't use as a camera?

00:25:41.980 I'd put it to you.

00:25:42.760 The camera in a basic smartphone in 2023 or back in 2021 is far superior than a quarter million dollar over-the-shoulder TV camera from 10 years ago.

00:25:54.920 And by the way, you can edit and publish right from your phone too.

00:25:58.960 What a bunch of technologically illiterate boomers. 0.56

00:26:03.440 You can't do journalism with just a cell phone. 0.94

00:26:05.600 Hey there, you kids, stop doing journalism with your cell phone.

00:26:09.020 And you aim to provoke police, really?

00:26:12.060 Sort of sounds like these police are the ones who are trying to provoke us.

00:26:15.720 That they're the ones with access to the grind.

00:26:17.600 They're the ones expressing a view on whether or not we can't be journalists because of our right-wing views.

00:26:23.340 I mean, how dare we report on something when there's nothing to report on?

00:26:26.600 And the police have given us their word that there's nothing to report on.

00:26:29.280 Why don't we just accept that?

00:26:31.320 And after all, if they're not experts on how to do journalism, I mean, who is, right?

00:26:36.600 Well, don't provoke them or they'll arrest you and hound you for 30 months.

00:26:40.820 I'll keep reading from the judgment.

00:26:41.980 In order to demonstrate that Rebel News is a real media outlet, the defendant's lawyer invokes a decision of the federal court of Newfoundland.

00:26:49.600 In which the judge ordered the leaders' debates commission to give Rebel News Network Limited the required accreditation to allow a journalist to participate in person and tend others to participate in virtual mode like other media in the leaders' debate for federal election.

00:27:04.600 I remember that.

00:27:05.240 That was an amazing ruling.

00:27:06.300 That was the second time the federal court of Canada struck down Trudeau's ban on us.

00:27:10.880 And the judge, in this case, here in Montreal, seems to have taken it to heart, despite her bizarre criticisms of our journalists.

00:27:19.020 The leaders' debate commission, I'm reading from the ruling again, refused this accreditation based on the guidelines issued by the Canadian Association of Journalists regarding conflicts of interest.

00:27:28.740 The commission has identified several elements constituting conflicts of interest, according to her from Rebel News, such as the Vaccine Passport Legal Fund, the Stop the Censorship Petition, the No COVID Jails Lawsuit, the Bring Back Harper Petition, the Open Saskatchewan Lawsuit, and the Autotracker Letter.

00:27:46.140 So, basically, the Montreal judge was saying that the debates commission tried to kick us out because we have these petitions.

00:27:53.300 But then this Montreal judge says this.

00:27:56.720 In this decision, the commission states that its mandate is to maintain the public confidence in media coverage and expresses the view that activities that could lead to conflicts of interest risk harming the trust.

00:28:07.220 This fear is possibly well-founded, but the responsibility for determining who is a journalist and who is not, and how to report in accordance with journalistic standards, are not within the purview of this court.

00:28:20.520 Usually, these are the orders professionals bringing together all members of the same profession, who provide a form of regulation of the said profession.

00:28:28.540 This makes it easy to check who is a member, in good standing, with a professional order.

00:28:34.140 Unlike other professions, however, who exercise their profession, journalists do not have an obligation to be part of a professional order, who can establish what is acceptable and what is not, keep a list of members in good standing, and sanction misconduct by imposing fines, suspensions, additional training, or even removal from the order.

00:28:50.700 Of course, there is the press council, but this body does not have the same powers and duties as those assigned to a professional order.

00:28:59.440 So basically, this judge is saying, yeah, journalists are not like doctors or lawyers or accountants or engineers.

00:29:06.620 They're sort of a fake profession.

00:29:08.760 Anyone can be a journalist.

00:29:10.100 Now, I know this because I didn't go to journalism school, and I'm just as good a journalist as half the journalists in Ottawa who did.

00:29:18.880 Journalism is an activity.

00:29:20.700 It's not a profession.

00:29:22.240 And this judge sort of sad about that, but she admits it's the truth.

00:29:26.580 Let me read some more from the ruling.

00:29:29.300 Furthermore, in several court decisions, the identification of Rebel News as media is not called into question.

00:29:36.260 The court cannot therefore conclude, as the policeman said, that it is not a recognized media outlet in our country.

00:29:47.320 And here, the judge ends strong.

00:29:49.080 In our country, freedom of expression is protected by our laws whether or not we agree with the opinions expressed.

00:29:56.600 Consequently, and although the defendant's behavior during the curfew is perplexing,

00:30:02.700 the fact remains that the evidence indicates that Rebel News probably assigned to Quebec to cover this event if we are to believe the documents filed as evidenced by the defense without objections from the prosecutor.

00:30:16.020 In this context, the court cannot conclude that Mr. Fazzard was not in the exercise of his journalistic functions during his arrest.

00:30:23.840 For these reasons, the tribunal says the defendant is acquitted of the offenses charged.

00:30:31.400 And there you have it.

00:30:35.180 In our country, freedom of the press is the law.

00:30:37.480 No matter if a cop thinks there's no news in this sector.

00:30:41.780 No matter if a prosecutor thinks our camera's too small.

00:30:44.940 No matter if a judge finds it perplexing that we'd find it interesting to go out during a curfew.

00:30:52.200 Sorry to perplex you, judge.

00:30:54.860 But she got it right on what counts.

00:30:57.640 The law.

00:30:59.220 Freedom of the press.

00:31:00.240 And this case was another victory for Rebel News.

00:31:05.600 Hey, how much money did you think that foolishness just burnt up?

00:31:11.180 How much tax money for the police, the enforcement, for the police to show up at trial, for the prosecutors' two-and-a-half-year vendetta, for the court's time?

00:31:21.220 What do you estimate?

00:31:22.020 $100,000?

00:31:24.160 $200,000?

00:31:25.680 Let alone our costs.

00:31:27.240 And the cost of Sidney having to take off time to go to court.

00:31:31.240 This is just one of, I don't know, a dozen cases we're fighting right now.

00:31:35.900 What do you think of this one?

00:31:37.100 If you want to help us, go to journalistdefensefund.com.

00:31:42.100 No other journalists in Canada are put through this.

00:31:44.320 None.

00:31:45.700 No one at the CBC.

00:31:46.920 No one at the rest of the media party.

00:31:49.280 Because they are obedient.

00:31:51.360 They agree with the curfew.

00:31:53.300 They were propagandists for the lockdown, for the regime.

00:31:56.300 They weren't critics.

00:31:57.180 If the cops told them there's nothing to report on in this police sector, they'd obey.

00:32:02.740 And that's why they'll never report on this court victory for Rebel News or the embarrassing and gross prosecution of our reporter in the first place.

00:32:13.840 Because really, if any given journalist at the CBC had been the judge in this case, our reporter would have been convicted.

00:32:21.320 Stay with us for more with the reporter, Sidney Fazzard.

00:32:27.340 Well, joining us now is the reporter in question who was victorious in a Quebec court last week.

00:32:44.400 Sidney Fazzard joins us from Calgary City.

00:32:46.960 Great to see you again.

00:32:47.740 I'm very excited.

00:32:48.820 I went through the ruling line by line, and I Google translated it.

00:32:52.980 My own command of French is sort of iffy, but going through the Google Translate, these cops read your exemption letter.

00:33:03.360 They were in French.

00:33:04.880 They were signed.

00:33:05.940 They were dated.

00:33:06.860 Everything was legit.

00:33:08.940 You had three different versions of this exemption letter.

00:33:12.640 I remember signing them.

00:33:13.600 I remember consulting with lawyers, making sure we were dotting all the I's, crossing all the T's.

00:33:17.840 But that wasn't good enough for them because they claimed that you were, quote, far right, that you weren't a real journalist.

00:33:26.360 They even complained that your camera was too small.

00:33:29.620 It couldn't be real. 1.00

00:33:31.420 It was the stupidest thing I ever heard. 1.00

00:33:34.040 But they were so committed to getting you that they pursued you for two and a half years. 0.99

00:33:40.840 What do you make of that?

00:33:42.280 Yeah, no, and that's exactly it.

00:33:43.700 I still remember the conversation with one of the officers where one of the tickets was being handed out.

00:33:49.160 And even though, you know, our tiny camera wasn't really a big enough camera to be considered proper, it was still something he requested that we turn off.

00:33:57.300 And I can only imagine what the repercussions would be if we would actually stop recording these engagements.

00:34:03.040 Yeah, I mean, I don't care what a policeman's opinion is on the size of a camera.

00:34:09.140 I mean, this cell phone that I have, I mean, it's a couple of years old.

00:34:13.420 It's as good a camera as when I worked at Sun News Network 10 years ago.

00:34:17.840 We had quarter million dollar cameras. 1.00

00:34:20.200 It's such a stupid objection. 1.00

00:34:23.400 They were clearly grasping for anything to discredit citizen journalism. 1.00

00:34:28.700 I mean, I don't want to. 0.91

00:34:31.080 I only mention it because it shows how gross they are.

00:34:33.960 They brought up the fact that you were a cook, they said, before you worked as a journalist, as if that somehow discredits your work, as if no one who was a cook.

00:34:46.340 Like, I don't even know what point they're making other than some class snobbery implying that journalists are some priestly elite.

00:34:55.560 And if you don't have a degree or if you didn't don't have the right background, you're not allowed to do it. 0.97

00:35:02.820 Again, that's so ridiculous. 1.00

00:35:04.200 It's as stupid as their cell phone objection. 1.00

00:35:06.840 It just shows their own mindset. 1.00

00:35:08.880 They were the bigots here.

00:35:10.700 They and I'm so glad we won it.

00:35:12.640 But I'm deeply embarrassed for Quebec that they made these arguments.

00:35:17.060 Well, and likewise, to your point, I wonder how lowly they think of the cooking industry.

00:35:20.900 I mean, the fact of the matter is I didn't go to culinary school either.

00:35:23.640 And I like to think that I was a pretty good cook.

00:35:26.200 But this is really the disassociation that we see is there's the upper class and the lower class.

00:35:30.960 And the upper class has to adhere to certain rules.

00:35:33.080 We clearly weren't adhering to those rules.

00:35:35.480 But we were still out there on the ground doing real independent journalism.

00:35:39.140 And again, one of the officers mentioned how we weren't or the CTV or the other news outlets that they weren't out there on the streets.

00:35:46.080 And he questioned, you know, why would we therefore be out on the streets?

00:35:48.920 And that's exactly it is we don't align ourselves with this mainstream media trajectory.

00:35:54.060 We focus on what's actually happening and what matters to Canadians, not playing defense for the people who are paying our bills.

00:36:01.300 You know, the fact that the cops said, hey, the real journalists aren't reporting on what we're doing in the dead of night.

00:36:08.820 The real journalists know their place.

00:36:11.280 The real journalists know to leave us alone.

00:36:13.060 Why can't you be more like CBC and CTV?

00:36:15.340 Like, they're just giving it all away.

00:36:17.580 Like, there's no shame there.

00:36:19.960 They, I think the grossest part of that entire ruling, and I was not at your trial, but the judge recounts it, is when the cops said, there's no news in this sector.

00:36:33.420 You know, it's like I'm watching that old sci-fi movie, Robocop.

00:36:38.020 There is no news in this sector.

00:36:40.320 Citizen, move on. 1.00

00:36:41.560 Like, who the hell is a cop to say, there is no news here.

00:36:45.240 I know that.

00:36:46.360 And even if I'm wrong, I get to decide where you point your, your little camera.

00:36:51.820 So there's no news here.

00:36:53.040 Go away.

00:36:53.580 I mean, this is, that's normal in Montreal, apparently.

00:36:57.440 And it's normal enough that the prosecutors say, yeah, let's back this argument for two and a half years.

00:37:03.440 So gross.

00:37:05.460 Yeah.

00:37:05.720 Well, and the fact of the matter is, we were there filming empty streets.

00:37:09.340 And you, one might question, you know, in normal times, why, what's the newsworthiness of an empty street where nothing's happening?

00:37:16.320 But if you go to a place like Montreal during curfews, it's supposedly, you know, a kind of party central of Canada.

00:37:22.200 And all of the streets are empty everywhere you look.

00:37:25.120 Every business is closed down.

00:37:26.660 And you film an empty street there and you show the world, look how locked down the people of Quebec are.

00:37:32.900 And they go after you for that.

00:37:34.080 That's exactly what they did.

00:37:35.740 Yeah, that's a great point.

00:37:36.760 If you were to go out at 4 a.m. and film a street in normal times, that would not particularly be newsworthy, although it's your civil right to do so.

00:37:46.880 And if a cop told you to stop, you'd say, you know, jog on.

00:37:51.320 But it absolutely was newsworthy during a lockdown.

00:37:55.240 I remember when we finally came out, like, first it was Yankee and then Efron and Lincoln and Mocha and yourself.

00:38:02.400 So we sent one and then two and then three and then four people out.

00:38:05.740 Then finally, I think 17 of us went out there because we were so grossed out by these cops.

00:38:11.200 And you did see the odd person on the street, you know, essential services.

00:38:17.620 You know, there were.

00:38:18.540 And that's interesting, too.

00:38:19.980 Who's out?

00:38:20.520 Who's not?

00:38:22.280 It was all interesting.

00:38:23.840 And I think that this court case is an acquittal for you.

00:38:30.740 But it's a conviction against the other media that they didn't find it interesting enough to show their viewers what life was like, to ask questions.

00:38:40.100 Who's going out?

00:38:40.940 What's the situation?

00:38:42.080 What harm is being done?

00:38:43.220 Like, they just no curiosity.

00:38:45.000 The media absolutely was an adjunct of power.

00:38:49.920 For three years, the media stopped speaking truth to power and, in fact, shamed others for doing journalism.

00:38:58.920 I remember after our conflagration in Montreal, all the big newspapers in Montreal condemned us for daring to do skeptical journalism.

00:39:08.820 I understand you've got a couple of clips you want to throw to.

00:39:10.920 Why don't you tell us what they are and we'll take a look and you can tell us how it fits in.

00:39:14.840 Well, absolutely.

00:39:15.900 First off, there's a clip where me and one of our co-workers, we were just walking down the streets.

00:39:20.420 This is very late at night.

00:39:21.600 And we were preparing for the day ahead where we were going to do some further ventures.

00:39:25.140 And we walked up to a building which had a fellow, he was smoking a cigarette at the entrance.

00:39:30.060 And there were some officers with the cop cars there and they were flashing their lights.

00:39:34.080 And we thought, that's interesting.

00:39:35.300 So we asked the gentleman, what's going on here?

00:39:37.360 There was a house party, apparently.

00:39:38.960 And the police were inevitably cracking down on it because it's illegal to be gathered with your friends if it's too late.

00:39:44.500 So we started filming them.

00:39:46.320 And I don't know if we can pull that clip up now or in the near future.

00:39:50.240 But the officer, right out of the bat, was very aggressive towards us.

00:39:54.160 We filmed him driving away.

00:39:56.060 And then he stopped his car and immediately backed up and then approached us and started asking, you know, who are we?

00:40:01.360 What are we doing?

00:40:02.060 This and that.

00:40:02.920 A very confrontational behavior from these officers.

00:40:05.600 Yeah.

00:40:06.080 You know, it's funny because the judge talked about, it's so perplexing.

00:40:09.860 You're trying to provoke them.

00:40:11.000 No, doing journalism is not an essentially provocative thing.

00:40:13.960 Here, let's play the clip.

00:40:14.660 Let's take a look.

00:40:16.180 Yep.

00:40:16.820 And also, this as well.

00:40:20.120 I'm just going to get my ID and my...

00:40:21.500 How about you close your phone?

00:40:22.660 I'm sorry.

00:40:23.660 This is our job.

00:40:24.820 Sorry.

00:40:25.720 You're not obligated.

00:40:27.180 Sorry.

00:40:28.760 I'm being paid to do this as a journalist.

00:40:30.520 We have to record everything.

00:40:32.660 Can you hold this real quick?

00:40:33.720 Yes.

00:40:34.080 So, what are you doing outside?

00:40:38.880 What are you doing outside?

00:40:40.360 We're looking for police interactions with the citizens.

00:40:43.740 It says here that under the law, you're allowed only to go from your home to your place of work.

00:40:49.240 Yeah, this is our work.

00:40:50.860 I would beg to differ.

00:40:52.500 In what sense?

00:40:53.720 We're here to record how the curfew is.

00:40:56.160 I don't see people from CTC or CTV outside.

00:40:57.920 That doesn't matter.

00:40:58.800 We choose to go out.

00:41:00.240 No, but that doesn't say...

00:41:01.300 I mean, I'm not saying, yeah, you can choose to go out.

00:41:03.400 But it says here that you're only obligated.

00:41:05.980 You're only allowed to go from your house to your place of work.

00:41:09.920 You know what?

00:41:10.620 It's your little camera which disturbed these police seem to capture that quite clearly.

00:41:18.260 Any other thoughts on that?

00:41:19.380 I understand you have a second clip as well.

00:41:21.660 Yeah, no.

00:41:22.040 We can jump to the second clip.

00:41:23.060 It's sadly more of the same.

00:41:25.660 Maybe you could say that the officers were less confrontational.

00:41:29.280 But by how many there were and by how many police vehicles there were that showed up at this next incident, it's questionable as to their intentions, which we saw we got four tickets for.

00:41:38.840 This was an incident where myself, Yankee Polak, and a few of our other co-workers were driving through the streets of Montreal.

00:41:47.960 Yankee Polak, of course, he goes through the streets. 1.00

00:41:50.580 At the time, he was going there every night, and he was investigating the curfews.

00:41:54.240 This time, we all went with him.

00:41:56.100 And we found that there was a minor in the back of a police vehicle that, I guess, was, I don't want to say forced into being escorted home, but that did seem to be the situation.

00:42:05.480 We did seek clarification, but the officers were not having any of it.

00:42:09.000 And they did identify us as Rebel News.

00:42:10.800 And Yankee, of course, being a Rebel News employee and having a kind of rapport, I guess, with the officers, that struck out to them.

00:42:17.480 And they weren't happy about that.

00:42:18.820 And I believe it's because of our politics.

00:42:22.120 I'm not sure why.

00:42:23.340 OK, he's giving it to me.

00:42:25.800 Go, go, go, go, go, go.

00:42:41.480 You speak English?

00:42:42.980 You have any papers to allow?

00:42:44.260 Yeah, we have papers.

00:42:45.300 OK, I'm going to check it out.

00:42:46.740 Yeah, you can check it out.

00:42:48.320 What we're doing?

00:42:49.380 We're filming you guys.

00:42:51.060 Why?

00:42:51.740 Because that's our job.

00:42:53.000 We're media.

00:42:53.660 We're filming.

00:42:54.440 OK, I'm going to take my papers.

00:42:55.860 Yeah, yeah, sure.

00:42:56.800 You can take all our papers.

00:42:58.100 So we're all together.

00:42:59.760 We caught these officers putting this young Hasidic Jew in the back of their police cruiser, allegedly for breaking the curfew.

00:43:06.900 Yeah, yeah.

00:43:07.280 So here's my paper.

00:43:08.280 In Quebec, police officers don't have body cams.

00:43:15.840 Can we ask you what happened over here?

00:43:19.800 No.

00:43:20.500 No?

00:43:21.600 Well, I'm going to ask you.

00:43:24.100 What are you doing?

00:43:25.140 I'm media.

00:43:26.180 I see you guys putting someone in the back of the car.

00:43:29.260 Yeah, absolutely.

00:43:30.100 The police.

00:43:31.020 And again, even in the trial and even in this ruling, their political tastes, they thought that was relevant.

00:43:38.780 I mean, we could be right wing.

00:43:40.060 We could be left wing.

00:43:40.840 We could be no wing.

00:43:42.780 What's that got to do with how policing is done?

00:43:45.480 What's that got to do with whether or not we have an exemption?

00:43:48.340 So the very fact that the police were complaining about our right wing point of view, I didn't know that civil liberties was a right wing thing, but I guess I'm learning so much from these cops.

00:44:01.140 The fact that the cops mentioned their perception of our ideological take as relevant shows that they are, in fact, the biased ones.

00:44:11.080 It's funny that they accuse us of being biased.

00:44:13.200 We're just doing our journalism, minding our own business.

00:44:15.120 Because they're the ones hassling, arresting, physically roughing up journalists because they're too right wing.

00:44:23.140 Apparently, you can do that if there's a journalist that's right wing. 0.94

00:44:25.680 These cops are gross, but they're just cops. 0.60

00:44:29.900 The prosecutors ran with this for 30 months. 0.97

00:44:33.300 The judge allowed a full day trial.

00:44:35.140 How long was the trial?

00:44:36.000 Was it a full day?

00:44:37.100 A full day, roughly, yes.

00:44:38.320 And you had to travel.

00:44:39.460 You're based in Calgary.

00:44:40.320 Now you have to travel all the way to Montreal at our expense, I presume.

00:44:43.540 Did we? Yeah, of course.

00:44:46.100 So the process was the punishment.

00:44:48.000 I mean, in a way, I imagine it was very educational learning experience.

00:44:52.640 I mean, I wouldn't recommend to anyone being put on trial, but to go through it and to win is surely a very informative thing for a journalist.

00:45:01.620 What do you think about the outcome?

00:45:03.140 I just saw this today and I just read this today, even though it came out last week in French.

00:45:08.680 I'm not thrilled with some of the things the judge says.

00:45:11.960 She clearly isn't a fan of Rebel News or citizen journalism.

00:45:15.740 But at the end of the day, she gets the only thing that's important right.

00:45:19.600 She tells the judge freedom of the press applies to all media, whether we like them or not.

00:45:24.740 And in the end, I'm pleased with that.

00:45:26.240 What do you think?

00:45:26.800 Well, absolutely.

00:45:28.080 And I really do want to emphasize the role of our donors and those who support Rebel News, because as an independent outlet, we went out there on the streets to cover what was happening.

00:45:37.320 And what happened?

00:45:38.020 The police, as you mentioned, with somewhat perhaps a political bias to the situation, were issuing us $1,500 tickets for being outside past a certain time.

00:45:47.620 I forgot how big the tickets were.

00:45:49.200 And you had four of them.

00:45:50.440 Is that right altogether?

00:45:51.160 For myself, luckily, I only had two.

00:45:53.940 But some of our co-workers we know had many more.

00:45:56.220 And, you know, the one thing I want to say to that is, you know, I'm very thankful that our journalism was protected here.

00:46:01.460 But how many people in Quebec suffered through a $1,500 ticket or multiple $1,500 tickets because they were doing things that were essential after hours deemed okay by the government?

00:46:12.860 These are people, if you're faced with a $1,500 ticket, that's rent for a month.

00:46:16.280 That's a very difficult thing to overcome.

00:46:18.700 And as much as the process is the punishment, many of these people, they ended up taking excruciating fines just to go about it.

00:46:24.820 Yeah, the punishment was the punishment also.

00:46:26.720 And in your case, it's doubly crazy because you actually had the exemption letter properly filled out in French, signed by me.

00:46:35.560 And the cops still didn't accept it.

00:46:38.260 They disputed it.

00:46:39.500 Really crazy.

00:46:40.180 Well, I'm glad of this victory.

00:46:42.600 And I don't think a single other journalist in the country is going to acknowledge it because, as I said in my monologue, I think any other journalist had been the judge, they would have convicted you just because they don't like Rebel News.

00:46:53.920 And like these cops, they think that only journalists you agree with get freedom of speech.

00:46:59.240 Cindy, I'm glad you won.

00:47:00.320 And I'm glad we fought it.

00:47:02.260 And it was a costly battle.

00:47:05.040 We're in a ton of these.

00:47:06.260 Some of them were suing the government for what they've done to us.

00:47:09.020 Others were defending in this case.

00:47:10.920 If anyone wants to help, they can go to journalistdefensefund.com.

00:47:14.540 Keep fighting for freedom, Sidney.

00:47:17.440 Thank you.

00:47:18.020 Likewise.

00:47:18.680 It's always a pleasure.

00:47:19.760 All right.

00:47:20.120 There you have it.

00:47:20.640 Sidney Fazzard, fresh off his victory in a court in Montreal.

00:47:25.920 Stay with us.

00:47:26.800 My final thoughts are next.

00:47:33.240 What do you think of that court case that I read to you?

00:47:35.340 Now, again, some of it was a little bit garbled because of the machine translation, but I think you got the main points.

00:47:41.160 The police and the prosecutors and even the judge, whoa, why are you doing this?

00:47:45.360 It's so perplexing.

00:47:46.540 Why are you out there on the street?

00:47:48.020 Why are you covering police?

00:47:49.320 Are you trying to provoke police by reporting on what they're doing?

00:47:52.540 Why is your phone so small?

00:47:54.740 You know, why are you here from Toronto?

00:47:56.840 What's going on here?

00:47:58.640 Don't you think that says a lot more about them than it says about us?

00:48:01.180 It says that Quebec is not used to any critical, skeptical journalists, and they have no idea about citizen journalism.

00:48:10.200 To them, it's basically the megacorporations that are basically part of the government establishment.

00:48:15.260 And the CBC would never go out in the street to show police overreach during the curfew.

00:48:20.400 If anything, they were egging it on.

00:48:23.020 There is no chance this ruling will be reported on in the Montreal Gazette or the Journal de Montréal or La Presse.

00:48:29.780 No chance at all.

00:48:31.080 Because the fact that they hate rebel news more than they love freedom in the press.

00:48:36.320 And frankly, if they were the judges here, they would have convicted.

00:48:38.920 I don't know.

00:48:40.660 I'm glad we've got a reporter full-time in Montreal, Alexa Lavoie, and she gets under their skin. 0.98

00:48:46.920 I love it.

00:48:48.260 They hate her because she does reports not just in English but in French too, and I'm very proud of that.

00:48:53.880 Well, that's our show for today.

00:48:55.700 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night, and keep fighting for freedom.

00:49:02.420 We'll be right back.

Rebel News Podcast - November 22, 2023

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Quebec’s atrocious legal system pursued a 'vendetta-driven' case against our reporter... and lost

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