Rebel News Podcast


EZRA LEVANT | Rebel News covers the election debates... following successful legal fight


Summary

After 9 letters back and forth, we finally convinced the debate commission to let us into this year's leaders debate. Here's the story of how we got into the debate, and the lawyer who did it for us, Chad Williamson.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. What a strange legal battle we have been having quietly over the last couple of
00:00:05.980 weeks. I'm talking about our largely successful attempts to get into the leaders debate this year.
00:00:12.120 The last two times we were banned by the liberals, but we managed to fight our way back in through
00:00:17.400 the courts. This time we managed to, I guess, threaten a lawsuit. And after nine letters back
00:00:24.940 and forth, we actually convinced the debate commission to let us in. I'll tell you all
00:00:30.040 the details and then we'll talk to the lawyer who did it for us, Chad Williamson. That'll be a fun
00:00:35.300 one. But first, let me invite you to get the Rebel News Plus version of this show. That's the video
00:00:41.900 version. It's eight bucks a month. Not only do you get the video version, but you get the satisfaction
00:00:46.100 of keeping Rebel News strong. The whole theme of today's show is fighting against the power and
00:00:51.540 the establishment. Only the fact that we're independent could allow us to go toe-to-toe
00:00:56.340 with the government like we've done. Just go to rebelnewsplus.com and click subscribe. It's
00:01:01.200 eight bucks a month. That might not be a lot of money to you, but boy, it adds up for us.
00:01:10.220 You're listening to a Rebel News Podcast.
00:01:12.460 Tonight, we snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. I'll tell you the exciting story of
00:01:25.860 how we got accredited to this year's election debates. It's April 15th, and this is the Ezra
00:01:30.880 Levant Show. I've got amazing news. It started out as terrible news, and the moral of the story
00:01:51.120 here is never trust a liberal. Stay with me. Here's the story. Remember back in 2019, Trudeau's
00:01:57.600 hand-picked debates commission, banned Rebel News and True North from sending reporters to the
00:02:02.560 election debates. We went to court for an emergency hearing, and the judge said Trudeau had violated
00:02:08.560 our constitutional rights and ordered Trudeau to let us in. Well, Trudeau's staff spent the next two
00:02:14.760 years studying that court ruling, scheming up new ways to get around it to ban our reporters from the
00:02:21.200 2021 election debate. So we had to go back to court, and this time it was just us. But a judge
00:02:27.280 once again sided with us and ordered Trudeau's people to let us in. Oh, he hated that.
00:02:34.080 The only reason that I'm allowed to ask you this question is because today the federal court ruled
00:02:39.680 that the government doesn't have the right to determine who is or is not a journalist.
00:02:44.400 This is the second election in a row that the court had to overturn your government. Do you still insist
00:02:50.720 on being able to make that decision and why? First of all, questions around accreditation were handled by
00:02:58.880 the press gallery and the consortium of networks who have strong perspectives on quality journalism
00:03:06.800 and the important information that is shared with Canadians. The reality is organizations like yours
00:03:18.800 that continue to spread misinformation and disinformation on the science around vaccines,
00:03:26.240 around how we're going to actually get through this pandemic and be there for each other and keep
00:03:32.080 our kids safe is part of why we're seeing such unfortunate anger and lack of understanding of
00:03:42.080 basic science. And quite frankly, your, I won't call it a media organization, your group of individuals
00:03:51.200 need to take accountability for some of the polarization that we're seeing in this country.
00:03:57.920 So here's where the story gets really crazy. It's 2025 now. There is another election underway,
00:04:04.160 but Mark Carney is the prime minister, not Trudeau. And this time when we applied for accreditation,
00:04:11.120 they said we were welcome to attend. Huh? In fact, they said we could send as many reporters as we liked.
00:04:17.760 16 of us had applied and 16 of us were accredited.
00:04:22.560 We have enemy ships in sector 47. It's a trap.
00:04:26.480 Well, I knew it was a trick. I knew they must be hiding something. I mean, they're liberals.
00:04:32.160 And it proves my point about Mark Carney. He's Trudeau 2.0, just as evil, but smarter and harder
00:04:37.760 working. I knew there was something going on that they were hiding from us. So we had our lawyer,
00:04:43.520 Chad Williamson, press them on it. Chad is the same lawyer who beat the debates commission in court
00:04:48.640 in 2021. So Chad started interrogating them in a series of letters. And slowly but surely,
00:04:55.120 he discovered their plan to block us. Carney's debate commission said all 16 of us could attend,
00:05:01.840 but they finally confessed their trick to Chad. Only one of us would be allowed to ask questions. The
00:05:07.840 other 15 would have to sit in silence. It was a new rule they just made up. It was a secret rule
00:05:15.360 that applied only to rebel news. And if we didn't hire Chad to interrogate them,
00:05:20.240 we would have walked into a trap because by the time we realized what was going on,
00:05:25.120 it would have been too late to go to court. They planned to keep all of this a secret until we
00:05:32.560 showed up. I know you might think I'm exaggerating. I am not exaggerating. I've posted our entire exchange
00:05:38.720 of nine letters back and forth at leadersdebate.ca. You've really got to check it out. Chad was
00:05:46.880 relentless. 16 rebels were allowed to attend, but according to the debates commission, 15 of us
00:05:52.880 couldn't ask any questions at the press conference. They said the rule was just one reporter per news
00:05:58.320 company. That's how they explained it. But we know that's a lie. I mean, the CBC has several reporters
00:06:04.080 in English Canada, and then they have several reporters for Radio Canada, which is the CBC
00:06:10.080 Quebec. Newspapers have multiple reporters too. For example, Post Media is one company,
00:06:16.160 but it's permitted to bring reporters for each of its newspapers. So they could have one
00:06:19.920 from the National Post and the Ottawa Citizen and the Calgary Herald. Now we pointed this out.
00:06:24.880 And so the debates commission changed the rules again. They said that for the CBC,
00:06:28.800 they were allowed multiple questions because they had different reporters in French and in English.
00:06:33.840 Well, bienvenue. So do we, including our star Quebec reporter, Alexa Lavoie.
00:06:40.400 Then they said that Post Media was allowed unlimited reporters because you see they covered different
00:06:45.520 regions of the country. Well, so do we. Drea Humphrey is in British Columbia. Sheila Gunn-Reed is in Alberta.
00:06:51.840 David Menzies is in Ontario. Alexa's in Quebec. And I'm always running around somewhere.
00:06:56.480 You see what I mean? They were making it up on the go. Special secret rules just for rebel news.
00:07:02.800 They tried to trick us into not suing them. So by the time we discovered all this,
00:07:07.280 there would be nothing we could do about it. But we found them out. And just a few days ago,
00:07:13.440 we told them we were done negotiating and they should get their lawyers ready because we were going
00:07:18.320 back to court for a third time to get a third emergency injunction. And that's when Carney's
00:07:25.120 staff blinked. They let us in. They knew that if we took them to court for a third time and if their
00:07:32.320 tricky rules were shown to the federal court, they would lose for a third time. And I don't know about
00:07:37.120 you, but I'm just going to guess that if the federal court saw how Carney's staff were defying not one,
00:07:41.920 but two previous court rulings, well, who knows what the judges would have done to them. So
00:07:47.120 Carney's people blinked. They wrote back to us at the last minute, calling off our lawsuit by agreeing
00:07:53.600 to allow not one, not two, not three, not four, but five rebels to ask questions and for each of us to
00:08:00.400 have cameramen too. Granted, it's not the full 16 we asked for, but it still makes us the largest group
00:08:06.640 of question askers at the debates. And they only wanted us to have one question. Like I say, amazing
00:08:11.840 news, but it started off as terrible news. Now there's a moral to the story here. Number one, never
00:08:17.680 trust a liberal, especially Mark Carney. Number two, always fight for your rights. Sometimes the other
00:08:23.440 side, by the way, is more scared of you than you are of them. I think our lawyer, Chad Williamson,
00:08:27.600 scared Carney's lawyers. Number three, be sure to tune into the leaders debates, both the French debate
00:08:33.680 tomorrow night and the English one on Thursday night, because we will be at both because it's
00:08:37.680 the question and answer scrum at the end that we're interested in. Number four is where you come in.
00:08:44.320 We told our lawyer, Chad, to start preparing the lawsuit last week and he put his full team on it. We
00:08:50.080 truly thought we had to go to court. Only when we had the written letter of surrender from Carney's people
00:08:56.320 did we stop the lawsuit. But between the lawsuit preparations and the nine letters back and forth,
00:09:01.200 we racked up about $9,000 in legal bills. That's in addition to the cost of getting our whole team
00:09:07.280 out to the debates, Drea from BC, Sheila from Alberta, etc. We're all going to stay in an Airbnb
00:09:13.120 together to save money. Oh, I almost forgot. We're bringing the billboard truck with us. It's going to
00:09:18.240 be fun. It's going to be huge. We really are going to make it our debate. And that's only possible
00:09:23.840 because of my last point, you. We have you to help us level the playing field. I mean,
00:09:29.040 our ability to attend the debates and to ask the questions you care about rather than what
00:09:32.800 the regime journalists like those at the CBC care about is only possible due to your support to help
00:09:39.120 us pay for our lawyers. Not just this time, but the huge court victories in 2019 and 2021 that put us
00:09:46.080 in a strong position this year. It's insane that that work has fallen to us. And the mainstream media
00:09:51.760 hasn't even mentioned these outrageous attempts at censorship. But then again, they don't really
00:09:56.000 want Rebel News to attend either, do they? Between Chad's legal wrangling, the half-drafted lawsuit,
00:10:03.440 our travel costs, and our Airbnb, I estimate that we will need $12,000 to cover our debate costs.
00:10:09.520 Could I please ask you for a personal favor to chip in? It was a David versus Goliath battle just to get
00:10:15.840 in. And once we're in, it'll still be a David versus Goliath battle to push aside the regime
00:10:21.200 journalists who will physically try to block us from getting to the microphones. They did that
00:10:25.600 before. And then it'll be a third David versus Goliath battle to actually put questions to Mark
00:10:30.960 Carney and Jagmeet Singh and Pierre Paliyev too. But I promise you, we will ask questions that no one
00:10:36.560 else in the media will. If you can help us, please go to leadersdebate.ca. Check out our nine letters
00:10:44.480 back and forth. And if you like what we're doing and believe it's increasing freedom for everyone,
00:10:51.040 please support us. The website again is called leadersdebate.ca. Look, Rebel News and one other
00:10:59.680 independent media were fighting in court back in 2019. By 2021, it was just us by ourselves. But our
00:11:07.040 victory allowed all other independent media to attend. Do you remember that? And our victory this
00:11:12.160 time too will redound to the benefit of everyone. In other words, Rebel News fights for our reporters
00:11:18.480 and our viewers, you bet. But the benefits of our fights and the precedents we set benefit every
00:11:23.680 journalist in the country, whether they admit it or not. So please help me cover the $12,000 in legal
00:11:28.960 costs here, the $9,000 in legal fees, the $3,000 to bring our whole team and that lovely truck to the
00:11:34.400 debates. And one last thing, you really got to read the full exchange of letters between Chad and
00:11:39.840 Carney's people. Do yourself a favor. I mean, there's nine of them, but they're only about a
00:11:43.760 page or two each. Go to leadersdebate.ca and you'll see why Mark Carney's people finally cried
00:11:51.040 uncle when Chad was after him. We'll be posting our videos about the debate there too. Thanks for
00:11:56.000 your support and we'll see you at the debates.
00:12:09.280 And joining us now to talk about it is our friend Chad Williamson, the lawyer
00:12:13.920 who got Mark Carney's debate commission to finally blink. Hey Chad, thanks for joining us via Skype. I
00:12:20.640 just took everybody through the back and forth. It was like a ping pong match, nine letters going
00:12:26.320 back and forth. And at the same time we were preparing to go to court because you know, who
00:12:30.880 knows if they were negotiating in good faith or bad faith, but in the end they did blink. I mean,
00:12:36.480 unless there's another trick awaiting us, we will have five question askers in there, which is probably
00:12:43.600 more than any other media company. Yeah. I mean, um, I, I, when the 2021 debates,
00:12:53.840 Ezra were just one of the, uh, one of the craziest things that I heard. I, I mean, I, you know, after we
00:12:58.880 got the injunction, um, to, I mean, I never thought that we were actually going to win that one. Once we
00:13:05.600 got the injunction, I thought, well, you know, they're going to show up and there might be a couple
00:13:09.680 of questions here or there, but rebels were relentless. And, and what my biggest takeaway
00:13:15.040 from it was, uh, just how angry Justin Trudeau seemed that there was someone there that was
00:13:21.520 actually putting tough questions to him. So this year we were prepared again. Um, and I've been
00:13:28.400 calling all my buddies, uh, and letting them know that this is, uh, this is rebels hat trick,
00:13:33.040 right? Uh, I mean, we schooled them in 2019, uh, we schooled them in 2021. Uh, and when you told us
00:13:42.400 to send them a letter, um, you know, way back in March saying, Hey, don't mess with rebels journalists
00:13:49.200 for the upcoming debates. Uh, you, you got schooled twice. Don't make it a hat trick. It's kind of like
00:13:54.960 Ezra telling a bully, uh, you know, like we brought a lawyer and he's got a bigger stick. Um,
00:13:59.600 um, so like, and I mean, this was another shocking result, right? I mean, all of a sudden,
00:14:07.760 uh, you know, there, and I'm, I mean, again, I'm happy to go through the chronology. It's kind
00:14:11.360 of an interesting story. I think it's a, it was just a flurry of communication back and forth.
00:14:16.080 I think the further that we got, uh, into the process and I, I, I sent you a message on this.
00:14:22.000 It was like we were peeling an onion and the more that we peeled, the more it started to stink and then
00:14:28.960 they smelled it. And I think that's what, uh, I think that's what, uh, won the day on this one.
00:14:34.000 You know, a lot of people say, I'll sue you. I'll take you to court. But when push comes to shove,
00:14:39.440 they don't, because first of all, suing is expensive. It's quite risky. I mean, you often
00:14:43.840 lose and you're outgunned. I mean, there's another saying, you know, you can't fight city hall. And what
00:14:50.800 that means is the, the government has got all the angles covered and they have unlimited resources.
00:14:56.800 I mean, the debates commission has spent literally millions of dollars and it feels
00:15:01.200 like they're obsessed with rebel news. Like it really is targeting us. And I think the fact that
00:15:08.160 we beat them in 2019, that we beat them in 2021, they know that we're not faking it when we say,
00:15:13.840 we'll see you in court. And they know at least twice now, judges have agreed with us. And I think
00:15:20.080 you go back to that. If they had decided to fight us and gone back to the federal court again,
00:15:26.640 I think there's a real chances that the judges would have been furious with them.
00:15:31.680 Yeah. And, and, and I think that's why, um, I, I mean, we, we had expected this and, uh,
00:15:36.800 you know, obviously we've been doing work, uh, uh, with, with rebel news for a very long time now.
00:15:41.760 Um, and, and we expected this to happen. We thought, well, you know, they, they couldn't get us in 2019.
00:15:47.440 They couldn't keep us out in 2021. Uh, we really thought that they might've been able to keep us
00:15:52.160 out in 2021, but they've, you know, I mean, since they've had years to prep a brand new criteria by
00:15:58.960 which they could try to exclude rebel from the debate. So when we sent that letter, Ezra, uh,
00:16:04.080 I remember having a chat with you and I, again, I hope I'm not getting into solicitor client stuff,
00:16:08.160 but you said, Hey, we gotta be ready for this. Um, and, and, and further to your, uh, your point that,
00:16:13.760 you know, rebel really does walk, uh, uh, you know, walk the talk. Um, you know, we had started
00:16:21.680 preparing submissions and started, uh, I mean, because we, when they box us out in 2021,
00:16:26.960 we literally had five days to get into court and get a federal court injunction. So we just didn't
00:16:31.840 want to be put under such tremendous pressure. It costs more money when you're under the gun. Um,
00:16:36.320 so when, when, when you said, Hey, well, let's send them a letter early, give them an opportunity
00:16:41.040 to either accredit us and let us in, or at least give us the heads up that we're going to get boxed
00:16:47.200 out. And we got a reply from them, uh, on April 4th. And this is kind of like, uh, I call it kind
00:16:52.640 of like their weak flax. Right. So, uh, the, the commissioner, who's a guide by the name of, uh,
00:16:59.200 Mr. Uh, you know, Cormier, he basically says, Hey, well, you know, we'd love to accredit rebel,
00:17:04.560 which was a nice, a shock to me. And I think, you know, it's, it's like that scene in any movie.
00:17:10.720 It's quiet, too quiet. Like you, you, you know, it's a trap, you know, that they, you know,
00:17:16.880 they're a battle hardened political bully force. They're a war room for, with one purpose, stop
00:17:23.440 rebel news. You know that when they say, sure. Yeah. We've had a change of heart, complete change
00:17:28.320 of heart, complete 180 degrees. We see the error of our ways. Come on in all of you. Like you've
00:17:34.400 got to be pretty, um, you know, you got to be pretty gullible to think, Oh, that was an easy
00:17:41.280 battle. No, no, no. It was a trap. Well, I was, it was so funny because when I, when I got it,
00:17:46.960 it was, I mean, it was, it was late at night. I was out for dinner. Um, you know, and, and, and I got,
00:17:51.680 I got the reply. And of course I sent it to you without even, uh, reading it. And I started,
00:17:56.400 I, you know, I just kind of skimmed it and I said, Oh, I mean, they're going to accredit rebel.
00:18:00.000 There's something, it's like you said, it's a, you know, this is a trap. It totally was a trap.
00:18:05.840 And, and, and buried in that letter was just a little nugget where essentially he said,
00:18:11.680 we're going to let you in, but capacity is tight. So don't get comfy. Yeah. And then he
00:18:17.120 mentions this, uh, mysterious policy that they're relying on. And it sounds like
00:18:22.160 like a secret handshake that rebel didn't quite get. Um, and then, and, and then you and I both,
00:18:29.760 we had a chat over the phone and we thought, wait a second, capacity limits. Well, it sounds like the
00:18:35.520 leadership debates commission is trying to gatekeep the cool kids table. Yeah. And so we had to think
00:18:43.040 about it and we fired back another message and we said, Hey, well, wait a second here. You're saying that,
00:18:48.000 uh, um, you know, there's all these different, uh, media organizations that are getting in.
00:18:53.440 And one of the, one of the points that we thought is, well, you know, they, they've said that immediate
00:18:58.960 media organization is someone who engages in journalism and, or somebody who, uh, comments on social,
00:19:08.160 political, uh, or, uh, cultural policy. Um, and we obviously meet that definition. Um, but really
00:19:17.360 is a media organization just one division or one office or one newspaper? What if they're owned by
00:19:24.400 a large company like post media? Um, and when we start getting into capacity issues, well,
00:19:30.880 so what does CBC only get one guy or girl in the whole scrum? And of course, this is the biggest
00:19:36.720 thing is we want to ask questions again. Right. And what, what I think is so important is rebels,
00:19:41.920 2 million viewers. They're not here for crumbs. We want to be able to ask questions and rebel
00:19:48.720 represents a significant portion of the Canadian population who needs to have their voices heard
00:19:54.080 during this election. So, you know, does rebel only get one crumb from the table when CBC is having
00:20:01.120 the whole feast and we gets left when what's over. So we wrote another letter and we basically demanded
00:20:06.720 fairness and said, Hey, you got to define what a media organization is. And it's kind of like the
00:20:12.080 leadership debates commission gave CBC a VIP pass and handed rebel, like a bus ticket to nowhere,
00:20:18.800 basically, you know, and, and here's the thing. And I've been fighting for, uh, accreditation for really
00:20:25.360 10 years or almost 10 years now. And it always comes down to the same thing. Can our haters,
00:20:33.920 especially in government, can they craft a policy that targets rebel news, but doesn't also screen
00:20:41.120 out their own team? And 10 years I've been in this business and I have yet to see a policy that can
00:20:47.360 push us up and keep them in. Are we Canadian owned? Of course we are. I own rebel news. Uh,
00:20:52.800 do we do independent journalism? Of course we do. I'd say we're the most independent because
00:20:57.360 we actually don't take any money from the government. Not that any is offered. Um,
00:21:01.120 like there is, do we, you know, criticize every party? Yes, we do. I look, I'm trying to think of
00:21:07.520 you, you do we, are we political? Sure. So is everyone. You tell me the Toronto star,
00:21:12.240 like they actually have hardwired into their bylaws, something called the Atkinson principles,
00:21:17.440 Google it. You'll see that the Toronto star by its very corporate structure must be a
00:21:22.560 hard left wing. In fact, they believe in the nationalization of the means of production.
00:21:27.200 Like they're actually, if you take their bylaws seriously, they're communist newspaper.
00:21:31.360 I don't know if I would go that far, but I would say they're certainly socialists.
00:21:34.320 My point is anything you try to use to keep rebel news out, you're going to get some of their
00:21:40.880 friends. I remember in the case you represented us in in 2021, when the government said the CBC is not
00:21:47.760 political. I think the judge, if I remember judge Elizabeth, uh, judge Heenahan, I think she actually
00:21:54.160 made a public comment scoffing at that. You know, I think she said something like says you or something
00:22:00.720 like there's, there's no way you can craft a policy to keep rebel news out without also kicking out the
00:22:06.320 CBC or the Toronto star, et cetera. And by the way, I don't want them kicked out. I just want to be able
00:22:10.720 to go in the main door, not the servants entrance. Well, what's, what's, what's so funny is that they
00:22:17.440 have, uh, enlisted one of the largest law firms in the country. And, you know, I would guess maybe
00:22:24.640 hundreds of thousands of dollars. Uh, I don't know if you remember in 2021, I think there was nine
00:22:30.400 lawyers on the other side involved in that case. And on my side, it was just myself and, uh, uh,
00:22:36.400 one of my associates. So, I mean, it was, um, it was really, really unfair. They had two years to
00:22:40.960 prepare. They dumped the rejection on us on the Thursday, I think right before, you know, and then
00:22:46.880 I think the, uh, wasn't the debate on Tuesday or Wednesday or something like we had five days,
00:22:51.120 they had two years and it's kind of like, you know, trying to get the circle through the square.
00:22:56.080 Right. I mean, it's so tough, you know, I think during the 2021, well, you know, uh, rebels engaged in,
00:23:02.640 uh, editorialism. Okay. Well, I mean, what paper doesn't have an editorial section, right? So
00:23:10.480 what, when we started to, when we, when we went back and forth with, with, with this Cormier fellow,
00:23:15.280 you know, he said, well, uh, we're going to let you in, but there's, but there's capacity issues,
00:23:19.200 right? And we're going, well, what's the capacity and who are you going to let it let in on what basis?
00:23:25.360 Um, how do you define media organization? Then they keep talking about a, um, a media room and a
00:23:30.560 press room and they haven't defined any of that. So we're kind of saying, well, what is the press
00:23:34.320 room? And, uh, it's about time you just started giving us numbers. How many people can fit into
00:23:39.040 this room? How many are you going to let it clear that he had this, like that he just had this plan
00:23:45.280 to let us in and then just to shenanigans us. And I'm so glad we caught it. By the way,
00:23:51.280 there's still a chance there will be shenanigans tomorrow. Uh, I mean, these folks, um,
00:23:56.800 their whole purpose is to keep us. Let me say something you mentioned earlier. Like we,
00:24:00.720 we surprised them by winning in court in 2019 and then it happened again in 2021. So what did
00:24:06.560 they do in those two years? They read extremely carefully that first court ruling and they said,
00:24:11.680 well, what did the judge object to? The judge objected to the fact that this debates commission
00:24:17.200 didn't have clear public rules that we were rejected, uh, in like a one line rejection and that
00:24:24.320 the person who rejected us was not even working for the government. It was just some guy.
00:24:29.520 So, okay. They went, they spent two years fixing those things. So instead of having no rules,
00:24:35.520 they had a huge amount of rules. Instead of giving us a one line rejection letter, I think it was 11
00:24:40.880 pages long that they had written in advance. I mean, and, and instead of having some guy send us
00:24:47.440 the email, it was some guy, like they fixed all the things that the judge in 2019 was angry about.
00:24:52.400 So they must be, they spent a lot of money reverse engineering their decision. You see what I mean?
00:24:57.520 They said, okay, the judge said we did these things wrong. Let's get them right. And, and we'll do it
00:25:01.840 such a good job that there's no way they can win while they lost again in 2021. And then they spent
00:25:06.800 time. They thought, okay, we can't reverse engineer out of this one. Let's just have sort of like a
00:25:11.120 secret trap door that they'll fall in when they come in. Anyways, I mean, I'm feeling good. I hope I'm
00:25:16.400 still smiling like this tomorrow because who knows, maybe there's like a double super secret
00:25:22.240 plan to kick us out, but I'm feeling pretty good right now at least.
00:25:25.600 Well, and, and, and, and I think that's what's so funny, right? Is it, it, it, as we kept peeling
00:25:30.960 back the layers and asking more questions that weren't outlined in the, uh, in the original, uh,
00:25:36.720 accreditation, uh, materials, um, you know, they started kind of saying, well, we've decided that
00:25:43.440 CBC and radio Canada, as well as post media and all their newspapers, they're all independent news
00:25:50.160 organizations, but rebel is just one news organization. Despite the fact that we've got
00:25:56.480 an Ontario division, we've got rebel Canada, rebel Australia, we've got the prairies, uh,
00:26:02.640 you know, Sheila's helping out there. And then we've got Drea out, uh, uh, rocking the, uh,
00:26:07.520 the West coast division rebels really got a whole shack of divisions too. So if you're going to apply
00:26:12.640 this, uh, you know, this kind of bizarre distinction between post media and all their papers, and then
00:26:18.160 say, well, rebels just one, uh, one organization. I kind of thought, you know, five divisions and one
00:26:23.920 voice, you know, like the leadership debates commissions math is almost as bad as a Trudeau budget.
00:26:31.040 Right. So, so, so, so we go back to them and we say, okay, look, um, we've got, you know,
00:26:38.800 we're not, if we're one outfit and all these other guys get multiple other ones because reasons,
00:26:45.120 um, but you've claimed that there's in an earlier letter, he said, there's no, no, no, no cap to the
00:26:50.880 amount of people that can go on the scrum. But then later he says, well, the room's only got 135 people
00:26:56.720 and 60 plus are in, I'm kind of thinking, oh my God, like the math is still drunk on this.
00:27:02.960 So on April 10th, we send one final demand letter as there. And we basically say
00:27:08.480 five divisions. We want all of them in, we want, uh, one, uh, reporter and one journalist,
00:27:14.480 um, for each of the five, uh, you know, divisions, the same as the same as you're giving to everybody
00:27:20.400 else by admission. We want that by basically two o'clock on the 11th, or we're going to go ahead
00:27:25.680 with the injunction. And that was on the Fridays we called out their sham rules, the trap door,
00:27:30.640 the secret criteria. Uh, and the biggest thing was this capacity circus where the numbers didn't
00:27:36.080 add up. And then now we're seeing all this, uh, capriciousness and arbitrariness. Uh, you know,
00:27:40.880 this affects the charter rights of 2 million people right before an election. And we sent a
00:27:46.960 letter so spicy as, and I'm sure people can see this online. I think it's a masterpiece.
00:27:51.440 Well, you did a great job. I think you exhausted them, frankly. I think by the time,
00:27:57.200 like it went back and forth nine times I counted and all nine, we put all nine letters at leaders
00:28:02.000 debate.ca. Um, I think that they thought they could hornswoggle you. I think they knew they
00:28:08.560 couldn't hornswoggle the courts. Um, I feel pretty good about it. This is what I said in my monologue
00:28:14.160 earlier. We, we had one other journalistic organization with us in 2019 that was true north.
00:28:20.320 By 2021, we were by ourselves and we're by ourselves again today. And we've incurred all
00:28:24.880 these costs and this burden and it's benefited us. Absolutely. But it's also benefited everyone else
00:28:32.000 because our trailblazing for freedom is the reason why Western standard and Juno and counter
00:28:38.160 signal and Epoch times and, um, all the other independent media, which I love, by the way,
00:28:43.600 I support and subscribe to all of those that I've just listed. I'm not jealous. Uh, even though we're
00:28:50.080 friendly competitors, I think Canada is so much better, um, with this many citizen journalists,
00:28:56.560 but rebel news is always there in court with the fight. And maybe it's because I'm a former lawyer.
00:29:01.200 It's maybe because I have a, uh, less of an aversion to conflict. I think it's mainly because
00:29:06.560 of our supporters. They support this kind of thing. Um, I mean, it is not cheap to litigate
00:29:11.520 between 2019, 2021. And this year, the amount we spent in litigation is I'd, I'd have to check those
00:29:18.800 past years, but it is probably not unadjacent to a hundred grand. Um, the other guys didn't,
00:29:23.840 and that's okay. There's smaller shops, but when we go into fight, we're fighting for everyone,
00:29:28.960 and not just my friends, we're fighting for left-wing media's freedom of speech too.
00:29:32.800 I don't believe in freedom of speech only for right-wingers. So, um, I don't know. I feel
00:29:37.520 pretty good about this. I hope I'm not eating my words tomorrow when we get there. I hope there's
00:29:41.520 not some, you know, last minute test or something, but Chad, I appreciate your help. And once again,
00:29:46.400 I want people to go to read the exchange. Chad's letters are very excellent. They're very easy to
00:29:52.480 understand, like they're in plain English. Um, and they're fun to see, and you can see his
00:29:57.360 personality in them. And that's all at, um, uh, leadersdebate.ca. So have a good read. And next
00:30:05.920 time I talk to you, I'll be in Montreal. Last word to you, Chad. Now, now if, if people don't
00:30:10.640 have the time to read the ball, I just want to summarize. We basically said, uh, Hey, look,
00:30:15.680 if you mess with rebel, you mess with Canada's voice, and we don't play nice when we come at you.
00:30:21.360 And the long and the short of those letters is if you mess with rebel news, and if you mess with
00:30:25.920 Williamson law, you're going to get a legal wedgie and it's going to be very, very public.
00:30:30.160 Um, and there's nothing better than seeing a bully get a wedgie. I, I, I mean, I, I think,
00:30:35.840 uh, uh, excuse the, uh, you know, the metaphor, but, uh, I really think that's what happened.
00:30:41.200 And, and I would like to button that at the very end of our last letter, uh, you know,
00:30:46.000 we warned them we're, we're watching them. Right. So, uh, we'll continue to monitor with you,
00:30:50.320 uh, Ezra, you know, I mean, we always anticipate some shenanigans and some trickery, but, um, uh,
00:30:56.560 this year, I really don't think that they wanted to, uh, go before the, uh, court and, uh, and get
00:31:01.520 a hat trick. I mean, uh, that would have been great for us, but it would have been expensive. And,
00:31:05.600 um, I, I just hope that you guys have some great questions prepared and that, yeah, uh, you know,
00:31:10.000 push your way to the front of that scrum and, and, uh, and put questions to these politicians that they
00:31:15.760 deserve. People, you guys are some of the only folks other than some of the other independent
00:31:20.000 media that actually put real questions that are important to Canadians, uh, to these people that
00:31:25.600 are going to be running the country. Um, and it would be a shame if that wasn't able to happen.
00:31:30.640 So thanks for the opportunity to, uh, again, uh, you know, help you guys, uh, get a great,
00:31:35.040 a great victory. A lot of these things go kind of unseen and, uh, um, you know, the hard work and the
00:31:41.040 letters. I hope people get a chuckle out of that. Uh, I'm, I'm, uh, you know, I'm a, I'm a,
00:31:45.280 I'm a sort of a sarcastic guy and I'm, uh, you know, I, I, I, I like to practice with a little
00:31:50.640 bit of humor. Hope that comes through in the letters and I hope people, uh, get a charge out
00:31:54.240 of that and give my best to the entire team tomorrow and tell them to stay vigilant and, uh,
00:31:59.040 and rock and roll. It'll be, it'll be, uh, it'll be an interesting couple of days.
00:32:02.480 Right on. There you have it. Thanks Chad for your work folks. I really recommend to read the letters.
00:32:06.800 It's a, it's an entertaining, but also an encouraging and a substantive back and
00:32:11.680 forth. That's at leadersdebate.ca. Stay with us. Your letters to me next.
00:32:28.080 Hey, welcome back. Your letters to me. Frank Zibich says that truck is showing the truth.
00:32:34.320 God be with rebel news and independent media. Oh, I love the rebel truck. And you know,
00:32:39.840 we got it as you may know, because we try, we, we've been renting billboard trucks really for a
00:32:44.800 decade. Um, we love them. We use them here and there, but the problem is the truck companies
00:32:51.200 who work with us very nicely, they said, look, we're not going to put any messages that criticize
00:32:56.240 Hamas. Not that we don't agree with you. It's just that our trucks and our drivers will be
00:33:02.640 threatened. Like they're literally afraid and they just won't do it. Uh, their, their truck drivers
00:33:08.560 won't drive them, not out of disagreement, just out of fear. Can you imagine that's a state of
00:33:12.800 affairs in Canada? Well, maybe we're dumb or maybe we're brave or maybe we're a combination, but
00:33:18.480 that's where we got the truck. And now it's a pleasure to use that thing. I really get a kick
00:33:22.320 out of it. Next letter is from Hugo who says, I know Natasha. This is referring to Natasha,
00:33:28.560 the citizen journalist who was brutally attacked by police. Here's a flashback of what that was like
00:33:34.480 just a couple of days ago.
00:33:46.400 What we got here old man what one would say though? Hey, hey c'est une femme!
00:33:51.600 Big dealasse!
00:33:54.980 Hey, c'est une femme!
00:34:10.700 Two men川…
00:34:14.680 Please see you in front of me!
00:34:38.320 We're having a moment!
00:34:40.320 Hey, c'est une femme, là.
00:34:42.140 You may remain silent.
00:34:44.520 C'est une journaliste dépendante.
00:34:47.120 Qu'est-ce que vous faites là?
00:34:48.160 Elle est boite-fait sur la police.
00:34:50.120 Elle n'a pas fait de boite-fait.
00:34:51.580 On va le voir sa caméra devant, monsieur.
00:34:59.380 Here's the rest of Bruno Hugo's letter.
00:35:01.880 She's a peaceful woman who regularly gets assaulted by pro-Palestinian agitators.
00:35:06.100 This is a disgrace.
00:35:07.440 You're exactly right.
00:35:08.320 And by the way, I saw the Journal de Montréal, which is supposedly a conservative-leaning newspaper,
00:35:16.680 condemn Natasha and quote, the worst part of the article was they quoted the Montreal police
00:35:22.660 who said that Natasha, this citizen journalist who was beat up by police, just in a brutal beating,
00:35:29.960 they said that her sins were she insulted the Hamas protesters and she got close to them.
00:35:36.440 Neither of those things are crimes.
00:35:40.180 Neither of those things justify being beat up.
00:35:44.060 And if those were the rules, then surely the Hamas protesters break them too.
00:35:48.480 They insult us all the time.
00:35:50.860 Last letter for today.
00:35:52.720 Diesel 13 says,
00:35:53.840 I heard that some of the police actually thought that Natasha worked with Rebel News and that may have been animating their rage and violence.
00:36:09.800 No matter what their excuse was, it was unacceptable.
00:36:12.160 And I hope she gets some legal justice out of this.
00:36:15.580 But given that it's Montreal police, I rather doubt it.
00:36:19.760 Well, that's our show for today.
00:36:21.220 I'm actually off to Montreal now.
00:36:23.300 That's where both the French and the English language debates are.
00:36:26.940 Be sure to tune into both debates because although the French debate is in French,
00:36:30.940 it'll be translated into English, and we will ask our questions afterwards on Anglais in English.
00:36:37.680 Until next time.
00:36:39.080 In fact, we'll be reporting from Montreal tomorrow.
00:36:40.820 From all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters to you at home, good night.
00:36:44.440 And keep fighting for freedom.
00:36:45.660 Thank you.