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

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 0.89

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, 0.99

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 0.96

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 0.98

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 0.88

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! 0.67

00:33:51.600 Big dealasse!

00:33:54.980 Hey, c'est une femme! 1.00

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. 1.00

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. 0.91

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.

Rebel News Podcast - April 15, 2025

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

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