Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Rebel News interviews freedom-loving podcaster Viva Frei

00:00:00.000 Oh boy, we got a smart guest today, one of my favorite freedom fighters, Viva Frye, 1.00

00:00:04.620 real name David Freiheit. He is going to take us through three important U.S. Supreme Court cases.

00:00:11.460 Well, why would you care about that if you're a Canadian? Well, it shows the difference between 0.87

00:00:15.320 a freedom-loving country like America and our own slow slouch towards authoritarianism,

00:00:21.760 but also gives a flicker of hope. I'm really excited about this. Viva Frye is ahead. But

00:00:26.320 first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. That's the video version of

00:00:31.120 this podcast. Do it for the video side, but also do it knowing you're supporting Rebel News. We don't

00:00:37.620 take any money from the government, and it shows. Just go to rebelnewsplus.com. All right, here's our show today.

00:00:56.320 Tonight, catching up with Viva Frye, the freedom-oriented legal observer and a friend of the show. It's July 3rd,

00:01:07.520 and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:08.740 You're fighting for freedom!

00:01:12.020 Shame on you, you censorious bug!

00:01:23.600 Well, one of the things that Rebel News is known for is our proximity to lawyers. We fight for things in

00:01:31.460 the court of law, not just the court of public opinion. And it's a strange thing because,

00:01:37.580 of course, we are journalists, but quite often we find we need to fight for our right

00:01:41.960 to do journalism before we can do the journalism itself. As you know, during the lockdowns, we also

00:01:47.660 were involved with crowdfunding a new civil liberties charity in Canada called the Democracy Fund

00:01:53.280 that represented 3,000 people, ranging from Arthur Pavlovsky and Tamara Leach to ordinary people

00:02:00.560 getting tickets for not filling out their Arrive Can app. I guess my point is, maybe it's because of my

00:02:06.280 own background as a former lawyer, or just my interest in the law, or my belief that there is

00:02:11.480 something above the squalid politics of our day-to-day. I still do believe in our legal system. I know some

00:02:17.760 people think that's foolish and naive, but I think there's still hope out there, and there are still 0.86

00:02:23.020 some judges who are, as the Lady Justice statue is, blind, wearing a blindfold, and who will rule on 0.86

00:02:31.720 matters regardless of who the powerful or powerless are in the court. It's one of the reasons I like

00:02:38.500 Viva Frey, otherwise known as David Freyheit, a freedom-oriented lawyer turned podcaster, and we're

00:02:44.760 delighted to have him with us today for the whole show. David, great to see you. Thanks very much for

00:02:49.280 making the time for us. Ezra, thank you for having me. I'm sure everyone knows I've come back behind

00:02:54.580 the iron curtain for the month of July, and it's a different world stepping back into Canada from the

00:03:01.020 free state of Florida. That's right. I mean, you're normally these days based in Florida, which I think

00:03:08.400 has got to be one of the freest states in the Union, and you've come back to Canada. Just give me a minute

00:03:14.920 on that. Florida, Ron DeSantis, he challenged Donald Trump and didn't fare well, but I think he's,

00:03:23.260 I think, frankly, his place is to be the best governor in America. Compare that to Canada in 0.79

00:03:29.480 general, and Quebec and Montreal in particular. Tell me some of your observations coming back from

00:03:34.720 exile. Well, so it's true. There are pros and cons about living anywhere. You know, Florida has its

00:03:40.120 pros. It has its cons. Some of the cons are, you know, health insurance, car insurance, home insurance.

00:03:46.040 Insurance issue is something of a problem in Florida. I mean, everybody can admit it. There's

00:03:50.340 some places where there's some crime as well, and everybody recognizes that. Politically speaking,

00:03:55.100 however, it's a different world than stepping back into Canada, or at least in Quebec in particular.

00:04:02.880 Freedom has a price to some extent, and living in Florida, you see what it's like to live

00:04:08.760 not shackled by a government, not totally oppressed by a government. You might be somewhat oppressed by

00:04:15.120 the federal government. It certainly exerts its power over the states in America, but there is

00:04:19.380 far more of a respect for state rights in Canada than there is a respect for provincial rights by the

00:04:25.340 federal government in Canada. I might have said the U.S. there, but no, it's a different world. Ron

00:04:30.280 DeSantis, you know, did not succeed what he wanted to succeed at in running for president. Some people

00:04:36.200 take it as an insult to say he's a good governor. He should stay governor, fill out his term there,

00:04:39.600 and should have run in 2020. What year are we going to be? 2028. Bottom line, he's a good,

00:04:45.360 he's a great governor, despite what the, I'm going to say the fake news in Canada would have you

00:04:50.180 believe. It's, you know, they try to refer to Florida as a bigoted, racist, homophobic state, 0.69

00:04:55.600 where the freaking government here issues travel warnings to the 2SLGBTQIA plus community not to go to 0.94

00:05:01.860 Florida, as if they've never been to Miami, the most multicultural, I would say, LGB-friendly 0.88

00:05:07.760 community anywhere on earth. So it gets its demonizing. DeSantis has been a great governor

00:05:13.160 by and large. And, but no, just coming back here, it's a different world. It's like, it's a world

00:05:17.320 where people walk around thinking they need to ask for permission to leave their house, as opposed to

00:05:22.140 having been born with God-given rights to do what they want, save and accept for where the government

00:05:26.060 needs to exert its force and influence. And, you know, one of the interesting issues, and I know

00:05:31.660 you're, you're fairly libertarian, I'll let you describe yourself, but I think, I think you love

00:05:36.220 liberty, is one of the functions that we give to the state, I guess it's the Hobbesian social contract,

00:05:42.280 is we, we give this, the state the right to use violence to, to keep us safe, so it's not a war of

00:05:49.880 all against all. I'm using old-fashioned phrases here, but I guess what I mean is, there are some

00:05:56.060 things where I think you sort of want the state, like to stop shoplifting, to shots, to stop crime.

00:06:01.460 Toronto has an extreme crime wave. I know it's also in Montreal and Vancouver. Auto theft, home

00:06:07.900 invasions, those are the things you actually want the police and the government to stop, whereas in

00:06:14.100 other states, like say California and San Francisco in particular, police don't even react if it's

00:06:19.700 shoplifting under $950. It's a weird rule. So that's something where Florida is free, but where

00:06:26.220 the state ought to lawfully exert its power, it does. I'm not saying it's crime-free, but I think

00:06:34.200 the woke defund police from doing their policing work, that has gone nowhere in Florida. In fact,

00:06:41.460 he's sort of praising police, isn't he? But, but making sure they're not woke. 0.86

00:06:45.200 For sure. And the funny thing is, the irony is when you don't defund the police and you let the

00:06:50.600 police do their job, not with impunity, but with confidence that they'll be supported by

00:06:54.960 the people and the government, they do their job better. Like there, there isn't as far as I can

00:06:59.940 tell really the same resentment towards the police in Florida or the fear of the police in Florida as

00:07:05.880 in other states. And so look, every, there's, there's definitely pockets of less safe areas

00:07:11.160 of Florida, but by and large, it's, it is a, not a live and let live, but it's the police are sort

00:07:17.000 of on the side of the people as opposed to the, the guardians and the tyrants over the people for

00:07:22.360 and on behalf of the government compared to what you see here. The idea, I mean, I'm going to go back

00:07:27.860 to the trauma that we've all experienced through COVID, but the idea that you would have police

00:07:31.940 breaking up parties in people's homes, pepper spraying people for not wearing masks, it's

00:07:37.740 somewhat foreign to the zeitgeist of Florida. And so with freedom comes a certain bit of risk,

00:07:44.020 but with prison comes a guaranteed degree of certainty. And it's, it's just like, it's a

00:07:49.620 different culture. It's a different spirit of the state of Florida compared to other states in

00:07:53.660 America, but certainly the state of Florida as compared to Canada, there are, I would say,

00:07:58.660 Floridian spirits in Canada, but by and large, it's, you come back here and you realize that

00:08:02.760 people want to be told what to do. They want the government to dictate their lives so that

00:08:07.540 if, and when mistakes happen, well, they don't get to blame it on themselves. It's the government.

00:08:11.340 If things go to hell, it's the government's fault. And it's never the individual's fault

00:08:14.740 or responsibility because they've advocated all, they've advocated all responsibility to the

00:08:19.600 government who will invariably screw things up more than the individual would if they had their

00:08:23.020 own life. You know, I know that people in Vancouver and Calgary, when they go on a holiday,

00:08:30.140 I know Calgary because I'm from the originally, a lot of them go down to Phoenix, Arizona. And in

00:08:35.120 Montreal, a lot of folks, when they go on winter holiday, if they can, they go down to Florida. In

00:08:40.980 fact, walking around Florida, you can often hear French accents. And I'm not just talking about

00:08:44.480 people from Haiti. There's a lot of Quebecers down there. And it's my observation that a lot of

00:08:50.160 people who had the means and the ability to work from Florida just went down there to escape

00:08:55.840 most of the lockdowns, but also the political class, the political class that locked down Montreal

00:09:02.800 so hard, including with curfews, whether you were jabbed or not, they had curfews. That same ruling

00:09:11.860 class then skedaddled down to Florida for their own personal freedom. So they ruled over Quebec with a 0.59

00:09:19.800 brute force. But then they themselves chose the lifestyle of Miami and Florida when they went on.

00:09:27.260 Like it was, it's quite something. And this is one of the things that infuriated Albertans when they

00:09:31.860 saw Jason Kenney's staff flying around on holidays when he was ordering everybody not to. It's that

00:09:39.980 even the locker downers don't actually believe in it other than for the little people. That's a 0.70

00:09:45.980 crazy quirk about Quebec and Florida, isn't it?

00:09:49.920 Well, it is. It's the hypocrisy of government is that, I mean, I would say by and large, 0.94

00:09:54.740 they understand that they don't actually believe in the rules and the rules are 1.00

00:09:57.940 totally unscientific and totally idiotic to begin with. It's a means of control. And I mean, 0.99

00:10:03.160 the names of politicians, media types that, you know, went to vacation in Florida or else are St.

00:10:10.420 Barts. I forget who the liberal guy was who pre-recorded a video from Canada saying we've

00:10:15.080 got to celebrate Christmas. I always forget his name, but I'm probably better off forgetting it.

00:10:19.920 Pre-records a video saying we've got to celebrate Christmas differently this year while he's in

00:10:23.540 St. Barts. There was a famous Quebec radio guy. They all go to Florida. AOC, Eric Adams,

00:10:30.140 they all go down to the state because they love it, but they love bashing it. And it's, I don't know,

00:10:34.120 it's hypocrisy. It is only a means of gaining control over people and retaining that control.

00:10:38.980 So, um, and you know, it's not without its flaws, health insurance costs, you know,

00:10:43.600 out the wazoo in Florida, um, home insurance because of issues costs a lot in Florida,

00:10:49.980 but you know, at some point you have to take the pros with the cons and make a decision as to what

00:10:55.300 is the place in which you want to live. Ezra, I was up in the Laurentian mountains five days ago

00:11:00.040 and I hit a hiking trail. And the first thing I see is I'm getting it. I'm beautiful green scenery,

00:11:05.240 a big yellow red sign that says in French, you must register online. And there's a QR code. And I'm

00:11:13.180 like, this might exist elsewhere. Maybe I'm a little bit cynical and angry at my home country

00:11:17.920 that it's turned into an open air prison, but I got to register before I go on a hiking trail.

00:11:22.800 I mean, that's if I even brought my phone, it's, it's wild, but you step back into Canada and you

00:11:28.400 really feel the oppressive, um, full control that the government is trying to exert over everybody

00:11:33.320 in all aspects of life. It's like taxing you up the wazoo so that you effectively are working for

00:11:40.060 the government. Uh, you're reliant on the government for all essential services that are, that are

00:11:45.320 failed. They're not even able to provide traffic-free roads. I, I, I had a map, you know,

00:11:52.740 the image of the map of Montreal and it was like, it was a heart attack. It looked like you have the

00:11:55.960 red arteries everywhere around the heart of Montreal. And I was like, Oh my goodness,

00:11:59.420 if this were a heart, it would be indicative of a heart attack. And we're witnessing like

00:12:03.620 an effective heart attack of construction, crippling infrastructure. I'm at a Tim Hortons

00:12:07.920 listening to the two people in front of me, complain about how they were waiting for six

00:12:11.220 hours in the ER. And one guy saying, yeah, I got to wait for two or three or four years

00:12:15.460 for elective surgery for something. But if I have the stroke because I don't get the elective

00:12:20.240 surgery, well then they'll treat me right away if I can get it. So it's just like you,

00:12:24.300 you see it in the starkest contrast when you come back and you get to compare it to where

00:12:28.700 you've been. And I feel bad having these feelings, but it's like, I come back to Canada and it

00:12:33.080 sincerely feels like a failed country. And the, my, my, my sorrow is that there are many people

00:12:38.680 who say, Viva, you got out just in time and we can't do it for X, Y, and Z reasons, which

00:12:43.000 I totally understand. I just have a tremendous amount of sorrow coming back here. And it's like

00:12:47.420 returning to, uh, you know, the, the scene of a crime where it's like sort of sitting

00:12:51.360 shiva. You come back and you see people mourning the death of their country that was once free

00:12:55.700 and beautiful. And now it's the symbol of international tyranny. Well, hopefully it can

00:13:00.760 be fixed. I, um, I observe a trend around the world, whether it's El Salvador, Argentina,

00:13:07.960 the reform party in the UK, Marine Le Pen in France, uh, alternative for Deutschland and Germany,

00:13:14.200 Victor Orban and Hungary. I see in some places the pendulum swinging back. I mean, I just saw a new

00:13:21.160 poll in the United States that suggests Donald Trump will be restored. So I think that not

00:13:28.260 everyone's going quietly. You know, you, you said so many interesting things there. I just,

00:13:31.980 I just got to say some of my reactions and then I want to move on to a few court cases that I want

00:13:36.600 to ask you about. Cause I know that, um, you, you're a lawyer as well. And so you follow these cases.

00:13:41.940 My first thought was when you talked about that hiking and I, and I saw your tweet of that sign

00:13:46.460 is they're asking you nicely to register, but it wouldn't surprise me if a few years from now,

00:13:52.080 they just automatically track you with the GPS in your phone. And we know that the government did

00:13:56.480 that during the lockdowns that they got their cell phone companies to give them the data where

00:14:01.380 people were. You mentioned the MP who recorded his winter greetings, even though he was in the

00:14:07.000 Caribbean. I don't know if you know this, uh, David, but there was a judge, an Ontario judge who

00:14:11.740 went down there and was holding court cases on video. You know, a lot of courts were done over

00:14:16.940 and he was in the crib. I don't know if you remember that story.

00:14:19.920 No, but it's, it's like, it's straight out of the Simpsons when mayor Quimby is on, you know,

00:14:23.420 he's, he's given a press conference and the guy with the steel drum comes from behind him when he's

00:14:27.020 on the case. I mean, it's, it's out of a cartoon. It's no, but the QR code, Ezra, it's only a matter of

00:14:32.300 time before they track you automatically. They're doing that already, but it's just, it's, we are,

00:14:35.840 if I didn't even check to see if the rules, if there's a fine for not registering, it's controlling

00:14:40.580 every aspect of your life and imposing these disguise taxes. Oh, you didn't, you didn't

00:14:45.480 register with the QR code, $150 ticket. It's, it's, we're there.

00:14:49.580 You know, let me, you made me think of one last thing and I just want to show it. I haven't shown

00:14:53.200 this video in three years, but it was the video that really put the fear into me. This is a video,

00:14:59.960 uh, going from memory, I think it's Trois- Trois-Rivières where there was a party in a house,

00:15:05.640 police came to the front door and were pulling, pulling people out of the house. And there were

00:15:12.080 people in the house pulling them back in. There was literally physically, without a search warrant,

00:15:17.880 without a crime being committed, they were, the police were physically pulling people out of the

00:15:24.000 house because allegedly it was violation of, I don't know if you recall that video.

00:15:28.420 Woo! 1.00

00:15:31.900 Fuck you! 1.00

00:15:34.300 Put your face in a lie at home. 1.00

00:15:36.900 Hey! 0.99

00:15:37.900 Hey, hey, hey! 0.55

00:15:39.800 dingsipers.

00:15:41.960 Going back, you cannot respir for me, stop stop, you can not respir for me!

00:15:53.380 Let me get you here! 1.00

00:15:55.220 Don't stop not doing that!

00:15:56.880 I remember that.

00:16:05.660 I remember the guy getting a ticket for eating a muffin in his car at a Tim Horne parking lot.

00:16:10.340 I remember the guy in Montreal.

00:16:12.080 Oh, in New Brunswick.

00:16:12.960 The guy in Montreal getting pepper sprayed because he wasn't wearing a mask.

00:16:16.040 I mean, what's amazing is that...

00:16:18.720 For his health.

00:16:19.580 It's for his health, David.

00:16:20.580 You have to understand. 0.98

00:16:21.560 We have to spray him in his face with pepper spray for his health.

00:16:24.680 Because of a respiratory illness.

00:16:25.960 Robert, sorry, I'm a force of habit with Robert Barnes.

00:16:30.940 No, it's like some police forces revealed themselves as being petty tyrants looking for an excuse.

00:16:36.660 And others revealed themselves as the heroes behind the badge.

00:16:39.600 No, we're not doing that.

00:16:40.480 I don't care what the government says.

00:16:41.460 We're not doing that.

00:16:42.580 We're free.

00:16:43.960 All right.

00:16:44.200 Well, listen, you and I both cared a lot about the lockdowns.

00:16:48.280 And in that way, you and I were a very small minority.

00:16:50.340 Because most of the regime media were either silent or cheering on the lockdowns.

00:16:56.180 And I remember very clearly, February 14, 15, 16, 2022, when the Emergencies Act was deployed, the general reaction from the regime media was,

00:17:06.800 what, you're not going harder, you're only seizing some bank accounts, you're not throwing people in jail by the hundred?

00:17:13.740 Like, all these journalists who for decades said they cared so much about the Charter of Rights, they were egging Trudeau on to go harder.

00:17:22.520 I'll never forget that.

00:17:23.700 And I'll never let them again take the moral high ground when they say they believe in the Charter.

00:17:27.820 But listen, David, I want to move on from things about the lockdown, although it's a very important thing and we should never forget it.

00:17:34.060 There are other battles, current battles, future battles.

00:17:37.420 And one of the things I look up to you for is that you analyze court cases.

00:17:43.400 Now, there's a few court cases in the States that I've seen out of the corner of my eye and I have a very shallow understanding of.

00:17:50.460 And I'm not asking you to go really deep.

00:17:52.600 And remember, most of our viewers are interested, smart, but they're not legal experts.

00:17:59.240 So with with our viewership in mind, can you help explain some of the recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings?

00:18:05.580 I know you do that on your show with the great lawyer, Robert Barnes.

00:18:09.140 Help us understand what just happened a couple of days ago with the Supreme Court ruling about Donald Trump,

00:18:16.460 because I see apoplexy amongst the Canadian commentariat, but I know they haven't read the case.

00:18:21.220 And I know that they're against Trump. Give us what what what happened the other day in the Supreme Court about Donald Trump?

00:18:27.140 Well, we'll get to the I'll do the immunity third. We'll skip over the less interesting ones first.

00:18:30.820 There was the the SCOTUS decision on what they call the Chevron.

00:18:34.040 SCOTUS, that's Supreme Court of the United States.

00:18:36.260 Supreme Court of the United States. So we've got the acronyms are everything now.

00:18:38.860 You've got the Mojag in Canada, Minister of Justice and Attorney General. 1.00

00:18:41.940 Yes, SCOTUS, Supreme Court of the United States.

00:18:43.200 They issued their final rulings for the session. And there were three big ones that people were waiting on.

00:18:48.460 One is a big for administrative law, which was overturning what is referred to as the Chevron doctrine.

00:18:54.720 And this is when I say, like the states I see going in a separate direction from Canada in Canada.

00:18:59.160 I see continued and more and more doubling down on deference to administrative tribunals, giving them the power because their specialty tribunals to make their laws, interpret their laws, adjudicate on their own laws.

00:19:09.580 And you have an administrative state run amok.

00:19:12.040 So let me pause for one second. And I'm sorry to interrupt you.

00:19:14.440 I just administer. You mean all the agencies, boards, commissions, little bureaucracies that aren't real courts, but have the power of courts.

00:19:23.680 That's what you mean. Everything from the Liquor Board to the IRS to the CRA.

00:19:27.420 To the Human Rights.

00:19:28.540 Yeah, Human Rights Tribunal.

00:19:30.280 So there's hundreds of these boards and commissions, some with a very small focus, some with a very wide one.

00:19:35.680 So that's what you mean by administrative law, right?

00:19:37.940 Yes. In the administrative state where you have these tribunals that are not court systems run by judges who are not appointed judges, and they have more power than anybody can really appreciate.

00:19:48.840 In Canada, you say, like, how did you get a human rights tribunal to order a restaurant in British Columbia to pay $40,000 to a transgender employee that was misgendered?

00:19:58.940 Well, it's because you have these administrative tribunals.

00:20:00.980 The court system shows deference to them because they're specialty tribunals.

00:20:05.580 And who's the court to get involved in these tribunals that were created under statute?

00:20:09.200 And so while in Canada you have increasing deference that is afforded to these administrative tribunals, in the States you have now an absolute pushback and a pull away from it.

00:20:21.620 The Chevron Doctrine was deference to administrative tribunals to administer and interpret their own laws with minimal court intervention.

00:20:30.140 I'm very, very much oversimplifying it, but this is what's the big takeaway.

00:20:33.860 The Supreme Court comes in and says, no, we're reversing the Chevron Doctrine.

00:20:37.980 The courts are going to be able to get involved and basically ensure that these administrative tribunals are not running totally, not lawlessly, but rather autonomously.

00:20:49.860 And so hitherto or prior to this, there had been deference to the administrative tribunals' interpretation of their own rules as they administered them.

00:20:56.060 And now they basically say, no, that doctrine is overturned.

00:20:58.580 The courts can get involved and make sure that what they're doing is actually lawful and judicious.

00:21:03.860 That was the Chevron, more or less interesting, but some people might be interested in it.

00:21:07.100 And the other big one—

00:21:08.240 And that's not very sexy.

00:21:10.020 Even the word administrative law, I'm half asleep before you even finish that two-word phrase.

00:21:14.980 But that is actually—I mean, just think about, for example, Canada.

00:21:17.560 They're talking about bringing in a plastics registry.

00:21:20.780 Not even kidding.

00:21:22.020 So who's going to run that?

00:21:23.240 Who's going to make rulings over that?

00:21:24.560 Not a court.

00:21:25.660 They'll probably have a little appointed board or commission.

00:21:29.320 And they're going to make insane rulings. 0.51

00:21:31.340 And in the States, this new Supreme Court doctrine would say, you can't go totally wacko.

00:21:36.780 You have to follow some rules of law.

00:21:38.400 Whereas in Canada, that's how they're going to get you.

00:21:41.100 They're going to get you with these boards and tribunals you've never heard of and you can't fight back against.

00:21:46.220 The newest one there, the Online Streaming Act, when they say, well, how's this going to be—

00:21:49.720 They ask the government, how's it going to be implemented?

00:21:51.820 And they say, we don't know.

00:21:52.820 The CRTC, the body that interprets—

00:21:55.040 Great example.

00:21:55.640 —has issued its directives yet.

00:21:56.200 Great example.

00:21:57.580 It's like, who's running the country?

00:21:59.040 The government or these administrative bodies.

00:22:01.020 And in the States, they basically say, look, there's going to be judicial oversight and you don't get to enact your own rules, interpret your own rules, and apply your own rules.

00:22:08.600 You know what?

00:22:09.300 Give me 30 more seconds on this.

00:22:10.820 I mean, I'm just thinking the way you phrased that about the CRTC.

00:22:14.520 Rebel News has been denied official journalism status by the CRA.

00:22:19.940 My book, The Libranos, was convicted by Elections Canada.

00:22:25.420 We had to fight twice against the Debates Commission to get in.

00:22:30.720 So four battles involving freedom of speech weren't in a real court.

00:22:35.620 We were not prosecuted.

00:22:37.040 It was Trudeau's hand-picked, busybody, fake—they weren't actually even judges.

00:22:43.280 Four times our freedoms were censored by the administrative state.

00:22:48.140 Those were not real courts.

00:22:50.440 Now, we went to real court to overturn some of those.

00:22:53.120 Sorry, I'm just—when you mentioned the CRTC, it's just a light bulb went on.

00:22:56.520 That's how they're getting us.

00:22:58.180 Well, absolutely.

00:22:58.880 And it's the most concrete example where they ask, who is the Online Streaming Act going to apply to?

00:23:03.840 Is it going to apply to individual creators?

00:23:05.820 Well, we don't know.

00:23:06.400 The CRTC will decide when they issue their direct—

00:23:08.880 We don't know.

00:23:08.940 Yeah.

00:23:09.080 How does the government pass a law and not tell you who that law is going to apply to?

00:23:13.140 Well, let the administrative body—and why would the administrative body want to limit their own power?

00:23:17.820 They all say, hell no.

00:23:18.620 It applies to everybody.

00:23:19.800 And then the government's like, well, what can we do?

00:23:21.280 That's their decision, not ours, although we pass the law.

00:23:23.660 That's how it goes nuts.

00:23:24.900 And so in the states, you have the reversal of the Chevron doctrine, which I tell you, it shows a shift in the zeitgeist of two different countries.

00:23:32.280 Canada wants more of the full control, and America says, no, no, we're going to pull away from the administrative state.

00:23:39.120 Chevron.

00:23:39.980 The other great one was the obstruction charges in the January 6th cases, which indirectly impacts Trump as well.

00:23:47.560 That was the big one that we were waiting on.

00:23:50.100 A number of the Jan Sixers were charged with and convicted under an interpretation of the obstruction witness intimidation statute, which by all accounts, anybody who has half a legal mind, knew was not what this law was intended to do.

00:24:04.360 It was obstruction, destruction of tampering with evidence for the purposes of impeding government proceedings.

00:24:11.700 It was an Enron-era piece of legislation that intended to punish the Enron execs who destroyed evidence in their possession before the subpoenas came because they knew they were coming.

00:24:23.600 And they say, oh, crap, there was nothing that prohibited you from doing that.

00:24:26.320 So we issued this law that says if you tamper with, obstruct government proceedings, well, then it's a charge under 1512, and it was subsection C2.

00:24:34.540 The issue there was they were charging the Jan Sixers with obstruction of congressional hearings under that statute for merely protesting.

00:24:42.960 And everybody was like, no, that's not what Section 2 was supposed to say when it says or otherwise obstructs a congressional, a government proceeding.

00:24:50.420 The otherwise wasn't a catch-all to apply to everything even as innocuous as constitutionally protected protests.

00:24:57.600 And lower courts, you know, disregarded it.

00:25:00.060 And the Supreme Court came and said, no, this was never the intention of the statute.

00:25:03.320 If otherwise includes any and all behavior, then the first subsection, which specifies methods of tampering with evidence, is rendered moot, you know, non-existent.

00:25:12.720 And canons of interpretation are a legislator doesn't enact a legislation to say nothing, which is effectively what the subparagraph one would have said if the subparagraph two consumes it and everything else.

00:25:23.000 I hope that's clear enough.

00:25:24.260 But the bottom line, the Supreme Court said all of these felony charges for obstruction for merely the act of protesting is not what was intended by otherwise obstructing or tampering with evidence.

00:25:36.100 Well, let me jump in there because basically they – I mean, most of the people that day on January 6th were peaceful protesters.

00:25:43.360 Some of them smashed windows to get in.

00:25:45.820 Some of them did some minor acts of mischief or vandalism.

00:25:49.620 To call it a riot I think is overstating it.

00:25:52.060 My friend Gavin McInnes calls it the great meandering.

00:25:56.360 But to find felonies and to jail people for years there shows such an overstretch.

00:26:05.380 And here's what caught my eye, and you tell me if I read this wrong, one of the judges that sided with the majority against this extreme interpretation of the criminal law was a Biden appointee who on the face of it is ultra-liberal, even woke.

00:26:23.340 I think her name is Justice Katanji, a black woman leftist who – correct me if I'm wrong – she sided with the conservative majority because she knows what goes around comes around. 1.00

00:26:34.420 And if the government can way over-prosecute and over-jail people who are protesters by finding some legal trickery, that's going to happen to Democrats too, just as it happened to Republicans.

00:26:45.940 Did I get that right?

00:26:47.220 You got that right.

00:26:47.960 It's KBJ or KJB.

00:26:49.380 I forget.

00:26:49.640 I always forget.

00:26:49.960 It's Katanji Brown Jackson.

00:26:51.780 She's the Supreme Court nominee, the Biden pick, who infamously could not define what a woman is because she's not a biologist. 1.00

00:26:59.480 And that – and there's a number of issues with her.

00:27:02.200 She was trivialized and nominalized and basically reduced to an ethnicity because Biden says we need a black woman, so I'm going to pick one. 1.00

00:27:09.640 Qualified or not, that's her legacy and how she got appointed to the Supreme Court. 1.00

00:27:14.120 But she sided with the majority, and oddly enough, Amy Coney Barrett sided with the dissenting minority, saying, well, that's what the government – that's what the statute reads, and it's not up to us to limit the powers of the executive.

00:27:27.040 But no, Katanji Brown Jackson is 100 percent right in law.

00:27:32.740 I mean, in reality, they just don't prosecute lefty protesters the way they prosecute righty protesters because everyone who protested Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings would have been arrested, could have been charged under that statute, under that ludicrous interpretation of it.

00:27:46.620 Everyone who protested trans laws in – I forget what state – gun laws.

00:27:51.720 I mean, they would be charged under this insane interpretation.

00:27:55.480 So she got it right.

00:27:57.060 They got it right.

00:27:57.920 I mean, bottom line, the first section says tampering, altering, or impairing evidence for the purposes of – you know, to impede a congressional hearing or otherwise obstruction section two.

00:28:07.100 Well, if the or otherwise includes everything and anything, including subparagraph one, as the majority said, it consumes subparagraph one, and that interpretation renders a piece of legislation meaningless.

00:28:19.420 You know, you say the important thing when you mention that freedom-oriented, conservative-oriented, republic-oriented prosecutors generally don't go nuts like this.

00:28:29.380 Like, I can't think of a – of the opposite of January 6th.

00:28:33.980 I can't think of where hundreds of people were scooped up for nonviolent protests.

00:28:39.220 In fact, we see violent protests from Antifa, from Black Lives Matter.

00:28:42.820 I mean, the summer of 2000 – of 2020, rather, the country was ablaze.

00:28:47.560 And those were actual crimes, actual violent crimes.

00:28:51.440 And there were no mass prosecutions, even in conservative jurisdictions.

00:28:56.180 I – anyway, I'm glad that Ketanji Jackson-Brown, if I got her name right, was on the right side of that.

00:29:03.700 Well, you see, I think the conservatives – the argument would be that the conservatives might have implemented something along those lines with the Patriot Act and with the secret courts following 9-11.

00:29:12.880 And maybe learned a little bit of the abuses of government and why the Patriot Act was a grotesque piece of legislation.

00:29:19.520 And so there's sort of been a shift now.

00:29:21.100 The other dynamic shift is that the party that's in power implements and enforces laws different than the party that's not in power.

00:29:29.240 So I said it's sort of analogous to free speech.

00:29:31.840 Everybody loves free speech until they're in a position of power, and other people use that free speech to challenge them.

00:29:36.300 So Democrats are in full power.

00:29:38.140 They control the media.

00:29:39.240 They control the deep state apparatus.

00:29:41.140 So they're going to abuse the law in a way that Republicans won't because they're not in power.

00:29:45.040 And I hope that they don't ever abuse the law like the Democrats have done if and when they ascend to power.

00:29:49.960 It should be righteous application of the law and not vengeful politicized application.

00:29:54.320 But that interpretation of the obstruction charge was a way of felonizing, criminalizing a swath of protesters who were nothing but peaceful meanderers.

00:30:03.280 You know, every once in a while I see someone, a pundit, say something really funny, and it goes like this.

00:30:07.840 When Trudeau gives power or cash to hand out to journalists, like this $100 million a year Google slush fund that Google pays basically a shakedown tax to the government of Canada,

00:30:20.640 and it's divvied up amongst media companies, or the debates commission that chooses who can or can't go,

00:30:25.720 every once in a while someone says, if you're happy with this now, and this is the joke, and it makes me smile every time,

00:30:32.240 how happy will you be when Ezra Levant is appointed as Pierre Polyev's boss of the debates commission or hander-outer of federal cash?

00:30:40.500 Now, obviously, it would never happen, but the point they're trying to make is if you're fine with far-left-wing partisans choosing who has freedom or not,

00:30:48.200 who has money or not, you better be ready for if a conservative appoints someone just as prickly.

00:30:52.860 Now, obviously, I would not be appointed, and I most likely would not accept such an appointment,

00:30:57.080 but you've got, you know, another way of saying is what comes around goes around.

00:31:00.580 Or as they would say in Latin, stare decisis, stand by the president.

00:31:05.740 So people who say, I'm going to use the law to get my enemies, well, you better hope you maintain the whip hand,

00:31:11.700 because if tides turn, your enemies will have those powers.

00:31:16.680 Well, that is the issue, and then it does result in a doubling down and a tripling down of ensuring that now that I've abused my adversary so much,

00:31:25.740 if they're especially angry and if they ever get power, they're going to be even worse on me,

00:31:29.300 so I've got to make sure to actually suppress them and crush whatever life they have left in them.

00:31:33.460 That's what we're sort of witnessing right now with the Trump persecutions.

00:31:36.580 You are so right.

00:31:37.880 Which is going to bring us into the last one.

00:31:39.620 But they know that they have been unfair, they've been unjust, they've been unlawful,

00:31:44.060 and they're so fearful of even the most minor of stabilizing of the system that they know they cannot let their adversaries get into power now because of all the wrong that they've done.

00:31:54.960 You can imagine the Jan 6th committee, imagine if we had an actual bipartisan investigative committee investigating the January 6th committee.

00:32:02.420 They would go to jail for actual obstruction, for actual destruction of documents, actual destruction of evidence after their hearing to impair further investigations.

00:32:11.560 Merrick Garland would actually, you know, potentially be looking at impeachment and other sanctions for his weaponizing of the DOJ.

00:32:19.440 Biden's attorney general, yeah.

00:32:20.860 Biden's attorney general.

00:32:22.020 The other guy there, Alejandro Mayorkas, the border czar.

00:32:25.260 He would arguably be facing consequences for dereliction of duty and facilitating the invasion of his country. 0.54

00:32:31.140 And so what they have to do now, they have to try to smite whatever breath of life is remaining.

00:32:37.100 And they're trying to do it by keeping Trump out of office at all costs, which brings us back to the immunity case,

00:32:42.360 or at least brings us to the immunity case, that's the biggest one where you're seeing not just a meltdown, not just a hysterical hissy fit.

00:32:49.580 You are seeing people in real time lying about it to whip people up into a frenzy so they should do atrocious things in the name of what they now believe is their own self-preservation.

00:33:00.260 The immunity ruling came down six to three.

00:33:02.760 And the greatest part of this decision, other than Clarence Thomas's independent opinion in the middle, was what the majority said about the dissent.

00:33:11.000 And they basically said the dissent has no arguments, has nothing to rely on in the Constitution.

00:33:16.180 And so their reasoning, you know, it basically resorts to fear mongering and lying about hypotheticals, extreme hypotheticals that have not been and will not be about what might be based on their incorrect interpretation.

00:33:28.900 And give one of those hypothetical, I was reading this, and one of the dissenting Democrat judges says, well, this is going to allow them to send SEAL Team 6 to kill their opponent.

00:33:38.420 Like, I just thought, that is so nuts.

00:33:41.740 It was so weird to see that in a Supreme Court ruling.

00:33:44.400 That's something that you'd expect, like, a freshman in college to write or something.

00:33:47.860 Well, that is the joke, is that the dissenting opinion would be a failed answer on a bar exam.

00:33:53.160 I mean, they basically said, yeah, oh, it greenlights death squads, murder squads, or death squads, I think, according to Rachel Maddow.

00:33:59.680 It's now created a king. 1.00

00:34:02.040 It's not, they're smart enough that you can't chalk it up to stupidity. 1.00

00:34:05.820 It's malicious. 1.00

00:34:07.760 And it's projection.

00:34:09.200 It is utterly projection, projection, compared to what they've been doing in Trump.

00:34:12.460 And, yeah, I shouldn't have interrupted you.

00:34:14.880 Tell us what the ruling actually said.

00:34:17.140 This was a six to three ruling.

00:34:18.180 I'm sorry I interrupted your stream of comment there.

00:34:19.780 Don't worry, sir, please.

00:34:20.800 The decision looks longer than it is.

00:34:23.820 It's like 120 pages, but there's 10 pages of executive summary, 40 pages of the majority opinion.

00:34:30.100 Then there's a Clarence Thomas independent opinion, which concurs with the majority.

00:34:33.580 And then there's a ridiculous, insane dissenting opinion.

00:34:37.580 The summary of the decision is that the president enjoys absolute immunity for everything that he carries out under his constitutional duties, period.

00:34:47.660 So if he's got a constitutional right to act in that capacity as president, absolute immunity for whatever he does in his purely private capacity, there is no immunity.

00:34:57.760 So if he if he kills him, if he kills his chef because he doesn't like his food, I don't think you're going to get a court to say that even fits within the middle range.

00:35:07.480 The middle range is there's a presumption of immunity if the act fits within the outer bounds of his duties as president.

00:35:14.440 And in order to determine whether or not he actually benefits from immunity, there needs to be an analysis of the act to determine.

00:35:20.400 Is it a is it a is it a constitutional act that he's entitled to as president?

00:35:26.280 Is it a purely private or is it somewhere in the middle?

00:35:28.800 And then we have to determine if he gets immunity or if he doesn't get immunity for that act.

00:35:33.200 And the dissent has pretended that this is somehow authorized the president to do whatever he wants willy nilly, but call it a presidential act.

00:35:42.620 And you're right, Ezra, it's pure, pure projection, because when they say, well, all he has to do is kill his political rival and call it a presidential act.

00:35:50.760 And he's immune. I mean, first of all, they're telling on themselves.

00:35:53.740 They're absolutely telling on themselves.

00:35:55.200 The only people, the only people who've done that are the debt or is Merrick Garland's weaponized DOJ sending the FBI with license to kill to raid Mar-a-Lago in plainclothes officers with box cutters.

00:36:08.080 I mean, they're the only ones who are doing this. But the idea that, well, just call it something so that we can then make it presidential for immunity, what they're basically telling you, just call it private so that we can prosecute for being a private act and therefore go after the president.

00:36:22.800 They're telling you what they're doing in reverse. But the bottom line, in my view, the decision didn't go as far as it should.

00:36:28.780 I think they should have just said you are impeached and convicted and then you can face prosecution and otherwise not,

00:36:35.800 because otherwise it will just be harassment, judicial harassment once they're out of office.

00:36:39.820 And all they'll have to do is call it a purely private act.

00:36:42.480 Oh, yeah. When you executed that American citizen by drone strike in wherever it was, Afghanistan or Iraq, well, that was a purely private act.

00:36:50.080 And then they'll say, no, it was a presidential act. But then they'll still go through the process.

00:36:55.180 So that's I mean, it's I think they should have done that.

00:36:58.120 But what they ended up saying is, no, there's presidential immunity for constitutional constitutional acts, no immunity for private acts.

00:37:04.680 And then we have to do a test for within the outer orbit of presidential conduct.

00:37:09.800 And what the what the Supreme Court majority decision said and needling Jack Smith, needling Judge Chutkin out of D.C., needling the dude out of New York there, Justice Marchand.

00:37:20.000 She's like no lower court ever carried out this analysis in Rico, the Rico, Georgia case.

00:37:26.480 Did you ever do an analysis as to what was a purely private act, what was clearly a presidential act and what might be within the outer orbit?

00:37:33.220 They never did it. So now what has to happen and what is going to happen in New York, all of these cases, including the conviction out of New York, have to go back for that analysis.

00:37:42.460 And Justice Marchand in the New York Alvin Bragg Soros funded Alvin Bragg case where Trump was convicted for 34 counts of felony.

00:37:51.900 They need one of the falsification of business records to conceal the payment to Stormy Daniels.

00:37:57.140 They need to go back now and say, oh, crap, when he did that, all of those charges relate to acts that he carried out once he was president. 0.89

00:38:04.480 So some might say purely private to hush money payment to a porn star. 0.97

00:38:09.060 Others might say within the outer bounds of his president. It had nothing to do with the election anymore because he was already elected.

00:38:14.220 Outer bounds. Others are going to say presidential.

00:38:15.680 So they've got to go now and do that assessment. But there's already been a conviction.

00:38:20.520 And so Justice Marchand, Judge Marchand of New York, says, I'm going to postpone sentencing and we might very well, he says, I'll postpone sentencing if it occurs.

00:38:29.960 Because they might actually have to toss that conviction entirely and then decide whether or not they go back, analyze the indictment and flesh out what's a charge,

00:38:38.360 what's an act that he can be charged with versus what isn't.

00:38:40.800 Rico, same case. You imagine in the Rico, Georgia election interference case, they're charging Trump with acts of having discussions with his attorney general,

00:38:51.140 having discussions with his internal members of government as relates to what he felt was a fraudulent election.

00:38:56.720 Well, that's not that's definitely not a purely personal act.

00:38:59.880 And so they've got to go back and say, OK, well, can we even charge him for this?

00:39:03.120 You know, they've got to do it in D.C. They've got to do it in Florida.

00:39:05.280 And so this has upended everything. The only conviction they got before the election, it was always going to get overturned.

00:39:12.080 I just think Marchand now can weasel out of it and say, set aside the verdict because of the Supreme Court.

00:39:16.180 Not my fault. Wash my hands like Pontius Pilate and go back if we recharge him.

00:39:20.660 You know, it obviously a huge legal victory for the president.

00:39:25.320 But as they say, the process is the punishment.

00:39:28.620 How many tens of millions or even 100 million dollars has he had to spend on lawyers?

00:39:33.060 How many hundreds of hours has he had to spend on this?

00:39:36.860 How much stress and distraction and how much damage?

00:39:40.040 I mean, I think by this point, a lot of people have their minds made up about Trump and no one will change.

00:39:46.180 But I think a lot of people's in fact, there's a perversity to it that I think people do think that Trump has been victimized and attacked unfairly.

00:39:55.300 So, in fact, I think there has been a net benefit, even though I hate to say it that way, because people say they're just picking on him now.

00:40:02.140 But what an atrocious thing he's had to go through.

00:40:04.680 I'm really excited about these cases because it gives me some hope.

00:40:09.000 All is not lost.

00:40:10.640 And of course, I love being a Canadian and I still have hope for our country.

00:40:13.920 But it is deeply reassuring to me that the greatest democracy in the world, the country upon whom we rely for our security, still has some checks and balances.

00:40:24.120 And the Supreme Court is one of them.

00:40:25.880 And Viva, David, you have a deep understanding.

00:40:30.500 And, you know, it's somewhat a technical understanding sometimes.

00:40:33.800 But I know that's why you bring the smarts to it, because you yourself are a lawyer and you have a show with Rob Barnes, who's a constitutional lawyer.

00:40:40.600 I really appreciate you giving us a briefing.

00:40:42.660 And I think our Canadian viewers, even if they're not lawyers, I think they understand what's going on.

00:40:46.980 And you really helped us today.

00:40:48.060 I really appreciate you taking the time.

00:40:49.940 Before we say goodbye, tell us what you're doing.

00:40:52.200 Where is the best way we can get your content?

00:40:54.220 I know you've got a couple of different podcasts.

00:40:56.480 Is there a website?

00:40:57.780 Is there a place you would invite people to go?

00:41:00.020 The best place is vivabarneslaw.locals.com.

00:41:04.280 That's where we get support from the community with a monthly subscription or an annual.

00:41:08.780 But look, I'm the Viva Fry on Twitter, Viva Fry on Rumble.

00:41:12.360 And I'm going to be in Toronto, Ezra, for the event on the 12th with you.

00:41:16.180 And then I head to Milwaukee for the RNC.

00:41:19.440 It's going to be amazing.

00:41:20.460 But I'll give everybody a little bit of a white pill here.

00:41:22.800 And everybody knows, look, I'm not a Pierre Poilier fan.

00:41:25.720 And I'm sort of stubbornly supporting the PPC because I ran with the PPC.

00:41:29.020 And I believe they have true principles.

00:41:31.640 There's a lot of similarity between conservatives and liberals in Canada and Republicans and

00:41:36.180 Democrats in the States. 0.93

00:41:38.020 Liberals are closet tyrants. 0.97

00:41:39.820 All they care about is control.

00:41:41.120 And they don't care about the will of the people.

00:41:42.900 They just want to rule, much like the Democrats in the United States.

00:41:46.360 Republicans are sort of more like conservatives as well in that they're susceptible of public

00:41:52.000 opinion, for good and for bad.

00:41:53.260 And so when I say that, you know, Pierre Poilier is a bit of a he's a fair weather politician,

00:41:58.100 that could be an insult.

00:41:59.680 That could also be not a compliment, but something that could be used in that he listens to the

00:42:03.980 people and he listens to public opinion.

00:42:05.800 If you imagine in the States, Trump will be reelected a third time, as the joke goes.

00:42:12.840 Trudeau is out.

00:42:13.720 Trudeau's out.

00:42:14.400 And then you're going to have something of a conservative government in Canada.

00:42:16.800 And they might actually listen to the people.

00:42:19.260 And you might have a shift in this global zeitgeist where, no, we do not want this one

00:42:24.900 world government.

00:42:26.140 We do not want to, you know, subjugate our national interests to the WHO or the WWF.

00:42:33.340 And you might have a politician who might listen to that, not necessarily because he believes

00:42:36.580 in it, but because the people want it.

00:42:37.800 And that's the popular thing to do.

00:42:39.320 I think we're in the early stages of seeing that right now.

00:42:42.120 And the only question is how crazy are Democrats, deep state, globalists going to go?

00:42:49.200 We'll see.

00:42:50.240 But I'm seeing that flicker of hope in Canada.

00:42:53.660 We're seeing it in the States, but it's a battle.

00:42:55.460 It's a day in and day out battle.

00:42:57.080 Yeah, very interesting.

00:42:58.020 I do sense something afoot.

00:42:59.660 I mean, New Zealand recently threw out their Labour government.

00:43:03.160 Marine Le Pen is in the poll position in the French elections next week.

00:43:07.580 Nigel Farage won't win, but he will surely get a seat in the parliament there.

00:43:12.120 In the UK, I'm excited about these things.

00:43:14.680 It's great to catch up with you.

00:43:16.640 And we'll put some of the links you mentioned to your locals page and other pages on our

00:43:22.620 website so people can click on them.

00:43:25.240 Welcome back to Canada.

00:43:26.360 I will see you on July 12th, folks.

00:43:28.060 That's the Democracy Fund Student Journalism Conference.

00:43:30.680 So unfortunately, it's just for student journalists.

00:43:33.720 But David, thank you for making the time for that charity event.

00:43:37.020 Great to catch up.

00:43:38.080 We'll keep in touch.

00:43:38.840 And I'm so glad you're fighting.

00:43:40.900 You're firing on all pistons on both sides of the border.

00:43:43.860 We need your help both ways, my friend.

00:43:45.620 Great to see you.

00:43:46.580 Thank you very much for having me.

00:43:47.820 All right.

00:43:48.180 There you have it.

00:43:48.800 David Freiheit, a.k.a.

00:43:50.700 Viva Frei.

00:43:51.440 That's our show for today.

00:43:52.960 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home,

00:43:56.480 good night.

00:43:57.460 And keep fighting for freedom.

00:43:58.620 Thank you.

00:44:01.920 I'm glad to see you here at the center.

00:44:02.740 That we'll see you next time.

00:44:09.140 Bye bye.

00:44:10.940 Bye bye.

00:44:11.820 Bye bye.

00:44:12.740 Bye bye.

00:44:13.160 Bye bye.

00:44:16.880 Bye bye.

00:44:17.060 Bye bye.

00:44:17.280 Bye bye.

00:44:17.800 Bye bye.

00:44:19.220 Have a good one.

00:44:19.620 Bye bye.

00:44:19.880 Bye bye.

00:44:21.700 Bye bye.

00:44:21.960 Bye bye.

00:44:23.880 Bye bye.

00:44:26.240 Bye bye.

Rebel News Podcast - July 03, 2024

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Rebel News interviews freedom-loving podcaster Viva Frei

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