EZRA LEVANT ｜ Rebels counter narrative on Leaders' debate chaos after media scrum shutdown
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
174.67471
Summary
You're fighting for freedom! Shame on you, you censorious bug. You're blocking our access to the debate. You don't get a fair shot at the answers to your own questions. You only get a chance to ask them once every four years, and that's not enough.
Transcript
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It's April 18th and this is The Ezra LeVant Show.
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Hello my friends and good Friday to those who observe the holiday.
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Today, Ezra LeVant here. I am back in Toronto after a whirlwind trip through Montreal.
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We were there for several days for the leaders debate in the election.
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As you know, in the past we've had to fight our way in by going to court
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because the hand-picked Trudeau staffers that run the place, they don't like rebel news.
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That's the whole reason they set up this government-run debates commission to keep us out.
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Well, in 2019 we went to court and we got a court order letting us in.
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In 2021, we went to court and got a court order letting us in.
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So this time around, they sort of realized how the story was going to end.
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They negotiated with us back and forth and they finally let us in.
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They let us have five reporters who could ask questions.
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And in the first night, the French debates, we got four of those five.
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I was the only one on our team that didn't get a question.
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Four out of 17 questions, which is pretty good.
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The CBC and its French version, Radio Canada, had four as well.
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But oh my God, did that ever cause an earthquake amongst, not too much the politicians, they didn't care,
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The government has sort of given up on censoring us.
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I'm back in Toronto, but we filmed a heck of a show for you yesterday.
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Enjoy, that's probably the wrong word, watch with horror and fascination the story of the last two days.
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Well, it's 10.30 at night, and I have to say the last 26 hours of my life have been amongst the strangest,
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I have to tell you that yesterday I felt an exhilaration when the rebels assembled next to me,
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came with me to Montreal, of course Alexa Lavoie is from here,
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Remember, we had to fight hard to bust down the door because they wanted to keep Rebel News out,
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because it's a government agency that listened to the likes of Justin Trudeau.
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So we arrived yesterday, and we had four out of the 17 questions.
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They weren't handed to us, we just got in line and asked them.
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Well, the questions were great, in my opinion, and so they were off the government narrative.
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So for 24 hours after last night's debate, all the regime media were gnashing their teeth.
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They were raging, how dare Rebel News take over our event?
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Once every four years, we can get a question too.
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But I saw Michel Cormier, the commissioner of the Debates Commission,
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do a media circuit and basically get whipped and flayed by every regime journalist he talked to.
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Take a look at this insane broadcast on the CBC where David Cochran
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basically stops being a journalist and becomes like a lawyer advocate
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to try and convince the Debates Commission to kick us out or something.
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Like, you know, Rebel News got as many questions as I think CBC, Radio Canada, Press Canadian,
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There were almost 50% of the questions, and some of them ventured into territory
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that really are not issues in this election campaign, were not issues in that debate.
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And I'm not saying reporters should be restricted in terms of what they ask,
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but, you know, if the Debate Commission is going to organize these things,
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it didn't seem to have control on it last night, sir.
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Well, we're learning from what happened last night,
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and you'll see hopefully a fair representation tonight.
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Like, I remember vividly at the museum in Gatineau that the same sort of thing happened
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with people stacking the microphones, and the questions is going in a totally different direction.
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Well, there's only so much we can do to control free speech, you know.
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But, you know, lifeguards got to look after the pool, right?
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And, you know, the Debate Commission was set up for this,
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and people are now calling for it to be completely scrapped because of what we saw last night.
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I just wonder if you think there's a loss of public trust in the function of this organization.
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I think the public will judge us on the debates themselves.
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to present debates that actually reach a lot of people.
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We're reaching people in communities that are often disenfranchised.
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and, you know, like I say, we'll work on it and try to make it better.
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Well, is it peripheral or is it part of the main event?
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I mean, you do the accreditation, you let the people in, you set the ground rules.
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I mean, it is all part and parcel of what's happened here.
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the press availability after is not the most important thing.
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Michel Cormier, I do appreciate you showing up and taking the questions.
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Former journalist, I know you appreciate the importance of doing that.
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That is something else, but it ain't journalism.
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Anyways, Michel Cormier is a creature of the establishment, and the establishment is saying,
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But he also knows that we've gone to court twice and thumped him because the Charter of Rights says,
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you can't discriminate against rebel news just because you hate us.
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Well, last night, at the end of the debate, he canceled the whole scrum.
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He said that no one would be allowed to have any questions.
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And in his mind, he probably thought that was quite clever because it was a way to stop rebel news,
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I'm Michel Cormier, the executive director of the Leaders' Space Commission.
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And I'm sorry to announce that there will be no scrum tonight with the leaders,
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because we don't feel that we can actually guarantee a proper environment for this activity.
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Alors, comme je viens de le dire, la commission a décidé qu'il y a un code de point de presse
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des chefs ce soir, parce qu'on ne sent pas qu'on est capable d'assurer un environnement propice
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Vous pouvez, la salle de presse sera ouverte jusqu'Ã 11h, si vous avez besoin.
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The press will be open until 11h, so you can finish filing.
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And I invite you to call the campaigns, if you want to be interested.
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Your job was to allow the public to scrutinize the candidates.
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In other words, it was an absolute public disaster, but I thought it was in some ways
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a sign that the citizen journalists have stormed the citadel and we can no longer be kept out and
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it wasn't just rebel news although we were the biggest force there were our friends from juno
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and true north and counter signal and western standard and others and it was so exciting and
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now let me bring in my friends because i have left out so many parts in this strange story
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some of the craziest things happened you were about to hear tales that will chill you to your
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bone and make your hair stand up like a porcupine let's start with my friend and chief reporter
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sheila gunreed sheila this was freaking madness you know you're excited i'm still very angry i am too
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i am angry because uh we took the blame uh we're looking in for the bad behavior of the media party
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we conducted ourselves with grace and dignity and uh drea really set the tone for all of us
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with how to conduct ourselves and for two days straight we were subjected to bullying and uh
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derision and scorn and lies and misinformation published about us and physical assault and
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physical assaults as my friend david found out uh tonight i mean
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you you touched me with that i did not touch you you're a liar you're a goddamn liar you're a liar
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oh yeah nice try guys you just hit me what are you doing police no the police is backed by the liberal
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and yet on the cbc as we speak they are painting themselves as the victims of our mere presence
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they're crazy over there there was one point where they announced i had been kicked out of the event and
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my accreditation taken away and i'm sitting in the event thinking what the actual heck are you talking
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about you know um there was some extremely bad behavior in there some of these journalists are
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really normal people just ordinary people some of them are deeply radicalized well and some of them
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are radicalized by two days straight of cbc misinformation against us uh but that was the
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most astounding part and i think it speaks to why we need to be why rebel news exists in a room full of
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200 journalists they all were lying they were all sticking to the same lie even when we had video
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proof you uh were subject to a berating from an unhinged hill times reporter for like four or five
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minutes straight he was screaming yelling gesturing it was really quite unhinged you kept telling him to
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calm down you didn't invite it he just unleashed on you and yet the room full of journalists
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who saw it all go down said that you were the bad guy in that it was really crazy i mean let's just play
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a clip of this this is a crazy man it feels like mental illness and i something drove him to this i mean
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i think he's a lefty to begin with but to see rebels in his kind of place and that we asked four questions
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and he asked none something snapped in his noggin here take a look
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yeah after you guys threatened to sue so that you that's why they got the four questions
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because the commission you're making that up you're lying again when did the cbc get uh four questions
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yesterday yes after they had already told it to you because you threatened to sue
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you're lying again i'm not because you're like don't you have a third party advertising truck to go
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take care of how much have you spent on third party advertising this election between rebel news
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and for canada companies you own both of how much money have you spent to influence this election
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i'm assuming in favor of conservatives how much have you spent like you're a journalist you must be honest
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so rebel news limited if you uh set up and registered under elections canada everyone else
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you can go to elections canada right now every third party is registered search rebel news for canada
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and you will see clearest day as will event as the owner of both of those companies
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he has third party advertising trucks driving around this venue right now
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it's owned by rebel it's owned by you oh sorry sorry the truck is for canada which is owned by you
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which is separate from rebel news which is also owned by you
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you're pretty cheap you want me to pull up one by one control your emotions
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speaking quietly doesn't make your things any less
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stuart benson well you're a disgrace to the hilltimes
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Rebel News Network Limited, March 27th, registered with Elections Canada, Game of Africa, Ezra Le Mans,
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mailing address, Edmonton, Alberta, T5JLK4. I wonder where that would have been.
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Hey, let's go check out the sport, Canada. Who is it who they are?
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No, you just, you don't understand, you don't even understand what you're looking at.
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Oh! Oh! Yes! Yes! The really exceptional work you're doing.
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Is she telling me you're out of control emotionally?
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Why don't you just tell me your, like, it's like we all saw a crazy thing happening.
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Before I get to that, Ezra, I just want to say I was momentarily distracted because as you were interviewing Sheila,
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And she was given an escort by two huge security guards to a waiting cab.
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I think the presence of our truck and the presence of us here, I don't know, it's maybe a Canadian January 6th.
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I mean, why did she feel the need to be, you know, guarded by two big security guards?
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You know, I mean, we joke about trigger warnings, but I think, I think this, I mean, it's happening again right now.
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I think, I mean, they're giving these CBC employees an escort because, you know, they're triggered by this, literally, literally triggered by the sight of citizen journalists.
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It's actually very, it's, it's actually, it's very sad, actually, that grown, I mean, I thought trigger warnings were for children, but for grownups, oh, it's crazy.
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But, but Ezra, to, I'm already watching the mainstream media spin, and it's outrageous about what happened.
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Sorry, not only did Drea see it, I wasn't looking at it, but they hit, he hit Lincoln so hard, I heard it.
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Like, I heard the impact, and it was atrocious.
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But, unfortunately, I didn't cut it on camera, but I'm pretty sure that someone caught it on camera.
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Yeah, everybody saw it, and I want to set something straight.
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There's this narrative going around that we were given special treatment.
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The CBC reporters had their questions into, we went by bureaus, everything is out there.
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We were first, the independent media were first to get there.
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We were first to case, hey, where are the cameras going to be?
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We sat close to the line, we paid attention while they were eating free chips, and we simply stepped into the line.
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And then the misinformation about how that all happened is really what infuriated these people who became completely unhinged.
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And I was at the beginning of that interaction with the Hill guy.
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It started with Kian just talking to another independent journalist, and he just turned back and started raising his voice at Kian.
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He was yelling for about, I don't know, close to, it felt like 10 minutes before, and no one's saying anything.
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No one is saying anything when they all saw this guy be completely unhinged.
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And then when you were respectfully saying, hey, calm down after he went after you, all of a sudden it's Rebel News.
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I mean, I'll get into the misinformation, there is a reason why the mainstream media is a dying breed.
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Nobody trusts them anymore, but we saw it in real time unfold.
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And Ezra, just to finish the story, Lincoln went after the guy by that, I mean not to hit him, but to query him.
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And I followed Lincoln because, hey, two cameras better than one.
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And the guy assaulted Lincoln again by knocking, I mean, there's some perverse irony here.
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A cameraman objecting to being on camera, knocking Lincoln's cell phone out of his hand.
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So I was following along, and then who should come by but Terry Guillon.
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He's the, I guess, the press secretary, the media shepherd.
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And we know he has a history on Kian Bextie was with our company.
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But we have a clip of that, if you want to throw to it, of Guillaume, not once, but twice, knocking the camera right out of my hand.
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I have to tell you, it is as crazy as you think it is.
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We were sitting in there, and we're very careful of the rules, because we fought so hard to be in here.
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And we spent so much money in lawyers to be in here, and then we spent money to fly everyone.
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We're not going to lose that over some shenanigans.
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And I've just never seen such bad behavior from official people.
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And it started yesterday when we had the questions.
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I mean, I say again, the CBC had four questions.
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If we had asked four questions about global warming and whatever, they would have loved us.
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They wouldn't have objected to the fact we had four.
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It's the fact that we had any at all, that we were allowed in there at all.
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And I think these people had a mass psychological freakout.
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And the way they're spinning it, Ezra, and if I may finish the story, I went right away to the Montreal police.
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Terry said something in French to one of them, and suddenly we were being treated like the criminals.
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They were using their bicycles to make a barricade so Terry could scurry away in the bus.
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And then some random woman comes by, and she knocks the phone out of my head.
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You know, we're talking a lot about our interactions.
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But, of course, let me just interject and say Steve Bacon ran an excellent debate tonight.
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And I think he actually is one of the best debate hosts in the country.
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But the misconduct of the journalist, for us at least, is the story of the day.
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Anyhow, forgive me for giving a holler to Steve.
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And then the final, you know, epilogue to this story is the police formed a human wall
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preventing us from getting back into the building.
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I said, guys, my jacket, my coat, my equipment bag with my car keys are there.
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And thankfully, you guys were in the building and could bring it out for me.
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You know, this is what happens when oil and water, when matter and antimatter, yin and yang
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We have millions of subscribers, 1.7 million on YouTube alone.
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We have a full-time staff equivalent of over 30 people.
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There's no measurement by which we are not as legitimate a news source as any other.
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In fact, that's the trouble that the Debates Commission has.
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They can't find a principle or a rule that lets them do that.
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And so when we make our way in, and we didn't force our way in.
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We basically argued our way in by saying we pass every test.
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But the people inside here, the dying last guard, the last hurrah of the regime media, the pampered
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media, the spoiled media, the subsidized media, the government media, they just can't stand
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the fact that you and you and you and you and me have made it into their holy place.
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This is their holy temple, and we're not allowed in here, and we're not as good as them, and
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And oh my God, we're actually asking more questions than them, and our questions aren't
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And like dogs protecting their territory, they barked and barked and barked, and that
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didn't stop us, so they just shut the whole place down.
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And, and I, I've used the word demonic to describe some of the people inside, because
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I'm just sorry we didn't have a chance to ask more questions today.
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I, I'm the one guy on our team who didn't get a question.
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Actually, can I just say something really quickly?
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All this shenanigans could have been avoided if the commission see, oh, we have a lot
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Everybody would have, have a question in, and avoided the fact that they were complaining
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But the thing is, why they don't actually say, maybe you should review the number of
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questions, or maybe like, oh, you're doing all the process.
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It's not us, it's all, they made the rule, and the rule play in our favor because we
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were alert, and we, we worked, and we were there.
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I mean, they could have, they could have said only one question, not a second follow-up.
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They could have said, keep your question under 30 seconds, and even had a clock.
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I mean, and those, but those are content neutral, and they're reporter neutral.
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They wanted it to, they didn't care about that.
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They just wanted the five people standing here, not in there.
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And Ezra, if I may add, you forgot one part of the story that pertains to you.
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When it looked like, uh, that's it, curtains, no more, uh, scrums for the English debate.
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There was that journalist from the Ricochet who was saying, oh, you're happy, Ezra?
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There was some crazy guy who thought, he was screaming, he said, because I.
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Because of your, he was screaming at the top of his lungs.
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Actually, I'll, I'll give you a little, I'll give you a little behind the scenes.
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As soon as we got word from a leaked source that the scrums would be canceled,
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I sent a message to everybody and said, have your phones ready.
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This place is going to pop off, and they're going to blame us.
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A left-wing journalist, uh, who looked textbook.
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Like, if I looked up left-wing journalist in the dictionary, I'd be like, yeah, that's him.
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He starts screaming at the top of his lungs, Ezra, your bad behavior.
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And you know, and he, he said, I mean, you know, Kian Bexty, he was a reporter with us.
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So I was chatting with him, because I, I, I know maybe 10 people here, and, and Kian's
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And so because I was chatting with him, this guy concocted some conspiracy theory about
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how I was controlling all these different, and he said, you have 13 people here.
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I said, no, we only have six, no, five, no, you have 13, oh my God.
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Anyhow, I mean, it's a funny story, but it's also deeply embarrassing how crazy these people
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Oh, and, and Ezra, I know our audience is saying, the ricochet, what in blue hell is
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I came across it only last month because they had a hit piece on Pierre Poliev's campaign
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Evidently, that's racist and code for white supremacy.
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So, because of you, we can't ask questions that we have in the public, because you wanted
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Maybe your ally shouldn't be trying to get the commission to do something unlawful.
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What journalistic rationale is there to have this many people in the room?
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I saw Kian Bexty coming over to Ezra throughout the debate.
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Kian Bexty, who supposedly has a different media outlet, was taking direction from Ezra.
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So why did he come over to you three times for direction during the debate?
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He showed you on the, he showed you his phone and he took direction from you during this debate.
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So I don't think that Kian Bexty is independent.
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I know you don't like me or Rebel News and that's okay.
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What I don't like, Ezra, is you preventing us from being able to ask questions on behalf of the public.
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You created a circus here before this debate started.
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You created a security incident before this debate started.
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When you got into a screaming match with people before this debate started.
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And that's the justification that has been used to cancel the Q&A.
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So the circus that you created before this debate.
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In the front of this room, right before this debate.
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You caused an incident that caused the security concern that got this Q&A shut down.
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So Ezra Levant, I blame you 100% for the Q&A being canceled here.
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You're angry because you didn't like four questions.
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I mean, I understand, listen, I understand you don't like our point of view.
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You know, it's okay for you to hate Rebel News or hate our ideas.
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There was a huge incident at the front of this room, which everyone here saw.
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And everybody in this room knows what happened.
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Everybody saw the incident you caused earlier, Ezra.
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You know, the problem was we go in there thinking like journalists and many of the people in there
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are journalists, but others are just Antifa with a press pass.
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I want to talk a little bit more about the actual misinformation since yesterday I was
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accused of spreading misinformation by Jagmeet Singh.
00:30:31.960
And I was told from a lot of journalists who did reach out, they were disgusted with Jagmeet
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Singh and they were disgusted to hear that journalists heckled me while I asked that question.
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And they told me, you said it as well, in the past, journalists would have stuck together
00:30:58.140
Up next will be Conservative leader Pierre Polyev.
00:31:00.940
But I think we have to sort of address the elephant in the room.
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How are these people chosen to answer these questions?
00:31:08.240
And I don't know if either one of you have an answer for that, but I think there will be
00:31:11.200
people at home saying some of these seem like odd questions.
00:31:15.720
How come we've heard so often from this one particular outlet?
00:31:19.980
There's three right-wing, very right-wing media, we can call them media, websites that
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They get in line to ask a question like anybody else.
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Their accreditation has been approved by the Commission of Debates.
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And so they get the right to stand in line and ask a question that they choose to ask.
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In this case, you saw Mr. Singh, and this has been his position for some time, to refuse
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Rebel News in particular, traffics and misinformation, facts, lack of facts.
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And as you heard in that question, which was woven with some truth and some things that
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Yes, there have been burnings of Christian Catholic churches.
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Yes, there have been remains of Indigenous children found in various places around the
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I simply said, hi, I'm Dr. Humphrey with Rebel News.
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And then, so, I mean, that's not really the point of the story, but.
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And I said, yesterday, you spoke about me without speaking to me first.
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I said that there's no way you would know that there was bodies.
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I said, no, you said I told truth and misinformation.
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And I said, so could you please tell me which site you're aware of where there's unmarked
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And as I'm walking back, her and this other CBC mean girl who was like this the whole time,
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And I said to David Cochran, I said, look, you've been talking trash about me.
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I said, well, no, is there a producer or a lawyer?
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And I mean, just the fact that you spoke to Rosemary Barton and I spoke to David, whatever,
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So then they got dozens of private security and police to stand around them because you're
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So they they claimed that something happened with the far right.
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So there's no scrum and and the security is watching us now.
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But we asked the security that was behind them on the way out, you know, guys, like we're
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And they're like, we don't know what you're talking about.
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So, again, yeah, he said, we're not here for you.
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So I this crazy guy from the Hilltimes was like ranting.
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And just then someone from the Debates Commission came in over to me and said, hey, can we talk
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So I went out with this lady and everyone thought it had to do with this Hilltimes going crazy.
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The timing was like this while this guy was ranting, this lady from the Debates Commission
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And she said, well, the CBC wants to kick you out.
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They said that you were I forget exactly the accusations.
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And I just I just I said what I just said here.
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And that's after that is when the guy said on TV I'd been disaccredited.
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I just want to tell you, I had left the room for a minute is what I'm saying.
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I left the room for like, yeah, while this guy was great.
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So I was out of the room for five minutes and it looked sort of official.
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So I came back in and I was chatting with Michelle Cormier, the commissioner.
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And I was saying, when are you going to tell us the rules?
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And and I was sort of hamming it up because he was the guy who was hostile to us.
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And everyone was had been walking all over him.
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And I was walking with him and I and I didn't put my arm around him or anything, but I was like chummy with him.
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And I walked back in and I had just let it wasn't even 10 minutes.
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And I walked back in thinking, OK, I'm going to go get a sandwich now or something.
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So I want to tell the story, but you keep going.
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I just want to tell you when he was walking, the journalists got up behind him and were tripping over each other.
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Actually, sorry, Ezra, I know you really want to tell the story, but they had to tell the journalists who were scrumming Ezra as he's holding court there.
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They had to tell him the actual debate is starting.
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You know, I want to show you that little scrum.
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I swear, I just they just stepped out for five minutes like it could have been to go to the bathroom.
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And I'm coming back in and I'm just with this Michelle Cormier, which is why I thought it was funny.
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And I want to play it for you because it took me about 30 seconds to get my feet under me.
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Let me play for you my speech because I think it was actually OK.
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Here's what I said to all the journalists there.
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And I got in a sparring match with a few of them.
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Mr. Cormier, are you having a comment on what has happened?
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Yesterday, I think the independent journalists were a little bit too independent.
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And the regime journalists are too friendly with the regime.
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And I've seen a full pork press by regime journalists over the last 24 hours to bring in limits to what independent journalists can do.
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Can you talk about the $180,000 you're spending to do advertising voter contact both through For Canada and into Rebel News Network Limited?
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And that's what concerns me, is that For Canada is a different group.
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It's made $170,000 to Rebel News Network Limited.
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You're getting your facts wrong, Justin, and I want to make sure you're cancelled.
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We were actually talking about the CBC, who want us out of here.
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The CBC were outraged that Mr. Cormier let us in.
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The CBC thinks that's normal, and it's abnormal that we need it.
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Was he talking to you about your accreditation and asking questions, or was it about the incident here right now, Mr. Cormier?
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It was actually about, what's his name, the ball guy in the CBC?
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I invited her to a challenge, and she declined, but that had nothing to do with it.
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Anyways, I want to get back to the journalism here, but it's a pleasure to be in the center of the attention.
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I want to give a shout-out to my fellow independent journalists, Keem Bexky, proud alumnus of Rebel News.
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A. Lee is not associated with us, but I admire his independence, and I would like to encourage everyone who's watching.
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If you've got a Facebook page, you're a journalist.
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No, no, no, no, I'm not a government journalist.
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If you get the government subsidy, you're a government journalist.
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Canadian Press gets massive grants from the government.
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I mean, you're literally wearing a liberal blanier.
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Because I follow the liberals, you know how to work.
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So you're ready to handle your own by the government.
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Sir, what do you think about the third-party advertisers that are supporting the C&C?
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I think that journalism needs to be democratized.
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And I think it's sort of creepy that the enemies of rebel news in the press gallery
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stop us from asking questions of politicians 99% of the time.
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Once every four years, we're allowed to put a couple of questions to these high priests
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And there's a total freakout in the press gallery.
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Fifteen minutes every four-year season, we're allowed...
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You're a journalist with your phone and the reaction of the mainstream media.
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Look, everyone who's got a smartphone, guess what?
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And the power of your smartphone today would be equivalent to like a quarter million dollar camera 15 years ago.
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And if you've got a Twitter account and a camera, you can do anything.
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And I'm not saying that every single human with a cell phone is a journalist.
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I'm saying every human with a cell phone could become a journalist because there's no more barriers to entry.
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It's not a regulated profession like being a doctor.
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I'm not saying every single person in the world is a journalist, but everyone could be.
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And that's what terrifies the people in the inner sanctum is that, no, you have to be part of the special priesthood.
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What we what I think set us apart and what caught the mainstream media flat footed is that we showed up ready to work and they are so entitled and they're so used to having their stories served up to them and not having to work to get access to politicians that they were shocked that we showed up ready to give her.
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But it's because they've never had to work for anything.
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And their subsidy, their failure is subsidized because they get one point five billion a year.
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I'm going to slop another few hundred million on the fire.
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You know who went of all this shenanigans tonight?
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Mark Carney to not face again independent journalist question.
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Because last night didn't really look great when they had the question from independent journalists, isn't it?
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First of all, the fight like heck to get in there.
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And we did that with the help of our lawyer, Chad Williamson.
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And the fact that we had fought and won twice before.
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The second thing we promised is that we would ask questions that the regime media, the mainstream media, wouldn't do.
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In the case of Alexa and Drea, Jagmeet Singh did not answer the questions, but that is on him.
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And in fact, Drea's went super viral because the question was so interesting.
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Finally, we conducted ourselves in a manner that I think set an example for other independent journalists.
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And we really worked collegially with the other citizen journalists.
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And one of them thanked us for having fought these legal battles to clear the way like an icebreaker.
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The first icebreaker that has to break through the ice has the tough job.
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And it's a real pleasure to be in that position.
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But all of it, of course, comes down to our viewer.
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My favorite Donald Trump meme gives me a little bit of a chill every time.
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And I think about that sometimes because I think Rebel News is like that.
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But the people standing next to me are pretty likable.
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But he's a pretty likable guy, let me tell you.
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And, of course, the ladies are completely lovable.
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If these are lovable people, why would they be hated?
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And the reason why they were so outraged with the people next to me is precisely because
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they were asking questions on behalf of the people who were normally shut out and ignored.
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People who are not part of the Mean Girls Club.
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People who have questions that were not answered.
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We were asking questions that were not in the debate.
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We were asking questions that you don't hear a lot in Canada.
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They literally said those were reasons we should be kicked out.
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It was sad that it came out of that debate, which was a good debate.
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It was a healthy dialogue and it was a good discussion.
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But what were a lot of the headlines about today was about the aftermath.
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It was about the fact that these illegitimate organizations that frame themselves as news organizations
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took up all of this time and energy and posing questions and lining up
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and really preventing media from having the opportunity to ask those questions.
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And it's so important because people are still trying to make up their minds.
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They're tuning into these debates because they're looking for information.
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So I think it's a shame and I think that the commission did a pretty terrible job of explaining itself
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Tim, what are your thoughts on how it all went down and where things stand?
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Oh, David, I'm all for free speech, but it has to be sensible
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and it has to have a purpose and not be about the people who are trying to elicit it.
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I mean, that was a hustle last night by those organizations
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to have the four of us and everybody else who's critiqued it have them get that attention.
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And the critique will get them money, no doubt.
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I don't know what service it provided to the viewing public last night.
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I was watching you and Rosie and Adrian, and the point you made I thought was a great one.
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There were no questions asked by Rebel in particular about anything that happened during the debate.
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It was about their own agenda and the things they drive.
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In another place, another form, maybe that's fine, but not in a national debate.
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I think Canadians want debates to be about what Mr. Cormier said.
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So let the reporters who are covering the debate ask follow-ups on those issues.
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But, you know, Brad, on that, look, it is common for questions after debates
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to deal with issues that either weren't touched on or broaden it out,
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but they are broadly, you know, in the mainstream of what the election is actually about.
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And I know what is a journalist, what is media.
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I know that it has all changed in the year of our Lord, 2025.
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But I just wonder, the response we got from viewers and voters to sort of the spectacle was pretty strong.
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Yeah, it was, there's no question this was a hijacking.
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From the minute the first question was asked to Mr. Carney, this was a hijacking.
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They hijacked the post-debate scrums in an effort for their fundraising.
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And I don't think that the public airwaves and the consortium of media outlets that put on the event
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and the Canadians that tuned in, I'm only going to imagine great numbers
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because it wasn't up against the Habs game entirely.
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If the Habs would just make the playoffs earlier, the consortium would...
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I didn't even get into the scheduling conflict because it seems like whatever.
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And this is, I think, putting at risk the viability of going forward.
00:49:32.620
but I fear that the remedy that you were just announcing here,
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first of all, it's asking these outlets, and I use that term very loosely.
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Now, if you have one 20-second question to ask with no follow-up,
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I'm hoping that this prediction does not come true,
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but these will be 20-second speeches live on all of our consortium outlets
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going into millions of households across this country,
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and I fear that that will only embolden them for more fundraising.
00:50:08.820
And this has to end, and it hopefully will end.
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we have to ask ourselves, what is the point of the post-debate scrum?
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All of the good content is there on the debate floor.
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The last thing we have time for is the post-leaders' debate scrum.
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It adds no value whatsoever, in my opinion, to the debate night,
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and I think we should just look at scrapping the whole thing altogether.
00:50:44.020
Well, I mean, you wonder, just as a campaign tactic and strategy,
00:50:47.280
if you're going to be asked conspiracy-laden questions,
00:50:59.620
Just what do you think of where things are today?
00:51:01.800
Well, I think we all watched last night, David.
00:51:16.000
Well, first of all, I mean, I do really question at this stage
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what is the point and the purpose of the debate commission itself.
00:51:23.860
This is an organization that, clearly, based on that interview that we just saw,
00:51:29.840
is not used to a lot of frontline accountability,
00:51:32.580
is not used to a lot of transparency in terms of the way it communicates.
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It is rare that you see a real, live, living member of the debate commission
00:51:46.140
But you know what it's like to be on the frontline of having to deal with accountability.
00:51:50.820
When people are ticked off at you, you've got to take that.
00:51:53.020
When people are ticked off at me, I have to take that.
00:51:56.520
And so, you know, you've got this organization that calls itself independent
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and arm's length for government, that is supported by the Privy Council office.
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You know, you had a former governor general who was appointed
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to then look at foreign interference as the last debate commissioner.
00:52:15.100
And who, you know, who's making these decisions?
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I know because I've gone on the website and looked at them.
00:52:26.160
But, you know, not people who are experienced in television production.
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Not people who are experienced in doing live television.
00:52:35.100
And I just find myself so utterly, utterly flummoxed.
00:52:40.200
I know we've spent a lot of time talking about rebel media and what happened after the fact.
00:52:45.660
Let's go back, and I know you would have talked about this yesterday,
00:52:50.440
On the day, the morning of the debate, you kick the Green Party out.
00:52:56.400
So the Greens can't participate in the name of whatever independent, democratic best practice.
00:53:06.860
You know, the whole genesis of the debate commission was a function of the Trudeau government.
00:53:13.920
It was born out of what happened in 2015 in that election,
00:53:17.980
with some leaders tapping in and other leaders tapping out and saying,
00:53:21.220
I will participate in this, I won't participate in that.
00:53:24.140
But that campaign actually brought forward some really interesting, creative debates
00:53:30.560
that some leaders chose to show up to and others didn't.
00:53:34.960
And they either took the political benefit of that or paid the political price for it.
00:53:42.480
You know, having this organization come in that claims it's arm's length and independent
00:53:49.340
as some sort of eminence that knows everything better about debates
00:53:53.820
than individual newsrooms, journalists, and experienced people who do this.
00:54:00.820
We aren't like them, and so they want to ban us.
00:54:04.900
Well, I think we achieved our goals, and Alexis is just having a bit of a cough out there.
00:54:12.880
She's been talking and elocuting and advocating so much,
00:54:17.760
and she has shown us great hospitality in her home city.
00:54:22.480
On behalf of all of us, the whole team out here,
00:54:25.840
our home base in Toronto where they were working on the internet and the live stream in the studio,
00:54:30.200
our special friends to Mary Ugolini and Lise who were hosting the live stream while we were here,
00:54:37.040
everyone on the team, you know, for every one of us on TV, you know,
00:54:40.540
there's two people behind the scenes, whether it's Guillaume and Lincoln,
00:54:43.640
our videographers out here, Betty in the truck.
00:54:46.440
There's a lot of people putting this together that you don't even see.
00:54:55.980
And I promise we will keep fighting for freedom of the press,
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not just for us, but for everyone else in Canada.
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And I don't care if the demonic media party shrieks at us.
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I don't care because I know what motivates me, and it's freedom.