EZRA LEVANT ｜ Tommy Robinson acquitted on Terrorism Act charges
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Summary
Ezra Levant outside Westminster Magistrates Court after Tommy Robinson was acquitted on charges under the Terrorism Act. He talks about the absurdity of the charges against Robinson, and why he should not have been charged in the first place.
Transcript
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Tonight, a victory for Tommy Robinson, for the United Kingdom, and for freedom of speech.
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It's November 4th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
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Ezra Levant here, coming to you from the center of London.
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I'm outside Westminster Magistrates Court, where Tommy Robinson today was acquitted on charges under the Terrorism Act.
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You might recall, I spent two days at the same court last month, when Tommy was on trial for breaching that law.
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It was actually a very strange stitch-up, as they say in the UK.
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Tommy Robinson was driving to a train that is part of the Channel Tunnel.
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I don't know if you know that, but for several decades now, there is an underground path to a tunnel from the UK to the continent of Europe.
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And you can take a train, and you can actually drive your car onto a train and go across to Europe and drive onwards.
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Tommy Robinson was on his way to his home in Spain, where he has to live for security reasons.
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And he was identified by a cop, who was actually a counter-terrorism cop.
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Tommy was driving to Spain, and he was actually driving in a friend's car.
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And he had bought his ticket to go on the Channel Tunnel that day.
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And these three facts I've just listed, going to Spain, driving a friend's car, and buying his ticket on that day.
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Those were the reasons that this cop said he pulled Tommy over to interrogate him.
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And then to interrogate him under the Terrorism Act.
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Hang on. Going to Spain, driving a friend's car, and buying your ticket for the day of.
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Those are not indicia that someone is a terrorist. That makes no sense.
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They had Tommy wait for minutes, and then for hours.
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And then they grilled him about things, but actually not about terrorism.
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They asked him about things that he could find just by Googling Tommy Robinson.
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Listen, again, that's fine if you're out for drinks with Tommy Robinson, but if you're the police and you arrest him with no search warrant and no reasonable suspicion, you've got to do better.
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And the thing is, the Terrorism Act contains some extremely powerful tools for law enforcement.
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And you can imagine, in some extreme cases, that civil liberties might be abridged.
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For example, and I keep saying this, the ticking time bomb scenario, where something is imminently about to happen, and you've got to find out where the bomb is located or what the conspiracy is.
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The Terrorism Act contains a provision where police can compel you to answer questions.
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You don't actually have the right to remain silent, and they can compel you to give over your electronic devices, including your password, on your cell phone.
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Now, there are some protections in place for this.
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Anything you say under this duress can't be used against you.
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So if you confess to terrible things while you're in this situation, you can't be prosecuted for it.
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The purpose is just to help an encounter terrorist in the United States.
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He was driving home to Spain in a friend's car, and there was nothing fishy about what he was doing.
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But he refused to give police the password to his cell phone, and thus the trial.
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And suddenly, the police are demanding you for your password, and if you don't give it, you were charged under the Terrorism Act.
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It sounds like you were doing something atrocious when all you were doing is saying, no, you can't rifle through my phone.
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And in Tommy's case, his main reason was that he had sensitive material on his phone, interviews with rape victims of the UK's grooming gangs, and he didn't want those to be shown to police or to others without the permission of the victim.
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Anyways, Tommy refused, and thus the two-day trial here last month.
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I attended the trial, and I think what was the most salient to me was that the police didn't have a record of what they said or did.
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Their notes were vague and written weeks or even months after the event.
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In some cases, they said they lost their notes.
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They couldn't remember what questions they asked, and they didn't know what powers they had to ask it.
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It was actually the most embarrassing police testimony I've ever seen.
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And one of the young officers was so nervous, he pounded back an entire carafe of water during his testimony.
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I tell you, as I said at the time, I'd love to play poker against a guy like that.
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There were, I think, three police officers all together.
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And what we learned from them is that they pulled over Tommy Robinson because they realized they had a kind of celebrity on their hands.
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And instead of doing what other people do when they see Tommy, asking for his selfie, well, these were cops who thought, well, we've got ourselves a fish here.
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So they called, one of the things they did in the trial is they said they called other police agencies around the U.K., I presume counterterrorism squads, MX-5.
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No one has ever accused Tommy Robinson of terrorism.
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So you had these keystone cops, or I guess hot fuzz, as they would say in the U.K.
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They had Tommy Robinson in their hands, but they didn't know what to do with them.
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And they questioned him under duress, but they actually didn't ask him anything about terrorism at all.
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They just asked him for his views on politics and journalism, which is interesting enough, but you don't have the right to stop someone to talk to them about their politics.
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And in fact, it's a protected characteristic under U.K. law.
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And that was the heart of the defense that Tommy's lawyer mounted in the trial last month.
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And instead of trying to fight on the phone password issue, Tommy's lawyers decided to fight on, was the arrest lawful at all to begin with?
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And by pointing out that there was no reasonable suspicion, no reason to detain Tommy, the questions had nothing to do with terrorism,
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they, instead of defending the refusal to give the cell phone, they challenged the legality of the arrest altogether.
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And today, the judge gave his ruling and relied heavily on that line of argument by Tommy's lawyers.
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Remember I told you that police can ask you any question, you don't have the right to remain silent, they can get into your devices.
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Like, that's shocking access that in the rest of the time, you would never have that right to do that without a search warrant.
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I mean, the idea of police coming up to you and saying, give me your password is so alien to us, but it is only there for those crises, those emergencies of terrorism is afoot.
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For example, let's say, God forbid, if there was another 9-11 and you captured a mastermind before one of the jets, like which jet was at which airport, you would want to be able to compel those answers if you could.
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But to use that sledgehammer, that civil liberties-destroying sledgehammer, without there being a legitimate terrorism case, that is horrific.
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Not only does it abuse civil liberties, but it destroys trust in the anti-terrorism tool.
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If that anti-terrorism tool is appropriate, and the UK Parliament believes it is, it should be rarely used.
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And when it's used, it should be used on purpose and for good reasons.
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Not because you've got a celebrity crossing into the channel tunnel and you want to keep a ring, sort of show along for a bit.
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And the fact that they pulled him over without a reason, and the fact that their questions touched on his political views rather than anything terroristly, meant that the arrest and detention itself was unlawful.
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And anything that came from that was fruit from a poison tree.
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The judge specifically said that when the police referred to Tommy's past 10 years ago, with a pro-Grenish group called the EDL, the English Defence League, the fact that the police referenced that, which the EDL, by the way, it's not a terrorist group, it's not an extremist group.
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The police say as much, for these cops to say that Tommy's membership in the EDL 10 years ago was their reason for detaining him and questioning him, the judge said that through, that their primary reason for arresting, detaining and questioning Tommy had nothing to do with terrorism, but everything to do with his protected political views.
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It's very interesting to me that a political view is a protected characteristic here in the UK.
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Honestly, I don't know if it has the same strength in Canada, but it was very bracing to hear the judge say that.
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The judge, you know, rehearsed the facts, recounted the facts of the case, and when he came to the testimony of the police, he was scorching.
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He said that the police were simply not credible.
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He did not believe what they had to say, and their answers were insufficient and vague.
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He actually tore a strip off, and it was quite something to see.
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We've got the date, we know the date, we want it, but we want to make sure for an event like that, it's going to be big.
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We want Hyde Park, yeah, but we need to work with the police properly on it, which is what we're trying to do.
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Nah, because what we'll do is they'll start jumping in and trying to block out all the dates, yeah?
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Tommy, how do you feel media have to write that you are not a terrorist today?
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The thing that frustrates me so much is that they all sat in that trial, and they run headlines about expensive car cash.
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No, the headline is the police have targeted me unlawfully and arrested me without grounds.
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Everyone from around the world who's getting me support.
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And also, Carson Kaye and Alistair Williamson, the KC, he absolutely, like, Joe, when you watch someone who's so good at airtrades, skillfully picks out the pieces, I'm watching it thinking, wow.
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My solicitor just said to me before, we need to see you about your next trial.
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Isn't there any possibility of getting compensation for all of the money spent and all of the stress you've gone through?
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When I walked out of court last time, when I walked out of court last time, when I walked out of court last time, when I walked out of court last time, when I walked out of court last time, I was looking.
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so tommy all i can say is thank you very much yes it is great that you
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what do you think about the fact that they kept out the citizen journalists that they refused to let
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citizen journalists report on your case ezra they fought they dragged they didn't just keep you out
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they physically dragged you out yeah but all the others i mean the young bobs and everybody like
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there's 20 citizen journalists who were kept out well ezra if you followed you know when you
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listen to that judgment did that judgment match any of the mainstream media's reporting from this
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case it was stunning so the mainstream media he hammered them yeah but when you relay his judgment
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from what he witnessed and then you read the bbc and you read all the daily mirror and you read
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their headlines from this trial none of them wrote any of that you did none of them wrote any of that
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so they would have hoped that we'd have got here to found me guilty and then they wouldn't have had to
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write any of that and then by excluding all of them all of the citizen journalists by excluding them
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they had control the narrative but they didn't thanks that judge he gave a damn in verdict i'm
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happy congratulations yeah i'm happy i didn't expect that did you i just don't expect i was too
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worried even though my solicitor said it i just didn't expect it i just i just think now he's an
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honest judge it builds your hope in the system a little bit yeah he hammered him he didn't just like
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he could have sat on the fence on a couple of issues yeah he hammered him
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he hammered him man and i'm i'm pretty shocked by it to be honest i'm not just shocked i still i'm angry
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i'm angry at the mainstream media's reporting in this case when i was on trial when you was here
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they didn't report about you getting dragged out oh they they made it about driving an expensive car
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so what what's that got to do with terrorism it's my mate's car there's no big story there
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what's the story this judge said you were targeted for your political beliefs and that's illegal do you
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think this will make it less likely that police will target you for your political beliefs or do you
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think the cops will ignore this ruling how many people do you think will lose their job over this
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today nothing no one who's going to be held to account for this no one this this happened 12
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months ago ezra 18 months ago we walked out of this court where we found that the the same police
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that they use unlawful bail conditions unlawful arrests they found all that then
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thanks tommy great to see you are you going to Thursday good luck man
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now i don't think any of these cops will be fired for this whole schmazel um and i think if it was a
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corporation if it was a company and three executives went rogue this way violated someone's civil liberties
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uh indulged their own politics if a corporation did to a customer what these cops did to tommy
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head to it go there would probably be a hash settlement but i'm pretty sure these police
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if anything will be given a raise on the pat on the head because they continue the government's
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vendetta against tommy robinson but for the for the judge to just excoriate the police this way with
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racing and i wonder if it'll be heated by the if it'll be taken to heart by police across the uk
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who many of whom seem to have a vendetta against tommy robinson a vendetta led by no one less than
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the prime minister keir starmer himself tommy robinson is a politician he's an activist he's
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a journalist he's an organizer he's many things but he is not a terrorist and the court said that
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clearly today tommy's had an amazing month when you think about it it started on september 13th
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with one of the largest rallies in uk history the lowball estimate by police is 150 000 people
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but some credible estimates put it over a million then he was a guest of the state of israel a state
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visit it just ended a few days ago where he met very senior government members and then this victory
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today tommy robinson is a political force to be reckoned with but he should be reckoned with in
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political ways keir starmer and the metropolitan police and all these other police forces should
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abandon their schemes and try to get tommy robinson and just deal with them either by ignoring him
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or debating him or frankly adopting some of his ideas and you know co-opting him that's not a deal
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with a political rocker ironically tommy today was saying he has to get ready for his next court case i
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don't know if you remember but tommy and his family were hit by paparazzi on their vacation the paparazzi
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flew to the resort took pictures and put the family in danger actually tommy returned fire in
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the same way he took pictures of the paparazzi he had a paparazzi shoot pictures of the paparazzi
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and they went to the government complaining saying tommy was criminally harassing them
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the paparazzi who stalked tommy on his family vacation complained to the police about tommy photographing
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them and so tommy is being prosecuted if you can believe it for criminal harassment it just doesn't
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end this vendetta doesn't end the countless millions of pounds spent by the british government
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chasing tommy robinson is absurd another absurdity i mean we were just talking about the terrorism act
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all day in court today if you've been following the news in the uk over the last week there have
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been a number of stabbings in the street on a train it was a mass stabbing on a train i think 10 people
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were injured and in every case police say oh no no no it's not terrorism it's a mental illness yeah
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that's the ticket mental illness or they come up with some statement like that so let me get this
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straight tommy robinson won't give you his secret password to his phone that's terrorism but migrant
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men stabbing people on the train uh that's not terrorism i mean the uk has to get its priorities
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straight the amount of policing and prosecuting and harassing and haranguing that this government
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targets on tommy robinson compared to actual crimes it's the priorities of this country are out of whack
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but i think that's why they go after tommy robinson they want him to stop talking about what he talks
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about how he talks about mass immigration and he talks about rape gangs which in the uk are primarily
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done by pakistani muslim men it's just a fact even if it's an unhappy fact you could try and silence the
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guy who's talking about the problem or you could fix the problem itself so far the uk has chosen to go
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after the guy talking about the problem but at least for today the guy talking about the problem won
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and the government was chastised and a special thanks to elon musk who has supported tommy robinson
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in this trial and another paying for his legal bill in the past as you know rebel news would crowdfund
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legal defense for tommy but elon musk has picked up the tab an amazing i mean freedom of speech around
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the world and yeah that's my report from the streets of london outside westminster magistrates court
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um unfortunately my travels to the uk to cover tommy's uh court cases are not done i mentioned
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the harassment case of the paparazzi i'll come out to do that and one of the reasons is because i
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i love live tweeting in court if you know what i mean and i don't know if you saw that but my tweets
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today got millions of views i just like sitting in the court and typing as fast as i can trying to
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capture the moment by moment what's happening in the court what people are saying and it's a good
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alternative to having to wait for the end of the day to read the long essays in the regime media
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but more importantly i'm not taking the point of view that the regime isn't a taste every single one
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of them with maybe one exception hate tommy robinson attack tommy robinson and distort the news
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so i feel like i'm not just in there to report the news but to offset the bs coming from the regime
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media and in fact it was a bit of a story uh if you recall a bbc journalist complained to the court
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that i was unlawfully tweeting and the judge during the trial made me stand up and answer
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what are my credentials am i a real journalist and i had to furnish to him proof that i'm a
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credential journalist in canada still i wasn't allowed to sit with the cool kids in the court
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itself i had to be in the public gallery but i didn't mind that too much other than it was a bit
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hard to hear but uh although i have access to the public gallery and i'm allowed to open up my laptop
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and tweet other citizen journalists or not because they don't have the same credentials i have but i
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think that's a major problem i think the world has moved online i really don't know anyone under
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40 years old who gets a newspaper everything is digital now everything is twitter based or x as
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it's now called or facebook or instagram or tiktok the idea that citizen journalists who primarily use
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digital forums are kept out of the court while the legacy newspapers and tv and radio have a prestige
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position is untenable to me and i think that it has within it an inherent bias tommy robinson's
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populist conservative supporters are citizen journalists the regime journalists the haters
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they get access tommy's people don't it distorts the news on the courts it gives people a false
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idea of what's being said and done i as i said to someone today if your sole source of information
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about tommy's trial was watching the bbc or reading the daily mail you would be shocked that he won
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today you wouldn't have seen that coming because all you would have heard before was how nasty tommy
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is and they would have covered up the clear credibility gaps of the police uh witnesses so i i think
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that the justice system is doing itself no favors by shutting out grassroots citizen journalists
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and not even being allowed to open up their laptops is quite incredible so i'm i'm lucky that
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i have that privilege based on my credentials in canada and i'll keep using that as long as i can
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but i'll also advocate for others to have media credentials look that's the way of the future
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transparency and i don't believe that there should be a monopoly allowed for regime journalists just
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because they write for a fancy newspaper and yeah that's my report from uh the westminster magistrates
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court what a great day for freedom a great day for the uk and a great day for our friend tommy robinson
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ezra levant here in london it's almost 10 p.m i've had a few hours to think about what happened
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today at westminster magistrates court obviously the headline is that tommy robinson has been acquitted
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of the ludicrous charge under the terrorism act that's obviously the big takeaway i think a very
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important second story is how the judge absolutely excoriated the police saying they were not credible
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that they were deceptive in their vagueness um they lost their notes etc he was really harsh
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on their conduct but i think the most important thing by far was the judge said several times and in
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several different ways that tommy robinson was targeted because of his political beliefs
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not because of any wrongdoing not because of any crime certainly not because of any terrorism
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that he was interrogated stopped detained humiliated and put through this entire prosecution
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because he has a different political point of view than the government that is a stunning thing
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to hear from a judge that's certainly not what i expected to hear in a trial on tommy robinson not
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giving up his cell phone password and i think it vindicates and validates everything that tommy's
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allies and supporters have been saying for years that he is being turned into an enemy of the state
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and the resources of the police and the prosecutors and the regime media have been dispatched to destroy
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him not because he's done anything wrong but because he dissents from the mainstream point of view
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actually i think he represents the mainstream and it's the establishment that has fringe radical ideas
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about mass immigration and censorship so the more i think about the outcome today yes of course
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tommy being acquitted is very important he could have theoretically gone to prison but i think the
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lingering legacy of today's ruling will be the first time that a judge has ever said
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stop persecuting tommy robinson stop turning him into a political prisoner those phrases have only been
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said by tommy's allies until now and now a judge at the westminster magistrates board well he's practically
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sounding like a tommy robinson supporter isn't he in fact he's not a tommy robinson supporter he's
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just a supporter of the law and i think he's a little bit sick of the government abusing its resources
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in two-tier justice for rebel news i'm ezra levant and to follow all my coverage on this subject
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i can't believe how much is involved in this story you've got the farming rights on the line
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which is connected to food rights being on the line even though they're not for food
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you've got your property i mean they've come in here they arrested two of the farmers because they
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said well can't we just feed them can't we just love them can't we just care for them until you guys
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set up it's completely insane they have no rights but the bureaucrats think they're above the law to
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the point that they won't even let the farmers have the recourse of going through supreme court
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sydney vizard for rebel news on route to the universal ostrich farms in british columbia i'm
00:25:34.780
driving from calgary so it's been a bit of a drive as you can see i'm taking the ferry just to get
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there there's two ferries uh atop the what was supposed to be a seven hour drive but this is a
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story that matters this is foundational to the way that canada is set up in our government in the
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bureaucracy in the global order that we try to ascribe ourselves to at least in terms of the
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government's desires this farm in bc raises ostriches which are studied for purposes of
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advancing science specifically natural immunity these birds are not raised to be slaughtered like
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poultry instead their value comes from long-term studying of said birds alive in comes the canadian
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food inspection agency in december of 2024 on an anonymous tip that some of the ostriches were sick
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they used overly sensitive tests on two deceased birds and obtained a positive test for avian flu
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as a consequence of this positive test result without testing any remaining ostriches the cfia
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decided all of them must be killed to combat disease outbreak the cfia has many powers at their disposal
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from quarantining to isolation and disinfecting to testing and monitoring to mass culling and so on
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they have decided the only option they want to pursue is the mass cull option despite international
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and national pushback they reference the stomping out policy by the world organization for animal health
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to which canada is a treaty member which was designed to stop highly contagious disease spread
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in livestock they have the ability to provide exemptions to the mass culling policy such as for
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the ostrich farm but decided they would rather kill them all despite the cfia's intentions universal
00:27:19.380
ostrich farms brought the matter to the courts the fully vaccinated supreme court of canada is set
00:27:25.260
to decide whether they'll hear an appeal from the farm on november 6th if they refuse the cfia may
00:27:32.480
proceed with the call if they approve then the matter will be brought before them in the courts and the
00:27:37.940
birds will remain legally protected from the cfia's hands of death for the time being the minister of
00:27:43.940
health majoring michelle could intervene but has remained silent on the subject while the matter is
00:27:49.860
before the courts the cfia has seized lands and properties of locals has had almost half a dozen
00:27:55.880
people arrested and already killed one of the birds they're a bloodthirsty gang of bureaucrats on
00:28:01.680
a literal killing spree while being granted seemingly unlimited power from the federal government
00:28:07.140
as you can see behind me there is the designated kill zone for these ostriches the ones that the cfia
00:28:14.260
the canadian food inspection agency is trying to murder the question remains why did they set up a
00:28:20.200
double perimeter with a police enforcement around it with fog lights that get set up at night to
00:28:25.500
prevent people from coming onto the property on the opposite side of the property where everyone is
00:28:29.200
attending those supporting the ostrich farm why are they continuing to attempt this in the first place
00:28:33.440
why is it that there's got to be a call on these birds there doesn't have to be a call on these
00:28:39.580
birds that's the problem the birds that are here have never even been tested for the avian flu
00:28:45.480
there's nearly 400 of them they're over 260 days healthy and asymptomatic since a sickness passed
00:28:55.240
through the herd late last year the cfia they were the first ones on the property with their full you
00:29:01.140
know pandemic attire as it were day one they didn't even wear it i think they watched themselves on
00:29:05.520
the news and went oh shoot we forgot to act like these birds are sick when that sickness passed there
00:29:11.620
were some that passed away they were the younger birds that had weaker immune systems and the farmers
00:29:17.580
believe that that also hell and scientists by the way support their belief that these birds that are
00:29:23.500
older likely had the avian flu already as well and also these are prehistoric creatures
00:29:29.640
and their eggs are full of antibodies which is exactly what this farm was actually doing since
00:29:37.240
2020 using their eggs and the antibodies to further viral research for therapeutics to fight
00:29:46.220
COVID-19 and so now they're saying why not save them so that they can actually find a solution for
00:29:53.320
actually fighting the avian flu without mass culling which happens in British Columbia more than any
00:29:59.640
other province in the country so let's back up to that point there there is an avian flu that came
00:30:04.500
through here last year some of these birds got sick much like any flock of birds on the planet
00:30:11.560
sometimes they get sick sometimes a couple of them don't make it that is mother nature for you
00:30:16.800
why is it specifically that they need to be called in the government's eyes they have a stamping out
00:30:21.660
policy and this is really what the farmers here at universal ostrich farm are pushing against
00:30:26.900
and that stamping out policy it guides them to just mass kill now you have to understand that
00:30:33.560
ostriches are not chicken these are not poultry and viruses do not pass through a herd like this the
00:30:40.800
same way that they do with chickens 69 of them died the younger ones which is less than 15 percent of
00:30:47.520
the herd which is also supposed to put these birds in a different category I forget the the exact terms
00:30:53.720
what what I'm getting at here is although the CFIA continues to say our reasoning for why these
00:30:59.120
birds should still die regardless of if they're healthy or not today and why they refuse to retest
00:31:04.500
is because they just go to the policy it's policy over sanity but they are also superseding the policy a
00:31:12.200
little bit in the fact that it was less than 15 percent and in the range of there being no other farm
00:31:18.260
animals within a certain range here so they point to the WHO but then they're also going further and
00:31:24.600
they're bureaucrats they're not farmers they're not veterinarians making these decisions and they're not
00:31:30.440
scientists making these decisions either here I'm standing is the main action point for the demonstrations
00:31:36.740
there are the ostriches to my left is where the RCMP have stationed themselves behind a police line they are
00:31:42.880
there setting up and holding this perimeter for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency there was a temporary
00:31:48.700
pause so the birds were going to be safe for a little while but the CFIA got control of the farm
00:31:52.180
they're locking out veterinarians from taking care of those birds and ostrich experts they're refusing
00:31:57.260
any help that these birds might get and what have they done instead they decided to feed them some
00:32:01.140
I'm going to call it suspicious food and they have not only this you know dinky little police line
00:32:05.980
they've also set up a big blue fence as you can see here and that was put in after they decided that they were
00:32:11.320
going to try and get a bunch of hay bales to hide the birds so that they could do a kill pen yeah
00:32:16.700
literally now that burned down spontaneously can't say I'm upset but it's unfortunate still there though
00:32:22.420
let me talk about that for a second because this is also insane I mean I don't know why the CFIA is
00:32:29.420
so hell-bent on what they're doing but they are making so many missteps and this farm's not going to
00:32:34.380
let it go whether their birds live or die and with the hay bales you're talking about yes there was a
00:32:40.100
suspicious fire we were here four in the morning you know showing you that there were two more fires
00:32:46.100
after that and it wasn't suspicious it was most likely just the hay was combusting because the
00:32:51.980
CFIA wasn't dismantling it they kept it up and they put this whole area the animals the farmers in this
00:32:58.700
whole region at risk for wildfires which aren't always wild as I'm saying so that is another form of
00:33:06.520
negligence in my opinion in totality them taking control of the farm taking control of the ostriches
00:33:11.900
is almost their way of creating the reality that they were trying to get in the first place like
00:33:17.860
under their control we see already one ostrich has died people are mentioning how these birds look like
00:33:23.000
they've been drugged they don't look as healthy or active all following the CFIA's takeover so being
00:33:29.340
here on the ground for an extended period of time is that a legitimate thing do these birds are they
00:33:33.280
acting different absolutely the the farmers are concerned that something's in the food and they
00:33:37.660
are not being crazy I see it everybody who's seen these birds before see that they are way less active
00:33:43.220
I've seen them play with balls before I saw them mating non-stop we showed you guys that as well
00:33:49.100
they look depressed they look sad they look slow I think it's a combo of things is it something in the
00:33:57.200
food I don't know is it just neglect like they're not seeing their farmers they're so confused at what's
00:34:03.040
going on the smoke could have played an issue they were under smoke for a few days and they're
00:34:08.580
separated from each other more so they actually really like people and they've come to really love
00:34:14.660
people as all the spectators would come so it used to be if anybody stood there you would see like 60
00:34:20.940
80 now you're lucky if you see two and they're all separated from each other it's really inhumane
00:34:27.860
it's disgusting and among all of the many questions is where are the animal humane societies on this
00:34:36.160
issue we've also covered them pleading with them can you care for the hand can you tell us if it's
00:34:40.860
okay can you let us go in we know how to care for it can you give them these electrolytes she's
00:34:45.440
probably dehydrated leaked footage snuck over there after the cfia tried to snuff out your eyes they
00:34:52.780
literally after the farm got their stay relief from the supreme court pausing the call they blocked
00:34:59.620
their cameras so that the world can't see and the farmers couldn't see and somebody got a shot of that
00:35:06.560
neglected hen dying on her own it's really disgusting her name is spirit and so dave got the news as we all
00:35:13.140
did as we publish today that spirit died but only after only after it was exposed that she was being
00:35:20.460
neglected in the cfia's care so you're right he said she's a pet when she broke down and he said
00:35:26.200
she's more than a pet because of the antibodies as well to emphasize the point of there being no reason
00:35:31.040
rfk actually put out offers to canada inviting the states to take these ostriches away from canada but
00:35:37.360
the canadian government said no we'd rather kill them this is another layer of the hypocrisy and the why
00:35:43.200
so secretary of health rfk jr like you're talking about head of medicare dr oz the fda and the nih
00:35:52.460
have all gone to bat for these birds saying hey there is a research opportunity these vaccines we're
00:36:00.300
relying on like moderna which is trying to do the mrna vaccine they're leaky we don't like this mass
00:36:06.980
calling thing because they've had to kill a lot of animals too we want to find a better way and they
00:36:10.900
want to go into therapeutics which is exactly what this flock is lined up for so in this whole
00:36:17.180
elbows up mark carney canada it's all a wash everybody can see that when you have the americans say
00:36:24.700
hey let's do this trade deal we'll pay for the science we'll test the birds at our own expense and you
00:36:31.620
guys just get to simply win that could have been huge or can be if there is some shift for british
00:36:37.940
columbia and canada it could literally ease trade tensions between our biggest trade partner
00:36:44.220
and if you could throw him a bone and say sure uh secretary kennedy you can study these birds
00:36:50.220
it's sort of no skin off canada's nose and don't you think it would be helpful to have a
00:36:54.580
an ally in trump's cabinet when we're doing our trade negotiations
00:36:59.080
that's my question don't you think it would be helpful to have a friend next reporter merci
00:37:05.700
oh you're not you're not going to answer minister reminds me of unfortunately the state of canada
00:37:10.480
which is a bird gets sick we got to kill the whole flock you don't feel that well maybe you should try
00:37:15.100
assisted suicide so that's what the cfia said they said that these birds got to get killed the farmers
00:37:19.400
here are obviously putting up a good fight why haven't they been called yet so you said it right
00:37:23.500
there i've interviewed these farmers and something they've said a couple of times and they've hit it
00:37:27.820
on the nail is that the cfia has messed with the wrong farm here they have not given up the fight
00:37:33.060
because you remember when the cfia comes to these farms over hundreds of them in british columbia alone
00:37:39.960
culling nine million birds since 2022 they also dangle a price for each bird and so that plays into why
00:37:48.880
you don't always hear about this there's even non-disclosures involved so they've come to the
00:37:53.980
wrong farm here that says no these are not just animals that we're selling for meat these are
00:37:59.640
actually our pets we've raised some of these for 30 days 30 years sorry and they have a promise for
00:38:07.520
the future that they believe is going to change the world so they're like no we are not giving up this
00:38:13.380
flock and we this policy needs to be taken down so they have challenged the policy in the
00:38:18.860
federal court in the federal court of appeals and what is crazy here is as you see they're at a
00:38:25.400
standoff on their property with the canadian food inspection agency who's hijacked their flock and part
00:38:31.960
of their land and all of that happened on the tax dollars when the cfia knew the farmers were going to
00:38:39.720
try to take this fight to supreme court so they risk this whole standstill that we're paying for
00:38:45.220
shouldn't even be happening because the stay that they knew was possible happened when they came to
00:38:51.480
the grounds it's really shocking omar sheik is he on this case still i know he does a lot of great work
00:38:56.840
he doesn't stop he got that miraculous stay order which was literally in the nick of time it seemed like
00:39:04.240
they could have called these birds maybe that day the next day and so he got that stay order and then of
00:39:10.120
course there's all these submissions and the next what's being weighed right now is whether or not
00:39:15.700
the farm will be granted leave which will pause the call longer i assume it means they will leave
00:39:22.200
because it would be ridiculous for us to pay for them to still be here and that will allow them to
00:39:28.120
prepare for you know we would like a hearing in supreme court first of all there's not really anything
00:39:33.360
like this before but normally when you're waiting to see if you can get a leave for something it could
00:39:39.220
take one to three months it could take a long time but obviously everything is expedited right now
00:39:45.820
because of the resources because that the police are here instead of cracking down on drug crimes and
00:39:51.700
and all of our crime going up they're acting like the farmers and the supporters are criminals
00:39:56.300
and of course the cfia is here as you can see behind me this is where supporters are camping out some of
00:40:02.700
them for days some of them for hours some of them for weeks and months there are people here who are
00:40:07.680
100 dedicated to standing by with the farmers here at the ostrich farm to support them for anything
00:40:14.180
that comes up it's a bunch of people that have set up in their cars a lot of them most of them
00:40:19.080
sleeping here there's a food setup people are being fed it's turned into a little town how did this
00:40:23.820
happen what what is this how did these people get here what are they doing here yeah so we're at 301
00:40:28.380
land jail road and the farmers since the beginning of their fight with the cfia have been saying come
00:40:34.700
here come see the ostriches that was their big thing they wanted people to look the ostriches
00:40:39.440
in the eye which is slightly harder to do now that the cfia is here and they wanted people to see for
00:40:45.820
themselves that these birds are not sick so you've had people come here for the whole nine months you've
00:40:51.900
had people stay for a week a month at a time and you've had many people come here for a couple days
00:40:57.040
and go and some people come for just a day so i don't know the number of people that have come
00:41:01.780
here i also know that there is a huge reach online there are people internationally in holland in china
00:41:10.180
and of course in the united states that are going wait canada has ostriches and they're killing them
00:41:15.260
for no reason and they're very invested in this story too thank you to you uh just as an outside
00:41:21.040
observer for your reporting here on the ground consistently more thoroughly than any other
00:41:25.080
journalists uh from any of the mainstream outlets and if we want to stay tuned or help out where do
00:41:29.040
we go well save the ostriches.com is where you can go to donate for our coverage sid saw my little
00:41:37.040
ostrich mobile that's here which you know keeps me on the ground but is also just the same as a cheap
00:41:42.440
motel rebel news has been committed to be here on the ground you've come to help thank you so much
00:41:47.860
i know sheila's coming ezra was here you know at some point i'm so invested in the story that i don't
00:41:53.140
want to go home um but if i have to somebody else will be here to make sure that we're here for you
00:41:58.720
one thing we are doing is sorting through facts and fiction i love that everybody is here with a phone
00:42:03.720
but you'll notice that sometimes they beat me because i have to go verify what people think
00:42:10.580
is accurate and a lot of times what's going out immediately isn't um so that's something rebel news
00:42:15.940
is for sure bringing you is to make sure that you're knowing what exactly is happening at the right
00:42:20.900
time and then we are breaking some news right away too so um save the ostriches.com and also i always
00:42:27.780
link you know uh the gofundme to help this the farm itself too with their legal expenses let me know in
00:42:33.840
the comments what do you think it needs to be done to save these ostriches for rebel news i'm sydney
00:42:38.760
fazard save the ostriches.com is where you have to go if you want to see all of our coverage we want
00:42:44.700
to put in the effort to be there to cover these stories that matter and we're able to do that
00:42:48.800
thanks to your support at save the ostriches.com