Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Tommy Robinson may never get justice in the U.K. legal system

00:00:00.000 Tonight, the latest from Tommy Robinson's legal battles for freedom of speech.

00:00:05.320 It's April 11th, and this is C.S. for LeVant's show.

00:00:11.240 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:00:22.820 Hi, everybody. As you can see, I'm back in the United Kingdom, you can tell by all those red double-decker buses. 0.54

00:00:28.120 I'm in a neighborhood called The Strand, which is in central London.

00:00:31.780 It's a lovely tourist spot, but it's also where the Royal Courts of Justice are, including the Court of Appeal.

00:00:38.900 It's a great location. I'm going to turn around a little bit, and you can see that tower back there.

00:00:45.280 That's actually Trafalgar Square, a great historic square in the U.K.

00:00:50.740 That's actually where the Canadian High Commission is.

00:00:53.360 I'm not here for tourism, though. I'm here because I believe it is my duty every time Tommy Robinson has a court case

00:01:00.680 to go to that court case to do my best to live-tweet it in real-time for Tommy's many fans and supporters and allies,

00:01:08.700 but also to mark what's happening, to make sure that the hateful mainstream media, which despises Tommy,

00:01:16.860 does not get to write the official history of it.

00:01:21.600 And over the years, most of the time, I'm the only independent journalist in the room.

00:01:27.520 The rest are government journalists, regime journalists, from left-wing ideological newspapers like The Guardian

00:01:33.160 or from the atrocious BBC, which, if you can believe it, is actually worse than Canada's CBC.

00:01:39.540 Today, I was heartened. I'm speaking to you in the afternoon after the hearing is over.

00:01:45.220 Today, I was heartened to see about four other citizen journalists at the Court of Appeal.

00:01:51.760 And to my delight, they were allowed to sit in the press tables and use their laptops, which, again,

00:01:57.960 that's not how it was back in the day when Rebel News was trailblazing.

00:02:02.220 Now, that's perhaps just these judges didn't mind, but other judges have been very harsh on citizen journalists.

00:02:08.720 So that was some good news.

00:02:10.180 I'm going to now play for you a series of videos I made, starting from when I left Ottawa, actually.

00:02:17.220 I flew through Ottawa because that was a better flight.

00:02:19.480 I had to get here really early because the traffic in London is really crazy.

00:02:24.940 So I flew on an early flight, which got in at 6.30 a.m., and I did that because getting into London

00:02:31.480 can actually sometimes take two full hours from the airport.

00:02:35.060 So here is a series of my reports.

00:02:37.920 And let me just say this before I go.

00:02:41.080 Sometimes Canadians say, Ezra, what are you doing caring about Tommy Robinson so much?

00:02:45.720 Is it just because he's your friend?

00:02:47.440 And that is obviously part of it.

00:02:49.960 And he's an alumnus of Rebel News.

00:02:52.080 As you may recall, he was really our first overseas talent working in the U.K.

00:02:58.020 But I do it because, for the same reason, I occasionally go to Ireland to cover their

00:03:04.420 migrant crisis or that we sometimes go to France, like, for example, when Marseille had

00:03:09.680 riots.

00:03:10.600 Because the themes that we deal with in Canada, mass migration, the Islamification of the Buffett 0.98

00:03:16.380 Square, these are themes and issues around the world that are often more progressed in

00:03:23.300 foreign lands and in our own country.

00:03:25.820 And my belief is by watching and reporting and seeing what happens in places like Marseille

00:03:31.340 or London or Sweden, even Amsterdam, we can get a premonition of what's coming for us.

00:03:38.440 Let me throw to one quick stat, and I think I referred to this in another video.

00:03:43.620 The Times of London, very prestigious, some would say the most prestigious newspaper in

00:03:47.520 the U.K., published a report last week that on any given day, on average, police arrest

00:03:54.740 30 Brits for a social media post that's, quote, offensive, 30 a day.

00:04:03.080 That's a stunning, it's thousands a year.

00:04:06.420 I really think that that number is higher than the number of arrests that Vladimir Putin makes

00:04:11.560 in the Russian Federation for politically offensive tweets.

00:04:14.520 I don't have any way of proving that.

00:04:16.680 But I just think if there were 30 arrests a day in Russia of a political nature, I think

00:04:22.420 we would hear about it because we hear about Russian dissonance.

00:04:26.300 30 a day in the U.K.

00:04:29.380 I wonder what the number is in Canada.

00:04:31.220 All right.

00:04:31.480 Without further ado, here's my videos of the day.

00:04:40.180 Oh, hi, everybody.

00:04:40.920 Ezra Levant here.

00:04:41.680 I'm in Ottawa, Canada, about to get on that enormous jet behind me to fly to London because

00:04:47.380 tomorrow, Tommy Robinson is having an appeal of his sentence.

00:04:52.340 A couple of weeks ago, he had what's called a judicial review of the manner in which he

00:04:57.220 is being held in prison.

00:04:59.220 Unfortunately, that judicial review was rejected.

00:05:02.280 He will remain in solitary confinement for the rest of his term.

00:05:07.060 It was an 18 month sentence.

00:05:08.740 He may be released after nine months.

00:05:10.940 That's still an atrociously long time to spend in solitary confinement, and I dare say it

00:05:16.220 was not on the mind of the judge who sentenced him that it would be served in solitary.

00:05:20.820 Of course not.

00:05:21.400 No one serves nine months in solitary confinement other than perhaps Julian Assange.

00:05:25.700 So tomorrow will be an appeal of the sentence, not that he was found in contempt.

00:05:32.620 Tommy actually pled guilty to that.

00:05:34.180 This was for publishing the Twitter video that is pinned to the top of his Twitter page,

00:05:38.900 a video that's now been seen well over 150 million times.

00:05:43.780 What this is tomorrow is an appeal before a three panel judge, chaired by no one less

00:05:49.360 than the Lady Chief Justice for England and Wales.

00:05:54.140 I think I got her title right.

00:05:55.520 The most senior judge in the UK, basically, and two other judges will be hearing Tommy's

00:06:00.500 appeal.

00:06:01.500 So you've got to admit they're taking it very seriously.

00:06:05.400 Or you could say that it's a stitch up, or you could say if anyone would have the political

00:06:11.160 power to reduce a sentence, it would be these top judges.

00:06:15.860 I'll be there live tweeting.

00:06:17.360 Basically, that means I sit in the courtroom with my laptop open and I try and type as fast

00:06:23.380 as I can, as accurately as I can, what's going on because as you know, there's no video cameras

00:06:29.380 allowed in court.

00:06:31.100 So my stenography is the way to get the word out.

00:06:36.320 Last time I was there, literally millions of people saw what I did.

00:06:39.720 So I know some people find it valuable.

00:06:42.020 There will of course be regime media journalists there.

00:06:45.980 Last time I sat next to a reporter from The Guardian and across from me was the most despicable

00:06:52.220 journalist in England, Dominic Casciani. 0.68

00:06:54.220 He works for the state broadcaster, the BBC, just an atrocious man.

00:06:59.180 I do not trust any British mainstream media to report honestly on Tommy's case.

00:07:04.980 There are a few citizen journalists who will likely show up.

00:07:07.620 I look forward to seeing some of them, but I take it upon myself to do, I think, the

00:07:13.260 most comprehensive live tweeting because I'm a fast typist is really the reason why.

00:07:17.620 Plus, I am formally a lawyer, so I have some legal training.

00:07:21.380 I understand some of the terminology.

00:07:23.180 Let me give you an example of one of the things I'm going to look out for.

00:07:26.860 I mean, here's a crazy thing that goes to just how political Tommy's incarceration is.

00:07:33.120 As you know, he's being put in solitary confinement.

00:07:36.460 So that's 16 cells have been emptied around his so that no other person can come near him.

00:07:43.560 So there's Tommy's cell plus 16 other cells.

00:07:47.400 And now Tommy has earned the right to do work outside of his own cell.

00:07:52.460 He's like painting things.

00:07:54.440 So they've emptied a further eight cells so he doesn't come into contact with anyone.

00:07:59.400 They keep him in solitary confinement, but just so he doesn't go loopy, I guess they're

00:08:04.700 letting him paint things.

00:08:06.800 But that's still in solitary.

00:08:07.800 But what's my point?

00:08:09.100 To keep Tommy Robinson incarcerated in the United Kingdom takes 25 jail cells.

00:08:16.640 Now, as you may know, the United Kingdom's prisons are overflowing.

00:08:21.960 So they have released 25 other prisoners to make way for Tommy Robinson.

00:08:29.060 And I say again, HMP Woodhill prison is a very serious high security prison where there

00:08:37.760 are murderers, where there are terrorists.

00:08:40.060 These are not gentle people.

00:08:42.060 Tommy alone is there for what's called a civil conviction.

00:08:46.060 Putting up a video on Twitter is not a criminal act.

00:08:49.160 It's just defying a court order.

00:08:52.160 I guess it would be like not paying your traffic tickets.

00:08:54.160 It's not a crime in itself.

00:08:56.460 So a civil prisoner is being put in a high security prison and 25 other violent criminals

00:09:06.160 are released just so that Keir Starmer can keep him in prison.

00:09:10.160 We'll see what happens.

00:09:11.160 So I got to tell you, appeals are always a long shot.

00:09:14.560 In my country of Canada, two thirds of appeals fail and at the Supreme Court level, 90% don't

00:09:20.560 even get hurt.

00:09:21.960 So it is an uphill battle.

00:09:23.260 But I am familiar now with the King's counsel, the barrister who will be leading Tommy's team.

00:09:28.860 And if anyone can do it, he can.

00:09:30.860 Alistair Williamson, I really admire him.

00:09:33.160 And then there's the team of solicitors that work with the barristers in the UK.

00:09:36.660 Those are different species of lawyers.

00:09:39.160 Anyways, I am going to make use of the time on the plane.

00:09:42.560 I'm going to review the materials.

00:09:44.560 So when I go in a court, I'm sort of smart and briefed on things, I will live tweet as

00:09:49.060 much as I can.

00:09:50.060 And during breaks, I don't know exactly how long it's going to go.

00:09:53.160 I'll make little videos so you can follow it all on Twitter.

00:09:57.560 And tomorrow I'll be using the website TommyReports.com.

00:10:00.560 Now, by the way, I'm flying economy class to get over there.

00:10:04.560 I have one night's hotel in a fairly reasonable hotel.

00:10:09.960 But still, between the flight and the taxis and the hotel, it's probably going to set me

00:10:14.460 back, you know, over a thousand Canadian dollars, over 500 pounds.

00:10:17.960 If you can chip in to help get me over there, please do.

00:10:21.960 You can do that at TommyReports.com.

00:10:23.960 The reason I feel it's necessary to come all the way from Canada is what I said at the

00:10:27.960 outset.

00:10:28.960 I simply don't trust the Guardian or the BBC or the rest of the raging media over there

00:10:35.660 to cover it fairly.

00:10:36.860 I'm not even looking for them to be pro-Tommy.

00:10:39.460 Can they just be accurate?

00:10:41.460 Until that happens, I'm going to keep coming back over to the UK. 0.81

00:10:43.960 So if you can help me out, go to TommyReports.com.

00:10:47.960 And I'll see you tomorrow at the Royal Courts of Justice.

00:10:49.960 I understand things will be getting underway at 10.30 a.m. UK time.

00:10:54.560 I'll be there as early as I'm taking the special flight.

00:10:56.760 It lands very early so I won't get stuck in traffic from Heathrow to downtown.

00:11:01.860 All right.

00:11:02.460 I'll see you tomorrow.

00:11:03.260 Thanks for your support.

00:11:05.460 We've got to get Tommy out of there and we failed with the judicial review.

00:11:08.860 Hopefully we'll succeed with his appeal.

00:11:10.360 And if not, we'll keep on fighting.

00:11:11.960 Thanks very much.

00:11:14.160 Oh, hi, everybody.

00:11:14.960 I'm a bit bleary-eyed.

00:11:15.960 I just got off the overnight flight from Canada, landed at Heathrow Airport,

00:11:19.860 about to hop in a cab and get to the city centre as quick as possible,

00:11:24.860 where at around 10.30 a.m.

00:11:26.860 today, Tommy Robinson will face the Court of Appeal that's chaired, actually,

00:11:32.760 by the Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales.

00:11:36.360 That's her official title.

00:11:38.360 Another way of saying literally the top judge in the country.

00:11:41.860 He's appealing his sentence, his sentence that gave him 18 months in prison.

00:11:46.860 He'll serve nine of that in solitary confinement.

00:11:49.760 He originally had a judicial review that was rejected.

00:11:53.760 It changed the way that he is being held.

00:11:55.760 He's being held in solitary, which is akin to torture.

00:11:59.260 This time he's challenging the sentence itself as opposed to how the prison meets out the sentence.

00:12:04.760 It's an uphill battle.

00:12:05.660 Appeals always are, and it's safe to say that Tommy Robinson is an enemy of the state.

00:12:10.260 I don't know if he can even get justice in courts anymore, but he is atop King's Council as his barrister.

00:12:17.660 Alistair Williamson, who has actually succeeded for Tommy before when Tommy was exiled from the city of London by some rogue cop.

00:12:25.660 Williamson had that smacked away.

00:12:28.560 So there is some hope, but it's an uphill battle.

00:12:31.560 I'll be there to live tweet the proceedings.

00:12:33.560 That is, to write on my Twitter account as fast as possible what happens, and I'll have little breaks.

00:12:39.560 When the court is on a break, I'll go outside and I'll film a video.

00:12:44.660 I'll put all of that up on the website tommyreports.com, that's where you can see all my reports about Tommy Robinson.

00:12:51.660 The reason I do this insane night flight to London every few months, it's such a long journey.

00:12:57.660 It's seven hours in the air, an hour on each side for taxis, is because I believe that Tommy Robinson, not only does he not get a fair shake in court,

00:13:06.660 but he definitely does not get a fair shake in the court of public opinion.

00:13:10.660 That is, the journalists who cover his case are extremely partisan and frankly hate him.

00:13:15.660 And they'll tell you that.

00:13:16.660 I mean, they'll absolutely tell you that.

00:13:17.660 And the odd journalist who may be sympathetic to Tommy Robinson, his editors or publishers correct him quite quickly.

00:13:25.660 So the fact that I'm from out of the country is actually a key reason why I feel I can write about the case independently,

00:13:32.660 because I'm not subject to the kind of peer pressure that regime journalists in the UK are.

00:13:37.660 All right, I better get going downtown because the traffic in London is insane.

00:13:41.660 Follow me on my Twitter account, which is simply my name, Ezra Levant, or at TommyReports.com.

00:13:48.660 By the way, you can help me cover my flight.

00:13:51.660 Unlike the BBC, I don't get three billion pounds a year extracted from British taxpayers.

00:13:56.660 So if you can help me crowdfund that, you can do that right there on the website, TommyReports.com.

00:14:01.660 Thanks very much.

00:14:02.660 Ezra Levant here, as you can see by the incredible architecture behind me, I'm just going to rotate a bit.

00:14:10.660 I'm at the Royal Courts of Justice in a neighborhood of central London called The Strand.

00:14:15.660 It's absolutely one of my favorite places in the whole country.

00:14:19.660 But I'm here not for tourism. I'm here to cover Tommy Robinson's appeal at the Court of Appeal.

00:14:27.660 And in about one hour's time behind me, that appeal will start in front of the Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales.

00:14:36.660 That's the official title of the top judge of a three-judge panel.

00:14:41.660 The hearing today is an appeal of Tommy Robinson's sentence for contempt of court.

00:14:49.660 You might recall that last year Tommy Robinson was convicted.

00:14:53.660 In fact, he pled guilty of publishing a video to Twitter, which remains on his Twitter account to this day.

00:14:59.660 It's his pinned tweet. It's a documentary film Tommy made about a particular case in the public interest.

00:15:05.660 A judge said, Tommy Robinson, don't you publish that. And Tommy Robinson did.

00:15:09.660 So there really wasn't much of a case. Tommy pled guilty to it.

00:15:13.660 And in fact, he traveled back from Spain to the UK to meet his fate.

00:15:17.660 He did not try and avoid it. Tommy was given the absolute maximum sentence allowed under law.

00:15:24.660 And atrociously and to the discredit of the United Kingdom, he has been serving it in solitary confinement,

00:15:32.660 which is clearly against all legal norms.

00:15:35.660 A few weeks ago, Tommy Robinson had a judicial review of his prison treatment.

00:15:42.660 It was not successful. Today is different in that it is challenging the sentence itself, challenging.

00:15:49.660 It was basically a 24 month sentence, but there are some calculations that are standard that take it down to 18 months.

00:15:57.660 And typically a prisoner is released after half that, but still a nine month prison actual custodial term done in solitary confinement.

00:16:08.660 It is actually a new record.

00:16:11.660 Tommy Robinson is the first journalist in nearly 100 years to be jailed for contempt of court.

00:16:16.660 And he has received the maximum sentence.

00:16:19.660 It really is an astonishing case.

00:16:21.660 And it reminds me of when the prime minister here, Keir Starmer, met with J.D. Vance and Donald Trump in the White House.

00:16:28.660 And Vice President Vance raised the issue of freedom of the press and freedom of speech and free expression here in the UK.

00:16:36.660 And Keir Starmer babbled and bumbled a bit about how precious it was.

00:16:40.660 It sounds like he was caught off guard, but cases like Tommy Robinson's are what I think is motivating the United States to take great concern and to, in fact, link freedom of expression with the proposed free trade deal.

00:16:54.660 I should say that the Times of London had an article just a week or so ago that reported that every single day in the United Kingdom, there are 30 people arrested for what they say on social media.

00:17:08.660 Let me say that again. Every single day, 30 people in this country are arrested for some tweets or Facebook posts.

00:17:16.660 I don't have the facts from the Russian Federation, but it would not surprise me if the numbers here in the UK were actually greater than under Vladimir Putin's Russia.

00:17:26.660 I just can't even fathom 30 arrests a day for mean tweets.

00:17:30.660 Tommy Robinson, of course, is the leading edge of that free speech movement, and that's why they want to pound him down.

00:17:38.660 Tommy Robinson's autobiography was called the Enemy of the State, and I think it's apropos. 1.00

00:17:43.660 Anyways, enough perambulations by me. I'm going to get in there to make sure I have a good seat on these important legal occasions the mainstream media attends.

00:17:53.660 And by that I mean the BBC and the Guardian and even some of the tabloids who are generally friendly to the working class and might even call themselves conservative.

00:18:02.660 They all have editorial direction from the top to disparage Tommy Robinson and criticize him.

00:18:08.660 It always boggles my mind how a newspaper like the Daily Mail that has a conservative base can turn a working class base can turn against Tommy Robinson.

00:18:22.660 They still write about him because they like the clicks, but they disparage him.

00:18:27.660 That's really the reason I've come from Canada, a seven hour flight each way, because I feel that my journalism will be more independent.

00:18:36.660 I'm obviously sympathetic to Tommy Robinson, but unlike the BBC's Dominique Cassiani or the other regime journalists there, I'm not paid to smear the man.

00:18:46.660 I'm going to go in and get my seat. If you want to follow my reports, I'll be live tweeting throughout the hearing at my name on Twitter, which is simply Ezra Levant.

00:18:57.660 And I will be posting videos like this to Tommy reports dot com.

00:19:01.660 Hey, can you do me a favor? If you think what I'm doing here is valuable, can you go to Tommy reports dot com and chip in a few dollars?

00:19:07.660 I've got to pay for my flight over from Canada because unlike the BBC, I don't extract money from Brits by force.

00:19:14.660 All right. I'm going in now. Ezra Levant here. I'm outside the Royal Courts of Justice.

00:19:18.660 As you can see, there's a bit of a crowd out here. These are some of the folks who were in the courtroom for today for the Court of Appeal hearing of Tommy Robinson, who was challenging the sentencing that he received last year for contempt of court.

00:19:35.660 It was one hour and 15 minute hearing today. Alistair Williamson, King's counsel, led Tommy Robinson's appeal.

00:19:45.660 And there was another King's counsel on the government side rebutting. I think the government had six lawyers in the court today, if I count it properly.

00:19:54.660 And of course, Tommy Robinson, besides he had actually two kings, two barristers and a number of solicitors.

00:20:03.660 It's just an enormous industry battling over Tommy Robinson is a cottage industry in this country.

00:20:10.660 And as I mentioned in an earlier video, holding Tommy Robinson in prison is an industry, too.

00:20:18.660 He is in a unit with 16 cells. They emptied it out just for him and another eight cells.

00:20:27.660 They've emptied it out so he can work there. Literally 25 cells in his majesty's prison, Woodhill, have been cleared out to hold Tommy Robinson, a civil prisoner.

00:20:38.660 He's not even in there for a crime. He's in there because he wouldn't take down a Twitter tweet. And that's not a crime.

00:20:44.660 The fact that 25 violent criminals were set free is astonishing. Anyways, I don't want to repeat that story.

00:20:51.660 Let me get back to what happened in court today. So there were two things happening.

00:20:56.660 On the one hand, the Tommy Robinson lawyers wanted to bring new evidence before the court of appeal.

00:21:05.660 And the reason why that's important is that an appeal, by definition, is not a rehearing.

00:21:10.660 It's not another kick at the can. It's not another trial. It's reviewing the record that was before the lower court and reviewing if that lower court was correct or correct enough.

00:21:24.660 Higher courts like the Court of Appeal are reluctant to overturn lower courts unless there's a really important error that they made.

00:21:33.660 So, deducing fresh evidence was an important application made by Tommy's lawyers.

00:21:42.660 And one of the main things that they wanted before the court is a 39-page psychological report done of Tommy Robinson in recent weeks.

00:21:53.660 And that psychological report diagnosed Tommy with not only PTSD, but also ADHD.

00:22:02.660 And I won't get into the technicalities, but it basically said that prison is causing Tommy to become more and more mentally ill.

00:22:12.660 And that that's not only a problem now, but God forbid, could lead to a catastrophic incident once he's released.

00:22:19.660 I hate to even say it, but it was brought up in court, including the risk of suicide. May it not happen.

00:22:25.660 But this psychological examination of Tommy Robinson was not disputed by the government.

00:22:35.660 That is, they do not challenge it. They do not disagree with it. They do not say it's incorrect. They do not have a counter expert trying to defeat it.

00:22:46.660 Basically, the argument made by the government today is, so what?

00:22:52.660 Their argument is the sentencing judge knew enough about Tommy's mental state and referred to how rough prison is in his sentencing.

00:23:02.660 And Tommy already got a modest discount for mental health reasons.

00:23:07.660 So basically, the Crown is saying, even if this fresh evidence is put before the Court of Appeal, it is not enough, they say, to reduce a sentence.

00:23:17.660 Now, Alistair Williamson, on behalf of Tommy, said that the challenge here is to realize that this is a civil prisoner, not a criminal prisoner.

00:23:26.660 And so when we think of a prisoner doing a hard time in segregation, in solitary, having his privileges removed, as Tommy has had done to him,

00:23:35.660 we're used to thinking about a criminal context. I mean, this Woodhill Prison is a place where murderers are kept.

00:23:43.660 But Tommy Robinson is in there because he wouldn't take down a tweet. 0.91

00:23:47.660 So to compare the treatment of a civil prisoner with murderers is absurd and insane.

00:23:56.660 The judges were attentive, especially the Chief Justice.

00:23:59.660 And at the end of it, they announced that they were not going to make their ruling immediately,

00:24:04.660 but rather were going to review the voluminous written statements and the arguments made by the lawyers today.

00:24:12.660 I don't know how quickly they're expected to rule. I don't know how quickly the UK Court of Appeal normally issues rulings.

00:24:21.660 It wouldn't surprise me if they took at least a week or two.

00:24:25.660 And they may just issue a written ruling and send it electronically to the lawyers,

00:24:30.660 or they may convene again here in the court. I do not know.

00:24:34.660 I want to lower expectations because I think it's important to know that most appeals fail because higher courts want to defer to the trial judge.

00:24:46.660 Higher courts only want to overturn a lower court if there was something dramatically wrong.

00:24:53.660 Now, Tommy Robinson is the first British journalist to be jailed for contempt of court nearly a century.

00:24:59.660 The length of his sentence is extraordinary.

00:25:05.660 So perhaps the extreme nature of a sentence does merit a reduction by the court.

00:25:12.660 But there was one point that the government lawyer made that may have resonance with the judges,

00:25:18.660 and that is some of Tommy's ability to get out of prison rests with him.

00:25:24.660 Because during the sentencing, the judge essentially said to him,

00:25:29.660 if you take that Twitter video down now, we'll lop off months from your sentence, and Tommy refused to do so.

00:25:37.660 And today, again, the government lawyer said that if Tommy Robinson were to purge his contempt by taking down the tweet,

00:25:45.660 that that might reduce the prison sentence immediately, even without the judges having to do anything unusual,

00:25:55.660 because that's sort of what the sentencing judge said.

00:25:58.660 And by the way, I did go to Tommy Robinson's Twitter feed, and at least during the hearing, the video was not his pinned tweet.

00:26:06.660 Anyways, I'm getting a little bit lost in the weeds, and I think part of it has to do with my lack of sleep.

00:26:12.660 I flew overnight, and I maybe slept an hour on the plane, and I did my best to be attentive in the courthouse.

00:26:18.660 I apologize if I'm a little bit rambling here.

00:26:21.660 I'll try again a little bit later, maybe once I've had a snooze.

00:26:24.660 But it is funny, I left Canada, there was snow on the ground when I left Ottawa some 15 hours ago,

00:26:30.660 and here it is, 20 degrees Celsius in the UK today.

00:26:34.660 I should say there's one more thing that caught my attention.

00:26:37.660 When the government lawyer was reading out what he called facts from the prison warden,

00:26:47.660 the prison governor, Nicola Marfleet, a DEI affirmative action hire, a very sadistic woman. 0.98

00:26:53.660 Tommy Robinson objected, and you can see he was on the video screen, and he was waving,

00:26:58.660 and he was writing notes on a piece of paper, calling Marfleet's facts lies.

00:27:03.660 And some of them I know are lies, for example.

00:27:06.660 The point that Tommy Robinson has a large number of visitors.

00:27:11.660 I know from personal experience that I was accepted as a visitor and then cancelled twice.

00:27:16.660 So I know that the prison governor cannot be trusted.

00:27:20.660 But I'm not sure if those points really are going to move the needle in this case.

00:27:24.660 I don't know if that's really where the front line in this battle was.

00:27:28.660 I think there's a chance, because of Tommy's mental health deterioration,

00:27:34.660 and because of his unusual and cruel treatment in the prison system,

00:27:38.660 there is a chance that his sentence will be reduced.

00:27:41.660 But frankly, if that were to happen, you would think it would have been done in the judicial review a few weeks ago

00:27:47.660 that was specifically about his treatment in prison.

00:27:50.660 The judge in that case didn't have it.

00:27:52.660 But I was glad to see them try.

00:27:55.660 I'm just so sorry that Tommy is still in prison.

00:27:58.660 I think, if my math is right, he's set to be out in July, which is an eternity from now,

00:28:06.660 when you realize how long a day feels in solitary confinement.

00:28:10.660 That's my report for now. Hopefully I'll cogitate on this a little bit more.

00:28:15.660 I was glad to see other citizen journalists in the court, and I was glad that there was no attempt to kick them out,

00:28:20.660 as I've seen before.

00:28:22.660 There were some folks from Vox Populi in there.

00:28:25.660 I can't remember all the independent journalists, but I was happy to see them.

00:28:29.660 And that's a change over the years.

00:28:32.660 I remember when I started covering Tommy Robinson's court cases, I don't know, seven, eight years ago, whatever it was.

00:28:38.660 Rebel News was the only game in town, if you didn't want to read what the BBC government broadcaster had to say.

00:28:46.660 But I'm pleased to say there were, I think, four citizen journalists in court today, and more outside.

00:28:52.660 So it's a very healthy change.

00:28:55.660 Speaking of citizen journalism, I did fly out here, obviously on my own dime.

00:28:59.660 Unlike the BBC, I can't extort money from taxpayers.

00:29:03.660 If you want to help me cover my flight, feel free to do so at TommyReports.com.

00:29:08.660 Thanks for your help.

00:29:09.660 And as you know, we'll keep covering Tommy's cases until he's free.

00:29:13.660 Thanks for your time.

00:29:24.660 Well, that's my show for today.

00:29:26.660 I hope you found it interesting.

00:29:27.660 Obviously, the real battle for me and for Rebel News right now is back in Canada,

00:29:32.660 where our team is going full tilt, not just the Rebel News team, but where the four Canada,

00:29:37.660 it's like a super pack is really what it's called in the States, is going full tilt also.

00:29:42.660 So we'll be back there very soon.

00:29:44.660 And the whole team is giving her.

00:29:47.660 I'm worried about how that election is going, to be honest.

00:29:50.660 I don't like the way the polls are looking and people say don't believe the polls.

00:29:55.660 Well, when every single pollster, and their reputation for accuracy is on the line,

00:30:01.660 when they say that Ontario has swung back to the Liberals, I think it behooves us to,

00:30:06.660 at the very least, take it seriously and not to write it off too casually.

00:30:10.660 I do not believe that every single pollster is in the tank to the Liberals.

00:30:13.660 I know some of them are, like Frank Graves of Ecos, but I don't think anyone takes Ecos seriously.

00:30:18.660 Other pollsters, like you know the one that I quote every month, David Coletto of Abacus.

00:30:23.660 He says, last I checked, that the Conservatives are six points behind.

00:30:26.660 I simply do not believe he's making that up.

00:30:29.660 Now some would say that people are fitting to the pollsters,

00:30:32.660 that there's a shy Conservative syndrome out there,

00:30:35.660 that people don't want to let people know they're voting Conservative, maybe.

00:30:38.660 But I think that a lot of Liberals who were tentatively parked with Pierre Polyev

00:30:44.660 now are gravitating back to the Liberal Party,

00:30:47.660 now that the detestable Justin Trudeau is gone,

00:30:50.660 and Mark Carney looks like a PM,

00:30:52.660 and sounds like someone who knows how to handle financial crises,

00:30:56.660 which some people believe we may be heading into.

00:30:59.660 So the battle continues, and we'll do our part, I'll tell you that.

00:31:02.660 From London, England, to you at home, on behalf of Rebel News, 0.80

00:31:07.660 goodnight and keep fighting for free.

Rebel News Podcast - April 11, 2025

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Tommy Robinson may never get justice in the U.K. legal system

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