Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Trudeau can't help himself — it's either more censorship or bust for the CRTC

00:00:00.000 The Liberals have a sneaky new plan to censor independent journalists before the next election.

00:00:19.040 It's January 4th, 2024. I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed, but you're watching The Ezra Levant Show.

00:00:24.780 You know, it might be 2024, but the Liberals are, of course, the same old censorious Liberals,

00:00:45.840 hellbent on using all the mechanisms of government to censor their critics and control what Canadians can see and say on the Wild West of the Internet.

00:00:54.960 Of course, I'm not just talking about Bill C-11.

00:00:57.200 That's the Online Streaming Act, which will force streaming platforms, which include Twitter and Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, just to name a couple,

00:01:05.780 to adjust their algorithms for, quote, discoverability.

00:01:10.120 Canadian government-approved Canadian content will be what Canadians see first.

00:01:16.700 You see, independent journalists moved away from traditional broadcast platforms to reach the viewers where they are.

00:01:23.800 And so, frightened by the effectiveness of those independent content producers, the Liberal Canadian government seeks to limit their reach and silence their voices in favor of hand-picked content creators.

00:01:38.900 Anybody who escaped the terrestrial bureaucracy of the Canadian Radio Television Commission, the CRTC, is now being put back under it.

00:01:49.160 What was meant for terrestrial, old-timey radio and TV is now being expanded to control the Internet.

00:01:55.400 And then, of course, there's Bill C-18, because if the Liberals didn't get people like me with C-11, they're going to get us with this one.

00:02:03.580 This is the Online News Act, or the Online Shakedown Act.

00:02:07.880 It forces social media companies to pay the producers of news content if a user of the social media platform shares a link.

00:02:16.920 It's like the newspaper company getting paid by the paperboy because the paperboy delivered the newspaper.

00:02:24.620 You know, it makes sense if the newspaper pays the paperboy, but Justin Trudeau flipped the script.

00:02:31.120 Because in the modern digital town square, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, they're the paperboy.

00:02:38.200 They're the vehicle for delivery, and up until now, they've been doing the delivery for free.

00:02:43.760 As long as they retain the ability to serve the content consumer up some tasty, tasty ads.

00:02:50.960 It's a system that worked fine until independent media were able to break through the old ways of doing things to speak directly to their consumers on social media,

00:02:59.380 which, of course, threatened the Liberals.

00:03:02.940 And, as a side effect, it was a shakedown to provide yet another additional subsidy to the failed mainstream media companies.

00:03:13.200 And in the end, it caused Facebook and Instagram, actually their parent company Meta,

00:03:18.620 to turn off Canadian news link sharing, which, in turn, saw a traffic nosedive for mainstream media companies,

00:03:27.020 and, of course, a resulting ad revenue nosedive also.

00:03:32.560 People bad at business making business decisions and getting bad results.

00:03:37.420 Who knew that's how that would work out?

00:03:39.880 But there's also one more way the Liberals are making sure that you never hear how bad they really are.

00:03:45.180 And it's frankly already started.

00:03:48.440 Some of you may know that just before Christmas, we shared news with you that my boss,

00:03:52.900 Ezra Levant, was found guilty of campaign finance violations for selling a book on Justin Trudeau

00:03:58.560 during an election cycle when dozens of other books on Justin Trudeau were being sold.

00:04:04.780 The problem is, Ezra's book was the only one critical of Justin Trudeau.

00:04:08.340 Just take a listen to the boss explaining what happened here.

00:04:11.760 You know my book, The Libranos, What the Media Won't Tell You About Justin Trudeau's Corruption?

00:04:16.200 You know that one?

00:04:17.180 It's my best-selling book ever.

00:04:19.600 Well, I just lost in court.

00:04:20.880 Seriously, Justin Trudeau has been prosecuting me for more than four years over that book.

00:04:27.580 And I'm shocked to say he won.

00:04:30.720 The Federal Court of Canada just ordered me to pay the Trudeau government $13,000

00:04:37.760 because I published and promoted that book during the 2019 Canadian federal election.

00:04:43.960 And several times in the court ruling, the judge says, I'm lucky I wasn't prosecuted with criminal charges.

00:04:51.980 You can see the court ruling for yourself.

00:04:54.640 It's 85 pages long.

00:04:56.520 But we've put it on our special website we've set up for this case, SaveRebelNews.com.

00:05:02.040 So the government is putting me on notice that if I write another book about Trudeau and if I publish and promote it during the next election,

00:05:10.680 I could be prosecuted criminally and I could actually be jailed.

00:05:16.440 Guys, I've got to tell you, I am writing another book about Trudeau right now.

00:05:20.840 And I am going to have it out in time for the next election, which is why I need to appeal this court ruling.

00:05:27.140 But not just for me, for the sake of freedom in Canada for everyone.

00:05:31.140 This has never happened before in Canadian history.

00:05:33.560 No other author that I've heard of, that I know of, has ever been prosecuted by Elections Canada

00:05:38.840 for publishing and promoting a book that is critical of a politician.

00:05:42.380 And there's a reason for that.

00:05:44.440 The Elections Act specifically exempts books and the promotion of books from prosecution.

00:05:51.300 See, Elections Canada claims that my book, The Libranos, was illegal as if it were some campaign donation or something

00:05:58.540 and that I had to register with the government and tell them my business plans and disclose my finances to them

00:06:05.020 and have them approve everything in advance like a political party would have to do.

00:06:09.700 But of course, that's not the law.

00:06:11.200 The Elections Act specifically exempts newspaper editorials and speeches and letters and news and things like that.

00:06:19.280 And it exempts books and the promotion of books.

00:06:21.180 Let me quote Section 2.1B of the Elections Act.

00:06:25.040 The law does not cover the distribution of a book or the promotion of the sale of a book for no less than its commercial value

00:06:34.220 if the book was planned to be made available to the public regardless of whether there was to be an election.

00:06:39.600 Well, the book was sold on Amazon for $14, which is its fair commercial value.

00:06:44.820 And of course, we would have published the book whether or not there was an election.

00:06:48.200 We just timed it for the election like every other book about the election published by everyone else.

00:06:53.540 There were 24 books published about Trudeau during that election, mine, and then 23 books that were pro-Trudeau.

00:07:00.980 All were published at the same time, right before the election.

00:07:04.700 But mine was the only book they investigated and prosecuted for four full years now.

00:07:10.740 It's outrageous.

00:07:11.760 Like, when else would you sell a book about how bad Justin Trudeau is at government, except when Justin Trudeau wants to form the next one?

00:07:18.380 I mean, that's why everybody else was selling their books at the exact same time, except their books were talking about how great Justin Trudeau is at government.

00:07:26.240 They were pumping the tires of Justin Trudeau.

00:07:28.660 So last election cycle, an independent journalist writes a book critical of Justin Trudeau, and he's found guilty of breaking the law and publishing an illegal book.

00:07:38.940 Got it? Fast forward to the upcoming election cycle, the one that the liberals are poised to lose catastrophically, save for some act of God, natural disaster, pandemic, or extreme conservative idiocy.

00:07:52.840 And the last one, you know, is a potential, considering conservatives are great at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

00:07:59.720 Now, not only are the books illegal, if they're critical of Justin Trudeau, but reporting critical things of Justin Trudeau might just become illegal, too.

00:08:10.640 And the liberals are doing it by offloading it to the broadcast regulator, the CRTC, just like they did with Bill C-11.

00:08:18.780 Look at this, from Black Locks just today.

00:08:22.120 Federal regulators may draft a pre-election code of conduct for newsrooms, Cabinet yesterday wrote in a legal notice.

00:08:30.840 The Department of Heritage said under Bill C-18, the Online News Act already in effect, newsrooms are subject to CRTC guidance on ethics.

00:08:41.740 The CRTC may regulate the following areas, the department wrote in a regulatory impact analysis statement,

00:08:48.940 creation of a code of conduct, and a complaint process pertaining to how groups of eligible news businesses are to be structured and their conduct under the Act.

00:09:01.460 Parliament last June passed the Online News Act that compels Google to pay Canadian newsrooms $100 million from yearly ad revenues generated by linked stories.

00:09:12.720 The Act took effect December 19th, but it will take several months to implement.

00:09:18.940 A little-noticed section of the Act, Clause 27.1b.4, states newsrooms that apply for Google money must demonstrate compliance with a code of ethics.

00:09:32.920 The term was not defined. I bet it wasn't.

00:09:35.380 Canada has no nationally recognized code of newsroom ethics.

00:09:40.860 Advocacy groups have proposed that any CRTC code include mandatory corrections of news stories deemed inaccurate.

00:09:48.940 The National Council of Canadian Muslims, in a May 10th submission to the Senate committee, said current practices are insufficient.

00:09:58.560 Existing kinds of mechanisms that have been put in place to offer remedies to people to correct errors in an attempt to have balanced coverage or content about an issue

00:10:06.680 when there is legitimate disagreement about things are just not working, said the representative from the National Council of Canadian Muslims.

00:10:16.900 So do you see what's happening here?

00:10:19.520 Newsrooms are struggling because Justin Trudeau tried to regulate social media companies to signal boost people he likes and to subsidize his friends.

00:10:29.940 And in turn, Meta turned off link sharing, which caused the newsrooms to struggle and be even more desperate.

00:10:40.520 The liberals created scarcity.

00:10:43.240 Now they've got the solution to the scarcity.

00:10:46.240 All you have to do is do what they say.

00:10:48.800 Now, if these failing media companies want some of that sweet Google money to make up for the traffic and ad revenue shortfall caused by Justin Trudeau's shakedown,

00:11:01.320 the news companies need to comply with the government code of conduct for journalists.

00:11:07.480 The government is going to make sure that Canadians are fully indoctrinated into the liberal way of thinking,

00:11:14.780 even if it means the liberals have to censor, smother or bribe the entire mainstream media along the way.

00:11:23.360 Desperate governments down 10 points do very desperate things.

00:11:28.260 Stay with us.

00:11:29.400 The boss, Ezra Levant, joins us after the break to discuss this new code of conduct being handed down to journalists.

00:11:36.900 As I said in the monologue today, the liberals are doing it completely backwards.

00:11:54.960 They started with the stick by destroying the financial viability of the remaining mainstream media

00:12:03.940 through their attacks on Meta and Google, their shakedown, basically.

00:12:10.100 And now they're coming in with the stick of a code of conduct for journalists

00:12:15.900 if those journalists want a piece of the remaining shakedown money from Google.

00:12:21.640 So joining me now is actually the boss, Ezra Levant, to discuss what this means for independent media,

00:12:29.880 but also for mainstream media, because they're the ones really struggling with this.

00:12:35.040 Yeah, thanks very much, Sheila, and thanks for covering the show for me.

00:12:40.320 We, to be very candid, we don't yet know what this code of conduct means because they haven't written it.

00:12:47.600 They haven't said who's going to write it.

00:12:49.840 They haven't said whether it's going to be mandatory or not.

00:12:52.400 They just said, it's coming, but I think we can assume the worst based on their conduct under Justin Trudeau's eight-year regime.

00:13:01.140 These are the people who, for example, nationalized the election debates and then banned Rebel News.

00:13:07.740 And in the first instance, they banned True North, and they banned Key and Beck's new counter-signal.

00:13:14.200 So they don't deserve the benefit of the doubt in terms of freedom of speech.

00:13:17.900 They banned us from election debates.

00:13:20.260 They banned us from the press galleries.

00:13:24.420 They prosecuted the Libranos, my best-selling book, claiming that it was an election ad,

00:13:31.380 even though 23 other books were published about Trudeau during the exact same time.

00:13:37.280 They were just pro-Trudeau.

00:13:38.440 So those are three proof points that this Trudeau government uses regulation to silence the voices they hate.

00:13:47.060 And so I can predict right now, without any more information other than knowing they're just going to do it,

00:13:53.320 I can predict right now that they will craft their code of conduct specifically in a way to try to silence Rebel News,

00:14:01.380 maybe they're going to go after some other independent journalists too.

00:14:05.100 But, oh, I didn't even mention the other thing, the QCJO, Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization,

00:14:13.380 that's their news license that they banned Rebel News from as well.

00:14:16.580 So that's four things they've done to attack Rebel News using the law,

00:14:21.860 because they don't seem to be able to persuade people not to follow Rebel News or persuade people that we're wrong,

00:14:29.300 so they're using the law.

00:14:31.080 And you make a good point, which is if this were happening 20 or 30 years ago,

00:14:36.960 there would be a complete unanimity amongst publishers and broadcasters that this is a terrible idea.

00:14:44.840 And I remember, because I remember studying how the press would fight for free speech when I was in law school.

00:14:52.240 And typically, they would set up something they would call a consortium.

00:14:57.240 They would ask every newspaper or every broadcaster to chip in $1,000,

00:15:02.700 and they would hire one top-gun civil liberties lawyer who would go to court and say,

00:15:08.360 Your Honor, I'm here representing basically the entire industry.

00:15:12.660 I'm representing 10 newspapers and five TV and radio stations,

00:15:16.280 and here is what we're really worried about for free speech.

00:15:20.260 And the courts would really listen, actually, to those lawyers,

00:15:23.760 because they knew that this representative, these were the people for free speech.

00:15:27.760 When was the last time the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, the National Post,

00:15:32.220 the Toronto Sun, CBC, CTV, Global News, etc., went to court for free speech?

00:15:37.700 I can't remember it.

00:15:40.100 But forget going to court.

00:15:41.820 That takes money and an issue.

00:15:43.020 When was the time they even spoke out against them?

00:15:47.180 And so what we're going to see, Sheila, I predict is a code of conduct

00:15:50.740 that gives them enough wiggle room that they can basically ban anyone they want.

00:15:57.040 Right now, I know how they're going to come at us.

00:15:59.620 They're going to say, Oh, Rebel News, you advocate for things too much.

00:16:03.620 Oh, really?

00:16:04.620 Do we advocate for COVID vaccines?

00:16:07.040 Do we advocate for the theory of man-made global warming and debt zero?

00:16:10.840 Do we advocate for bans on firearms?

00:16:14.620 Do we advocate for all of these things that the Toronto Star and the CBC advocate for every single day?

00:16:24.260 So what I'm saying is they're going to try and differentiate us on a principled basis.

00:16:30.280 They're going to try and craft this code of conduct in a way that blocks us.

00:16:33.680 But they're not going to be able to.

00:16:35.060 And the reason I know that, Sheila, is because that's what they tried in 2021 to keep us out of the leaders' debates.

00:16:39.320 They had this very lengthy rule book.

00:16:43.400 And we went to the judge and said, Judge, they can't stop us claiming we are too opinionated,

00:16:50.260 but let the Toronto Star in, but let the CBC in.

00:16:53.220 And the judge agreed.

00:16:54.240 But they're going to do it anyways.

00:16:55.700 And they're going to force us to go to court.

00:16:57.540 And we're going to have no allies.

00:17:00.920 But that's our role these days.

00:17:02.540 I tell you, 50% of what we do is journalism, but 50% is fighting for the freedom to do journalism.

00:17:09.420 It's upside down times.

00:17:10.840 It's very sad.

00:17:12.520 Yeah.

00:17:12.760 And the liberals are doing something very crafty and very cagey and doing their best to keep their hands clean.

00:17:18.460 They're offloading this like they did with Bill C-11 onto the CRTC.

00:17:22.740 So they're saying, oh, it's not us that's coming up with this stuff.

00:17:27.080 It's the CRTC.

00:17:28.760 They're an arm's length bureaucracy.

00:17:31.720 But as Conservative Senator Pamela Wallin, a former journalist herself, points out,

00:17:37.000 that she is fully aware that there's almost daily contact between the leadership and the CRTC

00:17:43.480 and directly into the prime minister's office.

00:17:47.200 So this isn't just some bureaucrats and tall foreheads in the corner office coming up with this stuff.

00:17:52.720 This is censorship coming directly into the prime minister's office.

00:17:56.840 Oh, exactly.

00:17:57.520 I mean, and it was the same way with the Election Debates Commission.

00:18:01.240 Trudeau's static with his buddies.

00:18:03.300 The crooked Xi Jinping ally, David Johnston, ran the thing.

00:18:09.140 He's personal family friends with Trudeau.

00:18:11.960 He also appointed Craig Kielberger, the crooked Wee charity guy. 0.91

00:18:16.420 So Trudeau stuffs these boards and commissions with his personal friends,

00:18:21.340 like literally personal family friends.

00:18:23.720 They get paging huge commissions and salaries to do it.

00:18:28.660 And they know that their job is, on the media side, kill Rebel News.

00:18:34.080 And I don't know what they'll do to Western Standard and Counter-Signal and True North.

00:18:39.340 They'll probably try and rough them up also. 0.95

00:18:41.480 But it really is an attack on Rebel News.

00:18:44.020 They really have a vendetta towards us.

00:18:47.300 This isn't my speculation or my paranoia.

00:18:52.840 They say these things.

00:18:54.460 I mean, I remember when we finally busted our way in to the leaders' debates,

00:18:58.780 having had to run to the federal court on an emergency basis.

00:19:01.940 And we had great questions from Tamara Ugolini and from Alexa Lovalla.

00:19:07.760 And, you know, the ink wasn't even yet dry on the ruling by the federal court that we were indeed allowed to be there.

00:19:14.660 And Trudeau said, no, no, I disagree with the court.

00:19:17.180 I don't care what the court says.

00:19:18.220 You guys aren't even real journalists.

00:19:19.620 Remember this clip, Sheila.

00:19:20.540 Take a look.

00:19:20.980 The only reason that I'm allowed to ask you this question is because today the federal court ruled that the government doesn't have the right to determine who is or is not a journalist.

00:19:30.840 This is the second election in a row that the court had to overturn your government.

00:19:35.360 Do you still insist on being able to make that decision and why?

00:19:41.200 First of all, questions around accreditation were handled by the press gallery and the consortium of networks who have strong perspectives on quality journalism

00:19:52.940 and the important information that is shared with Canadians.

00:19:56.860 The reality is organizations, organizations like yours that continue to spread misinformation and disinformation on the science around vaccines,

00:20:12.760 around how we're going to actually get through this pandemic and be there for each other and keep our kids safe is part of why we're seeing such unfortunate anger

00:20:25.320 and lack of understanding of basic science and, quite frankly, your, I won't call it a media organization,

00:20:33.880 your group of individuals need to take accountability for some of the polarization that we're seeing in this country.

00:20:44.400 And I think Canadians are cluing into the fact that there is a really important decision we take about the kind of country we want to see.

00:20:53.680 And I salute all extraordinary, hardworking journalists that put science and facts at the heart of what they do and ask me tough questions every day,

00:21:03.520 but make sure that they are educating and informing Canadians from a broad range of perspectives, which is the last thing that you guys do.

00:21:14.020 So, I mean, look, what's so disappointing, I mean, Trudeau is going to be Trudeau.

00:21:19.920 He operates through bribes.

00:21:22.180 He does so personally.

00:21:23.460 He personally operates through bribes, and I think he understands that his tribe works on bribes.

00:21:30.520 So they, like you say, carrot and stick, they have hundreds of millions of dollars in bailout money for their friends in the media.

00:21:36.560 They have sticks and bats for their enemies.

00:21:40.060 But where are the so-called watchdogs?

00:21:44.240 Where is the Canadian Association of Journalists?

00:21:47.680 Where is the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression?

00:21:50.640 That's a lobby group.

00:21:52.140 Where is Penn Canada?

00:21:54.060 Where is the Canadian Civil Liberties Association?

00:21:56.680 Where is Amnesty International?

00:22:01.200 These all used to stand up for freedom of speech in the press, but they're silent.

00:22:06.300 And I think it's because their members are completely on the tape.

00:22:10.940 I used to be a little bit involved with the Canadian Association of Journalists.

00:22:15.340 And they've completely transformed themselves into a money-grubbing lobbying machine.

00:22:24.020 They're very active, Sheila.

00:22:25.900 Just they don't care about freedom of the press.

00:22:27.440 They care about extracting, wringing out maximum taxpayer benefits from Trudeau.

00:22:32.280 So, of course, they're not going to bite the head with cheese.

00:22:34.740 It's really a sad thing to see.

00:22:37.820 And I think you're going to see more and more scoops being broken by the New York Post and the Daily Mail of London.

00:22:45.220 And the reason I say that is because pretty much every single Canadian journalist is compromised.

00:22:52.920 And I'm not saying that they all go out.

00:22:54.600 I mean, there's some good journalism in this country.

00:22:56.620 I won't deny it.

00:22:58.340 But pretty much anything that really hits too hard will be blocked by a senior editor who says, oh, yeah, no.

00:23:08.500 We just, we'll take a different approach.

00:23:11.000 It's not even, I mean, there are still some journalists who are hardworking, honest journalists.

00:23:15.360 But most of the blocking will come at a senior level where a publisher or editor says, we're just not going to risk it.

00:23:23.520 And so, I mean, think back a couple of elections ago when it was revealed that all the blackface photos were revealed. 0.96

00:23:29.600 We revealed that.

00:23:31.220 That was a whistleblower in Vancouver who shocked this around.

00:23:38.140 The CBC, CTVN Global already had it.

00:23:40.460 They already had it, but they didn't publish it.

00:23:44.060 So, they went to a major U.S. magazine.

00:23:46.420 How pitiful is that, that we have to go outside our own country to get someone who cares?

00:23:51.060 But the reason for that was, CBC, Global, CTV, they don't want to buy the hand that feeds.

00:23:57.040 So, we're lucky in that the hand that feeds us is our crowdfunder supporters' average gift, 58 bucks.

00:24:04.100 If our average gift was 58,000 or 58 million, because we were taking it from Trudeau, it would be very difficult for us to criticize Trudeau.

00:24:15.120 That's why we don't want to take Trudeau's money, not that it would ever be offered, but we can't.

00:24:21.060 How could a human being criticize someone who's paying their bills?

00:24:25.200 It makes no sense.

00:24:26.460 And so, working journalists have allowed themselves to be put in a position of moral hazard.

00:24:33.020 It's a moral hazard to be paid by Trudeau.

00:24:37.460 And you're going to see, you know who's going to write this code of conduct, Sheila?

00:24:42.360 Journalists.

00:24:43.560 Oh.

00:24:43.900 Social insurance.

00:24:45.600 Yeah.

00:24:46.700 And also, sorry to interrupt, but there's also the fake consultations that the liberals love to do.

00:24:53.860 You see this all the time on gun bans.

00:24:56.420 They consort with all manner of feminist worry warts and inner-city activists, and they never actually talk to the people affected by the gun ban.

00:25:04.660 They're doing the same thing here.

00:25:06.860 In Senate testimony, they had the National Council of Canadian Muslims.

00:25:12.140 They wanted a more effective approach to corrections to news articles, meaning they want the state to force corrections in the news articles, which is exactly something we saw here in Alberta under the Eberhardt government in the 30s with the Accurate News and Information Act.

00:25:32.300 And that was overturned.

00:25:34.560 And the Edmonton Journal won a Pulitzer Prize for that.

00:25:38.240 I wonder, by the way, how former journalist Paula Simons of the Edmonton Journal, now a liberal senator, how she'll advocate or object to this new set of regulations.

00:25:51.840 That's a great question.

00:25:54.120 Pamela Wallen's a former journalist on TV, but you're correct with that Alberta senator's name. 0.94

00:26:01.620 I just forgot.

00:26:02.460 Paula Simons.

00:26:03.180 Paula Simons, thank you.

00:26:05.420 She's not a particularly memorable columnist.

00:26:08.240 But I remember, though, that she did criticize the Senate.

00:26:11.220 She mocked the Senate until she was appointed to it. 1.00

00:26:15.120 So we know from her life story that she can be bribed. 1.00

00:26:19.640 Now, the weird thing is senators, once they're in there, they're in there for life, or at least till 75.

00:26:24.500 So they should be more bold than they've ever been in their whole life.

00:26:27.920 Like, once you've hit the Senate jackpot, unless you do something absolutely atrocious, you're there till you're 75.

00:26:35.520 You can't be fired.

00:26:37.100 Maybe you can be kicked out of a party by Trudeau, but they all have this fake independent liberal senator thing going on.

00:26:43.580 So Paula Simons should be—this should be her shining moment of freedom of the press.

00:26:48.960 So I haven't seen a word from her, maybe because she's going to read the one chapter to write it.

00:26:53.380 Wouldn't surprise me if Trudeau asked her to write it.

00:26:57.860 Yeah, you're right to point out that it was the Muslim Brotherhood-linked National Council of Canadian Muslims,

00:27:04.240 basically a front group for amongst in Canada, that's demanding corrections.

00:27:08.300 Imagine that, the government demanding corrections from journalists as opposed to journalists holding the government to account.

00:27:15.220 It used to be the journalists held the government to account.

00:27:18.500 They flipped that on their head.

00:27:20.060 No, no, no.

00:27:20.540 Now the government will tell you what's true or not.

00:27:24.180 And the fact that the establishment just shrugged and says, yeah, okay, well, whatever it takes, can I get my money now?

00:27:33.040 This is going to be a problem.

00:27:35.200 I don't know what the courts are going to do.

00:27:37.380 I mean, a couple of weeks ago, I lost in federal court.

00:27:40.280 I was quite—sheila, I was really sure that the Libranos would have been legal.

00:27:45.660 Well, and the reason is, first of all, we consulted a lawyer in advance, and he said, look, as long as your book, like the promotion of the book says, just buy the book, you're fine.

00:27:56.900 But the courts and Elections Canada hated that cover.

00:28:00.120 They mentioned the cover eight times in the court ruling.

00:28:04.260 Elections Canada was obsessed with the cover, and the cover was all that was in the book ad.

00:28:09.160 And, you know, you put up that huge banner on the side of the highway, it was just the cover of the book with the words, buy the book.

00:28:17.740 And the court said, no, no, that was actually a campaign ad, and what's the big deal?

00:28:22.740 You just have to register.

00:28:24.600 What's the big deal?

00:28:26.420 And I was surprised by that, and that was actually a Harper appointee.

00:28:30.680 That judge was not a liberal judge.

00:28:32.080 It was a judge put there by Stephen Harper.

00:28:33.540 So, and here we are, and, you know, people say, well, the book technically has not been banned.

00:28:41.460 It's correct.

00:28:42.240 You can still buy that book on Amazon, but we cannot advertise that book during the election.

00:28:47.780 It's an election book.

00:28:49.040 We can't advertise it during the election, and we can't apparently say either the show, the cover, or the title.

00:28:56.060 That's the state of the law in Canada that is not healthy.

00:28:59.520 It is being targeted against conservative populist media like us, and I don't know.

00:29:08.140 It's just sort of sad for me, having grown up studying civil liberties in Canva, watching civil liberties being fought for, realizing that the left never meant it.

00:29:20.860 But we've learned a lot of things like that recently, Stephen.

00:29:22.900 We've learned that the anti-hate groups were never really against hate, the anti-bullying groups, the anti-violence groups.

00:29:31.460 They were never really against those things.

00:29:33.620 They were only really for those things as weapons to attack their opponents.

00:29:38.500 And when it's Hamas, rioters in the streets, orching, I mean, listen, almost 100 churches in this country have been torched or vandalized, and the anti-hate people don't give a damn.

00:29:50.680 So it's just sort of disappointing to learn that none of them ever meant it when they said they were for freedom and for dissenting voices and for diversity.

00:30:00.360 They never meant it.

00:30:00.860 That's not what they meant by diversity.

00:30:02.520 They didn't mean diversity of opinion.

00:30:04.640 It's sort of sad, but I am quite certain that, once again, Rebel News will be in the center of that, because who else?

00:30:11.520 But seriously, who else do they think they're going to apply that to?

00:30:15.080 Maybe they'll take a run at the Toronto Sun.

00:30:18.080 But I think it's pretty much tailor-made to go after Rebel News and maybe some of the other independent journalists I mentioned.

00:30:24.520 Well, you know, Abbas, the bigger the fight, I think the better we are here at Rebel News.

00:30:30.660 We punch up.

00:30:32.240 We win against Justin Trudeau.

00:30:34.640 And when we lose, we pick up the pieces and continue to fight.

00:30:38.940 And I think this will be the exact same thing.

00:30:41.760 Once we see what these regulations are, let's get ready to rumble. 0.91

00:30:45.780 Well, you bet.

00:30:48.360 And, you know, we have had some wins.

00:30:51.100 I would just leave people with that thought.

00:30:53.100 I mean, we lost the Libranos fight.

00:30:56.240 I'm still a little surprised by that.

00:30:58.280 We're appealing it.

00:30:59.520 And Sarah Miller, the lawyer we've hired for the appeal, she's pretty good.

00:31:03.400 She turned Arthur Pawlowski's case around.

00:31:07.220 He was convicted under a pandemic law.

00:31:10.240 She appealed back to the Alberta Court of Appeal and overturned the conviction 3-0.

00:31:14.380 I don't know if that's going to happen in a Libranos case.

00:31:17.400 It's a real uphill battle.

00:31:18.460 But if anyone can do it, Sarah Miller can.

00:31:20.800 And remember those two cases where we rushed to court for the Debates Commission.

00:31:24.780 Last-minute hearings, we were outnumbered.

00:31:27.920 The federal government threw everything at it.

00:31:29.700 And we won both of those.

00:31:31.560 And even on the Twitter stuff, suing to get cabinet ministers to unblock us.

00:31:37.100 Stephen Gilbeau.

00:31:37.940 And now three other cabinet ministers, Marcy Ian, Karina Gould, and R.S. Sachs, have, over the Christmas break, settled.

00:31:49.360 And we don't have the paperwork for that yet, but they have agreed to unblock us.

00:31:53.140 So we do have wins.

00:31:55.440 It just, I guess, so much of the fight falls to us because there is no organization out there that's fighting for this,

00:32:03.320 like there was when I was growing up and reading about these things.

00:32:06.260 And I remember every time there was a court case for freedom, there was a lawyer for the consortium,

00:32:15.620 which is what they called it when all these TV and radio stations got together to fight for freedom.

00:32:20.920 Could you imagine that happening today?

00:32:23.120 The CBC and CTV and Global and Global Mail and Star and Sun,

00:32:28.140 each chipping in a couple grand to hire a lawyer for freedom.

00:32:31.920 It's unthinkable.

00:32:33.240 It was a beautiful thing in retrospect, like they would get over their differences.

00:32:38.680 They would get over what competitive rivalries they had.

00:32:41.480 And they would send a lawyer to court to say, we're here for everyone.

00:32:45.800 That is so unthinkable today, mainly because the institutions I've just listened to do not actually believe in freedom today.

00:32:53.160 They're just money-making ventures.

00:32:55.120 In the case of PostMedia, they're owned by a New Jersey asset management firm called Chatton.

00:33:01.180 In the case of the CBC, obviously, they're just a corporation owned by the government of Canada and used by Trudeau as his personal soapbox.

00:33:09.860 And in the case of CTV and Global, they are so deeply reliant on the favor of the CRTC that they do what Trudeau says, much the same as the CBC does.

00:33:21.940 And now all the newspapers are in the bailout side of things.

00:33:25.280 So there really is no one left, Sheila.

00:33:28.640 I've already listed the handful.

00:33:30.760 Like, it's less than 1% of the media in Canada that is free.

00:33:35.320 And that's what's so crazy.

00:33:38.380 Trudeau does not need a code of conduct for those big media companies I just listed.

00:33:45.040 Because they don't offend him.

00:33:46.940 They don't engage in, quote, misconduct.

00:33:49.440 They're extremely obedient.

00:33:51.740 Why does he need this code of conduct when he's got 99% of the media in the bottom of his head?

00:33:56.920 Because he's obsessed by that last 1%.

00:34:00.720 And I know why.

00:34:01.680 I think of the metaphor sometimes of 100 candles in a room.

00:34:06.360 And you can blow out 99 of them.

00:34:10.680 But if that last candle is still lit, it's not dark.

00:34:14.580 I mean, it's darkish. 0.60

00:34:16.780 It's darker.

00:34:17.920 But there is still light.

00:34:19.480 And in fact, that last 1 candle, the difference between 10 candles burning and 5 candles burning is great.

00:34:28.360 The difference between 5 candles burning and 2 candles burning is great.

00:34:31.880 But listen, and you knock it out from 2 candles to 1 candle, it's a lot darker.

00:34:37.280 But that last candle actually makes more of a difference than any other candle before it when you think about it.

00:34:41.940 Because that is the last candle between light and absolute darkness.

00:34:46.200 And so Trudeau, who wants to snuff out all the light of public scrutiny, that last damn candle is the one he wants to snuff out more than any of the others.

00:34:56.580 The first candle he blew out, there's 100 candles in a room.

00:34:59.540 He blows out the first candle.

00:35:00.680 It didn't even make a difference.

00:35:01.480 The first 50 candles he blew out, it didn't even make a difference.

00:35:05.600 But as he gets down to total darkness, it's that last damn, why won't it go out?

00:35:11.640 Why can't I blow out that candle?

00:35:14.340 Blow it out.

00:35:15.560 That's what he thinks of Rebel News.

00:35:18.040 And we will not go easily, I'll tell you that.

00:35:21.820 Yeah, I laugh because the last time the mainstream media ever got together and worked together on something, I think it was to block us from joining a press gallery.

00:35:33.000 Yeah, yeah, you're right.

00:35:34.340 How pitiful.

00:35:35.800 Yeah.

00:35:36.440 Boss, thanks so much for, well, coming on your show.

00:35:40.220 Wait to have you back in the studio so that you can do all of this.

00:35:45.120 Right on.

00:35:45.700 Thanks, my friend.

00:35:47.340 Thanks, boss.

00:35:48.160 Listen, your letters to Ezra unceremoniously read by me up after the break.

00:36:04.180 Well, friends, we've come to the portion of the show where we invite your viewer feedback.

00:36:07.580 If you're a regular viewer of my show, The Gun Show, on Wednesday nights, you know that I constantly tell you that there is no Rebel News without you.

00:36:15.960 And so I want to hear from you.

00:36:17.040 I want to know what you think about the work that we're doing here at Rebel News.

00:36:20.880 Unlike the mainstream media who just want you to shut up and give them some money, or at least have Justin Trudeau give them your money to keep producing content that you don't care about, that you don't consume.

00:36:32.280 I want to know what you have to say.

00:36:34.840 And so we've got some letters to Ezra.

00:36:40.300 This one is on Ezra's long-form interview with my buddy David Menzies regarding the ongoing anti-Israel protesters who are taking to the streets in a Toronto Jewish neighborhood, and they're doing it all with police protections.

00:36:55.500 Let's just think about that for a second.

00:36:59.280 They say this is anti-Israel and that there's some sort of distinction between being anti-Israel and anti-Semitic.

00:37:07.980 Then why are they protesting Jewish neighborhoods in Toronto?

00:37:12.480 Anyway, Kat Reid 4205 writes,

00:37:16.920 Yeah, I mean, this is the government that gave a standing ovation to a Waffen-SS actual Nazi in the House of Commons.

00:37:43.900 You know, it takes some work to dig up one of those guys.

00:37:48.040 There's not very many of them alive left, and the ones that are alive still are trying to hide from war crimes trials.

00:38:00.580 And so, of course, of course, Justin Trudeau's government is going to turn a blind eye as the Hitler Youth 2.0 march through Jewish neighborhoods in Canadian cities. 0.73

00:38:13.000 Mr. Higgles, if that is indeed your real name, writes,

00:38:18.060 One-sided hate law is government-sanctioned hate.

00:38:20.280 This approval is against the law.

00:38:23.500 Yeah, that is true.

00:38:26.320 That there is a difference in policing here, isn't there?

00:38:31.980 It took one planted Nazi flag to paint the entire peaceful freedom convoy as a bunch of neo-Nazis or, at the very least, crypto-Nazis, instead of just peaceful Canadians from all walks of life who just wanted to return to normal and their charter rights respected by the government.

00:38:57.660 And yet, you see slogans of genocide from the river to the sea being chanted in the streets.

00:39:07.520 Jewish schools and synagogues are being firebombed.

00:39:11.880 Jewish-owned grocery stores with no ties to Israel being victims of arson in Toronto.

00:39:23.140 You see stores being pamphleted.

00:39:28.360 And we've seen protesters, counter-protesters, like Iranian refugee Salman Sima, assaulted in the streets.

00:39:39.700 His shoulder dislocated by these people.

00:39:43.200 And we know that a lot of these protests are Iranian regime-backed.

00:39:51.660 And they're the world's largest state sponsor of terror.

00:39:56.340 And yet nobody's bank accounts are being turned off.

00:39:59.740 You know, you can honk for Hamas and you're fine, but honk for freedom and no bank account and, you know, maybe even straight to jail for 50 days. 0.75

00:40:07.920 If there is not an equal application of the law, then there is no rule of law at all.

00:40:18.040 Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.

00:40:19.720 Thank you so much for tuning in and bearing with me as I fill in in the big chair for the boss man.

00:40:26.960 Thanks to everybody who works behind the scenes at Rebel News to put together the hodgepodge pile of clips into a real show for our viewers.

00:40:37.120 And since I'm hosting, you're getting my sign off.

00:40:39.940 Don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to think.

Rebel News Podcast - January 05, 2024

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Trudeau can't help himself — it's either more censorship or bust for the CRTC

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript