EZRA LEVANT | We finally found a billboard Toronto police think is offensive
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Summary
A call from a very powerful person in Toronto, who wants us to stop broadcasting a pro-Hamas message on the Rebel News Plus satellite phone line, and why that would be a bad thing. I'm not going to give you the full story.
Transcript
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Hello, my friends. I got a call from a very, very senior, powerful political person in Toronto
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asking me to stop our truck from broadcasting a message. I'll tell you more about it. I won't
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tell you everything because I agreed to take the call secretly or off the record, but it was so
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astonishing. I've just got to tell you a little bit about it without giving away who called me.
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In very unusual days, I should tell you, I refused the demand. That's ahead. I won't give you any more
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right now, but listen to the show. You might find it interesting. But first, let me invite you to
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become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. You'll see on Rebel News Plus the truck and what this
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big shot was talking about. Go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe. It's eight bucks a month.
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You get the video version and the satisfaction of keeping Rebel News strong so that we are independent
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of these political big shots. And we do not have to jump when they call us and demand we do so.
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A little interesting story for you ahead. Tonight, we finally found a billboard that the Toronto police
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object to. And no, it's not in support of Hamas. It's December 19th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
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You're fighting for freedom. Shame on you, you censorious bug.
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You know, I'm Jewish. I grew up in Calgary, which is a very un-Jewish city, very small Jewish
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community. And I always thought of Toronto as the big city. And it has about 200,000 Jews in it,
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which coming from Calgary, which had, when I was growing up, maybe 5,000 Jews, seemed huge. Like,
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there's so many Jewish schools and synagogues and kosher restaurants, it seemed like a little
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slice of Israel or like going to New York itself. That's how it felt. And the Jews were in high
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stations in life in Toronto. Doctors and lawyers, even politicians. The great mayor Mel Lastman was
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Jewish. And I think the Jews got along pretty well with people in Toronto. They got into construction
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with the Italians. And they got along with the Greeks. It was sort of a very happy harmony. At
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least that's what it seemed like to me growing up. The point I'm trying to make is that I looked
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at Toronto as a pretty Jewish city, or at least a city where it was very easy to be Jewish. Well,
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that's changed. I'll tell you that now that I'm a resident of Toronto. I live not far from an
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intersection of Bathurst and Shepherd. Bathurst is a north-south road around which, along which,
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I'd say most of the Jewish community lives. So if you were to start in Midtown and drive north on
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Bathurst, you could drive for half an hour. And on each side, you would see kosher supermarkets or
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schools or synagogues. You would see Orthodox Jews with their black hats and whatnot. And you would say,
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oh, this is the Jewish part of town. There's the Chinatown. There's the Greek town. This is the
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Jewish part of town. But a few terrible things have started happening since the October 7th, 2023
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Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. Now, that was a shocking attack, as you probably know,
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as the largest death toll, the worst murder of Jews since the Holocaust itself. And that's a
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terrible thing. And it caused a war. Israel reacted to Hamas in Gaza, and it soon spread throughout the
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region. But I remember saying in those very early days, I should dig up my own quotes about it.
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I was far more worried about what's happening in Toronto, in other Canadian cities, in America,
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in the West, than I am about what's happening in Israel itself, because Israel has a strong military.
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But more than that, Israel is awake to what's going on. Israel doesn't fool itself thinking
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diversity is our strength. Israel is, I suppose you could call it multicultural and multiracial.
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There's people of different backgrounds there and different religions. But it is very alert and awake
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to the risks involved there. Not us here in Canada. We have a completely porous border.
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And over the last, I'd say, 20 years, we have brought in so many people who, simply put,
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have brought anti-Semitism with them. And a number have brought violence, or at least extreme
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political activism with them. What's worse is they have been activated by foreign agents.
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For years, it's been reported that the government of Iran has used Canada as their playground,
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where they can whip up anti-Semitic meetings on short notice. Well, that went into
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high gear after October 7th. Before Israel even reacted and responded to the attack from Gaza,
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there were marches throughout Toronto condemning the Jews, threatening the Jews, accusing the Jews
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of horrendous things, and calling for a genocide of the Jews. They would use words that might seem
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cryptic to ordinary Canadians, like, from the river to the sea. But that just means extinguishing
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all Jews within its geography, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
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Globalize the Intifada. Intifada is an Arabic word meaning pogrom, or a riot. And those ideas
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have started to come true in the West, most atrociously, just the other day in Bondi Beach in Australia,
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where two Muslim migrant terrorists shot dead and wounded dozens of Jewish Australians.
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We haven't had a massacre on that scale in Canada yet, but I fear it's only a matter of time.
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As you know, a Jewish day school in Toronto called Beiskaya Mushka has been attacked on three separate
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occasions by gunshots. A synagogue on Bayview Avenue in Toronto has been vandalized on ten separate
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occasions. As you know, we've covered it quite regularly. Pro-Hamas protesters walk through Jewish
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residential communities shouting at men, women, and children they encounter in the streets.
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There have been vandalisms, uttering of threats, assaults, and all sorts of other mischief.
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And to see the way that they've been treated with kid gloves as compared to, say,
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the truckers is astonishing. And that's the subject of my monologue today.
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I've seen how the police can react when they want to. I've seen them brutally arrest and jail
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and punish the truckers. I've seen what they've done to the men in Coutts, Alberta, some of whom are
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still in prison. That's what the government does to politically disfavored groups. In the case of
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Tamara Leach, people who oppose forced vaccines or forced lockdowns, those are the worst people.
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But people who walk through Jewish communities, and these are foreign nationals, mind you. These
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aren't fellow Canadian citizens. I don't think fellow Canadian citizens would even do that.
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These are foreign nationals under the direction of foreign governments walking through our streets
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in Canada and screaming anti-Semitic abuse at people. It's outrageous, but it has been tolerated for
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two years. And in the wake of the Bondi massacre, a lot of people in Canada said, oh my God, we're
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next. We're so obviously going to be next. One of the things that I think upset me the most about
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Bondi Beach in Australia was that the Jewish community, which had gathered to celebrate Hanukkah
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on the beach, they had guards. I think they had five guards there, but they were unarmed.
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What use is that? Are you going to challenge a terrorist to an arm wrestle or something? If you don't
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have a firearm, what exactly are you other than an usher or something? Well, it's the same thing
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here in Canada. There are dozens of Jewish schools and synagogues and Jewish centers, community centers,
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and none of them have armed guards. An armed terrorist, like we saw in Australia, would cut
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through them like a hot knife through butter. And gun crime is rampant in Ontario. It's not hard,
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and the rest of the country too. It wouldn't be hard for a terrorist to get a hold of a firearm
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and do horrific things in Canada, just like they did in Australia. And so the last week in Toronto
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has been interesting. As the Jewish community realizes what happened in Bondi Beach could just
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have easily have happened in Canada. And if we don't do anything about it, it probably will.
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Now that sparked this interesting conversation on radio, where Canada's pro-Hamas mayor,
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Olivia Chow, Toronto's pro-Hamas mayor, who refuses to show up at most events, who is so totally
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dedicated to the pro-Hamas movement, she, obviously feeling the scrutiny, was asked why none of these
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pro-Hamas protesters are charged. They utter threats. They block roads and sidewalks. They commit
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assaults. They violate noise regulations with their PA systems where they shout at Jews. And I'm not
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even talking about the actual hate crimes. I'm talking about the crime crimes. Why have there
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been so few, if any, charges? Well, here's what the mayor said. So at some point, they said they have a
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lawyer at the police headquarters that looked at cases and said, okay, there's no hope of you
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getting anywhere, so don't bother. So, which is why sometimes they don't do charges. And I think the
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chief is coming to your... He's here tomorrow. He'll be in that chair. Yeah, exactly. Ask him about that.
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I'm never confident it's a very comfortable chair, but... Ask him about that because I've asked. I've asked
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exactly the same thing. Why can't you arrest more and charge more? A, there's the human rights,
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the charter rights concern, and that some of the charge is basically thrown out. So why keep doing
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it if it doesn't work? Right. The mayor, in other words, is implying that she thinks there should be
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charges laid, but there aren't. And it's because of the bloody police department. And in particular,
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there's a lawyer at the police department named Falguni Debbath who won't let any charges go through.
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Well, that's quite newsy, isn't it? Well, next up was Toronto's police chief who was invited on the
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same channel to answer. And he said that the mayor was making it up. Well, he didn't quite use that
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language, but he basically called her a liar. Here, take a listen. And when the mayor says that
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there is a lawyer who is advised, do not engage, do not arrest, is she in error? Well, listen, I don't
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know where she's getting that narrative from. She says you. Yeah. Well, we didn't have a discussion
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that would suggest quite the way that's been framed. So. So the mayor is saying there ought to
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be charges, but the general counsel, the senior lawyer, the police is stopping them before they
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can be made. And the police chief is saying that ain't true. Well, our friend, Joe Warmington wrote
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about this in the Toronto Sun and named the general counsel, the lawyer involved. I mentioned her name
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a moment ago, Falguni Debbath. Now, not a lot is known about her. I've seen reports that she was born
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in Pakistan and that she worked once at the United Nations in some sort of war crimes inquiry. And those
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three things aren't necessarily alarm bells. But when you have someone who comes from Pakistan,
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which is an inherently anti-Semitic country, it's an Islamic supremacist country. It's a terrorist
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country, really. It's where a lot of terrorists are from, who works for the UN, which is an inherently
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anti-Semitic organization. And on war crimes or other matters like that, which typically means
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accusing America and Israel and those things, one would want to know, well, is this woman the reason
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that there have been few, if any, charges made? It's an excellent question. And it comes not from mere
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speculation, but from this war between the mayor and the police chief. And so our friend Joe
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Warmington wrote about it in the Toronto Sun and he did a good job. Holy smokes did the police ever
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unleash on him. They sent a hail of emails threatening him in bizarre ways. But to their credit, the Toronto
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Sun stood by their man. It was quite something. Stephanie Sayer, the press attache for the Toronto
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police said to Joe that there would be consequences to him if he continued to report it and didn't delete
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his stories. What does that mean? Would he be sued? Would he be arrested and maybe charged with
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something? No charges for the Hamas supporters, just charges for a journalist who embarrasses the
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police chief? Or would there be more? I mean, the police are packing heat. What would they do exactly
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to Joe? To the Sun's credit, they backed him up. We saw that and we thought, we have a lot of
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questions about this too. This is a real news story. So we deployed our big, beautiful billboard
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truck, asking simple questions. Who is Falguni Debnath? Is she the reason that these charges are not
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made? Who's telling the truth? The mayor or the police chief? Here's a little look at David Menzies
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with our big, beautiful truck parked right outside police headquarters.
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Hey, detective. Is Ms. Debnath setting policy for the police?
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Why are my questions instilling fear in the hearts of those who are packing heaters? I don't get it.
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Hi, ma'am. How you doing? Good. What do you think about the lawyer for the police service,
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Falguni Debnath, setting policy in terms of who to arrest and not to arrest?
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To be honest, this is the first time I see this. Oh, okay then. All right.
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Sorry. Are you going to sign our petition to fire the chief?
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Have a nice day. What do you think about the lawyer setting policing policy?
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No. No. I feel that that's skipping due process, which should apply to everyone fairly and equally.
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So that's not fair, I would say. I couldn't agree with you more, sir. I thought the whole
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idea of law enforcement is that when you see a crime, you make an arrest and you let the courts
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sort it out, right? Gather the evidence and hand it over to the judge. And that's their job to weigh in
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on that, not anyone below them. Link and Jay and I have been here for about half an hour.
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We've got another half hour to go before college turns into a tow-away zone. And you know they would
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love to tow-away this baby. That would be a trophy catch for them, wouldn't it? But it's funny,
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absolutely no engagement with any of the cops. I'll take that as a W compared to, oh, I don't know,
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getting arrested. Happened to me five times last year, three times by the Toronto Police Service.
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Happened to my boss, Ezra, once last year, just for practicing journalism in public.
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Hey guys, what do you think about Falguni Debnath? Is it okay that she's setting police policy?
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Hi sir. What do you think about Falguni Debnath setting police policy?
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Thanks. Have a good day. Okay. Thank you. Merry Christmas. Hi ma'am. What do you think of Falguni Debnath
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setting policy for the police? Is it me? Is my English not understandable? Or am I encountering
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a disproportionate number of deaf people working at police headquarters? Well, holy smokes. Did the
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police effort to silence Joe ever backfire? Not only did Joe continue to write his story in the
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Toronto Sun, but we brought our beautiful billboard truck, which cannot be missed. It's so big and
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bright and every cop going in and out of the police headquarters would have seen it. Wouldn't surprise
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me if the police chief himself sort of peeked through the blinds to see that truck. Well, I think the
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police know better than to call us up and threaten us, but they contacted Joe again to threaten him.
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I mentioned the police spokesman Stephanie Sayre, who said that the appearance of our truck was quote,
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a direct result of Joe's reporting. So she was blaming the truck being there on Joe. In a way,
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I suppose it's indirectly true because we followed the story and learned about the police threat from Joe
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and we acted on our own to deploy the truck. But holy smokes, a media aid, a media communications
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director who does not like the media and thinks she can silence them. Now, to their credit, they
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haven't tried to threaten me the same way they threatened Joe. And I think it's because Joe has
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sort of other bosses on top of him, whereas I suppose I only answer to our viewers. But a funny thing
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happened yesterday, and I want to be very careful how I describe it, because I was asked if I would
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take a phone call from a very, very senior person in the Toronto police. And if I would take that phone
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call on a confidential basis and not report it, would I take a phone call off the record? And I thought to
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myself, well, if I say no, I'm not going to get the phone call and I won't know anything. But if I take a
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phone call off the record without reporting it or recording it, at least I'll have some information that
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might make and color my other work, even if I can't report it, I can know it. And I'd be no further
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behind. So I agreed to accept the phone call on those conditions. And I'm going to honor those
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conditions, because I don't want people to think that if I agree to keep something private, that I'll
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break that promise. But let me just tell you, it was most astonishing. And I'll just sum it up by
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saying, I was asked by this extremely senior person to withdraw the truck and no longer ask the
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questions. To which I said, well, has the mayor withdrawn her accusation? Because that's really
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all we're doing. You saw the truck. It's based on what the mayor said. The mayor says that this lawyer,
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Falguni Dembath, at the Toronto police station is the reason that none of these pro-Hamas types are
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getting charged. If the mayor still believes that, if she still says that, if she still accuses of that,
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I'm going to report that news. If the mayor recants and says I was mistaken, okay, we'll report that as
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well. And maybe we'll have to change up the truck. I have never in my 10 years of running Rebel News
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received a phone call like the one I received. And I'm not going to say anymore to identify who it was.
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And I'm not going to particularize what was said. Suffice it to say that we were asked to take that
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truck down and we weren't, and we didn't rather. In fact, to make the point, we sent the truck out
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again today. What's going on here? What's going on here? Well, on the immediate level, there's an
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attempt to intimidate. I mean, I don't know. They must not know me if they think that a call from a big
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shot cop is going to make me afraid. You know, I actually ended the phone call. I'll tell you what I
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said. I said, call anytime. And if you want to meet me, feel free to arrest me. That's what I said
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to him. I was being a little bit cheeky, but yeah, no, we don't roll over for anybody. If we do
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something that's wrong, and if you can convince us we've done something wrong, we'll correct it or
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retract it or whatever. I mean, every now and then we get it wrong, but we reported what the mayor said.
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We got it right. We don't take instructions from police. We're not in a police state. And in fact,
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we think the police in Toronto are not living up to their duties to arrest actual criminals.
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And you know that they've been arresting rebel news reporters time and time and time again. I just
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made a joke about me being arrested. But in fact, I was arrested at that very intersection I've been
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describing to you at Bathurst and Shepherd here. Remember when I was arrested? Acting Inspector Ford told
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me they had a media area for you and you guys stayed in it. We did not came back. We did not.
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Well, because it's not up to him to say you have free speech there, but not here. Well,
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yeah, because you're inciting this crowd and then it breaches the peace. Well,
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your presence is inciting them. And that's exactly what you're trying to do. I'm a Jew. No,
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because you're trying to incite. I haven't tried to incite them. I want to take a picture
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of the hate crime that you're on the other side. You didn't need to walk over. No,
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I wanted to go. Okay. Now I'm going to tell you to move over there. And if you don't cross the road,
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you'll get arrested for breach of the peace. So you're refusing to leave. I'm refusing to leave.
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Why? Because I'm a Jew. I'm a citizen and I'm your boss. And I don't leave because you say Jews
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in the interest of keeping peace here and public safety. You're under arrest for breach of the peace.
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Take them in. I was arrested for standing on the sidewalk. There was a horde of dozens of pro-Hamas
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activists who were standing right there and they weren't arrested themselves. You see my point?
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Why would they arrest me? Did Falguni Debnath say, oh, you can arrest the Jew, but not the Muslims?
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What was the legal advice there? I wonder. Or our friend David Menzies, who's been arrested time and
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time again, simply for reporting on these Hamas extremists? Here's a sample of some of those.
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What's wrong with you guys? We told you, who are you guys? What do you mean you guys?
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See this? My grandfather spent five years of his life fighting the Nazis. You think I'm going to bend the
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knee to the Islamo Nazis? No. What crime on my committee? Come on. Enforce the law. Obey your oath office.
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Obey your oath. Yeah. What am I doing here? Huh? Hey, hey.
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They're threatening Joe Warmington, and I think they tried to intimidate me, but either I
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was too stupid to understand it or too stubborn to go with it.
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They're trying to stop coverage, stop asking questions about the mayor's accusation that
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the police itself refused to prosecute pro-Hamas extremists.
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And in so doing, in making threats against Joe Warmington, I'm guessing they were trying
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They were showing, they were taking a harder line against peaceful journalism than they
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The fact that they arrested David time and again, and even arrested me, but wouldn't
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arrest these foreign nationals who are not only whipping up anti-Semitism, but are breaking
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Don't you think this is quite a news story after all?
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I should tell you the people of Toronto think so.
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So here's an image from the Toronto Sun website, which shows the hottest stories by view count.
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You might think that the story I've just described is a little bit of inside baseball that no
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Well, if that's what you think, you'd be wrong.
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The number one story on the Toronto Sun website is precisely Joe Warmington describing this.
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And it rings true that it could be this Falguni Devnath.
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So all we have is our speculation and the mayor's accusation.
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I'm less concerned about politics and gossip and inside baseball than I am about the fact
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that every week these pro-Hamas activists take to the streets.
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And every night somewhere in the greater Toronto area, there is some anti-Semitic vandalism,
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shooting, Molotov cocktails in Montreal, vandalism of synagogues.
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And I'm worried that if someone like those Bondi Beach terrorists came to the idea that
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they were going to take steps and murder some Jews, they could find it easy to do so.
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In fact, I see in the papers today that there was a young man who was already caught up in
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our justice system, who was arrested with firearms and was planning to kill Jewish students,
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He was planning on it and he was arrested before he had a chance.
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Now, had he acted on his plans, I don't know if he could have been stopped.
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I truly think it's only a matter of time before one of the hundreds of thousands of extremist
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anti-Semitic Muslim migrants to this country says, I'm going to do what ISIS encourages me to do,
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what Hamas encourages me to do, and what the hero and the martyrs in Australia did.
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And I'm worried about that because nothing has been done.
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And if the reason nothing has been done is because of a Pakistani-born United Nations lawyer
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at the Toronto Police Service who stops any charges from being made, well, that's an important story
00:26:35.560
And I'm glad I'm obviously too stupid to realize when I'm being threatened by a senior
00:26:54.220
You know, the other day we announced that Tamara Leach, the Joan of Arc of the Truckers,
00:27:00.740
And that was a bit of work to accomplish because we had to approve her job description with her
00:27:07.920
I know that sounds nuts, but remember she's under house arrest.
00:27:11.040
So we need to let the government know every time she has to go and do a story, come to
00:27:20.660
But on the other hand, I look at it as a way that she can be productive and do things.
00:27:25.540
And of course, she worked with Rebel News before she was sentenced by the court.
00:27:32.800
But you may have seen, and keen-eyed viewers who love their Rebel videos would have seen,
00:27:39.160
that we have recently brought on board another journalist, too, who has done, I don't know,
00:27:45.380
And I thought, well, good heavens, let's invite her on the show to do a proper introduction.
00:27:49.720
Joining us now via Zoom is our latest talent, Scarlett.
00:27:56.660
And thanks for your work over the last couple of weeks.
00:28:06.600
I feel the same way because these are things that I want to talk about.
00:28:11.700
So going with the Rebel brand, a few things happen.
00:28:17.480
So they know, okay, this is going to be populist.
00:28:20.100
This is going to be on the side of the little guy.
00:28:22.500
And in the case of, you know, the Palestinian protests, people know we're on the side of Canadians
00:28:32.020
We're not on the side of people shrieking about she had.
00:28:34.220
So when you wear that Rebel hat or that Rebel shirt to go out there, our reputation precedes you.
00:28:45.620
Why don't you tell our viewers a little bit about yourself?
00:28:47.400
Yeah, well, I guess my life changed when I went to the Freedom Convoy in 2022.
00:28:56.220
I first saw the whisperings of it on Facebook and I was like, yes, somebody's doing something about this.
00:29:02.220
And then last minute, I decided to go to Ottawa.
00:29:05.760
I thought it was just going to be the weekend and I ended up staying three and a half weeks and it changed my life in every way.
00:29:11.560
I met all of the new people that I know now through that.
00:29:15.180
I wasn't afraid to hold my opinion back anymore.
00:29:23.460
So I just kept speaking up and speaking my mind and it's eventually led me here, I guess.
00:29:29.780
You know, it was a crucible for so many people to wake up and it changed things.
00:29:36.340
I mean, Erin O'Toole was deposed as leader of the Conservatives, Jason Kenney in Alberta.
00:29:42.360
So it had huge seismic effects in politics, in journalism, and I think in the hearts and minds of millions of Canadians.
00:29:48.840
So your story is interesting and it's not unique.
00:29:55.460
I have seen you on a number of occasions at some of these street, I'm not going to say street battles,
00:30:01.680
but there have been street protests in Toronto, pro-Israel ones.
00:30:08.260
And people say, oh, why are you saying pro-Hamas?
00:30:12.800
At these protests I've been to, they are pro-Hamas.
00:30:15.900
They even once had its reenactment of Hamas leader Yaya Sinwar.
00:30:32.220
And at that point I wasn't fully informed of the entirety of the Palestine-Israel conflict.
00:30:41.200
I talked about it with my mom in the past, but I didn't know everything.
00:30:45.740
But my initial reaction was to, I was hurting for Israel after the horrendous footage we saw.
00:30:51.900
And then I don't even think it was two days later.
00:31:02.880
And then I saw that these people were supporting what had happened on October 7th.
00:31:10.600
I'm like, after what I just saw, there were people in our streets, in the Capitol, supporting this.
00:31:15.800
So I took a step back and I was like, I need to educate myself.
00:31:19.740
I took like a month or two just reading, watching documentaries, talking to people,
00:31:24.400
and eventually came back to my initial instinct to stand with Israel, even more so now that I've learned more.
00:31:32.320
And the fact that more people aren't speaking up for the Jewish community here even,
00:31:37.000
you don't even have to be standing up for Israel, but the Jewish people here blows my mind.
00:31:44.320
We learned about what happened leading up to World War II.
00:31:50.000
And because people are not speaking up like I am, I feel like I have to be even louder.
00:32:06.840
I'm worried about, you know, people shrieking, people walking through residential areas,
00:32:20.480
In fact, let me throw to the next story, because in the last couple of weeks, you've done a few things.
00:32:25.320
You've covered the weekly protests at this intersection of Bathurst and Shepard.
00:32:34.640
And then I want to show another clip where you went to Markham, Ontario, which is part of the greater Toronto area,
00:32:41.720
to talk about an MP who crossed the floor from the Conservatives to the Liberals.
00:32:46.940
So first, here's one of your first reports at that weekly protest where Palestinian and Jewish Canadians face off.
00:32:57.800
Australia was blessed with this modern-day Maccabee who spoke the word of God and spoke the truth.
00:33:08.280
Rabbi Schlanger is now dead, but his message of truth will echo throughout the ages.
00:33:16.480
Are you seeing a lot of parallels with what's happening in Australia and here in Canada as well?
00:33:24.100
I mean, it can happen right now, for all we know.
00:33:31.840
I don't know who came up with it, but first they come for the Saturday people, then they come for the Sunday people.
00:33:39.240
Is there a reason that we're in the Jewish neighborhood,
00:33:42.340
the largest Jewish neighborhood in Canada today after the first night of Hanukkah?
00:33:50.720
Nobody has an answer why we're in a Jewish neighborhood on the first night of Hanukkah, no?
00:33:56.560
Scarlett, now you were saying that this was actually a special event.
00:34:00.200
There was a menorah lighting for the holiday of Hanukkah,
00:34:03.260
but it looked like the Hamas side was there still blasting away.
00:34:07.860
And they sort of swarmed you, but you kept your calm, you were well composed.
00:34:18.020
Yeah, so like I explained in the report, the pro-Israel rallies that were at the intersection of Bathurst and Shepard,
00:34:24.560
they actually concluded in October once all of the living hostages had returned.
00:34:28.520
But the pro-Hamas side continued to show up every Sunday in the same neighborhood.
00:34:34.620
And because they didn't have a specific crowd to target,
00:34:37.180
they started going through residential areas, carrying on doing their thing.
00:34:44.260
But we have come back this past Sunday for the first night of Hanukkah, for the menorah lighting.
00:34:49.500
And yeah, of course, I interviewed people in the Jewish community.
00:34:55.400
And then towards the end, we were like, maybe we can get an opinion from the other side.
00:35:00.740
Normally, the police do not let anybody from the Israel side of the street cross the street to the pro-Palestine protesters.
00:35:09.640
But I think because I was doing journalism, I had the guise of being with the press.
00:35:16.480
And the police just watched as they swarmed me, tried to have a conversation,
00:35:22.700
asked a few of them why they thought it was appropriate to be there on the first night of Hanukkah.
00:35:27.380
No justifiable argument, of course, just shrieking, yelling around me.
00:35:34.380
Yeah, protesting against a Jewish holiday sort of shows it's not about Israel or this land or that land.
00:35:41.320
They just don't like Jews, which I think they'll admit if they're candid.
00:35:53.060
I understand from reports that he had met with the Chinese embassy just a few days earlier.
00:36:04.480
But an MP, a Chinese-Canadian MP, in a rioting that is hotly contested by the Chinese influence – I'm not talking about Chinese-Canadian influence.
00:36:13.960
I'm talking about the People's Republic of China is messing around.
00:36:17.600
This is one of the 11 districts that was compromised.
00:36:19.960
And suddenly, a Chinese-Canadian MP crosses the floor.
00:36:27.100
And ordinary people on the street, a lot of them were not comfy with it.
00:36:37.460
The Red Liberal government sees itself as a player.
00:36:40.780
It is picking winners and losers through that age-old enemy of human progress, central planning, and interventionism.
00:36:57.200
So do you feel like you're being represented by the switch?
00:37:01.680
It looked tough to get people – I mean, it's hard to get people to stop and talk, especially when it's cold out.
00:37:08.040
But you spoke to one Chinese-Canadian who said she was not pleased at all by this.
00:37:15.220
Because there was another MP from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, who crossed the floor a few weeks ago, too.
00:37:19.720
I guess there's really nothing you can do about it.
00:37:21.580
But are the grassroots in Markham – do they seem angry?
00:37:27.600
There's been – there was a protest last week, or I believe on Monday, in front of his office that we covered.
00:37:33.580
And then there's going to be another one tomorrow at, I believe, 2 p.m.
00:37:40.160
They voted for a Conservative candidate, not a Liberal one.
00:37:43.820
Unfortunately, as it seems with most Liberal scandals, I think the Liberals are just going to try and ignore it until it blows over.
00:37:53.240
But I don't think that protesters are going to stop anytime soon.
00:37:59.080
And I know you're going to learn our tricks of the trade from our whole team, whether it's our chief reporter, Sheila Gunn-Reed, our managing editor, Tamera Ugolini, David the Menzoid Menzies.
00:38:10.100
There's a whole bunch of people here who have been doing that rebel style of journalism for years, and we're at your disposal.
00:38:17.860
You know, you're going to take a break over Christmas, as all of us will, but you're going to start with the – I think you're going to be doing something in the field tomorrow.
00:38:25.400
But I'm really looking forward to starting the new year with a bang with you, and thank you so much for joining our team.
00:38:30.480
I think you've got the number one element of being a rebel, and I told you this when we interviewed you for the position.
00:38:36.020
The number one thing a rebel news journalism has to have is courage.
00:38:41.520
Courage to say something that someone might not want to hear.
00:38:48.540
You showed that courage when you were at Bathurst and Shepard, were surrounded by screaming pro-Hamas protesters, and you didn't blink.
00:38:55.560
So I think you've got the courage in spades, and the rest will come in time.
00:39:18.780
Your letters to me on Michelle Rempel-Garner's conversation about immigration.
00:39:24.400
Rina says, I agree with Michelle on all immigration issues 100%.
00:39:28.780
I think a little more needs to be done above what Michelle has mentioned, the only way to get back to normal immigration standard before 2015.
00:39:55.600
I think it's the only way to fix the problem, because it's untenable.
00:39:59.860
Memory Lane Canada says, I live in the same neighborhood as you, Ezra.
00:40:02.660
I'm not Jewish, but I, too, share your concerns about the chips and hummus group at that exact corner every weekend, because simply by living in this neighborhood, I become Jewish by association.
00:40:11.980
I've been in this neighborhood for over 35 years.
00:40:14.040
It is not the neighborhood it was prior to 2020.
00:40:16.720
Now, coincidentally, things began to change in 2015.
00:40:19.240
Yeah, in 2015, Justin Trudeau, first of all, switched sides on the Palestinian-Jewish-Israel question, but more importantly, let in literally millions of people who not only hate the Jews, but hate Christians and hate Canada, too.
00:40:35.400
Paul Kaye says, all you have to do is look at the present immigration minister, and you will know why it's a complete mess.
00:40:42.320
Oh, our current immigration minister, I mean, they really give it to the weakest member of cabinet each time.
00:40:49.360
Fantable says, Canada is finished, destroyed beyond repair.
00:40:53.280
Well, you might be right, but there's enough chance that you're wrong that it's worth fighting.
00:41:01.560
Remember, it wasn't just Michelle Rempel-Garner who said that.
00:41:04.380
When I spoke to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith a few days ago, she said she was in favor of dramatic changes to immigration, including a new rule that you couldn't get social services in Alberta until you paid in for, I think she said, 10 years.
00:41:17.740
So that would dissuade a lot of people from coming to this country and maybe get the remigration process happening.
00:41:27.020
Until next time, on behalf of all of us at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night, and keep fighting for freedom.