Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ While Canadians focus on Trump tariffs and Carney, Trudeau's worst allies raid the bank

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. While the world, or at least while Canadians, are focused on the Trump trade wars and the Carney selection,

00:00:08.780 Trudeau's cabinet ministers are raiding hundreds of millions of dollars and shoveling it out the door to their terrorist friends.

00:00:16.840 I'll show you the news, but first let me invite you to become a subscriber to what we call Rebel News Plus.

00:00:22.280 It's the video version of this podcast. Today in particular, I want you to see a video from Syria.

00:00:27.900 It shows you what's going on over there that most of the media is ignoring.

00:00:32.500 It's eight bucks a month. Go to rebelnewsplus.com, and you don't just get the video content.

00:00:37.420 You get the satisfaction of helping Rebel News stay strong and independent.

00:00:41.340 We take no government money, and it shows.

00:00:57.900 Tonight, while Canadians are distracted by the Trump tariffs or the ascent of Mark Carney, Trudeau's worst allies raid the bank.

00:01:07.420 It's March 13th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:09.880 Well, it's not a very strong democracy, Canada.

00:01:17.620 You know, we like to lord it over other countries in the third world.

00:01:22.700 Obviously, we assume we're better than the Americans. 0.99

00:01:24.900 We don't have the same checks and balances they do.

00:01:27.600 The parliament has not yet returned. We're still prorogued.

00:01:30.840 What's the excuse?

00:01:32.140 Mark Carney is jetting off to Europe for a one-week junket,

00:01:36.880 rather than dealing with the crisis at home.

00:01:40.480 Trudeau is still jutting around until the last minute.

00:01:44.340 He was getting as many taxpayer-funded private jet flights in as he could.

00:01:49.360 Mark Carney's been flying private jets for the past few days, too, even before he was sworn in.

00:01:53.320 I don't quite get that.

00:01:54.960 Why was he getting all the perks and privileges of being prime minister when he was not that yet?

00:01:59.640 He was getting confidential security briefings as well.

00:02:02.880 By the way, I don't believe the vote that selected him.

00:02:07.280 I've told you my facts.

00:02:08.500 I don't know any more facts than what I've told you.

00:02:11.100 But based on those facts, I do not believe that Mark Carney is the legitimate winner of the liberal vote.

00:02:18.780 400,000 people registered to vote.

00:02:21.340 That's what the Liberal Party said.

00:02:22.920 But only 150,000 of them were verified.

00:02:26.140 Who were they?

00:02:27.200 Who were the ones who were disqualified?

00:02:29.180 We don't know.

00:02:30.360 And no one in the regime media seems to ask.

00:02:32.340 The fake debate gave away a lot of it for me.

00:02:35.680 So obviously collusion.

00:02:37.380 It was like a simulation of a debate.

00:02:39.920 And the MP who would have must things up for them, Ruby Dalla, she was kicked out. 0.99

00:02:44.940 But they did take her 350 grand. 0.96

00:02:47.800 But what really did it for me was the extremely unlikely voting results that were far too uniform to be believable.

00:02:55.960 In every riding, it was the same.

00:02:59.600 And I checked Chrystia Freeland's home riding.

00:03:02.260 Only 188 souls voted for.

00:03:04.880 Karina Gould in Burlington.

00:03:06.220 Only 190 people.

00:03:08.200 And Mark Carney loved every way.

00:03:10.580 But equally.

00:03:11.580 In equal measure.

00:03:12.660 No, I'm sorry.

00:03:13.280 I don't buy it.

00:03:13.900 And when I asked an AI engine to run different simulations, it said it was 97.3% unlikely.

00:03:22.380 Only a 2.7% likelihood that those numbers were untampered with.

00:03:27.300 But there's no one to complain since all four of the candidates are in it together.

00:03:31.060 And no journalist would ask, even if they would be granted access to the great man.

00:03:35.860 You know, China, the People's Republic of China, has expressed its interest in interfering with this very thing.

00:03:44.180 It's one thing for them to fight battles for nominations for different MPs.

00:03:48.620 But imagine the whole enchilada.

00:03:50.780 Imagine getting the whole thing by helping to select the prime minister himself.

00:03:56.080 Yeah.

00:03:57.420 Hey, I got a question for you.

00:03:58.920 I mean, I've been involved peripherally in politics for a while.

00:04:03.980 When I was much younger, I actually ran for office.

00:04:06.240 I don't know if you know that.

00:04:07.100 I was briefly the Reform Party or the Canadian Alliance candidate in Calgary Southwest before Stephen Hawker stepped in.

00:04:13.660 So I have some experience with voting and scrutineers and checking and double-checking.

00:04:17.600 You know what a scrutineer is, right?

00:04:18.940 You have neutral counters typically working for Elections Canada or Elections Ontario, Elections Alberta, whatever, or some organization.

00:04:27.260 And then you have partisans watching the neutral counter.

00:04:30.980 Each one making sure that their team doesn't get the short end of a stick.

00:04:36.640 You literally have everyone watching the count.

00:04:39.380 I saw that again when I was in Clacton-on-Sea in the United Kingdom.

00:04:42.380 That's Nigel Farage's riding when he was elected last July.

00:04:45.960 It was amazing how much scrutinizing there was.

00:04:50.160 They counted and recounted till 4 a.m.

00:04:52.780 And everyone knew it was legit.

00:04:56.080 Hey, I got a question for you.

00:04:57.300 How do you scrutineer an online vote?

00:05:01.920 How do you scrutineer 250,000 voters being disqualified?

00:05:06.520 How do you even go through that?

00:05:08.600 How do you scrutineer these digital results?

00:05:12.120 And how would you if it's all an inside deal anyways?

00:05:16.080 Well, yeah, I'm sorry.

00:05:17.580 I just don't believe it.

00:05:18.720 But I want to tell you what's going on while we're distracted.

00:05:22.520 While Justin Trudeau is swanning around the world, I think he's finally gone now.

00:05:27.280 I'm not sure.

00:05:28.200 How many goodbye videos has he's done?

00:05:29.960 It's sick.

00:05:31.380 And I think that by the time, I mean, I don't know exactly.

00:05:33.780 Actually, it's tomorrow, isn't it?

00:05:35.300 It's tomorrow that Carney will be sworn in.

00:05:39.380 While we're focused on those circuses, Trudeau's men know where the, by the way, right now,

00:05:44.560 Justin Trudeau is still prime minister.

00:05:45.860 And his men are raiding the bank.

00:05:50.680 You know, in the United States, they're doing the opposite.

00:05:53.100 They're locking the safe in the bank.

00:05:56.360 The Doge, that's the Department of Government Efficiency led by Elon Musk and his tech bros,

00:06:01.600 are going through all the spending in the United States.

00:06:04.320 I mean, amazing little anecdotes.

00:06:06.680 Like, they're paying people Social Security who are allegedly 200 years old.

00:06:11.440 They're still getting paid, or there's more people getting Social Security than there are

00:06:16.460 human beings in America.

00:06:17.940 Like, it's just astonishing statistics.

00:06:21.740 But they're shutting down waste.

00:06:23.460 In fact, they're shutting down entire departments and agencies sometimes, including one called

00:06:27.860 USAID, which was a kind of foreign aid.

00:06:31.340 And as American taxpayers are being relieved of tens or hundreds of billions of dollars, not

00:06:38.120 just in obligations, but in many cases, fraud and abuse and outright theft.

00:06:42.540 Well, Canada, correction, Justin Trudeau's cronies are raiding the bank even in their last

00:06:50.380 hours.

00:06:51.380 Look at this story.

00:06:52.140 This is the global news version.

00:06:55.380 Canada gives $272 million in aid to Bangladesh.

00:07:01.640 Indo-Pacific, as USAID shuttered.

00:07:04.240 So to get that, Elon Musk is saving Americans billions of dollars, and Trudeau, and in this

00:07:11.600 case, Ahmaud Hussner, saying, no, no, no, Bangladesh, that's very important to us.

00:07:16.940 We're big shots.

00:07:18.260 We're only in power a few more days.

00:07:20.480 Let's just take the money. 0.80

00:07:22.800 Who's going to stop us?

00:07:24.600 The media, parliament, they're still dissolved.

00:07:27.900 Who's going to stop us?

00:07:29.480 Let's steal a quarter billion dollars. 0.91

00:07:31.380 Let me read the story.

00:07:32.000 Canada's Minister of International Development, Ahmaud Hussner, unveiled $272.1 million.

00:07:37.460 I love that, 0.1.

00:07:38.880 In new funding on Sunday for foreign aid projects in Bangladesh and the Indo-Pacific region.

00:07:44.800 Quote, Canada continues to fiercely strengthen our long-lasting friendship with Bangladesh.

00:07:50.700 Oh, really?

00:07:52.200 And the wider Indo-Pacific region with our long-standing people-to-people ties, Hussner said in a statement,

00:07:57.380 by supporting vulnerable communities' health care services, empowering women, and addressing climate change.

00:08:02.900 Okay, so you're just burning them.

00:08:05.000 Why don't you just take a bale of hundreds and throw them in the bonfire?

00:08:09.060 We are creating a brighter tomorrow for the global community.

00:08:13.160 How about the community of Canadian taxpayers?

00:08:15.740 And this was announced as a counterpoint to the United States.

00:08:20.020 Quote, the money to be spent alongside contributions from other foreign partners and donors will provide new funding for 14 different projects in Bangladesh and other countries in the Indo-Pacific region.

00:08:30.100 The federal liberal government's move highlights a dramatically different Canadian approach to foreign development assistance compared to American Republican President Donald Trump's government,

00:08:38.020 which halted funding through the United States Agency for International Development, USAID.

00:08:43.560 So they're buying nurses in Bangladesh, not that we need nurses in Canada.

00:08:48.120 Let me quote from the press release.

00:08:52.060 One project, or this is from Global News, one project was described as empowering women in the nursing sector.

00:08:58.860 It includes a $6.3 million funding boost over three years to Canadian company Cowater International, the government stated.

00:09:05.420 So more than a quarter billion dollars we will never see again.

00:09:10.100 As they say, foreign aid is taking from the poor people in one country to give to the rich people in another country.

00:09:16.540 They're taking the money from Canadians to give to cronies and schemers and consultants in Bangladesh. 0.84

00:09:23.060 Outrageous.

00:09:24.080 But look at this.

00:09:25.440 This is from Omar Al-Gabra.

00:09:27.300 That's the Islamist extremist who basically was the co-chair, effectively, of Justin Trudeau's campaign back 10 years ago.

00:09:37.480 I knew him before he was an MP.

00:09:39.320 He was the head of the Canadian Arab Federation.

00:09:41.480 He wanted to legalize Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist groups in Canada.

00:09:45.640 But really, there's no need, is there?

00:09:47.220 I mean, they're already de facto legal, aren't they?

00:09:50.520 Here's to Toronto Police doing a Toronto Police podcast about how the October 7th massacre of Jews actually has a silver lining, guys. 0.99

00:10:02.120 It's funny you say this because, you know, through social media, a lot of people, after October 7th, started learning about Islam.

00:10:10.420 They did, yeah.

00:10:10.980 And they said, okay, what is it with the religion that everyone, why is it so hated?

00:10:16.220 You know what I mean?

00:10:16.700 Why are they being attacked all the time?

00:10:18.940 So people say, you know what, let me learn about Islam.

00:10:21.080 And there have been a lot of reverts through this whole process.

00:10:26.080 I couldn't imagine, like, I guess when you're on social media, most of the feeds come through you.

00:10:31.580 Once you see one, it just keeps coming.

00:10:33.800 But the amount of people that are reverting to Islam is unbelievable.

00:10:38.620 And they're just, I guess, through education, right?

00:10:41.200 They're actually educating themselves and saying, what is it that Muslims are being targeted?

00:10:49.660 And why are they being targeted?

00:10:51.040 Let me learn about this religion.

00:10:52.520 What are these accusations that they're saying about Islam?

00:10:56.480 And let me learn about it myself and figure out, hey, is it actually true or not?

00:11:00.260 Yeah, and those same police said that you shouldn't criticize pro-Hamas protesters because that's Islamophobic.

00:11:06.700 Did you see that video too?

00:11:08.620 And that is something that we celebrate in Canada, the freedom of speech.

00:11:11.620 However, when we have somebody labeling a certain group as something they're not, all of a sudden now it becomes, when there's an Islamophobic undertone, if someone is calling a Palestinian rally a Hamas rally, then all of a sudden people start getting afraid.

00:11:28.200 And they think, oh, wow, these are people that support an entity that's been labeled as a terrorist organization.

00:11:32.660 However, the people that are there protesting, they're there for a different cause altogether.

00:11:36.960 So then that becomes active discrimination when you classify an entire group with a group that they don't even identify with.

00:11:44.480 So that's the challenge.

00:11:45.460 And it creates fear, right?

00:11:47.140 It creates curfew within different communities.

00:11:49.460 Confusion, fear.

00:11:50.260 Confusion, fear.

00:11:51.300 And it creates a divide.

00:11:52.480 Yeah.

00:11:52.640 So no need to legalize Hamas. 0.89

00:11:56.040 It's sort of been legalized already.

00:11:58.360 So anyways, Omar al-Ghabra is back in the news because Trudeau appointed him to be Canada's point man towards Syria.

00:12:06.860 And of course, Syria is now under a, you know, now that they've displaced Bashar Assad, he's being replaced with an Islamic terrorist. 0.95

00:12:18.440 And in the final hours of Trudeau's rule, Omar al-Ghabra shoveled them some money. 0.64

00:12:25.840 Let me read, before I do that, let me show you, let me prove to you how horrific the new Syrian terrorist leader is. 0.91

00:12:32.300 Take a look at the ethnic cleansing. 0.66

00:12:34.540 They're specifically targeting Christians, by the way.

00:12:36.640 Take a look. 0.98

00:12:55.840 Super gross. 0.71

00:13:18.360 Here, let me read Omar al-Ghabra's tweet.

00:13:20.120 Today, the government of Canada announced several key measures to help the Syrian people build a stable country that respects all of its citizens.

00:13:28.900 Eighty-four million dollars in humanitarian aid, easing economic sanctions, restoring diplomatic relations.

00:13:36.200 Hang on.

00:13:38.120 They're massacring Christians and Alawites, which is another ethnicity, and Druze, which is another. 1.00

00:13:44.100 They're massacring them. 0.97

00:13:46.540 I think they killed over a thousand Christians.

00:13:48.900 And you're easing sanctions, and you're renewing diplomatic relations, and you're shoveling them nearly a hundred million dollars.

00:14:00.120 They're robbing the bank in their final hours.

00:14:02.800 But Mark Carney is the same.

00:14:04.900 Here's his first tweet on foreign affairs.

00:14:07.080 It has been more than two days that the supply of electricity to Gaza has been cut off.

00:14:12.400 It must resume.

00:14:13.780 Essentials, including food, electricity, and medical supplies, should never be used as political tools, unless you're Doug Ford.

00:14:20.460 Canada must work with our allies to stand up for international law, to promote sustainable peace and security in the Middle East,

00:14:27.020 and to support full access to humanitarian aid for Palestinian families.

00:14:31.320 As this work continues, both parties must work towards the return of all hostages and the completion of the ceasefire agreement.

00:14:40.260 There is no terrorist group that these people won't support.

00:14:44.740 Welcome to Mark Carney's Canada, the same as Trudeau's Canada, but worse.

00:14:51.620 Stay with us, Moorhead.

00:15:01.320 If you were to ask me to describe the British justice system, the police, the prosecutions, the courts, the prisons,

00:15:12.120 I would have to answer honestly with the words, it depends.

00:15:17.060 I mean, it depends who you are.

00:15:19.580 Not what you did, but who was doing it.

00:15:22.680 I give you the example of my friend Tommy Robinson, who right now is serving nine months in solitary confinement.

00:15:28.100 He was actually sentenced to the maximum two years, but the kind of math, you reduce it by a few months there, a few months here, you're out.

00:15:35.160 Anyhow, he'll be out in a grand total of nine months, served in solitary confinement, not for any crime.

00:15:43.120 He hasn't actually been convicted of a crime.

00:15:45.880 It's a civil offense he did.

00:15:47.580 He wouldn't take a video down from Twitter.

00:15:50.620 That's an extremely harsh sentence.

00:15:52.480 Other than Julian Assange, I don't know of anyone in the world who has spent nine months in solitary confinement.

00:15:57.700 I don't think it's healthy.

00:15:59.500 By contrast, thousands of different rape gang members in the United Kingdom, these are men who repeatedly rape young girls again and again in these child exploitation networks.

00:16:14.100 They're typically sentenced to a couple of years in jail and get out much sooner for a much more heinous crime.

00:16:20.360 So I say again, you know, where you stand is based on where you sit over there and who you are.

00:16:28.620 And that's why the British prime minister has a nickname.

00:16:31.740 His name is Keir Starmer, but everywhere he's called Two-Tier Keir.

00:16:37.000 And he was even asked about it when he visited the White House.

00:16:41.580 J.D. Vance asked him some questions about the state of freedom of speech, and it depends on who you are.

00:16:47.160 Let me show you a little bit of that exchange. Take a look.

00:16:49.880 I said what I said, which is that we do have, of course, a special relationship with our friends in the U.K.

00:16:55.700 and also with some of our European allies.

00:16:57.360 But we also know that there have been infringements on free speech that actually affect not just the British, of course, what the British do in their own country is up to them,

00:17:07.820 but also affect American technology companies and, by extension, American citizens.

00:17:11.920 So that is something that we'll talk about today at lunch.

00:17:14.420 Thank you.

00:17:14.580 We've had free speech for a very, very long time in the United Kingdom, and it will last for a very, very long time.

00:17:21.000 Well, no, I mean, certainly we wouldn't want to reach across U.S. citizens, and we don't, and that's absolutely right.

00:17:27.520 But in relation to free speech in the U.K., I'm very proud of our history there.

00:17:31.960 Yeah, I think it used to be true that the United Kingdom had a lot of free speech, but I think J.D. Vance is on to something there.

00:17:39.380 You have free speech if you say the right things, but, of course, that's not free speech at all.

00:17:44.060 Now, let's transpose that to Canada.

00:17:47.420 Do we have two-tier justice in Canada also?

00:17:50.800 I'd like to think we're not as far down that path as the United States, but sometimes I don't know.

00:17:56.300 Let me give you the example of the harassment hate marches that the Hamas protesters have done in Canada over the past year and a half. 0.73

00:18:05.120 I'm not just talking about mean words.

00:18:07.480 I'm talking about actual crimes, uttering threats, trespass, mischief, stalking.

00:18:13.520 I mean, yes, there's hate crimes as well, but I'm not a big fan of those.

00:18:17.640 But how about the other real crimes?

00:18:21.160 Have any of them been prosecuted?

00:18:23.140 I think of how long some of those hate encampments were allowed to fester on university property.

00:18:29.200 So there was the trespass element, too.

00:18:31.420 And remember, many of those encampments were staffed by non-students.

00:18:36.620 Compare that.

00:18:37.440 Compare how police forces in Canada have positively acted as concierges for these Hamas hate protests.

00:18:46.060 Well, compare that to how the trucker convoy was treated in Ottawa in 2022.

00:18:51.660 They didn't harass anyone.

00:18:53.260 They didn't trespass.

00:18:54.920 What they did do is they had some parking violations, and they honked their horns, at least until a judge told them to stop.

00:19:02.380 That's it.

00:19:03.480 In fact, as you may know, crime in Ottawa went down.

00:19:06.920 Nonetheless, they were treated not to the concierge-style police service that we've seen for the Hamas protesters,

00:19:13.820 but Justin Trudeau actually invoked martial law using the Emergencies Act for the first time in history.

00:19:20.840 Like I say, two-tier justice.

00:19:23.580 Well, is that what's happening now in Ottawa?

00:19:27.680 Because a group of Ottawa leftists, led by a bureaucrat named Zexy Lee, have filed a class-action lawsuit—actually, they filed it a few years ago—against Tamara Leach and Chris Barber and the truckers—for a staggering $290 million.

00:19:47.140 For what?

00:19:49.500 Was this the greatest bank heist in history?

00:19:52.400 No, that's how much they claim they and the rest of their class was harmed by the trucks honking their horns for a few days in Ottawa.

00:20:01.260 Bad news is the federal court—sorry, the Court of Appeal of Ontario recently upheld Zexy Lee's right to proceed, denying an application by Chris Barber and Tamara Leach that this was simply a slap suit, a strategic litigation against public participation.

00:20:21.300 The truckers went to court and said, you're on, or kick this stuff out.

00:20:25.460 It's just a censorship action.

00:20:27.460 And the court said, no, we'll let it proceed.

00:20:29.060 Joining us now to talk about it is one of the lawyers on this project.

00:20:32.140 He's with the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms.

00:20:34.320 His name is James Manson.

00:20:35.840 It's good to have you back, James.

00:20:36.720 Thanks for being here.

00:20:38.160 Hi, Ezra.

00:20:38.720 Thanks for being here.

00:20:40.140 Well, you know what?

00:20:41.060 You guys are fighting the good fight.

00:20:42.600 We're helping to defend Tamara Leach in the criminal court, but the Justice Center is helping to defend her in the civil court.

00:20:50.000 Tell us a little bit—I think we've talked about this before, but not recently.

00:20:54.620 Maybe recap, what is this lawsuit about?

00:20:58.720 Like, how on earth—like $290 million.

00:21:01.080 I feel like I'm listening to Dr. Evil when he puts his pinky to his mouth and says, billion, a trillion.

00:21:07.020 I mean, why not ask for a trillion dollars while you're at it?

00:21:10.040 It's just such a, to me, a laughable answer.

00:21:12.520 What would Zexy Lee, the Ottawa bureaucrat who's one of the faces of this suit, what would she say has been damaged to the extent that she and her friends get $290 million? 0.73

00:21:25.580 Well, Ezra, I want to—I'm glad you asked, and I want to sort of maybe re-situate this for you.

00:21:31.140 I'm not sure that the viewers are really aware of how this all started.

00:21:35.080 Back in 2022, as the Freedom Convoy protest was going on, that's when Ms. Lee started this lawsuit, you know, in the first place. 0.99

00:21:48.740 Originally, this was a much smaller lawsuit.

00:21:52.360 It was only for about $8 or $9 million, I think, which is a lot, but it's obviously only a small fraction of what it is now.

00:22:00.700 Anyway, Ms. Lee was the only plaintiff at that time.

00:22:04.900 It was against a couple of people, a few people, Tamara Leach, Chris Barber, and a few of the other well-known people in Ottawa at the time.

00:22:15.180 And she was only claiming damages for herself and her, you know, some—I think her neighbours, the people in her apartment building directly.

00:22:23.720 It wasn't a very big, you know, area that she was claiming was the subject of a nuisance.

00:22:30.620 This is all about nuisance.

00:22:32.660 And again, for the viewers, Ezra, nuisance is all about enjoyment of your property.

00:22:37.800 You're allowed to enjoy your property in Canada in peace.

00:22:41.920 And basically, she was saying, look, the horns and the diesel fumes that I'm suggesting were everywhere.

00:22:47.360 She's saying, you know, cause us a nuisance. 0.93

00:22:49.640 All right, she's entitled to, you know, to claim that. 0.94

00:22:53.580 We'll see what happens.

00:22:55.400 But it was a very small claim, comparatively.

00:22:58.920 That has since ballooned, exploded into a $290 million Frankenstein, if I could use the term, engaging different classes of plaintiffs.

00:23:14.020 So now it's not only Zexie Lee and her next-door neighbours.

00:23:18.840 Now it's all the businesses in Ottawa, downtown, who had to close.

00:23:24.980 Now it's all the employees who worked in a business that couldn't work because the building was closed or the restaurant was closed or whatever.

00:23:33.760 And it's all the people in the downtown core of Ottawa, not just her neighbourhood, everybody in a wide swath, kilometres long, who happened to be there at the time.

00:23:49.980 And here's the interesting thing, Ezra.

00:23:51.520 The new version of the claim, I don't know if people are aware, it says literally all the people in downtown Ottawa are part of the plaintiffs group except those who supported the Freedom Convoy.

00:24:05.160 So apparently honking horns and nuisances affect only the people on that side of the political whatever divide and this issue and not the others.

00:24:17.380 Horns don't apparently affect people who happened to support anti-COVID protests.

00:24:23.260 I forget the name of the lead lawyer.

00:24:25.560 He's a real leftist activist.

00:24:27.280 Do you remember the name of the lead lawyer in this case?

00:24:29.640 The lead lawyer's name is Paul Champ.

00:24:31.960 Right.

00:24:32.340 And he's a hardcore left-wing guy.

00:24:36.160 This is a feast for lawyers.

00:24:38.780 Now, I don't think Zexy Lee or her friends have any dough. 0.83

00:24:41.900 I guess class actions like this are usually taken on commission, right?

00:24:46.180 The lawyer says, I'll put in, you know, lots of work over the course of years.

00:24:52.760 And if we win, I get a third or a half or whatever.

00:24:56.100 And I guess they have to either just work as volunteers or somehow get some sort of financing.

00:25:01.800 Do we know anything about financing?

00:25:04.500 Is this being propped up with some NGO money or even Government of Canada money?

00:25:09.720 We don't know.

00:25:10.600 We don't know, Ezra.

00:25:11.580 That might come out later in the piece.

00:25:13.800 I don't know.

00:25:15.560 But I think it's important, just since I said later on in the piece, I think it's important for the viewers to understand, right?

00:25:21.360 Coming back to this decision that we're talking about from the Court of Appeal, this is a temporary decision.

00:25:27.800 This is a preliminary decision.

00:25:30.140 It is not the final merit, right?

00:25:32.160 It is not the Court of Appeal saying, hey, Tamara, hey, Chris, you got a pony up $290 million.

00:25:38.420 That's not where we are.

00:25:39.480 We're at the bottom of the first inning in this case.

00:25:43.380 And this issue with the Court of Appeal that you've flagged for us, Ezra, is really the result or the end result of a preliminary motion that we brought.

00:25:57.120 Again, you were talking earlier on just now, Ezra, about the slap litigation.

00:26:02.880 This is essentially a way that somebody uses to try to shut down somebody else because they don't like what they're saying.

00:26:11.140 I'm going to sue you into the ground, Mr. Defendant, unless you shut up and keep your mouth shut. 0.99

00:26:17.160 And if you don't, you're going to pay. 0.93

00:26:19.160 Well, that's essentially a slap, strategic litigation against the court.

00:26:23.440 And it's so obvious.

00:26:24.220 I mean, I saw Zexi Lee testify at the Public Order Inquiry Commission.

00:26:29.020 She couldn't be more of a political activist.

00:26:32.160 Her lawyer, as you mentioned, Paul Champ, is a radical lefty.

00:26:35.980 It's so evident to me this is just a punishment lawsuit against Tamara Leach and Chris Barber.

00:26:41.560 But you're saying the Court of Appeal said, well, no, it may have some elements of that, but there's something underneath it that deserves its day in court.

00:26:49.660 I think that's what you're saying.

00:26:51.400 That's right, Ezra.

00:26:52.140 That's what I'm saying.

00:26:53.000 And there's a lot of dimensions to this case, and I don't want to bog everybody down with all the details.

00:26:59.220 But, for example, one of the things we were arguing was that this case engages the concept of a public nuisance.

00:27:06.700 OK, I just want to be technical for a little bit here.

00:27:09.840 There's a private nuisance in law and there's a public nuisance.

00:27:13.080 Private nuisance is generally, hey, you can't interfere with me when I'm having a beer in the backyard and I'm trying to barbecue some chicken.

00:27:21.760 You can't, you know, play your stereo too loud that I'm annoyed.

00:27:26.820 That's essentially a private nuisance.

00:27:28.820 I can claim damages from you if the court establishes that you have interfered with my property.

00:27:34.940 OK, that's one.

00:27:36.340 Then there's the other concept of public nuisance.

00:27:39.600 Different.

00:27:40.340 What does that mean?

00:27:41.240 Well, that means that there's a community-wide issue going on.

00:27:45.340 For example, the chemical factory on top of the hill is, you know, spewing chemicals all over the place and interfering with everybody's rights to enjoy the atmosphere.

00:27:56.920 Or there's a new runway at the airport and the planes are all coming in and making it impossible for people to enjoy their entire community.

00:28:05.120 Things like that.

00:28:06.480 The reason I bring it up, Ezra, is because public nuisances, generally speaking, are not something that you can sue for.

00:28:14.580 It's a community-wide thing.

00:28:17.000 And normally what that means is the attorney general is supposed to be the one acting on behalf of the people who brings that entire claim against the defendant, whoever it is, the runway, the airport, whatever, on behalf of everybody.

00:28:32.720 And the remedy is not damages.

00:28:34.920 The remedy is an injunction, generally speaking.

00:28:37.820 So what we are suggesting or what we're going to be saying is, to your point, is that in this case, Mr. Champ and Ms. Lee and everybody, they're really putting on the attorney general's hat in this case.

00:28:54.460 And they're suggesting, hey, the attorney general didn't bring a lawsuit, which I guess he could have or she could have.

00:29:01.480 They didn't.

00:29:02.700 So they're suggesting, well, we have the right to and we should.

00:29:06.760 They're basically trying to police and enforce what happened.

00:29:11.980 They're trying to do a private prosecution, really.

00:29:14.280 And by the way, the government, through the Emergencies Act, did them and the federal court said that was illegal and unconstitutional.

00:29:22.140 They got their tickets for parking.

00:29:25.800 You know, it's so obviously a political move to me.

00:29:30.480 And again, this is why I started by talking about two-tier justice.

00:29:33.940 Hey, there's one more thing you said that I just want to jump on.

00:29:35.840 Sorry to interrupt you.

00:29:37.120 You said that this is on behalf of businesses and employees.

00:29:39.780 Look, I was down there for a few days of the truck.

00:29:42.400 I wasn't there for the whole time, of course, but I was down there for a few days.

00:29:45.820 And what I observed was twofold.

00:29:49.000 I observed a ghost town.

00:29:51.420 There were lockdowns, in effect, and there didn't even have to be because Ottawa is a city of public servants.

00:29:59.800 Public servants.

00:30:01.840 Government union workers is maybe a more neutral way of putting it.

00:30:05.580 And they had all been working from home for two years by then.

00:30:09.780 So the idea that this disturbed business, everyone was at home anyways.

00:30:15.440 All the shops and coffee shops and restaurants and stores in downtown Ottawa, it was a ghost town.

00:30:23.000 Because the whole city center was shut down.

00:30:26.060 In fact, I got to tell you, to this day, there's civil servants who have not returned to their office.

00:30:32.660 And same thing on the employee side.

00:30:35.920 I remember going into this little cafeteria, like just a little corner shop sandwich shop in Ottawa.

00:30:42.820 And the elated looks on the owners.

00:30:46.180 Finally, for the first time in memory, they had customers.

00:30:50.140 Happy customers eating and not whining about masks.

00:30:53.400 So not only was it a ghost town to begin with, but the truckers brought life and business.

00:31:01.280 Those truckers were buying stuff every day, whether it was sandwiches and coffee or whatever.

00:31:06.820 I think that this is so patently false.

00:31:10.880 But what you're saying is that the courts didn't say we're going to side with the plaintiffs on the substance.

00:31:17.640 You're saying the courts just said, this will have its day in court.

00:31:22.100 We're not going to throw it out preemptively.

00:31:24.180 Is that a proper statement of things?

00:31:26.940 I think that's right, Ezra.

00:31:28.260 Let's just unpack it a little bit here.

00:31:30.380 What we're talking about, again, in this motion that we brought before the lower court judge,

00:31:35.740 we were suggesting, hey, this is one of those cases where the plaintiffs are trying to shut down legitimate expression,

00:31:43.280 freedom of expression from the defendants.

00:31:45.300 This is not good.

00:31:46.220 It's not on.

00:31:47.640 You've got to toss this.

00:31:49.040 At least you've got to toss some of it.

00:31:51.000 And why some of it?

00:31:52.000 Well, look, it's, again, complicated.

00:31:54.060 But one of the things we were saying, for example, was that there wasn't enough evidence filed by the plaintiffs in the motion to get beyond part of the test.

00:32:05.760 There's a test in the motion.

00:32:07.100 You've got to satisfy the test.

00:32:08.920 One of the steps is, for example, about the merits.

00:32:12.720 Is there enough they're there to warrant this going ahead?

00:32:19.140 Have they filed enough evidence to suggest that, yes, in fact, they're going to win a trial?

00:32:24.940 Well, this isn't a trial.

00:32:26.920 It's a bit of a smell test.

00:32:28.320 But nonetheless, you've got to put enough evidence in.

00:32:31.620 We said they didn't.

00:32:33.280 The Court of Appeal and the lower court judge said, no, we think they did, basically.

00:32:37.960 For the purposes of this preliminary motion, we think it's enough.

00:32:41.440 One of the things we were saying, for example, one of your employees, one of your famous employees, Ezra, his name is Jeffrey Devaney, employee of one of the random restaurants.

00:32:52.300 He claims he couldn't have he couldn't work and he wasn't able to work because the restaurant was shut down and therefore he's claiming damages.

00:33:00.520 Well, anyway, long story short, Jeffrey Devaney didn't file any evidence on this motion.

00:33:07.260 Zero.

00:33:08.120 I don't know where Jeffrey is.

00:33:09.380 I don't know why he didn't file any evidence, but he didn't.

00:33:12.460 So we said, how can Mr. Devaney be a plaintiff?

00:33:16.760 How how can the court conclude that he's got a good claim if he doesn't even provide one shred of evidence?

00:33:24.180 And ultimately, the lower court said and the Court of Appeal agreed that it was OK.

00:33:31.220 There was some other stuff in the record that they could point to that was OK enough.

00:33:36.500 We're not going to dismiss it now.

00:33:38.260 And and here's the bottom line.

00:33:42.140 I think that the Court of Appeal just kind of wanted to let this move on to the next step of the proceeding.

00:33:49.380 They don't want to use this slap mechanism as a very heavy sledgehammer.

00:33:55.760 They just want to make it a bit more of a swinging gate, if you will.

00:34:00.580 It's not going to be very hard to get beyond this.

00:34:03.520 Only very egregious cases will be shut down at this step.

00:34:08.320 Oh, sorry.

00:34:09.880 Go ahead.

00:34:10.520 No, no, that's I was listening to what you were saying.

00:34:13.600 And I was just thinking.

00:34:16.200 That there's a lot of politics in law.

00:34:19.020 And I'm sorry, I was I was slightly daydreaming because I was thinking about the defendants here.

00:34:23.480 Chris Barber to Merrill Leach.

00:34:24.780 And they are on trial on the criminal side of things.

00:34:28.720 And that ruling will come out.

00:34:30.500 I think it's going to be in April 3rd now.

00:34:32.800 It's supposed to be late March.

00:34:33.980 It's been delayed a bit.

00:34:35.220 And I have a good feeling about that criminal trial.

00:34:37.900 Now, that's a much higher burden of proof.

00:34:39.880 The prosecutor has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

00:34:42.680 And I attended a lot of those days in court.

00:34:45.780 And there didn't seem to be a lot of evidence that the Crown had at all.

00:34:48.420 So I am cautiously optimistic that Merrill Leach is going to win that one.

00:34:52.180 It feels like this is a dying vestige of whiny leftists that, you know, back in 2022,

00:35:01.100 they thought they were winning the Emergencies Act, riot horses.

00:35:05.420 Wow, we're on the hunt.

00:35:06.800 But now, Emergencies Act tossed out as illegal.

00:35:10.300 I think Merrill Leach is going to be acquitted.

00:35:12.680 It really feels like I'm watching a rerun from an earlier era.

00:35:17.980 This feels like such a nasty political lawsuit.

00:35:23.080 I don't know.

00:35:23.680 I'm just sort of frustrated that the Court of Appeal let it go.

00:35:26.040 But I understand the reasoning you've suggested.

00:35:29.380 What's the next step?

00:35:31.240 Right.

00:35:31.760 Where does this go from here?

00:35:33.380 So this sounds like it will go on to trial.

00:35:36.200 What are we looking at?

00:35:38.080 So, number one, there's going to be another motion.

00:35:40.880 I don't think it's going to be my clients who will bring the motion.

00:35:45.420 It might be a couple of the other defendants.

00:35:47.380 They're probably going to be challenging the venue.

00:35:50.340 I think they're going to want to try to move the case from Ottawa to Toronto.

00:35:54.500 Yeah, good idea.

00:35:55.000 I think they're going to want to try to suggest that they might get a more fair hearing in Toronto.

00:35:59.880 And also, there's a larger team of judges in Toronto with more experience with class actions.

00:36:08.320 It's a more financial center.

00:36:10.580 So that might be a good way, a good reason to move it to Toronto.

00:36:15.340 We'll see about that.

00:36:16.640 But here's the important thing, Ezra.

00:36:19.060 And I think this is what the viewers should look to.

00:36:23.760 Again, this is a proposed class action.

00:36:27.120 A class action is a very strange animal.

00:36:30.960 It's basically where the plaintiff says, hey, I think there ought to be, you know, tons of plaintiffs here.

00:36:39.120 And the defendant is liable to all of us.

00:36:42.620 I'm going to stand up for all the people who are like me.

00:36:46.780 So the quintessential case, of course, Ezra, is like where you have a pacemaker.

00:36:52.200 And the pacemaker has been, you know, it's defective.

00:36:56.380 And you have a heart attack.

00:36:57.640 Some people die.

00:36:58.780 Other people don't die.

00:37:00.040 But they have this bad pacemaker.

00:37:01.620 So they might die at any time.

00:37:03.440 And so you have to sue the manufacturer of the pacemaker.

00:37:06.600 Well, you've got thousands and thousands of people that have this pacemaker.

00:37:10.140 Some of them don't even know they've got this pacemaker, that there's a problem.

00:37:13.260 But the plaintiff says, I'm going to stand up for all of them.

00:37:16.780 Known or unknown, we're going to do this all for them.

00:37:20.360 And they go to the pacemaker manufacturer and they say, hey, you're liable.

00:37:24.840 Anyway, long story short, Ezra, the viewers will appreciate that there is a very serious issue in those cases.

00:37:33.360 Is the pacemaker defective or not, right?

00:37:36.080 And so you can have a whole bunch of like thousands of different cases,

00:37:40.320 each one of them with a different result and a different judge in the courtroom

00:37:44.420 about whether the pacemaker was or wasn't defective.

00:37:47.500 That common issue should be decided once and for all.

00:37:53.520 And that makes sense for us, right?

00:37:55.180 So the procedure of a class action is, hey, take a look at the case.

00:38:00.360 Is there a common issue across all the plaintiffs that you need to establish once and for all?

00:38:07.120 And if that's the case, it makes sense to do it that way, to have a class action.

00:38:12.120 However, Ezra, think about it in this way.

00:38:14.820 Is there a common issue in this case that needs to be decided once and for all?

00:38:21.240 We know there was honking going on.

00:38:23.340 We know there were fumes, okay, maybe coming out of the trucks when they were running, whatever.

00:38:27.460 That's not really an issue.

00:38:30.580 The issue is, did all these plaintiffs, Zexy Lee and all of her 25,000 friends in Ottawa,

00:38:37.840 did they experience a nuisance?

00:38:40.760 But nuisances, Ezra, are personal.

00:38:43.780 They're not across the board.

00:38:46.160 Somebody living in Vanier may have a completely different experience than somebody living,

00:38:51.600 you know, in Centre Town or wherever, you know, Sandy Hill or whatever these,

00:38:55.880 you know, neighbourhoods were in Ottawa that were affected.

00:38:59.020 So ultimately, we're going to be saying that there are no common issues,

00:39:05.420 that this is not a situation where this ought to be a class action at all,

00:39:10.140 because every person will have experienced the protest differently.

00:39:16.160 Some people may not have even been there.

00:39:18.220 Maybe they were in Florida.

00:39:19.520 Maybe they're deaf and they can't hear. 0.97

00:39:21.140 I don't know.

00:39:22.280 So basically, the certification motion, that's what we're driving towards now.

00:39:29.940 That is where the plaintiffs are going to have to establish

00:39:32.860 that the class action that they claim is viable, is a good idea,

00:39:40.080 because there are common issues that need to be resolved once and for all.

00:39:45.200 And we're going to, I mean, it's no secret, Ezra, like I can talk about it.

00:39:48.800 It's no secret.

00:39:49.360 And we're going to be saying there aren't.

00:39:51.880 There just aren't.

00:39:53.220 So basically, we're saying that this can't be a $290 million behemoth. 0.67

00:39:59.320 Well, it's ridiculous on the face of it, and everyone knows it.

00:40:02.080 James, it's great to catch up with you.

00:40:03.320 Thanks for spending so much time with us today.

00:40:05.260 Thank you, Ezra.

00:40:06.060 Cheers.

00:40:06.360 Anytime.

00:40:07.080 There you have it, James Manson of the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedom.

00:40:09.820 Stay with us.

00:40:10.780 More ahead.

00:40:20.240 Hello, my friends.

00:40:21.100 Your letters to me on Trudeau meeting with an alleged Chinese gangster.

00:40:25.380 Tom Salkin says,

00:40:26.480 Well, for one thing, they kept the secret until Trudeau was gone.

00:40:38.460 Isn't that crazy?

00:40:40.260 John Bolt says,

00:40:41.200 You're right.

00:40:46.580 I'm just worried that there's so many parts of the Canadian establishment, the deep state, that would stop that, whether it's the civil service or the courts or the Senate.

00:40:54.160 Greg Rosschat says,

00:40:58.220 The question needs to be asked, what are Carney's connections to China?

00:41:01.720 Well, we are answering those.

00:41:03.220 Sheila Gunn-Reed, in particular, is building up our Carney files.

00:41:07.320 So check out her reports elsewhere on our website.

00:41:10.260 But, oh, of course.

00:41:11.540 I mean, Carney is an internationalist, a globalist.

00:41:15.040 And he rubs shoulders.

00:41:16.760 He's in China all the time.

00:41:18.620 Brookfield is a major investor.

00:41:20.480 That was the company he chaired.

00:41:21.660 Major investor in China.

00:41:22.920 It's like a mini BlackRock.

00:41:25.440 I think they're going to rush the election.

00:41:27.820 So Canadians are foisted, have Mark Carney foisted on us before we even get to know him.

00:41:32.940 That's my theory.

00:41:34.540 Well, this is our show for today.

00:41:36.580 Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night.

00:41:41.460 And keep fighting for freedom.

00:41:52.920 Let's do it.

00:41:57.540 Let's do it.

00:41:59.440 We'll be right back.

00:41:59.800 We'll be right back.

00:42:00.980 Thanks for listening.

Rebel News Podcast - March 13, 2025

EZRA LEVANT ｜ While Canadians focus on Trump tariffs and Carney, Trudeau's worst allies raid the bank

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