Rebel News Podcast - Rebel News takes Trudeau to court — and WINS!

00:00:00.000 tonight rebel news takes justin trudeau to court we're here today how will it end it's october

00:00:21.080 7th and this is the ezra levant show why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon

00:00:28.480 consumer i know there's 8 500 customers here and you won't give them an answer the only thing i have

00:00:34.480 to say to the government about why i'm publishing is because it's my bloody right to do so

00:00:39.420 well i am standing inside the federal court building at 180 queen street west with the

00:00:51.100 symbolic canoes that's the theme of the building here aboriginal reconciliation i wonder if justin

00:00:58.320 trudeau can reconcile himself to freedom of speech the reason i say that is we're here in this

00:01:03.560 court building suing justin trudeau and his hand-picked debates commission because on friday

00:01:09.900 the last possible day they told us that our reporters kian bexty and david menzies were banned

00:01:16.700 prohibited from even attending the leaders debates tonight uh in gatineau just across the river from

00:01:24.040 ottawa we immediately retained a law firm they worked all weekend and here we are on monday morning

00:01:31.500 at the court before the court even opens we don't know how it will go but we know a few things first

00:01:37.580 of all we know we've had to spend ten thousand dollars so far on legal bills the second thing we

00:01:43.960 know is that justin trudeau has put not one not two but three government lawyers on the other side

00:01:51.040 filing more than a hundred pages of arguments why they should not allow conservative journalists in

00:01:59.040 because they say we well i'll explain what they say in some detail and you can hear how absurd it is

00:02:03.920 but i guess the most disappointing thing is how alone we are rebel news is fighting this in court and so

00:02:10.900 is our friend andrew lawton and candace malcolm of true north but other than rebel news and true north

00:02:17.440 there is no one here no other media in solidarity for the principle and precedent of free speech

00:02:24.080 no civil liberties groups no pen international no canadian journalist for free expression

00:02:29.120 no canadian civil liberties association all of the groups that would be skwalking

00:02:33.940 if it were doug ford or stephen harper who had kept out left-wing journalists but when it's right-wing

00:02:40.640 journalists kept out and journalists not on the government payroll well they couldn't care less

00:02:45.560 now i want to tell you a little bit about our case and the case that the trudeau government has

00:02:52.020 filed in response and then i'm going to briefly talk to kian and david then we're going to go into

00:02:56.940 the court and we'll film the later half of this show once we get out but let me tell you our argument

00:03:02.420 it's quite simple we're journalists this is a major journalistic event of the campaign it's the only

00:03:09.300 english language debate that justin trudeau deigns to participate in and it's our right to cover it

00:03:14.460 we've been accredited around the world from the white house and the u.s congress to the

00:03:19.080 parliament of the united kingdom to the knesset of israel and a half dozen other countries simply put

00:03:25.080 we are journalists journalists are not a profession it's not like doctors or even engineers you do

00:03:32.780 journalism that's what makes you a journalist and we do journalism every day 13 000 videos and counting

00:03:39.380 there are other journalistic groups who have been accredited tonight who have our pedigree or less

00:03:47.480 so to speak for example national observer has an accredited journalist they're activists just like we

00:03:54.580 are but on the other side they do petitions all the time there are state-run media organizations like

00:04:01.540 the opec dictatorship of qatar al jazeera has not one not two but three journalists accredited the

00:04:09.140 debate tonight so do many other foreign media outlets from germany vietnam the philippines and

00:04:15.280 other countries like that why would foreign media be accredited to cover a canadian political debate but

00:04:21.660 not canadian journalists there are uh activists the aboriginal people tv network a very activist tv station

00:04:30.160 they're accredited as they should be i have no beef with that why would they be accredited and were

00:04:36.760 not i looked through the entire list and the most striking thing is that there are close to 50

00:04:45.100 journalists accredited from the cbc english and french sides of things so they have 50 cbc journalists but

00:04:52.680 they don't have room for a single rebel news journalist i read the arguments put forward uh by the trudeau

00:04:59.660 government over the weekend with their three high-priced lawyers and they're they go to great length to

00:05:05.820 to imply that we somehow don't meet the same criteria that other journalists do but there is

00:05:11.360 nothing they can criticize us for that other journalists wouldn't be excluded for the same thing

00:05:17.760 it's very clear this is a conservative litmus test and we and andrew lawton have been banned well we are

00:05:25.020 going to court to see if we can turn that around i want to be very candid i'm not optimistic the federal

00:05:31.520 court is the most radical of the canadian courts the most left wing of canadian courts i don't know

00:05:36.000 who our judges are but it would shock me if they weren't liberal leaning if not liberal appointed

00:05:41.980 now you might say well that means nothing that will apply the law as it is well i certainly hope so but

00:05:48.020 what i'm sensing is that in canada more and more the entire establishment believes in de-platforming

00:05:55.740 voices that are outside the official establishment and i suppose that's the lesson that i'll take away

00:06:02.560 today if we lose which i have to say i expect we will is that while the establishment will gloat in

00:06:09.980 victory that the rebel and true north have been banned i don't think it's a real victory it's a pyrrhic

00:06:17.220 victory because every canadian who feels that the establishment is out to get them to block them

00:06:23.220 that the game is rigged that it's all a stitch up that it's all the insiders versus the populace

00:06:28.900 they'll be confirmed in that so if we are indeed banned today well i guess score one for justin trudeau

00:06:36.520 and his government lawyers but score one for us and our central thesis that the media party and the

00:06:43.120 liberal party and i suppose the court party are really all the same thing and we've got no one

00:06:48.500 on our side no one i suppose except the people coming up an interview with our two banned reporters

00:06:57.680 well joining me now in the foyer of the federal court building are my friends david menzzi and kian

00:07:15.360 how you doing fellas very good azra nice to be with you good yeah it's good to be here well i'm glad

00:07:19.840 you're here in toronto this morning we are sending you to ottawa this afternoon no matter what either

00:07:26.580 you'll be inside or outside the debates but so far yet there we still have some freedom of movement in

00:07:32.700 canada although who knows they might try and handcuff you again david um what do you think about the

00:07:38.300 trudeau government arguing that you're not a professional journalist you have a journalism degree you've been

00:07:43.700 doing this for 34 years what do you make of that argument by trudeau what's preposter says when as

00:07:48.840 you said in the beginning of your show uh look at all the other uh so-called activist journalistic

00:07:54.040 organizations that are part of this the second thing is i i think the root of this is downright

00:08:00.920 pettiness because at the end of the day ezra they have created this story not us by banning us

00:08:07.280 um why would we be banned we're not going to be able to ask a question at the debate um we're going

00:08:13.640 to be just you know part of the observers so to the justin trudeau brand of sunny ways transparency

00:08:21.500 uh liberalism this is all about a draconian censorship move and i think it looks bad on them

00:08:30.520 i think it's uh it's all about making them look like censorious thugs to use one of your words

00:08:37.160 and again this would not be a story had it not been for what i believe to be their own pettiness

00:08:46.020 their own hatred of the rebel uh being the engine behind this you're so right i mean we're obviously

00:08:52.380 living rent free in their heads but i want to of course the blame is on trudeau he controls the

00:08:58.280 commission he put his three government lawyers on this all weekend of course that's true but i can't

00:09:04.580 help but notice there has been not one word from any of 338 conservative mps or candidates including

00:09:13.520 from the leader i i don't expect the ndp or the bloc or the green party to care much about freedom of

00:09:19.220 speech but i note that not one conservative candidate or senator has said a word and of course it was the

00:09:25.220 conservatives that put you in handcuffs i also noted earlier that there's been no allies here

00:09:32.140 i know in the past when one media company would be in legal trouble all the others would form a

00:09:38.020 coalition to go to court together they would all actually join forces and hire one lawyer together

00:09:43.440 and it was quite a powerful symbol all the newspapers all the tv stations backing the one in trouble

00:09:50.480 none of that here no and and ezra i just want to say this that had the shoe been on the other foot

00:09:57.160 had a globe and mail or a toronto star or cbc journalist being banned from anything that was

00:10:02.780 allegedly open to all media i would stand up for those people but as you saw at the conservative press

00:10:09.680 event just last monday when i was actually put in the handcuffs i reached out to the you know the

00:10:15.900 unifor um uh appointed and approved journalist and said can i have some solidarity here and what

00:10:22.600 really bothered me ezra is that they didn't even answer the question they wouldn't even say um no and

00:10:29.380 here's why they just stood there like drone bees filming you know i guess what was supposed to be a

00:10:35.980 humiliation of me and uh it comes down to this ezra either you believe in free speech or not there's no

00:10:43.040 such thing as being a little bit pregnant or i believe in free speech except this kind of free

00:10:48.680 speech they have shamed themselves in going against i would say the ethics of journalism yeah i think

00:10:56.780 they'll have a good laugh over it with champagne cocktails at some high-priced downtown toronto bar

00:11:02.100 and they'll think they had a real win but i think for millions of severely normal people it'll simply

00:11:07.320 prove the theory that the elites are against the people here now let's switch around here kian come 1.00

00:11:12.740 forward here kian i saw the video of you and david on the streets of montreal during the french

00:11:19.620 language debate if i'm not mistaken no fewer than 11 police officers accosted you one of them demanding

00:11:26.460 an illegal search of you just to remind our people here's a little clip of that and you called me on

00:11:32.420 the phone and i remember maybe it was you called my phone i did a little bit of hollering here just

00:11:36.120 here's a reminder of what happened the last time you were outside a debate on the street not even in

00:11:42.140 the building here take a look i'm documenting everything okay no what do you mean why

00:11:48.540 because i'm a journalist yeah cool okay show me your your idea of journalists you said you're

00:11:57.080 journalist that it's just bullshit or no it's not just bullshit and i have no obligation to show you 0.86

00:12:03.280 anything we we receive a complaint against you you received a complaint yeah from whom from whom i don't

00:12:09.520 know i i have the right to tell you to stay away like 300 meters from here if you don't show me what's

00:12:18.700 in your bag show me you tell me you're a journalist but you don't have an idea that shows me you're a

00:12:25.300 journalist i'm not going to show you what's in my bag okay so you go outside so where where's the

00:12:31.420 line okay next corner do you mind if i call my lawyer quickly i don't have to speak to a lawyer

00:12:46.880 i'm calling because it sounds like you're harassing my journalist i'm not harassing i'm just asking

00:12:52.580 what what your name and identity please norbert kutzer i'm from the rcmp badge number five seven seven

00:13:00.280 eight eight and on what basis are you interrogating or threatening to detain i'm not threatening

00:13:07.120 anybody i'm just asking why is he standing right beside where the prime minister is gonna

00:13:13.700 because it's a goddamn free country any other questions oh my god any other questions happy to 0.54

00:13:29.280 answer i i can't see what's in his bag he doesn't want to show his id you don't have a search warrant

00:13:35.460 that's why no i have the right to tell me you the case law nolton you know that yes i do all right

00:13:45.320 so i have the right to tell him to stay away a warrantless search on him you can expect a civil

00:13:51.440 suit and a complaint to the rcmp complaints commission so i encourage you to talk to your

00:13:56.820 supervising officer this minute yeah he's coming right right away well they clearly were targeting

00:14:03.040 rebel news there were many other people protesting on the streets that day they were not subject to

00:14:08.740 an illegal warrantless search um if we don't get in tonight you still plan on going to gatineau which

00:14:16.960 is just across from ottawa am i right what's your plan my plan is to uh pose a question to justin

00:14:23.320 trudeau however possible he's he justin trudeau and his uh campaigners and gerald butts i'm sure

00:14:29.280 have meticulously planned this campaign to make sure that no hostile questions can be asked

00:14:34.200 whatsoever and i think that's a chief reason why we're not allowed in the debate sure if we went

00:14:39.720 it would be unlikely that we were even able to ask a question but even that small risk of asking an

00:14:44.960 accountability question of dear leader is totally unacceptable to justin trudeau we got very close

00:14:50.400 last time he snuck out a garbage door literally the cargo hold of the broadcasting corporation that it

00:14:56.560 was held at in montreal he snuck out of after running the bus around the block a few times

00:15:01.640 we were very close i stuck the microphone through the door of his bus and he waved at me like a like

00:15:07.840 a jerk thinking that journalism really is a joke to him well for him in his circle it is funny

00:15:13.320 because he doesn't have to answer but i think that i think that an enormous number of canadians want

00:15:20.020 to answer i want to pick up on something you said i noticed that the liberal party they're not giving

00:15:24.420 out their campaign events far in advance at all at least not ones where journalists could possibly

00:15:29.000 ask a question in fact i've seen them announce media events as short a time as 15 minutes in advance

00:15:36.140 so the only people who could ask questions are the vetted house journalists on the bus with them

00:15:42.860 so they're really in this enclosed bubble going from event to event they keep it secret where they're

00:15:48.220 about to go if there's any chance of a public encounter he really is afraid i think gerald

00:15:54.680 butts is obsessed with us i know trudeau is obsessed with us because we're the one people he can't

00:15:59.680 control we're so much smaller than the cbc and cdv and global male star like we're but the fact that

00:16:05.860 we're not under his thumb that irks them so much why won't we be dominated by them why won't we

00:16:12.040 submit to them it's so disproportionate and i think that they're it's starting to look bad

00:16:17.180 do you expect to be uh accosted by police again tonight without a doubt i mean it's in quebec so

00:16:23.700 it's not actually in ottawa it's across the river so who knows how uh the police over there are going

00:16:29.620 to be acting the montreal police were i i mean i i haven't been to montreal often i haven't dealt

00:16:35.600 with montreal police before then but the few encounters that i had that night with them they

00:16:40.100 were absolutely below board um i i don't have high hopes i think that the police are going to be

00:16:46.900 doing whatever they can to protect uh justin trudeau especially his security detail he has

00:16:51.820 undercover cops wherever he goes making sure that nobody uh is a risk to him not a security risk mind

00:16:58.260 you a question risk yeah well that's the thing is i i absolutely support a prime minister being

00:17:04.800 protected from genuine security risks and i understand that uh in the heat of the moment

00:17:11.000 the discretion of the officer should have priority i accept all of that for trudeau as much as i would

00:17:17.140 for stephen harper but it's so clear that what they're trying to do is stop a political insecurity

00:17:23.740 a question they don't like all right we're you know i want to keep an eye on the clock because we're

00:17:29.560 going to head on in here and then after a while you guys are going to make your way to ottawa

00:17:33.120 i'm pessimistic uh i think i've become that way over the last five years as i've seen

00:17:39.160 deplatforming become the establishment point of view uh what do you think am i being too sad about

00:17:45.520 things do we have a chance here in court it still is a court these judges still do take an oath to

00:17:50.520 uphold the law neutrally even if they are liberals at heart what do you think we're going to see today

00:17:55.780 the charter of rights and freedoms is clear we have a right to practice journalism along with other

00:18:01.440 forms of media it's that's exactly what the charter says um whether or not the judge recognizes that

00:18:07.140 or twists the words of it to make uh it convenient for the liberals is a different question i hold out

00:18:12.680 hope um but i'm new at this so who knows all right well that's our pre-trial conversation we're going to

00:18:21.540 go into the court i have to say we don't even know for sure that a judge will grant us a hearing

00:18:27.600 because like i say this all happened on such an emergency basis we found out we were being banned

00:18:33.080 on friday morning we retained a lawyer friday afternoon saturday we filed our application

00:18:39.240 to their credit the government lawyers worked all weekend to reply to it so they're ready to go

00:18:45.460 the question of whether or not a judge will actually take this case remains up in the air

00:18:50.320 and getting an emergency injunction is difficult as the emergency part suggests but our argument is

00:18:59.620 the balance of convenience is to let us in how does it possibly harm the debates if we're allowed

00:19:07.180 in the building we're not one of the five question askers how does it possibly harm anyone

00:19:12.620 whereas if we're kept out that's an irreparable harm we can never get that back and given that

00:19:18.760 the criteria for keeping us out is so obviously made up there are other activists or advocacy style

00:19:26.260 journalists in there justin ling a radical activist who sometimes write for the globe and mail and vice

00:19:31.680 national observer aboriginal people tv network foreign extremists with al jazeera obviously we're not

00:19:41.140 being kept out for any legitimate reason it's so obvious i barely need to say it we're kept out

00:19:46.940 because we're conservative all right let's go in

00:19:49.900 well it's about 9 30 in the morning and we're still waiting to see if a judge at the federal court

00:20:03.980 will be seized with this matter what i mean by that is given the emergent nature of this that we were

00:20:09.940 only banned on friday lawyered up friday afternoon filed our motions and applications on the weekend

00:20:16.520 this is actually the first time judges have heard of this and they have to rearrange their schedule

00:20:22.240 decide if they even want to hear the case of course it's quite urgent given that the debate starts

00:20:27.740 in mere hours here at the courthouse i'm joined by candace malcolm you know her we had her on the 1.00

00:20:33.340 show just the other day the editor-in-chief of true north and she joins us now great to see you

00:20:38.460 hi esra good to be here well i guess it's good to be here because we're both fighting for freedom

00:20:42.780 but the fact that we have to be here is bad you guys are the other journalistic organization

00:20:48.620 applying for an injunction to let us both in because your report has been kicked out too right

00:20:54.680 that's right yeah no i mean we wish we weren't didn't have to be here we'd really rather be out

00:20:59.380 reporting and andrew lottner journalist is actually reporting right now he's in ottawa at a press

00:21:03.920 conference with andrew sear so you know the government's not stopping us from reporting unfortunately

00:21:07.960 what they are doing ezra is they're stopping us from attending a debate for journalists the

00:21:12.800 journalists are allowed to be in they're supposed to be there they want to be able to report to

00:21:16.440 their audience we have a unique audience at true north that want to see our perspective want to see

00:21:20.740 the other side of the story and the fact that the government delivered this 11th hour notice letting

00:21:25.720 us know that we weren't part of the the group of journalists allowed in is absolutely unacceptable and

00:21:30.560 that's why we're here we're fighting we're fighting for true north we're also fighting for

00:21:33.660 journalists and freedom of the press in this country you know i agree with every word you said

00:21:37.660 and in fact i've said similar things myself but i look around and i see no one from the canadian

00:21:44.180 association of journalists the canadian journalists for free expression from various media guilds there's

00:21:50.360 actually a whole journalist union called the canadian media guild of course there's uniform i think one

00:21:56.540 of the reasons they're not here is because we're competitors to them i think another reason is that

00:22:01.740 they're ideologically left-wing they're supporting an anti-andrew sheer third-party campaign

00:22:06.840 so i think they're putting momentary partisanship ahead of the principle of freedom of the press

00:22:12.340 i tend to agree ezra you know there's so many we talked about this on your show the other day

00:22:16.260 there's so many left-leaning editorial news outlets in canada there's so many you can hardly even count

00:22:22.020 them they're almost all left-leaning there's a small small handful of of outlets that lean right

00:22:27.900 editorially uh you know we're we're a digital upstart media company we're new uh you know we haven't

00:22:33.320 been around for a long time we're not part of the legacy media but that doesn't mean that we're not

00:22:36.400 journalists and you know in our organization we have a combined about eight decades of journalism

00:22:41.260 andrew lawton the journalist that they're banning has been a journalist he interviewed trudeau himself

00:22:46.240 i mean trudeau thought he was journalist enough to do a full radio interview with him before so

00:22:50.700 what's changed right exactly well back in 2015 uh justin trudeau still believed in freedom of the press

00:22:55.460 because he wasn't the prime minister yet and now that he's prime minister a couple of years in

00:22:58.700 office has already corrupted that view but anyway we are journalists regardless of what some government

00:23:03.220 bureaucrats say regardless what the trudeau liberals say and now the trudeau government and i think it's

00:23:07.420 incredibly important for us to fight to fight for our right to report just because some bureaucrat or

00:23:12.480 some government official or some overzealous liberal staffer says that we're not a journalist that

00:23:17.380 doesn't make it true we are journalists and we're here to fight and repeat that over and over again

00:23:21.520 you know it's one thing for the liberals or even the conservatives to ban us from

00:23:25.280 a private event it's i don't think it's a good look but i suppose it's legally their rights

00:23:29.880 but this event this debate was nationalized by trudeau so it's a government thing and for the

00:23:36.600 government to ban us that infringes on our charter rights and it's sort of funny that we have to teach

00:23:43.700 the son of pierre trudeau what the charter means i don't know i i find it depressing i don't know if

00:23:51.660 we're going to win today i our lawyers say that an emergency injunction in a quasi-political matter

00:23:57.640 is something judges don't like to meddle with but i don't think the judges would be meddling i think

00:24:02.940 trudeau's done the meddling i have to say i'm a little pessimistic we don't know anything today

00:24:08.960 but would you call yourself an optimist or a pessimist for today in court you know i'm generally

00:24:13.020 an optimist ezra i think that you know things will work out and things err on the side of justice so i

00:24:17.300 think that you know we have a pretty good case just because you know they had an arbitrary standard

00:24:22.260 they gave us a very last minute decision they didn't clearly explain why we were being excluded

00:24:27.080 they just kind of said in one sentence because you do advocacy uh well for the case of true north we

00:24:31.920 actually don't uh true north is a charity uh we're federally registered we're not allowed to do

00:24:36.260 advocacy and true north news is the news outlet within that charity so they're they're incorrect

00:24:40.940 in their statement and you know because of that and but also just because you know the debate is

00:24:45.340 tonight they created this this commission to determine who shouldn't and should be allowed

00:24:49.780 it was very unclear they didn't post any standards they didn't tell journalists you know this is what

00:24:54.600 we're looking for this is the criteria these are the rules i i think that they've made some mistakes

00:24:58.660 and because of that i'm i'm optimistic i don't think there's a you know a hundred percent chance that

00:25:02.940 we're going to be successful today but even if we're not you know the fact that a judge could say

00:25:08.040 okay let them in today even though it's last minute and it's not completely common you know even if

00:25:12.380 they don't do that today as we're not going to stop fighting we're going to continue to push the

00:25:16.580 government to continue to stand up for our rights as journalists to continue to fight against these

00:25:21.440 arbitrary decisions and we're going to keep fighting until they recognize that we are journalists and

00:25:26.180 let us do our job well i'm really glad to hear that i'm not surprised by that because you're a fighter

00:25:30.260 um i want to give a quick shout out to candace like us she doesn't take any government money 1.00

00:25:36.960 you have helped pay for our lawyer tonight at letusreport.com candace is raising dough also

00:25:43.860 at tnc.news tnc.news obviously we need the support but i encourage you to support candace too because

00:25:52.040 you guys don't take a dime from the bailout money that's right that's right we're here just like

00:25:56.320 you we've completely crowdfunded uh our entire you know mission we we wanted andrew lawton to cover

00:26:01.660 this election long ago before any of it even started we crowdfunded that we were successful

00:26:06.500 when we decided to fight against this we've had an overwhelming amount of support from what i call

00:26:10.980 true north nation uh they've really really been there for us supporting not just financially but

00:26:15.880 just messages of support i really feel like you know it's not just us in court today we're here on

00:26:20.420 behalf of a lot of canadians who are fighting for free and press so thank you for everyone for

00:26:23.980 for supporting us and thank you for the people who have supported us and we're going to continue to

00:26:28.040 fight you know i feel the same way really when you're reliant on your grassroots supporters

00:26:33.240 and then you're in court like this you've got to pretend in your mind that there's thousands of

00:26:39.140 people here because of course they can't physically be here but they're here in spirit they're here

00:26:44.440 financially because they help chip in for the lawyers well you've made me feel a tiny bit better

00:26:49.340 um but you can't get more establishment than the federal court at 180 queen street west in downtown

00:26:58.280 toronto it is as fancy pants downtown toronto as it gets and we're a little bit rabbley at the rebel

00:27:06.760 you guys are slightly less rabbley than us but you're still very grassrootsy and i just have this

00:27:13.380 feeling that the whole country's establishment is moving towards narrowing the bandwidth de-platforming

00:27:20.980 forgive my pessimism i think it's because i'm a little older than you and i've i've fought more

00:27:26.100 battles and i see the trends but i hope you're right i hope your optimism and enthusiasm are right

00:27:32.380 you've got an excellent lawyer i feel like we have excellent lawyers so if there's a chance if there's a

00:27:38.160 chance we'll get it last word to you candace well i agree and again you know just because some

00:27:42.800 established say the judge disagrees and refuses to to do the injunction and let us report tonight

00:27:47.880 again that's not going to stop us we're we're the future of media we are you know we're digital

00:27:51.780 we're online we're fresh we have a lot to offer to canadians and so you know as as things change

00:27:57.600 and as new journalism outlets pop up the government's going to have to deal with this a lot so we're just

00:28:01.580 at the frontier of this fight and we're going to continue to fight uh for freedom of press for all

00:28:05.540 canadians for all journalists in this country and well that's candace malcolm the editor-in-chief of

00:28:10.440 true north it's not quite 10 a.m we've been at at least i've been at the court for almost three

00:28:16.880 hours now we still don't know if a judge will hear the case uh which judge will hear the case

00:28:23.460 will it be in person or by phone how will it go down of course the debate starts tonight so this is

00:28:29.180 all very urgent thus the emergency application we'll keep you posted and um hopefully we'll have some good

00:28:37.080 news

00:28:41.460 i literally this moment got an email and this is from the courts administration service here at the uh

00:28:55.940 federal court of canada in toronto let me read it to you in its entirety it's addressed to our lawyers

00:29:02.520 candace malcolm's lawyers and the government lawyers it says good morning counsel the court directs

00:29:08.960 the following the court will hear the applicant's motion that's our request in person today october 7th

00:29:16.580 2019 at 3 p.m in courtroom 4c please confirm receive this direction via reply email thank you

00:29:23.340 abigail brimes so we will be getting a hearing in person 3 p.m at the federal court right now it's

00:29:31.360 11 33 so i'm going to go back to the office but i'll be back here for 3 p.m i'm glad they're hearing

00:29:37.220 it it was within their purview to say no we're not even going to hear it i'm still pessimistic but the

00:29:43.440 fact that we'll at least be able to have our say before a neutral judge rather than trudeau's hand

00:29:49.220 picked hacks is very encouraging by the way if you can help us out please go to letusreport.com

00:29:55.800 so far we've spent ten thousand dollars on lawyers i think it's money well spent we're not just fighting

00:30:01.460 for us we're fighting for all freedom in this country letusreport.com i'm standing as you can see

00:30:07.520 perhaps by the sign behind me at 180 queen street west that is the office of the federal court of

00:30:14.200 canada here in toronto let me spin around so you can see and i think you can see my smile i can't

00:30:20.900 believe it but rebel news oh let me i'll stop blocking the camera rebel news just won in court

00:30:27.840 along with candace malcolm and andrew lawton of true north uh our two reporters kian bexte and david

00:30:35.740 menzies had applied for accreditation at the leaders debate in ottawa tonight and we applied

00:30:42.960 like everyone else and so did andrew lawton of true north and we applied and we filled out the

00:30:48.140 forms and then at the very last minute on friday morning we all received an email but the email

00:30:53.260 didn't come from the debates commission it came from the government of canada saying sorry you can't

00:30:59.100 go because you're too much advocacy journalists or something like that it doesn't even make sense

00:31:04.460 what's an advocacy journalist um the government had a tough time explaining that today anyways so we

00:31:10.220 found out that news on friday morning and it was obviously sharp practice on behalf of the government

00:31:15.840 to give us no time to file a lawsuit but we did anyways we retained a law firm they worked all weekend full

00:31:23.520 tilt uh they filed the documents over the course of the weekend and at 8 30 a.m we all came to court

00:31:30.560 today and sort of surprised the courthouse because of course while the government of canada their

00:31:36.320 lawyers were on it no judges knew this was cook until 8 30 so the first thing they had to do is

00:31:41.620 find a judge who was able to take this case on short notice and then the judge had to read

00:31:48.220 literally hundreds of pages now the judge didn't read every single word but he read enough he read

00:31:53.340 the affidavits he skimmed other materials and then he had a 90 minute hearing and the first thing they

00:31:58.920 know about that hearing is that the lawyers on our side were paid for by us by our viewers but the

00:32:04.780 lawyers on the other side were paid for by i'm sorry to say it you the government used taxpayers money

00:32:11.740 to bring not only justice department lawyers but also um lawyers from the debate commission

00:32:17.280 and what was so frustrating to me is not only that there were five lawyers on the other side

00:32:21.700 but there was lawyers from the attorney general who said oh we have no horse in this fight we uh

00:32:28.360 aren't taking a side but then they proceeded to take up 20 minutes arguing against us

00:32:32.280 but i got a good feeling quite soon because first of all the lawyer for true north was excellent

00:32:39.280 and then our lawyers were excellent i couldn't believe i've had a lot of lawyers they were so concise

00:32:46.080 they made the case so convincingly and then i saw i saw the questions from the judge he had a few

00:32:52.480 questions here and there but his questions really started zeroing in on the government questions like

00:32:58.400 if it's not important and valuable to be invited in why does everyone want to get in and did the

00:33:04.240 commission really make this decision or did they hand it back to the guy there were lots of good

00:33:08.960 questions that i i didn't want my hopes to rise i'll tell you candidly our lawyers said we didn't have a big

00:33:14.560 chance and i i didn't want to allow hope to grow and what can you say but the judge said i'll be back

00:33:20.480 in 15 minutes and he came back in and long story short he ordered he ordered he commanded that the

00:33:28.320 debates commission immediately accredit david menzies and kian bexty uh for the debates tonight

00:33:36.880 he ordered the debates commission to do it and i want to say besides the outstanding performance

00:33:43.040 lawyers i'm just thrilled and i know i'm gushing about the lawyers and besides the fact that david

00:33:49.120 menzies kian bexty and andrew lawton applied and said we're not going to roll over and i salute candace

00:33:54.480 malcolm of true north too what was so notable to me was the absence of any journalism organizations and

00:34:03.440 the absence of any civil liberties groups in the courthouse itself what do i mean by that

00:34:09.280 there's a group called canadian journalists for free expression they've been silent on this there

00:34:14.560 was a group called there's a group called canadian association of journalists not only are they

00:34:18.800 silent on this the government invoked them as a reason to ban us there's a group called pen canada

00:34:25.840 they weren't there there's a group called amnesty international they weren't there there's a group

00:34:29.120 called the canadian civil轉 civil liberties association they weren't there there was no one there

00:34:35.040 There were no other media organizations that thought,

00:34:38.660 well, you know, we might not like Rebel News or True North,

00:34:41.100 but just it's in the interests of a free society

00:34:44.440 that we actually have freedom of the press

00:34:50.220 and it's not up to the whims of the government.

00:34:52.640 Not a single intervener, not a single friend.

00:34:57.140 But you know what?

00:34:57.840 Liberty didn't need any other friends today

00:34:59.800 because it had our lawyers and it had Rebel and True North

00:35:03.100 and we won.

00:35:04.560 We bloody well won.

00:35:06.580 I can't believe it.

00:35:07.340 We won in 15 minutes.

00:35:09.460 So to sum up, excuse me,

00:35:12.480 the judge said not only is the Debate Commission

00:35:15.600 ordered to accredit us,

00:35:18.620 but granting that immediate injunction,

00:35:24.900 but I believe that this has set a new standard,

00:35:27.440 a new legal precedent in Canada

00:35:29.540 that Justin Trudeau cannot simply discredit

00:35:33.560 discredit or ban journalists he doesn't like.

00:35:36.800 And you would think that that is normal

00:35:39.180 and that everyone would have that point of view,

00:35:40.880 but no.

00:35:41.820 No, there was no one else in court today.

00:35:44.500 Shame on the other media for frankly being fine with it

00:35:48.320 because they all got in and they're all on the bailout.

00:35:51.300 Shame on the other media.

00:35:52.480 Shame on the civil liberties associations for being anything but.

00:35:58.260 Shame on Justin Trudeau, of course,

00:35:59.860 but shame on Andrew Scheer who was asked about this this morning by Andrew Lawton

00:36:03.560 and he had nothing to say

00:36:06.620 because he doesn't really believe in freedom of speech.

00:36:09.680 Congratulations to Candace Malcolm of True North

00:36:12.220 who actually was the first to file a lawsuit.

00:36:13.960 We were the second.

00:36:15.040 And I suppose the final thank you would be a massive thank you

00:36:17.860 to our rebel viewers

00:36:19.200 who chipped in to pay for our legal costs.

00:36:23.780 Now, the court at the end made a ruling saying costs will be in the cause,

00:36:28.680 which means if this matter continues through court,

00:36:31.220 like we're going to be in today,

00:36:32.100 there's no two ways about it,

00:36:34.080 Kian and David will be allowed in today.

00:36:36.900 But if the government appeals and wants a bigger fight,

00:36:40.500 then the cost for today's event will be determined at the end of that.

00:36:45.040 That's what costs and the cause mean.

00:36:46.740 Anyway, I just want to give you a quick live update on this.

00:36:48.920 I'm just thrilled.

00:36:49.740 It's vindication.

00:36:52.980 Sometimes you give up.

00:36:53.960 Sometimes you think, you know,

00:36:55.240 is the entire establishment against us?

00:36:59.640 You've got the universities.

00:37:02.000 You've got pop culture.

00:37:03.000 You've got the media party.

00:37:04.160 You've got so many activist groups.

00:37:07.300 Here we found a judge on the federal court who said,

00:37:11.280 you know what?

00:37:12.380 The rule of law still means something.

00:37:14.680 And Justin Trudeau might think he's a prince,

00:37:16.820 but we got a few rules.

00:37:18.360 And whatever, the judge says he'll produce detailed reasons if required.

00:37:23.100 He didn't get into the detailed reasons today.

00:37:25.140 But for whatever reason,

00:37:27.440 today a judge said you simply can't ban reporters from an event

00:37:33.200 because you have a different political point of view.

00:37:36.780 Should be obvious.

00:37:38.120 And maybe now it's obvious.

00:37:39.700 But look, that's the thing about Justin Trudeau and Gerald Butz.

00:37:42.960 They never really respected the independence of the judiciary.

00:37:46.140 Don't ask me.

00:37:46.820 Ask Jody Wilson-Raybould.

00:37:47.940 All right, folks, that's it for now.

00:37:49.460 I'm just going to hop in my car, drive back up to the office,

00:37:51.580 do a little bit of work.

00:37:52.700 But for now, I think freedom took a great leap forward.

00:37:56.240 And not because of any official civil liberties groups.

00:37:59.860 They were hidden, hiding under the bed.

00:38:02.020 But because of Rebel News and True North

00:38:03.800 and our supporters fought for freedom.

00:38:06.880 It's what we do every day.

00:38:08.360 All right, folks, that's it for now.

00:38:09.480 Thanks for your support.

00:38:10.600 Bye-bye.

00:38:10.900 Bye-bye.

00:38:11.400 Bye-bye.

00:38:12.540 Bye-bye.

00:38:13.040 Bye-bye.

00:38:13.680 Bye-bye.

00:38:14.260 Bye.

00:38:14.800 Bye.

00:38:15.120 Bye-bye.

00:38:16.740 Bye.

00:38:16.920 Bye-bye.

00:38:25.420 Bye-bye.

00:38:26.040 Bye-bye.

00:38:26.360 Bye-bye.

00:38:26.940 Bye-bye.

Rebel News Podcast - October 08, 2019

Rebel News takes Trudeau to court — and WINS!

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