Rebel News Podcast - Two ominous signs from the United Kingdom about freedom of speech

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. Today, I have two stories from the United Kingdom. I don't like either one of

00:00:03.820 them, I'll tell you that. One's about police busting in on Christmas dinners. The other is

00:00:08.620 about police prosecuting you for what you say at Christmas dinners. And I ask, could that happen

00:00:15.040 in Canada, too? That's a habit. First, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News

00:00:18.960 Plus. It's just eight bucks a month, 80 bucks for the whole year. You get the video version of this

00:00:24.020 podcast. Just go to rebelnews.com and click the word subscribe. All right, here's today's podcast.

00:00:45.220 Tonight, two ominous signs from the United Kingdom about freedom of speech.

00:00:49.620 It's October 28th, and this is The Ezra LeVant Show.

00:00:54.020 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:00:58.360 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.

00:01:02.440 The only thing I have to say to the government of a wire publisher is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:01:12.960 We are interested in things beyond our own borders for the same reason we're interested in things

00:01:18.220 beyond our own backyard. We're curious. We're social beings. We wonder how other people live. We care

00:01:23.680 about the world. I am interested in the United Kingdom for these reasons and the reason that

00:01:28.500 we came from them. Our laws, our customs, our language, so many things. Thankfully, that wonderful

00:01:33.820 inheritance includes the Magna Carta, a primordial constitutional law that limited the powers of the

00:01:40.460 king, and through the century's other legal precepts, the abolition of slavery, the entrenchment of property

00:01:47.820 rights and privacy, summed up by the phrase, a man's home is his castle. The history of free speech,

00:01:53.380 both in Parliament, I mean, even the concept of a loyal opposition leader, loyal to the country,

00:01:59.340 but opposed to the government. That's amazing. And of course, free speech itself, especially speech

00:02:04.180 that offends, especially speech that offends the government. I mean, if you're merely praising power,

00:02:09.740 if you're polishing its shoes and singing its praises, that sort of free speech isn't worth

00:02:15.200 much. It's the ability to tell people something they don't want to hear. That's what counts.

00:02:19.700 That's what George Orwell said. He's the great British writer and thinker, author of books, 1984,

00:02:24.800 Animal Farm. As he put it, if liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they

00:02:29.860 do not want to hear. Exactly. So I want to know about censorship in the UK because that's the true virus.

00:02:37.480 That's a true pandemic. That will spread, and that is deadly.

00:02:43.700 And so I went to the UK so much a few years back to cover the trials of Tommy Robinson.

00:02:47.920 You don't think they'd do that to me and to you here in Canada if they could. Oh, you know they would.

00:02:54.760 So I saw this, and I was appalled. I saw it originally in the Telegraph of London.

00:03:00.480 Here's a version in other papers. West Midlands police could enter homes to break up Christmas dinners.

00:03:08.180 As crime commissioner fears riots, West Midlands police and crime commissioner David Jamieson

00:03:14.340 has vowed officers will investigate large Christmas gatherings.

00:03:18.320 Hey, I don't know if that all makes sense together. If people are at home having a Christmas dinner,

00:03:22.880 they're not out causing trouble. They're actually at one of the best times of the year.

00:03:27.380 With family, good food, a bit of religion in the air, maybe. I don't know.

00:03:30.880 Well, young men are with their moms and dads and sisters and brothers, not out rampaging around on the streets.

00:03:35.740 How could Christmas dinner turn into a ride? Those are sort of opposite things.

00:03:41.260 Well, the obvious answer is if police come into your house and tell half of you to get out because of those pandemic rules.

00:03:47.180 If police come into your home, your castle, that is, a man's home is his castle. 0.90

00:03:51.820 That's Semaine's case. That's centuries-old British law. We have it here, too.

00:03:55.560 You can't come into my house without a warrant, not even if you're the king.

00:03:58.800 Yeah, you bust into a house on Christmas, Christmas dinner, you're going to get a small riot right there.

00:04:04.020 You bet you will. I'll read some more.

00:04:05.960 Police could enter homes to break up Christmas dinners if families breach lockdown rules,

00:04:10.920 with the West Midlands Crime Commissioner also predicting potential riots.

00:04:14.760 David Jameson has vowed his officers will investigate large Christmas gatherings,

00:04:19.360 saying officers can only enforce the rules handed down by the government.

00:04:22.580 Okay, so it's a bit clearer now.

00:04:23.980 So the top cop was actually saying he will be the one causing the riots.

00:04:29.040 He's just warning people about what he's going to do.

00:04:31.360 Okay, got it, boss.

00:04:32.360 He also warned a time bomb of social unrest, including riots,

00:04:37.460 could be triggered by the end of the furlough scheme,

00:04:40.080 coronavirus job retention scheme, and festive restrictions.

00:04:44.040 Mr. Jameson told The Telegraph,

00:04:46.180 if we think there's large groups of people gathering where they shouldn't be,

00:04:48.920 then police will have to intervene.

00:04:51.360 If, again, there's flagrant breaking the rules, then police would have to enforce.

00:04:56.740 Don't lie. We know that's not true.

00:04:59.180 The police allowed thousands of protesters in the UK to march with Black Lives Matter.

00:05:04.900 That was against the rules.

00:05:06.420 Police regularly allow Antifa riots in the UK.

00:05:09.360 Riots, actually.

00:05:10.940 In the UK, police have lustily taken a knee in support of Black Lives Matter,

00:05:15.380 even though that's an American invention.

00:05:18.660 It's an American club.

00:05:19.780 There was never any slavery in the UK.

00:05:22.020 The UK eradicated slavery in the world.

00:05:24.400 It fought against the slave trade.

00:05:27.480 Police shootings aren't a UK thing either.

00:05:29.940 Most UK police don't even carry guns.

00:05:32.320 You know that, right?

00:05:33.640 So the hands-up, don't-shoot thing, that's fake in the UK.

00:05:37.440 That's an American thing.

00:05:38.680 Yet the police love Black Lives Matter in the UK.

00:05:41.860 But, oh my God, Christmas dinner.

00:05:43.980 No, no.

00:05:44.780 We'll come smash it up.

00:05:45.980 Quote,

00:05:46.260 It's not the police's job to stop people enjoying their Christmas.

00:05:49.260 Well, you just said it was, mate.

00:05:51.280 Mr. Jameson added,

00:05:52.520 However, we are there to enforce the rules that the government makes.

00:05:56.340 And if the government makes those rules, then the government has to explain that to the public.

00:06:00.000 He continued,

00:06:00.760 We're sitting on a time bomb here.

00:06:02.040 We're getting very near the stage where you could see a considerable explosion of frustration and energy.

00:06:06.980 Things are very on the edge in a lot of communities.

00:06:08.840 And it wouldn't take very much to spark off unrest, rise, damage.

00:06:11.540 The idea that we can carry on as we are and have a normal Christmas is wishful thinking in the extreme,

00:06:18.980 a government scientific advisor has said.

00:06:22.140 Professor John Edmonds, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, SAGE, I love that,

00:06:27.440 said radical action would be needed to stem the rise in coronavirus cases,

00:06:31.660 particularly in regions with high incidence of the virus.

00:06:33.960 I'm sorry, these people are nuts.

00:06:35.580 Maybe that's what the cop's trying to say in his own stupid way.

00:06:38.500 He's trying to say, guys, you know, if you really want me to go out there, it's going to be...

00:06:42.640 Maybe that's the cop's way of saying, please don't make me do it.

00:06:46.840 But he could have just said, please don't make me do it.

00:06:49.960 I think these people are kooky.

00:06:51.360 They're just out of control.

00:06:53.460 Here you have a scientist with SAGE saying we have to get more radical.

00:06:56.740 You know, two weeks to flatten the curve, eh?

00:06:58.320 I think they mean two years.

00:07:00.560 You know, I think we've all learned over the past, I don't know, half year,

00:07:03.540 who amongst us,

00:07:04.440 if we had been in occupied France after the Germans invaded,

00:07:08.500 I think we've got a glimpse of who amongst us would have joined the resistance

00:07:12.420 and who amongst us would have signed up with the invaders

00:07:16.340 and gone to work for the Vichy occupiers.

00:07:18.860 I'm not comparing public health bureaucrats to Nazis.

00:07:21.700 I'm talking about the reduction in civil liberties

00:07:23.620 and how quickly people adjust to the new limits and new restrictions

00:07:29.560 and how some embrace them and champion them and love them.

00:07:34.160 I love the mask.

00:07:35.600 I love the social distancing.

00:07:37.480 I love the scolding.

00:07:39.920 You know, from a murder point of view, I wouldn't call it murder,

00:07:42.580 but maybe statistical murder.

00:07:44.240 Can you use that word?

00:07:45.400 I mean, when you lock down people, you kill businesses.

00:07:48.280 When you close places where people stay healthy, like gyms.

00:07:51.000 When you force people to be poor and alone.

00:07:53.640 When you shut down hospitals for the regular sick

00:07:56.300 and fetishize a flu called COVID.

00:07:59.820 When you have countless deaths from cancers

00:08:01.980 and other problems that you simply determined were less politically sexy.

00:08:06.220 So you cancel those elective surgeries.

00:08:10.180 You cancel cancer screenings.

00:08:11.960 So, yeah, there is a death toll in there too.

00:08:14.860 And if you're fine with all that

00:08:16.440 and the obedient compliance that wearing a mask shows,

00:08:20.220 masks that we know don't work, then sure, yeah.

00:08:23.180 I think we know what you'd probably have been like

00:08:25.140 under the first gentle breeze of political pressure

00:08:27.900 80, 90 years ago in Europe.

00:08:29.780 So that's the cops.

00:08:31.360 And in their defense, they're following the insanity of their politicians.

00:08:34.700 I showed you this before.

00:08:35.860 This is the first minister in Wales.

00:08:37.940 Total lockdown.

00:08:38.620 There will be no gatherings with people you do not live with,

00:08:43.680 either indoors or outdoors,

00:08:47.740 during this two-week period.

00:08:50.760 Yeah, just don't talk to anyone else for two full weeks.

00:08:54.260 You're in prison in solitary confinement.

00:08:56.440 Meet no one in public or private.

00:08:59.680 Do you think that little tyrant follows that rule himself?

00:09:02.360 I would bet my life savings he does not.

00:09:05.640 That's the first minister of Wales.

00:09:08.000 Here's the justice minister of Scotland.

00:09:10.140 You'll remember him as the Muslim activist

00:09:11.980 who for some reason hates Scottish people,

00:09:15.900 even though they made him their justice minister.

00:09:18.240 What do you make of this?

00:09:19.640 But why are we so surprised

00:09:21.000 when the most senior positions in Scotland

00:09:23.320 are filled almost exclusively by those who are white?

00:09:27.980 Take my portfolio alone.

00:09:30.480 The Lord President, white.

00:09:31.920 The Lord Justice Clark, white.

00:09:34.460 Every High Court judge, white. 0.87

00:09:36.760 The Lord Advocate, white.

00:09:38.780 The Solicitor General, white.

00:09:40.200 The Chief Constable, white.

00:09:42.180 Every Deputy Chief Constable, white.

00:09:44.540 Every Assistant Chief Constable, white.

00:09:46.920 The Head of the Law Society, white. 0.92

00:09:49.060 The Head of the Faculty of Advocates, white. 0.56

00:09:51.720 Every Prison Governor, white. 0.58

00:09:54.760 And not just justice.

00:09:56.280 The Chief Medical Officer, white.

00:09:58.120 The Chief Nursing Officer, white.

00:10:00.040 The Chief Veterinary Officer, white.

00:10:01.960 The Chief Social Work Advisor, white.

00:10:04.020 Almost every trade union in this country headed by people who are white.

00:10:09.360 In the Scottish Government, every Director General is white.

00:10:12.740 Every chair of every public body is white. 0.90

00:10:16.280 But that is not good enough.

00:10:19.140 What a creepy weirdo.

00:10:20.780 He's so racist.

00:10:22.460 How can he say that with a straight face?

00:10:24.580 Anyways, as you'll recall, he introduced a bill that would make it illegal to insult people.

00:10:29.940 Make it illegal to tell insulting jokes.

00:10:31.960 Maybe make it illegal to have insulting memes on your computer.

00:10:36.220 It would be equivalent to having child porn on your computer now.

00:10:39.280 Anyways, he's getting some pushback.

00:10:41.200 Believe it or not, my video about him a couple of months ago has been seen almost 200,000 times.

00:10:46.960 And this is a long video.

00:10:48.980 Much of those audience is in Scotland.

00:10:52.620 Actually made the front pages of a couple of Scottish newspapers.

00:10:55.600 I think that we at Rebel News actually helped give arguments to the opponents of this censorship in Scotland.

00:11:00.920 So anyways, they were grilling him in the Scottish Parliament about his bill and possible amendments.

00:11:06.680 And he actually said, I'm not even kidding, the police in Scotland would arrest people in their own homes for saying things in their homes that Hamza Yusuf finds insulting or racist.

00:11:20.380 I mean, Hamza Yusuf can say racist things in Parliament.

00:11:24.060 That's just him being woke.

00:11:25.280 But literally in your own home, when you talk to your family, you can be arrested for what you say at home.

00:11:33.000 People were mocking that on Twitter, and he actually defended it.

00:11:36.320 Look at this.

00:11:37.460 Some Scottish Tory says, a deeply concerning suggestion.

00:11:40.440 Hate crime bill.

00:11:41.540 Hate talk in homes must be prosecuted.

00:11:46.160 So Hamza Yusuf writes back.

00:11:47.960 He says, beyond headline, if you invite 10 mates around, it can be proven beyond reasonable doubt that you intentionally stirred up hatred against Jews.

00:11:55.680 Why should this not be prosecuted?

00:11:57.120 It would if you did so down the pub, but not in your house.

00:12:00.120 I love how he makes it a Jewish thing.

00:12:03.600 I love the pub angle, too.

00:12:05.580 How about a mosque, though, if we're talking about places where insulting or offensive comments are actually made about Jews?

00:12:11.220 I've never heard Scotland being a hotspot for anti-Semitism amongst Scots, but who knows?

00:12:16.220 Maybe Hamza Yusuf knows better.

00:12:17.760 The point is, regardless of his bizarre attempt to smear Scots as anti-Semitic, he's standing by the report.

00:12:24.000 He absolutely wants the ability to arrest you for what you say in the privacy of your own home to your own family.

00:12:32.660 My friends, that is the United Kingdom today.

00:12:35.400 Busting up your Christmas dinner with cops.

00:12:38.100 Prosecuting for what you say over dinner with your family and friends.

00:12:42.420 Here in Canada, I think we're not quite there yet, but I think we're maybe five minutes behind them.

00:12:48.380 Don't you?

00:12:49.600 Stay with us for more.

00:12:50.680 Welcome back.

00:13:03.260 We're talking about free speech today.

00:13:05.560 Literally today, we were in a court in Edmonton, Alberta, defending our freedom of speech.

00:13:12.420 In particular, our right to publish billboards critical of the government.

00:13:17.160 And it all comes from this billboard.

00:13:19.680 Remember, two years ago, David Egan was the socialist education minister in the province of Alberta.

00:13:26.760 Disastrous results if you care about learning stuff.

00:13:29.980 But boy, he was successful at propaganda.

00:13:31.840 Well, we brought up a billboard.

00:13:33.660 Fire Egan.

00:13:34.940 That was his last name.

00:13:36.460 All right, you don't like it, so ignore it.

00:13:38.380 Put up your own billboard.

00:13:39.380 Whatever.

00:13:40.380 No, no, no.

00:13:40.800 Well, Rachel Notley, the NDP premier of the day, had her hand-picked election commissioner prosecute us for an illegal ad.

00:13:49.340 There's no such thing as an illegal ad.

00:13:52.500 We're a news site.

00:13:53.940 That was our editorial opinion.

00:13:55.620 It linked back to our website.

00:13:57.460 We can say fire Egan all we like.

00:14:00.680 Well, that wasn't Rachel Notley's point of view.

00:14:02.500 And incredibly, that election commissioner, the disgraced Lauren Gibson, he told us he was coming to get us.

00:14:10.400 He told us he was going to investigate us.

00:14:12.600 We lawyered up.

00:14:13.960 But before our lawyers could even present our side of the story, there was a secret trial to which we were not invited.

00:14:23.700 And we were convicted in absentia, even though our lawyer had already said, all right, we'll be there.

00:14:28.320 We'll meet this ridiculous charge.

00:14:29.940 Well, we appealed, we asked for a judicial review of that, and that came today.

00:14:38.000 What's so bizarre is that Rachel Notley was sacked by voters.

00:14:42.460 Lauren Gibson was fired by Jason Kenney.

00:14:45.600 And yet, the government of Alberta was in court today using taxpayers' money under Premier Jason Kenney

00:14:52.980 to fight us and to insist that this conviction stands.

00:14:59.340 Joining us now via Skype from Alberta is Sheila Gunn-Reed, who spent the day following along with the hearing, live-tweeting it.

00:15:07.760 If you haven't yet gone to the website, rebeltrial.com, you can see all the documents in the case and Sheila's live-tweets.

00:15:14.720 Sheila, great to see you.

00:15:15.860 We're catching you at this moment in a hiatus in the hearing.

00:15:19.280 I mean, it's not yet done.

00:15:21.020 Our lawyer made his case, but up next is the government lawyers.

00:15:24.060 Is that right?

00:15:25.240 Yeah.

00:15:25.520 Up next is the government lawyers from the Ministry of Justice.

00:15:29.940 Jason Kenney's government, his Ministry of Justice, has sent at least two lawyers that I can tell

00:15:35.260 to argue the case on behalf of the elections commissioner against us.

00:15:40.740 Are you sure about that?

00:15:41.660 I just want to check that.

00:15:42.620 I mean, I know you're following and you got all the documents.

00:15:45.200 So these are Justice Department lawyers?

00:15:47.880 They're not actually election Alberta lawyers?

00:15:51.760 Yes.

00:15:52.040 There's two lawyers right now.

00:15:53.880 They're from the Ministry of Justice.

00:15:56.620 Really?

00:15:57.840 Well, that is news to me.

00:16:00.360 I am...

00:16:01.300 Because that's different.

00:16:02.120 If the elections Canada...

00:16:04.620 Sorry, elections Alberta, pardon me, hired lawyers on behalf of their own agency.

00:16:09.020 But for the Department of Justice, this would obviously have been done or arranged under

00:16:14.020 Doug Schweitzer's regime as justice minister.

00:16:17.160 I don't think Casey Madhu would allow this.

00:16:19.060 So Jason Kenney's government, you got to put it on the boss.

00:16:23.420 Jason Kenney's government is sending lawyers to insist that the court uphold the ban on us

00:16:31.660 having political billboards.

00:16:33.580 I am shocked.

00:16:34.520 I didn't think that Kenney was sending lawyers.

00:16:37.420 That is news to me, Sheila.

00:16:39.580 Yeah.

00:16:40.160 I mean, it remains to be seen, I suppose, their arguments later on in the day.

00:16:45.300 When we broke, they said they would need at least an hour, maybe an hour and a half to

00:16:50.660 make their case, whatever that looks like.

00:16:53.180 I'm interested to see how they plan to defend what happened to us here.

00:16:58.440 Because really, it was an abusive process from the very beginning.

00:17:04.180 And I, I, I'm not sure if I'm learning new things or if I'm remembering things that I

00:17:09.120 forgot, because this case is just so wild.

00:17:12.520 For example, I did not realize that investigators from both the elections commissioner and elections,

00:17:20.740 Alberta, harassed our sign guy and interrogated our sign guy. 1.00

00:17:25.400 And then on the day that they found us guilty in a secret trial, their investigators contacted our sign guy and said,

00:17:36.260 take down the sign, which they cannot do.

00:17:39.100 They don't have the authority to do that.

00:17:41.220 I also didn't realize that on the very day that we filed for the judicial review that I'm sitting through today,

00:17:48.640 the exact same day, that's the day the elections commissioner sent us a lawyer saying,

00:17:54.740 oh, no, no, we, we found you guilty.

00:17:58.600 We gave you a fine.

00:17:59.640 We didn't allow you to participate in the process.

00:18:01.540 But you know what?

00:18:03.000 Let's have a mulligan and we'll reprimand you instead. 0.99

00:18:08.240 That happened on the very same day that we filed for this judicial review,

00:18:12.640 meaning we spooked the daylights out of them.

00:18:14.860 And I also didn't realize that, as our lawyer argues in court,

00:18:20.460 that misunderstanding and we're going to give you a reprimand instead,

00:18:25.820 that wasn't a favor to us.

00:18:29.300 It was to kneecap our ability to appeal the findings against us

00:18:34.580 and lay the facts bare because you can't appeal a reprimand.

00:18:38.400 You know, I just want to come back to that for a second.

00:18:41.220 I remember when that came in, we had hired the best free speech law firm in Edmonton.

00:18:46.820 They're called Reynolds Mirth.

00:18:48.260 They're very famous for defending journalists of all backgrounds.

00:18:51.980 Fred Kozak's their senior lawyer.

00:18:53.900 I think he is beloved by so many journalists because he really is their guardian angel.

00:18:58.340 I was thrilled when he took the case and his understudy, Michael Swanberg, who's also an excellent lawyer.

00:19:03.620 So we hired the best because you don't want to mess around when your freedom's at stake.

00:19:08.060 They contacted Elections Alberta, said we're on the file, da-da-da.

00:19:13.240 And then we were all shocked, including our lawyers, when we were found guilty without even a hearing.

00:19:18.880 But here's the thing, and I just want to emphasize this.

00:19:21.000 You mentioned this, Sheila, but let me just emphasize it for our viewers.

00:19:24.180 So they said, you're guilty, even though we weren't invited to be part of the secret trial.

00:19:29.040 And we proposed a $5,500 fine.

00:19:32.000 When we said, no thanks, we're appealing, they said, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, we're going to take the fine away.

00:19:37.140 Please don't appeal.

00:19:39.040 Because they didn't want any of their processes, any of their secret trials, any of their misconduct being scrutinized by grownups, by real judges in their real process.

00:19:52.760 They were so—you make the point that they were trying to kneecap our ability to appeal.

00:19:57.280 Fair enough.

00:19:57.780 I think it was the opposite.

00:19:59.560 I think they were desperate so we wouldn't appeal because they don't want grownups to see how misbehaved they were.

00:20:06.540 And that's what today's hearing is about.

00:20:08.560 Well, and I think they forgot who they're tangling with.

00:20:10.960 We don't take reprimands when we didn't do anything wrong.

00:20:13.320 And people need to realize that the elections commissioner in Alberta is the investigator and the jury and the executioner.

00:20:28.120 They investigate you.

00:20:30.300 You may or may not know that they are investigating you.

00:20:32.980 Actually, I—from what I learned today, they reached out to our billboard contractor before they ever let us know that we were under investigation.

00:20:41.340 And then they can find you guilty without you ever participating in it.

00:20:47.080 And then maybe they'll allow you input into what your consequences are going to be.

00:20:51.620 They'll hear submissions from you on what the fine is.

00:20:55.100 So that's the process here in Alberta.

00:20:57.360 Oh, my God.

00:20:58.100 Sorry, guys.

00:20:58.660 My cat's jumping up.

00:21:00.540 No problem, Sheila.

00:21:02.140 You know, your cat's getting revved up just like we are.

00:21:04.940 I have to say I sort of forgot about this because in my mind, Sheila, Rachel Notley was thrown out by voters.

00:21:11.280 I remember when Jason Kenney fired Lorne Gibson, the disgraced election commissioner.

00:21:16.260 So I honestly sort of forgot about this until our lawyer said, hey, guys, that judicial review we asked for two years ago, two years ago, it's happening now.

00:21:25.740 And is that Margaret Scratcher?

00:21:28.780 That's Margaret Scratcher, the super cat. 1.00

00:21:30.700 That's a great name.

00:21:33.600 You know what?

00:21:34.120 That's great.

00:21:34.800 You know what?

00:21:35.360 You're working from home.

00:21:36.700 And you got this home-based studio there.

00:21:39.380 And we appreciate all the work you do, Sheila.

00:21:41.580 You're just the best.

00:21:43.660 So I haven't added up all the expenses, but I want to invite people, if you're curious about this case, and I hope you are, go to rebeltrial.com.

00:21:54.560 On that page, you have Sheila's tweets, which are great.

00:21:58.420 But importantly, you have all the legal documents, including the letters that the election commissioner sent us.

00:22:05.400 I call it the threat letter.

00:22:06.680 And then there was the conviction letter, where they say you're guilty.

00:22:10.600 And then our lawsuit.

00:22:11.960 So if you're really interested in this, you can go deep on the website.

00:22:15.180 There's an hour's worth of reading there, if you want to read it.

00:22:19.120 The thing about it is when lawyers write, they write very carefully.

00:22:23.320 And I think you'll be proud of the quality of our lawyers.

00:22:26.200 But they're not working for free.

00:22:27.500 And today's court hearing alone will surely cost $10,000.

00:22:32.420 I think we're probably up to $50,000.

00:22:35.020 And that's just our expenses.

00:22:36.960 Jason Kenney and Rachel Notley have probably spent a quarter of a million dollars.

00:22:41.900 I mean, you say they've got two lawyers from the Department of Justice alone this afternoon.

00:22:45.840 Then there's the elections Canada, elections Alberta, and then the elections commissioner.

00:22:48.980 There's probably 10 or 15 people in the government working on censoring us, Sheila.

00:22:54.080 And it's really lopsided.

00:22:55.680 Like, I mean, we're being much more efficient.

00:22:57.940 We have one main lawyer, Michael Swanberg, on the case.

00:23:00.820 But we're still out $50,000.

00:23:03.140 The government's got to have spent at least a quarter million to silence us.

00:23:06.220 I'm optimistic, though.

00:23:07.660 I think we've got a real chance here.

00:23:09.180 What do you think?

00:23:10.460 I do, too.

00:23:11.760 The judge seemed very impressed with our lawyer, Justice Lima.

00:23:15.740 Another thing I want to add, though, is that when I said this was an abusive process from

00:23:22.500 the very beginning, I think people need to understand that this complaint, it doesn't

00:23:30.160 seem like it came by way of the public.

00:23:33.900 It seems as though it came directly from Elections Alberta, and they made the complaint to the

00:23:42.720 elections commissioner.

00:23:44.000 So it was the government of the day, headed by Rachel Notley, investigating an independent

00:23:51.280 journalism outlet for expressing an editorial opinion in a billboard on the side of a highway,

00:23:57.960 which is really just what they do in the editorial pages of failing newspapers all the time.

00:24:02.100 We just do it in a fun, new way.

00:24:04.100 But they were the ones that were kicking off this investigation against us, and they have

00:24:09.920 unlimited resources to do it.

00:24:11.860 We crowdfund everything, we appreciate everything that we get, but that's what we're up against.

00:24:17.400 We are up against two government agencies who formulated this complaint against us, and

00:24:24.520 now we're left to defend it.

00:24:26.100 Yeah, you know what?

00:24:27.040 I'm so mad to learn that there's two adjacent Kenney lawyers going to be there.

00:24:31.380 I'm very surprised by this.

00:24:33.020 It sounds like this hearing may go longer than a full day.

00:24:35.980 I hope not.

00:24:37.140 The cost of such a thing would be huge.

00:24:39.940 But hopefully, I mean, I don't know anything about this judge, but hopefully a real judge

00:24:44.780 with real rules of procedure would look at this and say what seems so blatantly obvious to me.

00:24:51.380 You can't convict someone in a hearing without inviting them there.

00:24:54.720 You can't convict someone without hearing their side of the story.

00:24:57.400 You have to show them some basic facts about the complaint against them.

00:25:00.880 None of those basic rules of procedural fairness were there.

00:25:05.260 And then just because we say we object, oh, oh, oh, please don't go to court.

00:25:09.040 Please don't have a real judge supervise my work. 0.99

00:25:11.560 We'll just give you a reprimand.

00:25:13.100 I'm sorry, I don't take reprimands from governments for having the wrong political view.

00:25:16.880 In fact, as I was saying earlier on my noontime show, you know, being fined, at least that's

00:25:23.560 just money, I hate it, but the government's in my pocket every day.

00:25:27.140 It's one thing to be fined money, but when the government say we, with all our authority

00:25:31.660 and all our sovereignty, hereby reprimand you for having the wrong ideas, well, I cannot

00:25:37.760 stand that.

00:25:39.100 I cannot accept that.

00:25:40.380 I grumble when my money is taken from me through taxes, through fees, through every excuse

00:25:46.400 that politicians come up with.

00:25:47.820 But don't you dare seek to judge me and reprimand me for criticizing Rachel Notley or Jason

00:25:55.300 Kenney or Stephen Harper or Justin Trudeau.

00:25:57.800 I'm a Canadian citizen.

00:25:59.780 I'm a natural born human.

00:26:01.800 I have inherent rights that predate the government.

00:26:05.280 Imagine the chutzpah of Rachel Notley reprimanding me for a point of view.

00:26:09.700 Sheila, I'm getting mad just talking about this.

00:26:11.420 It's really quite bizarre because, I mean, there's an argument to be made that this law

00:26:17.540 is unconstitutional.

00:26:19.980 And from what I understand, that argument will be made at a later date.

00:26:24.380 And we do have a lawyer from the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms, James Kitchen.

00:26:28.760 He's sitting in as an observer in the hearing today.

00:26:32.820 I do know that they, I think they want to be interveners in that constitutional challenge.

00:26:38.880 But really, this is, it comes down to, do we allow secret trials in Canada?

00:26:47.800 That's really what this is about.

00:26:49.640 They didn't give one shred of evidence to our lawyers before they convicted us.

00:26:55.300 Yeah.

00:26:55.940 And they have that duty.

00:26:57.180 Even a murderer has the right to disclosure from the ground.

00:27:01.440 You know, let me say one last point, Sheila.

00:27:02.940 I appreciate you.

00:27:03.700 First of all, you were covering that trial.

00:27:05.100 You were live tweeting it.

00:27:06.240 And that's actually a high energy job because you've got to strain to listen what all the

00:27:11.040 lawyers say.

00:27:11.900 And sometimes they use legal jargon and to type it up.

00:27:14.720 So thanks for live tweeting it.

00:27:16.100 You mentioned that the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms is listening in.

00:27:20.500 And I'm so glad they are.

00:27:21.720 In my view, they're the only civil liberties, public interest law firm of any note in this

00:27:25.900 country.

00:27:26.220 The Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Canadians for Justice and, for Canadian Journalists for

00:27:31.620 Free Expression, Canadian Association of Journalists, Penn Canada, all these reporters without borders,

00:27:37.680 all these groups, they don't care.

00:27:40.480 They're all on the take with Trudeau or they don't want to be offside with Trudeau.

00:27:45.200 They don't care much for freedom of speech anymore.

00:27:47.540 They certainly don't like the rebel.

00:27:49.320 It's so sad.

00:27:50.360 When I was a kid, if something like this would have happened, every newspaper from the whole

00:27:55.160 spectrum would have been in court together, intervening together, all for one and one

00:27:59.680 for all, free speech for everybody.

00:28:02.160 That's a bygone era, Sheila.

00:28:04.920 I wouldn't even say way back when you were a kid.

00:28:07.760 I would say in 2015 they would have come to our aid.

00:28:10.940 And they did when Rachel Notley threw me out of the legislature and banned me from reporting

00:28:16.300 there.

00:28:16.560 They sided with us, begrudgingly, but they did, but nobody seems to care about any of

00:28:21.300 this.

00:28:21.540 And I send, I think it's $70 a year, to Penn Canada just for the right to say, you took

00:28:28.220 my money, but you don't do a damn thing for me. 0.72

00:28:31.040 Well, let me invite our viewers who care about freedom for us, but the precedents we set redound

00:28:38.940 to the benefit of all Albertans and all Canadians.

00:28:43.040 If you are upset that we were prosecuted, convicted in absentia, fined, and then generally jerked

00:28:50.060 around because we put up a billboard, if you think we ought to have the funds to fight

00:28:54.440 that, please help.

00:28:55.540 Go to rebeltrial.com.

00:28:58.480 And while you're there, if you've got the time, read the very well-drafted legal arguments

00:29:03.040 by our lawyer, Michael Swanberg.

00:29:04.440 I think they're educational.

00:29:06.200 There is some legal jargon in them, but I think you can generally work your way through

00:29:10.180 them, and mainly I want you to see those insane letters from the election commissioner

00:29:16.020 that are just so baffling.

00:29:17.940 So I'd invite all our viewers to go to rebeltrial.com.

00:29:20.220 Last word to you, Sheila.

00:29:23.400 We've got a lot of lawsuits on the go.

00:29:25.080 Most of them are fighting for freedom.

00:29:26.740 That's sort of a sad state of affairs.

00:29:28.300 Well, and the thing is, with this judicial review that we're bringing today and all the

00:29:34.920 legal fees that we are accumulating on this matter, you just hinted at it that we are

00:29:40.520 doing this for all Albertans.

00:29:42.780 But Notley cracked down on a lot of smaller conservative advocacy groups using this onerous

00:29:52.040 elections law, and they don't have the ability to fight.

00:29:56.160 They don't have the deep pockets, they don't have the support like we do of the people

00:30:01.120 at home, and really we're fighting this fight for them too.

00:30:04.040 That is such a good point.

00:30:05.840 It's been a while since I've looked, but when I went on the election commissioner's website

00:30:09.500 a few months ago, there was a list of all the people they steamrolled using the same

00:30:14.400 bad behavior, and tens of thousands, in some cases I think it was even over $100,000 in

00:30:20.600 the fines and the abuse of process, and no one stopped them, Sheila.

00:30:27.560 And now they've been fired and sacked and disgraced, but they're still, it's like a zombie.

00:30:33.240 It's like they're still going on after death.

00:30:37.300 The election commission is dissolved.

00:30:39.620 The election commissioner was fired, but bizarrely, the Alberta bureaucracy posthumously is fighting

00:30:46.860 us using taxpayers' dollars.

00:30:48.860 It's very strange.

00:30:49.780 I could go on for some length.

00:30:51.520 Please keep covering this on your Twitter feed.

00:30:53.440 I will.

00:30:54.180 And when it's all done, maybe you could do a video summarizing how it went, because these

00:31:00.040 days, obviously, it's so hard for people to go to the court, even if they are in Edmonton.

00:31:03.860 So maybe you could do a video for all our viewers on YouTube.

00:31:06.920 Definitely.

00:31:07.700 All right.

00:31:08.020 Thanks so much, Sheila.

00:31:08.580 There you go, Sheila Gunn-Reed, our chief reporter based there in Edmonton, her kitty cat 0.63

00:31:15.700 Margaret Thatcher, Scratcher, excuse me, covering today's trial at the Edmonton Court of Queens

00:31:20.980 Bench.

00:31:21.220 Stay with us, Maureen.

00:31:33.520 Hey, welcome back on my show last night.

00:31:35.320 Corey writes, People's Party of Canada proving to be a bit of a non-factor.

00:31:40.260 It's strange, given they are the only party which espouses actual freedom, but they don't resonate

00:31:45.000 more, especially in our current environment where we seem to be losing our freedoms daily.

00:31:48.840 Well, the thing is, Maxime Bernier doesn't have a seat, so there's no seed crystal around which

00:31:55.660 things can form.

00:31:57.080 And I think people are so eager to get rid of the liberals, and the Conservative Party has

00:32:02.140 a new leader, that I think the anti-liberal vote that's anywhere associated with conservatism

00:32:08.520 of freedom all coalesced around the Conservatives.

00:32:11.280 That's my theory.

00:32:12.340 I note with interest, as I mentioned the other day, that the Buffalo Party is a strong third

00:32:18.060 in Saskatchewan, even having run just a few candidates.

00:32:21.900 So I think Canadians are still looking for an all-term move, but if it's a matter of kicking 0.88

00:32:26.900 out Trudeau or not, they're not going to spend their vote on a choice that has no chance

00:32:32.020 of winning.

00:32:32.340 On my interview with David Manzies, B.G. writes, what a joke.

00:32:36.940 Those cops should be charged for neglect of duty.

00:32:39.160 You are so opposite.

00:32:40.840 That wasn't some sneaky video or some citizen journalism video or a cop publishing his own

00:32:47.380 video.

00:32:48.620 I took that from the Twitter feed of the OPP commissioner himself, the Ontario Provincial

00:32:53.800 Police.

00:32:55.000 That was an official video.

00:32:57.220 He was so proud of that.

00:32:58.940 He was promoting that.

00:33:00.140 He was signaling to the world, this is how it is in Ontario.

00:33:04.380 Those cops aren't going to get punished.

00:33:06.820 They're going to get promoted.

00:33:08.580 Oh my God, we're in trouble.

00:33:10.880 My friends, that's our show for today.

00:33:12.140 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, good night and keep

00:33:16.120 fighting for freedom.

00:33:16.780 A trueprise every stop.

00:33:18.560 I feel good.

00:33:19.140 Good night.

00:33:22.860 I shall continue.

00:33:23.220 I did.

00:33:26.980 Teams, go to the Oxford Valley, good night and endure.

00:33:28.620 Good night.

00:33:30.220 God bless you.

00:33:32.520 What are you, God bless you, God bless you.

00:33:33.740 God bless you the most.

00:33:34.820 God bless you.

00:33:35.920 God bless you.

00:33:36.540 God bless you.

00:33:37.740 God bless you.

00:33:39.800 God bless you.

00:33:45.460 God bless you.

Rebel News Podcast - October 29, 2020

Two ominous signs from the United Kingdom about freedom of speech

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