The Candice Malcolm Show - September 03, 2025


Carney Government launches CRIMINAL investigation into JUNO NEWS


Episode Stats

Length

25 minutes

Words per Minute

186.7923

Word Count

4,685

Sentence Count

309

Hate Speech Sentences

5


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Juno News is being investigated by the Elections Commissioner for reporting on an alleged sexual assault involving a Liberal candidate in the upcoming election. Candice and Kian discuss what they know so far and why they think it s a good idea to take the matter to court.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hi, I'm Candice Malcolm and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.
00:00:04.960 Folks, this episode is brought to you by Unsmoke, but more on them a little later.
00:00:08.580 So we are going to be breaking some big exclusive news here on the show.
00:00:12.480 We broke this yesterday on Juno News.
00:00:14.600 Not the kind of report that I like, but Juno News is being investigated by the elections commissioner.
00:00:20.840 Specifically, my co-founder, Kian Bextie, received a letter from the elections commissioner,
00:00:25.760 Canada Elections Commissioner, saying that we are being investigated for some of our reporting during the recent 2025 election.
00:00:32.240 So Kian Bextie is joining me to discuss this.
00:00:34.920 Kian, welcome to the program, although I wish you were joining me on different circumstances.
00:00:39.340 It's not the kind of news that I like to break.
00:00:41.660 The fact that our government is acting tyrannical and despotic,
00:00:47.000 coming after independent journalists for the crime of reporting.
00:00:50.580 So tell us what we know so far.
00:00:52.060 Yeah, I mean, the independent press gallery put it best.
00:00:56.600 Free elections require a free press, and this is the opposite of that.
00:01:01.380 Going into the next election, journalists are now going to see what has happened here
00:01:06.020 and think twice before they publish something that could embarrass the governing party.
00:01:12.380 You know, I said in the video that I released just yesterday
00:01:15.280 that the journalists in China would get carted off to a black site, never heard from again.
00:01:23.360 Journalists in Iran would be executed for embarrassing the regime.
00:01:27.420 And here in Canada, I'm threatened with five years in prison for covering a story
00:01:32.240 that was hugely consequential for the Canadian general election.
00:01:36.780 And I think that it actually caused Thomas Keeper to be removed and fired by the Liberal Party of Canada.
00:01:42.940 The work that we did was some of the most important journalistic work I've ever done in my life.
00:01:48.720 We spent weeks on this story, hours every day, pouring over it with sources,
00:01:54.420 long interviews, hour-long interviews with sources,
00:01:57.200 hour-long meetings with lawyers to make sure that we were good.
00:01:59.880 Days camped out front of Thomas Keeper's office so that we could speak to him in person
00:02:05.140 and do our journalistic duty of giving him an opportunity to respond.
00:02:10.380 We did all that.
00:02:11.840 And he, you know, he called the police on us.
00:02:14.000 He lied about me saying that I had assaulted him.
00:02:16.740 Of course, it was all recorded and that didn't happen.
00:02:18.960 Thomas Keeper is a liar.
00:02:20.700 And that was almost part of the story.
00:02:23.160 And it definitely backed up some of the claims that the sources made about him.
00:02:27.200 But neither here nor there.
00:02:28.560 Now what I'm concerned about is that Justin Trudeau's appointed elections commissioner
00:02:32.860 is investigating me because I believe Thomas Keeper or the Liberal Party, one or the other,
00:02:39.520 sent in a complaint to them so that I would be forced to go through this process.
00:02:44.800 I believe I'm innocent.
00:02:45.760 I mean, I am innocent morally, legally.
00:02:48.380 I'm protected by the Constitution.
00:02:50.480 And what they're going to have to do is say,
00:02:52.660 no, what you did was so embarrassing to the Liberal Party of Canada
00:02:56.520 that we're going to act like the Constitution doesn't protect you here,
00:03:00.780 that it's a reasonable removal of your rights and liberties
00:03:06.000 because it was so damaging to the Liberal Party apparatus
00:03:09.260 is what they're going to have to say when we take this to the Supreme Court of Canada.
00:03:12.380 Well, it's one of those things, Kian, where I don't like to make ourselves the subject of the story, right?
00:03:17.300 I would rather report on the real news.
00:03:19.220 I'd rather report on the state of our country and hold the powerful to account.
00:03:22.980 But sometimes you have to defend yourself.
00:03:25.520 And what the government is doing to independent journalists in this country,
00:03:28.940 what they are doing to general news is unbelievable in a free society.
00:03:33.180 And it just cannot stand.
00:03:34.760 We couldn't keep our mouths shut and stay quiet about this.
00:03:37.260 It's important that Canadians know what independent journalists go through in our trade and in our practice,
00:03:43.260 that holding government officials and powerful people accountable does come with consequences,
00:03:47.800 especially when you have a politicized government that treats the media like they are the enemy.
00:03:53.320 So I'm going to read a little bit from this notice of investigation that you received back in August.
00:03:59.000 It says, Dear Kian Bexty,
00:04:00.080 you're receiving this letter because the commissioner of Canada's elections,
00:04:03.640 the commissioner, has started an investigation.
00:04:05.980 It examines allegations that you may have violated the Canada Elections Act
00:04:10.180 and charges may be laid against you under the act as a result of this investigation.
00:04:14.340 Based on our initial review, it appears that on or about March 26, 2025,
00:04:18.760 and again on or about March 28, 2025, you published articles in Juneau News
00:04:22.840 alleging that then Liberal Party of Canada candidate Thomas Keeper
00:04:26.240 had conducted himself in a manner that amounted to an offense pursuant to the criminal code,
00:04:30.540 an act of Parliament specifically.
00:04:32.120 You alleged that he had committed sexual assault and common assault.
00:04:36.160 The allegations have been denied as being false under the act.
00:04:39.260 It is illegal to make a false statement that a candidate has committed an offense
00:04:43.260 under the act of Parliament, subsection 91 of the act.
00:04:47.360 And we'll talk a little bit more about the criminal code section 91
00:04:50.740 because the Trudeau government has politicized that to put a chill on free speech,
00:04:55.560 on social media, and on independent media during elections.
00:04:59.060 Now, just to go back to this letter, it says, what is an investigation?
00:05:03.220 The commissioner is responsible for investigating cases of potential wrongdoing
00:05:06.260 under the act.
00:05:07.260 The investigation helped the commissioner gather facts and information
00:05:11.120 to better understand what may have taken place.
00:05:14.020 You can learn more about the investigation by looking at your compliance
00:05:16.480 and enforcement policy at this email address, at this website, sorry.
00:05:19.900 What happens next?
00:05:20.640 It says you are not required to cooperate with the investigation.
00:05:24.780 You will not be arrested or detained.
00:05:26.340 But what you say, the information you provide, could be used as evidence.
00:05:30.200 You may contact a lawyer or your choice, of your choice at any time.
00:05:35.600 So this is a very serious notice for a journalist to receive.
00:05:38.840 It is very concerning.
00:05:39.760 And like you said, we here at Juno News, you know, this wasn't just a hot take on social media.
00:05:46.240 This wasn't just a drive-by smear.
00:05:47.980 This was a very deliberate, very well-researched, very thoughtful act of journalism.
00:05:53.840 You consulted with many sources, people coming to you,
00:05:57.480 very concerned with the character of this candidate for the Liberal Party,
00:06:02.560 basically telling you that this person has serious concerns around them.
00:06:06.400 As a journalist, it's your duty to inform the public about what those concerns might be.
00:06:11.560 So you went further with the investigation.
00:06:13.900 My understanding is you recorded many, many phone conversations with your sources.
00:06:19.200 And we, you know, we had lawyers review this document.
00:06:21.920 Like you said, you went to Thomas Keeper's office to have him comment on this.
00:06:25.640 So, you know, this is what journalism is.
00:06:28.420 This is what happens behind the scenes.
00:06:30.300 And so the fact that the government is trying to scare you,
00:06:35.020 Kian, it's unbelievable.
00:06:36.940 Why don't we walk the audience through for those who might not remember the story,
00:06:41.280 might not be top of mind for some folks.
00:06:43.620 Why don't you give us a little bit of background on your investigation of Thomas Keeper?
00:06:49.020 Yeah.
00:06:49.300 So I'll just start by clarifying that nothing that we reported had been,
00:06:56.180 he has not been convicted in a court of law for anything that we reported.
00:07:00.000 What we reported on was primary sources.
00:07:03.560 And without revealing them, it were people that were, was very close to him, knew him intimately,
00:07:09.120 were, used to be friends with him, were his family.
00:07:12.620 We spoke with everyone, everyone we could speak to that surrounded Thomas Keeper,
00:07:18.520 who's a real estate agent in Calgary.
00:07:20.820 At least he was.
00:07:21.600 I don't know if he still is.
00:07:22.940 And he was the liberal candidate for Calgary Confederation.
00:07:25.000 There were really shocking allegations that were made about him that I initially sort of disregarded
00:07:31.620 when I, when I started hearing them because of, you know, it's election, an election,
00:07:36.480 everyone wants to sort of take a stab here and there.
00:07:39.120 And then, and then I heard it again and again and again from different people who are not connected at all.
00:07:45.780 Really?
00:07:46.360 And I don't want to rehash all of the allegations here.
00:07:48.760 The reporting is still there that you can find it on JunoNews.com.
00:07:52.460 And I encourage people to go do that because, like we said, we, we sourced everything really clearly.
00:07:59.120 We ran it by the lawyers to make sure that we were okay.
00:08:01.300 And we gave Thomas Keeper every opportunity to defend himself.
00:08:05.980 And that's, that's how journalism works, right?
00:08:08.840 He's protected by the laws surrounding defamation.
00:08:11.560 So someone can't just go out during any given day and start lying, spewing terrible things that,
00:08:17.660 that destroy someone's character.
00:08:18.940 That's already illegal in Canada.
00:08:21.240 And we made sure to not do that, obviously, because we're journalists.
00:08:25.780 But Thomas Keeper either couldn't or, or didn't want to respond to these allegations.
00:08:31.960 And just a few hours after our reporting was published, when it went nationally viral,
00:08:38.220 it was the biggest story of the election at that time early on.
00:08:42.260 Uh, and just a few hours later, Thomas Keeper was stripped off the ballot and replaced by someone else.
00:08:49.200 So, uh, we caused some serious, you know, we, we, we did our job in informing the public about someone who was about to become one of the 340 odd board members of this country.
00:09:05.300 Right. Like he was going to be a very, very powerful person.
00:09:08.260 In fact, the liberals ended up winning that riding.
00:09:11.400 He would have been a member of parliament, I think.
00:09:14.800 Uh, and then we informed the public, we did our job and, and that was it.
00:09:18.380 Right. And then what the liberals did, that wasn't the intention.
00:09:20.680 We weren't trying to get him fired or anything like that, but that was the fallout.
00:09:23.720 Uh, when we shared, uh, the news with the people, uh, the facts with the people, that's, that's what happened.
00:09:29.140 So, uh, we did our job and that's what journalists are supposed to do.
00:09:32.140 And now, uh, that the dust has settled, the liberals are annoyed at us.
00:09:36.580 Uh, we, you know, we obviously landed a lot of punches during that election across the political spectrum.
00:09:41.960 Uh, and the liberals, they're in power, they're angry and they send the election commissioner after us.
00:09:47.360 They, it doesn't cost them a dime, right?
00:09:49.020 But it costs us everything.
00:09:50.320 We, we already had to hire a lawyer, tens of thousands of dollars already down the drain, and we haven't seen a courtroom yet.
00:09:56.180 Uh, and, and we have to pay that, but Thomas Keeper and the liberal party, it's going to cost them nothing to prosecute this case.
00:10:03.020 In fact, it's the taxpayers that are footing the bill to keep me up at night so that I have to stop doing what I'm doing, stop the journalism that I'm doing and worry about going to prison next year.
00:10:14.020 Uh, if, if the liberals are able to contort and twist this law, this arcane law that has never been used against the CBC or any of these liberal friendly journalists, just against me, literally just me.
00:10:26.760 Uh, they're using this arcane law against me to, to throw me in prison.
00:10:30.760 Right. Well, this presumably is the test case, and again, we'll get a little bit more into the law in just a minute, Kian.
00:10:37.500 I want to share with our audience, though, a clip, because part of being a journalist is asking, uh, the subject of a story for comment, right?
00:10:45.940 It's like, you are making allegations, your story is making allegations, you are, it's fully sourced, it's people around him that are actually making those allegations, but you're printing them.
00:10:54.520 And the right thing to do is to tell him about it in advance so that he can comment on the story.
00:10:59.900 So here is a clip of you showing up at his Calgary campaign office so that you can ask him questions.
00:11:05.920 Again, doing journalism, right?
00:11:08.080 But the liberal mentality is that independent journalists are the enemy and that you don't want to talk to them.
00:11:14.160 And so here we will see not only did Thomas Keeper refuse to talk to you, refuse to comment, refuse to even look at your story.
00:11:20.720 Um, he then called the police and you caught him on tape misleading those police officers, alleging that you did something that you clearly didn't do.
00:11:28.160 So let's play that clip.
00:11:30.200 Mr. Keeper, Thomas.
00:11:32.540 Hi, Thomas.
00:11:33.120 I just have some questions to ask you.
00:11:34.940 We just, we just have some questions to ask you.
00:11:38.800 Hi, Mr. Keeper.
00:11:40.060 Okay, great.
00:11:40.560 Thank you.
00:11:40.820 No, no, no.
00:11:41.300 Sorry.
00:11:41.960 Harley, come in.
00:11:42.500 I need my dog.
00:11:43.760 Sorry.
00:11:44.160 We just have some questions to ask you.
00:11:47.280 Any time, was there any physical contact or anything with that?
00:11:49.480 No.
00:11:49.820 Any threats?
00:11:50.900 No, not to me.
00:11:51.920 No.
00:11:53.140 Or to him, obviously.
00:11:54.420 Yeah, just the, uh, nature of the interaction is just you asking him some questions.
00:11:57.980 Yeah.
00:11:58.140 It may seem to be a restraining order.
00:12:00.320 If a restraining order gets granted, there may be a clause in there with no communication.
00:12:04.780 Just be careful.
00:12:05.680 Okay.
00:12:06.040 He didn't get served a copy of it before it is.
00:12:08.600 Okay.
00:12:09.100 So I heard your side of the story.
00:12:10.180 I heard his side of the story, I guess.
00:12:11.660 He's claiming you went in and came in kind of hot.
00:12:13.900 You made physical contact with him?
00:12:15.520 What?
00:12:15.800 So as anyone can see, you didn't come within two feet of the, right?
00:12:20.480 You tried to.
00:12:21.120 You tried to go up to him to hand him a piece of paper to say, you know, these are the,
00:12:24.400 this is the story I'm going to print about you.
00:12:26.200 Um, but he, he, he closed the door on your face and came out just so that his enforcer
00:12:29.760 could step between you.
00:12:30.800 And then he clearly told the police that you came in hot, that you confronted him and made
00:12:35.920 contact with him physical.
00:12:37.260 So, uh, clearly, uh, you know, not a person who is, uh, you know, telling the truth or,
00:12:43.420 or, you know, being upfront about what, what happened.
00:12:45.540 And we probably didn't realize he had it on tape there, Kian.
00:12:47.880 Um, but that was what happened back in March.
00:12:51.100 You published your story, um, the next day.
00:12:53.540 And as you said, uh, it led to the liberals removing this individual as a candidate.
00:12:58.660 So, you know, looking back at that interaction, um, what, what are you thinking?
00:13:02.060 Well, it, it does like, thank God I was recording.
00:13:06.460 Um, we were using these sunglasses that had a camera in them.
00:13:10.260 Whenever you deal with a liberal, you have to make sure there's cameras rolling because
00:13:13.840 you never know what they'll do.
00:13:15.100 They, if, if I had no camera there, who are, who are you going to trust?
00:13:19.100 Some, you know, some journalist who the government already doesn't like, or some real estate agent
00:13:24.420 who's about to become a member of parliament who accuses some kid of assault.
00:13:29.080 Um, it would have been really bad for me.
00:13:31.380 And that was what he was hoping.
00:13:32.480 And we caught him in the lie.
00:13:34.140 Uh, and it really speaks to his character that he's someone that, that behaves that way.
00:13:38.520 Well, folks, I want to take a minute to thank the sponsor of today's episode, which is Unsmoke.
00:13:43.800 Everybody knows it is time to modernize Canada's rules on nicotine.
00:13:46.980 Alternative cigarettes like heated tobacco vaping products and oral smokeless products
00:13:50.220 don't burn tobacco or produce smoke.
00:13:52.440 They aren't risk-free, but the growing body of scientific evidence shows they have the potential
00:13:56.420 to be substantially less harmful than smoking cigarettes.
00:13:59.280 Now, despite this, Canadians are banned from critical information and even some products.
00:14:04.640 Nicotine pouches remain banned in convenience stores.
00:14:07.060 And current laws ban communication about the risks of these products while compared to cigarettes.
00:14:11.880 The evidence is there.
00:14:12.620 The tools exist.
00:14:13.480 Canadians should have the freedom to know more about them.
00:14:16.060 Learn more at unsmoke.ca.
00:14:18.760 Now, Kian, I want to talk a little bit about this specific law, because this was a, you
00:14:24.080 mentioned off the top that it was an arcane law.
00:14:25.820 It's been on the books for a long, long time.
00:14:27.120 But the Trudeau liberals politicized this, right?
00:14:29.360 This was part of their ongoing campaign to censor the internet, to crack down on speech
00:14:33.960 that they don't like.
00:14:34.780 And this was a prime example.
00:14:36.320 So I'm going to go back to November 3rd, 2019.
00:14:39.260 Even the CBC says, watch what you tweet.
00:14:42.180 New election law, chills speech.
00:14:44.440 Critics say free speech advocates target draconian section 91 of the Canadian Elections Act.
00:14:52.100 And none other than Justin Trudeau was the one pushing it out.
00:14:55.680 It's kind of amusing to read this article now, Kian, because the justification for the way
00:15:01.140 that they amended this law was to prevent misinformation.
00:15:04.480 And the example that they gave was how Russia interfered with the 2016 U.S. election, which
00:15:11.660 we know at this point was a total hoax.
00:15:13.480 It was a media fabrication that did not happen.
00:15:15.620 And yet the CBC and Justin Trudeau use that as justification to create this new provision
00:15:21.400 in the criminal code.
00:15:23.180 And the whole idea is that you cannot share misinformation, what they deem as misinformation.
00:15:30.160 There were plenty of people who were very critical of it at the time, including the Canadian
00:15:34.900 Constitution Foundation, as well as the Taxpayers Federation.
00:15:39.760 I just want to read specifically from here because this is amusing.
00:15:44.460 It even writes, this is the CBC.
00:15:46.360 The law is ripe for abuse.
00:15:48.240 It says that no charges have yet been brought under Section 91 relating to the 2019 campaign.
00:15:52.900 But international experience shows that such laws have become a weapon for governments
00:15:56.100 looking to silence online dissidents.
00:15:58.240 And then they use Egypt and Bahrain as examples of activists getting arrested for publishing
00:16:05.220 true stories, right?
00:16:06.920 So even the CBC is mentioning that the law is ripe for abuse.
00:16:11.340 Well, here is our former prime minister, Justin Trudeau, when he was announcing these changes
00:16:16.300 to Section 91.
00:16:17.660 He was saying that the reason that they have this kind of law on the book is because the
00:16:22.580 politics of misinformation, fear and division.
00:16:26.080 Let's play that clip.
00:16:26.700 That important choice that citizens must make at election time needs to be informed, needs
00:16:33.880 to be not twisted or torqued in deliberate ways by falsehoods.
00:16:42.700 We're in a world right now where we've seen the impact of the kinds of polarization, the
00:16:47.680 kinds of politics, of misinformation, of fear and division, whether we look at what's happening
00:16:54.320 in the UK or what's happening in the United States.
00:16:58.060 There are reasons to acquire and to develop new tools to make sure that Canadians and people
00:17:05.280 in democracies can be informed as they want to be to be able to make the right decisions
00:17:12.980 for their future.
00:17:14.860 So there's always been a law on the book in Canada saying that you can't misinform the
00:17:19.960 public.
00:17:20.220 You can't knowingly misinform the public.
00:17:22.760 The Trudeau government changed that law to remove the word knowingly.
00:17:26.780 So they made it so that even if you were sharing information and you didn't know that it wasn't
00:17:30.920 true, that you could still be charged with a crime.
00:17:33.800 Well, the Canadian Constitution Foundation challenged that law.
00:17:37.240 They actually brought it to court and they saw a victory.
00:17:40.920 So in February of 2021, the Ontario Superior Court Justice struck down Section 91-1 of the
00:17:46.900 Elections Canada Act, ruling that it was an unjustified infringement on free expressions.
00:17:52.180 The Trudeau government removed that term knowingly and the law is back on the books with fines up
00:17:58.600 to $50,000 and up to five years in prison, folks.
00:18:02.120 This is so serious and this is what Kian Bexley is now facing.
00:18:06.440 Kian, what do you think about the law itself and how it's been so politicized?
00:18:11.340 Well, it's exactly what I expect from Justin Trudeau.
00:18:14.680 Man, I do not miss seeing that guy in press conferences.
00:18:18.840 He was couching this law, just waiting for the opportunity to use it against his enemies.
00:18:24.580 And now Mark Kearney is here doing exactly that, taking advantage of a law that has equivalencies
00:18:32.960 in Egypt, Russia, North Korea, China.
00:18:36.240 Um, this is, this is really not something that I ever expected Canada to fall to.
00:18:43.500 Um, you sort of have this idea growing up in this country that it is this really this great
00:18:50.180 place where you do have freedom of speech, religion, assembly, press expression.
00:18:56.080 And then you get a letter in the mail like this and it's, it's pretty unnerving, you know,
00:19:04.980 um, you know, countless days.
00:19:07.540 I, you know, I, I just don't go to sleep anymore because I think what is going to happen to,
00:19:13.000 you know, me, my family, my sources who the government definitely wants to know so that
00:19:17.720 they can punish them as well.
00:19:19.160 Uh, all because I did this job that, you know, is, is, is not supposed to be this dangerous
00:19:26.960 in a free country.
00:19:28.080 I, if, you know, if, if I was a Russian dissident journalist, you know, I, I, I would go, uh,
00:19:36.280 I would tread lightly and I would expect this kind of thing, but you don't expect this kind
00:19:40.380 of thing in Canada until it happens to you.
00:19:43.120 Well, it's unbelievable.
00:19:43.720 So what they're alleging and what the investor, uh, elections candidate investor is, is, is
00:19:48.000 asserting or is looking into saying that one, you lied about a political candidate during
00:19:52.900 the election and two, that you knowingly lied so that you knew the information that you're
00:19:56.920 publishing was false and you published it anyway.
00:19:59.140 We are alleging that neither, we are asserting that neither of those is true.
00:20:03.060 The story that you published is accurate and it is true.
00:20:06.760 The things that you alleged came from those sources.
00:20:09.160 So you're not spreading misinformation.
00:20:11.020 You're spreading the truth.
00:20:12.300 And that secondly, the idea that you knowingly like that, that's two large hurdles.
00:20:16.980 So they have to jump.
00:20:18.360 Like it's such a belief in logic to believe that.
00:20:21.520 Yeah.
00:20:21.580 There's a third hurdle as well that, that says that I had to do those two things with
00:20:26.820 the intention of influencing the election, which when like, when you just look at the
00:20:31.140 facts of what we did, we public, we, we, you know, I, I, when speaking with lots of
00:20:36.660 people about the story was advised and begged to hold the story until after the nomination
00:20:43.080 deadline.
00:20:43.340 So that the conservatives could use this as ammunition against the liberal party writ large
00:20:50.100 and the liberal party wouldn't be able to change the candidate.
00:20:52.600 And then the conservatives would win.
00:20:54.920 And we did not do that.
00:20:56.420 We said, no, this is a story of urgent public interest.
00:21:00.820 We're going to publish it now.
00:21:02.420 Does it's the, whether he's fired, whether he wins or loses, that's not our interest.
00:21:07.620 Our interest is getting the information out there.
00:21:09.560 Information that we believe and still believe to this day is true.
00:21:12.880 And if we lose, it changes and destroys my life forever because we were trying to share
00:21:20.740 the news in a democratic country during an election.
00:21:25.100 I mean, this is totally unbelievable.
00:21:26.600 And the fact that Mark Carney is presiding over this government that is openly investigating
00:21:31.740 journalists for the crime of reporting the news, informing Canadians of the truth and not
00:21:36.760 receiving government subsidies, not being part of the state run media like the CBC.
00:21:40.980 It is a scary situation, Kian.
00:21:43.280 So what are the next steps and how can folks like listening, how can they, how can they help
00:21:48.360 out?
00:21:49.460 Yeah, well, so it's going to cost us tens of thousands of dollars to litigate this and
00:21:54.240 defend me personally.
00:21:55.760 But as I said before, this is not a fundraiser.
00:21:58.740 I'm not trying to fundraise and profit off of this.
00:22:03.300 I just want to have these charges, you know, have this investigation dropped.
00:22:08.380 I don't want to go to jail.
00:22:10.300 And I think that the best way of doing that is by raising an army of people who are standing
00:22:16.120 beside us, telling the government that they will not stand for this.
00:22:19.980 They do not want to live in a country where, where our basic freedoms are steamrolled by the
00:22:28.120 government and, and people who are acting in good faith to share the news during an election
00:22:34.540 are, are put in, in jeopardy.
00:22:37.460 Their lives are, their lives are put in jeopardy because of the job that they're doing.
00:22:40.960 We don't want to live in that country.
00:22:42.020 So I want people to, to read the story, share the story, write to their elected officials,
00:22:47.760 let them know how outrageous this is.
00:22:50.200 And, you know, they're, they're coming after us because we are the largest independent
00:22:54.480 newsroom in the country.
00:22:55.300 We don't sell out our news for some grant money that Mark Carney is offering.
00:23:01.520 You know, we, we, we just need, we need people to join the fight with us and stand beside
00:23:06.200 us and let the government know that this is just deeply outrageous, morally wrong.
00:23:11.000 And we're not going to just let them get away with this.
00:23:13.880 They can go to defendjuno.com to check out the full story.
00:23:17.000 And if they want to become a member to Juno News, which is the number one way to stand
00:23:21.700 beside us and help us actually fight this so that we can have the strength in numbers
00:23:26.300 that we can push back and show to the government that no, we're, we're, we are an army of Canadians
00:23:32.080 standing up saying, no, this is enough.
00:23:35.560 We're not going to tolerate this.
00:23:36.880 They can do that at defendjuno.com.
00:23:39.220 Well, 100%, like this is not tolerable in a free and democratic society.
00:23:43.300 We need independent journalism.
00:23:44.680 We need a free press to hold the government to account.
00:23:47.780 That is what we do day in and day out at Juno News.
00:23:50.840 The government and Mark Carney is clearly trying to intimidate us.
00:23:53.540 They're truly trying to scare us and you specifically, Kian, they're putting fear into
00:23:56.900 you so you can't go out and do future investigations.
00:23:59.340 You're too afraid.
00:24:00.080 And that is the purpose of the law is to scare people into complying and being quiet.
00:24:07.060 And Juno News refuses to do that, right?
00:24:09.260 We will fight back.
00:24:10.580 We will fight back.
00:24:12.040 We've hired a lawyer.
00:24:12.840 We will push this.
00:24:13.880 We will challenge it.
00:24:14.600 We will do everything we can to keep you as a journalist and keep you out of jail.
00:24:19.440 It's so ridiculous that we even have to say that.
00:24:21.860 But we do need an army of Canadians to push back.
00:24:24.880 So folks, go over to Juno News.com.
00:24:27.740 Become a premium subscriber.
00:24:29.500 Help us join our army.
00:24:30.500 Join our movement.
00:24:30.960 We want to replace the CBC and we want to stand up to the bullies and the thugs in the liberal
00:24:37.020 government that think that they can just wield their power over journalists, tell us to shut
00:24:41.020 up, push us to the side, and continue with their crusade.
00:24:44.160 They cannot do that.
00:24:45.240 We will stand up.
00:24:46.280 We will push back.
00:24:47.500 Kian, I'm sorry that you're going through all this, but we're right here standing side
00:24:51.020 by side and we won't let anything happen to you or our organization.
00:24:55.000 So keep on the good fight.
00:24:56.780 Great.
00:24:56.980 Thanks for having me on.
00:24:58.320 All right, folks.
00:24:58.760 That's all the time we have for today.
00:24:59.980 That's Kian Bexley, my co-founder here at Juno News.
00:25:01.760 I'm Candice Malcolm.
00:25:02.660 This is the Candice Malcolm Show.
00:25:03.640 Thank you and God bless.