Ezra Levant celebrates Rebel News and True North’s court win forcing Trudeau’s hand-picked National Debates Commission to accredit banned journalists like Kian Becksty and Andrew Lawton, securing eight questions—including Becksty’s viral follow-up on Trudeau’s blackface scandal. The October 8th Toronto debate saw 200 accredited journalists, mostly from CBC/CTV, while foreign outlets like Al Jazeera and U.S. media embraced Rebel News’ challenges. Levant warns of a "cartel" suppressing dissent, citing the commission’s reliance on Trudeau-aligned vetting, and urges donations for legal costs ahead of the October 22nd French debate, where Becksty will again participate. This victory underscores Canada’s press freedom crisis under Trudeau’s centralized media control. [Automatically generated summary]
It's been a day since we won in federal court and busted down the door of censorship that Justin Trudeau's Liberal Debates Commission had erected to stop us.
Today I review the day not only in court, but later that night when our reporters went to the debate and asked questions.
Not one, not two, three, four, or five, not even six or seven, but we had eight questions that we got in between us, six of them asked by us, and two by Andrew Lawton of True North.
I'm very, very proud of yesterday.
And if you're the one of those who helped us pay for our legal fees, thank you very much.
And I hope you feel proud too.
Before I go, let me invite you to become a video subscriber.
You just have to become a premium member.
It's pretty easy to do.
Go to premium.rebelnews.com.
$8 a month, no biggie.
But you get the video.
And I want to show you the videos.
I want to show you the videos of Kian taking on Trudeau.
$8 a month.
It's worth it.
All right.
without further ado here's the podcast tonight yesterday was one of the best days in the history of rebel news and one of the worst for justin trudeau It's October 8th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.
If you saw yesterday's show, you know that we had an amazing day, almost a miracle.
At least it felt that way.
It started very early in the morning when I went downtown here in Toronto to the Federal Court of Canada.
That's the particular court that oversees certain matters of a national scope, like the National Debates Commission, which had been created by Justin Trudeau just a year ago.
It was an atrocious idea.
The National Debates Commission, it was Trudeau nationalizing, governmentizing a private sector media institution.
But of course, I mean, he's renting most journalists these days anyhow.
Why not just buy them?
Now, the website of the Debates Commission swears on a stack of Bibles that they're all about independence from government, which is how you can tell that it's absolutely not independent from government.
First of all, Trudeau's hand-picked the members of the Debate Commission, so they're like fingers on a hand.
But second of all, the debate commission just delegated back to the Trudeau government the decisions, including which journalists to let in.
Just to be clear, I'm not even talking about the five liberal feminists who were put in charge of moderating the debate.
I mean, of course, Trudeau liked having his old fangirl, Rosemary Barton, on the moderating panel and her rival for Trudeau's affection, Althea Raj.
We never did get a good explanation for why Althea Raj had a private meeting with Gerald Butts, Justin Trudeau's Rasputin figure.
Oh, well, I'm sure it's nothing.
Trudeau's right-hand man having a private tete-a-tete with one of the debate moderators, who he happens to pay right before the debate.
I'm sure it's nothing.
I'm sure she met with all the campaign different staff, Maxine Bernier's staff, Andrew Shears' staff, one-on-one like that, right?
Right?
Anyway, back to my point.
Not only did Trudeau choose everyone actually moderating the debates and running the debates, they chose who was even allowed into the building, and that's where we came in.
Here is a list of all the officially accredited journalists.
Look at that.
CBC, CBC, CBC, CBC, CNN, CTB, CD.
Look at that.
CTV, Global, The Press, McLean's.
There's more than 200 names here.
More than 85 of them are CBC or their French equivalent, Radio Canada, if you can believe it.
In fact, about two-thirds of these names are from CBC or CTV or the other hand-picked organizations that officially ran the debate.
It was an inside job.
I note that the Globe and Mail was shut out from the moderators panel, so was post-media.
Those are huge companies, of course.
Bob Fife for the Globe and Mail has been the most effective journalist in the year, but he was shut out.
Just the selfie girls were allowed in.
But of those 200 journalists who were allowed into the building, again, I'm not talking about the five moderators.
Of those 200, there were many foreigners, including three from Al Jazeera, the state broadcaster of the dictatorship of Qatar, for example.
So now all of this was approved by the government of Canada.
That's what we learned in court yesterday, that this so-called independent debate commission didn't even vet the journalists themselves.
I don't know why you would vet the journalists, but they delegated that right back to Trudeau.
In fact, you can see in the rejection letter that both David and Keen got, the email came from the government of Canada.
I don't know if you can see his email at the address at the top, parallel.gc.ca.
That's the parliament.
And it was from Trudeau's press gallery chief.
That's the Trudeau way, isn't it?
Pretend something is independent, but actually control it like he does with the so-called independent senators.
Oh, and then have them delegate back to Trudeau any thinking or deciding.
In this case, which journalists even get into the building.
That's a control freak.
What a sham this whole thing was.
Well, Justice Russell Zinn of the Federal Court of Canada wasn't having any of it.
He fired a rocket at this debates commission, ordering it to accredit Kean and David, and off they went.
In fact, they had to leave Toronto for Ottawa even before the hearing began because they wanted to make sure they were at the debate in time.
Now, I stuck around, of course, our lawyers did too.
I was so happy when we went.
I could barely believe it, really, just because we're so used to fighting uphill battles, fighting impossible fights.
And the whole establishment seemed to be deciding that the new way was to deplatform and marginalize people outside a very narrow bandwidth of elite opinion.
Not Justice Zinn, apparently.
He let us right in.
He ordered us in.
And in we went, in the front door, not standing outside, being harassed by cops like last time.
I'm documenting everything.
Okay, but no.
What do you mean, why?
Because I'm a journalist.
Yeah, but cool.
Okay, show me your idea of journalists.
You said you're a journalist, that it's just bullshit, or...?
No, it's not just bullshit, and I have no obligation to show you anything.
We receive a complaint, didn't you?
You received a complaint.
From who?
From whom?
Well, I don't know.
I have the right to tell you to stay away like 300 meters from here if you don't show me what's in your bag.
Show me, you tell me you're a journalist, but you don't have an ID that shows me you're a journalist.
I'm not going to show you what's in my bag.
Okay, so you go out to where?
Where's the line?
Okay.
Next corner.
Do you mind if I call my lawyer quickly?
Yeah, we got ID that he's a journalist now, don't we?
It's in the form of a court order, buddy.
Anyways, in went David and Kean.
Now, for the most of the debate, it wasn't really that interesting.
Keen and David really just saw what anyone watching on TV at home would see.
A strange mishmash of a debate, people talking over each other, way too much talk time for the vain journalists themselves.
Weird format.
For example, no closing statements from the candidates.
It was as lame as you'd imagine a government-run anything would be.
And it started so early in the day, too.
No one in British Columbia who had a job or was picking kids up from school would even be home to watch it.
Funny about that, all of those quirks are to Trudeau's benefit.
He doesn't want to debate at all.
He's not good at them.
He only agreed to do just the one in English, and he certainly didn't want to be seen in British Columbia where he sacked Jody Wilson-Raybold.
And surprise, the Independent Debate Commission agreed with him on all these points.
But the fun started after the official debate was over.
That's when the politicians came to the scrum to answer questions from journalists, including the ruffians of the 200 on that list.
Now, in court yesterday, Justice Zinn said, and he was right, that being accredited to last night's debate really didn't mean much of anything at all other than access to the scrum.
And he said yesterday in court, it was very interesting, he said, with the 200-plus journalists in the room, you saw the list, what was the odds that Kian Becksty or David Menzies or Andrew Lawton of True North would even get a question?
He compared it to winning a lottery.
Now, a lottery where you have a one in 200 chance, it's a pretty good lottery.
Now, Andrew Lawton's lawyer had a good reply in court.
She said, Judge, you can't win a lottery if you're not even allowed to buy a ticket.
But actually, not all 200 journalists in the room were reporters.
Like I say, there were about 85 or so from the CBC alone, but many were just junior assistants, junior producers, coffee getters, people whispering in the ear of the talent, you look beautiful.
You're really great.
I think you're great.
So of the actual practicing journalists in the CBC, maybe there were only 10.
So maybe there were only 50 journalists total trying to ask questions.
So that's a better lottery, right?
But Kian made sure he got to the microphone first.
And his questions were really good.
He asked a question of the Block Québécois leader who refused to answer Kian because, well, who knows?
I doubt that one in 100 French-speaking Quebecers has even heard of Rebel News or Kian Becksty.
He had no opinion about us, so the Block Québécois virtue signaling would be lost on his base of French Quebecers.
But he knows that the Ottawa mean girls, well, they hate the Rebels.
So the Block Québécois knew he could avoid answering a question by just saying, I don't talk to the Rebel.
But Kian asked anyways, because the judge let him.
And I'm glad he did.
Here, take a look.
Kean Rebel News, my question is.
I won't answer Rebel News.
Okay, well, I'll keep asking the question because a judge said that we could be here and ask questions, so I'll continue to ask the question.
Western separatism is on the rise, and if TMX is canceled via May Singh-Trudeau coalition, that intention will inevitably spike even more.
What's your advice to Albertans who think that Confederation is broken?
My answer is that I won't answer you.
He won't answer Kian, who's an Alberta boy asking him about Alberta.
But boy, the block will take Alberta money, won't they?
All right, so the block leader didn't answer Kian.
He's very, pretty brave.
Hey, mate, if you can't answer questions from a 24-year-old reporter asking you a pretty friendly question, actually, maybe you're not quite tough enough to, you know, negotiate with your public sector unions or in his Block Quabaqua fantasy, negotiate the separation from Canada.
Yeah, I've never heard of that block leader either.
Kean wasn't done, though.
He had a lot more questions.
If Justice Zinn said you needed to win the lottery to ask, well, Kian won three lotteries last night.
Here he is asking a question of Justin Trudeau himself.
Hi, Mr. Trudeau.
Since your multiple use of blackface became an international scandal, Canada's international reputation has been irreparably harmed.
Have you reached out to any African leaders or any leaders from the Middle East to apologize for your conduct?
Canada will continue to engage in a positive, constructive way around the world, standing up for human rights, engaging with leaders right around the world, because we know that promoting our values and prosperity for everyone around the world is good for Canadians and creates better opportunities for everyone.
So that didn't answer the question at all.
Have you spoken to any African leaders or leaders from the Middle East to apologize for your personal conduct?
I have continued to engage with leaders around the world in a responsible way.
During an election campaign, my focus is connecting with Canadians as I was able to tonight.
And I was very pleased to see so many of the questions turned to the environment in all sections.
There was a clear contrast between those on stage who don't think we should be fighting climate change and those of us who do.
And again, we are the only party with a clear plan to fight climate change.
Oh, that's embarrassing.
That was a huge moment.
Last I checked.
That's received half a million views on Twitter alone, that little video crib.
It was the most gripping exchange of the night.
Trudeau looked evasive.
He looked guilty as hell.
He looked sort of stupid, I think.
The fact that there was a supplementary question really pointed out how evasive he was.
Now, other journalists around Kean were clicking and clucking.
You know that sound.
They had more important questions for Trudeau.
I mean, come on.
Before Kean was ordered in there by some judge, it was a little bit more like this.
The one that the entire country wants to know.
What shampoo do you use?
What a disappointing answer.
This is going to be.
Whatever happens to be hanging around at the time.
Yeah.
That was in 2015, but what's the excuse for Rosemary Barton's famous list of first date questions?
Last book you've read or the book you're reading?
The just finished The Patch, which was Chris Turner's history of the oil patch.
But I'm also about to start the new Ken Fall, the third book that is the sequel to Pillars of the Earth.
That's your nerdy side?
No, that's my sci-fi.
Nerdy side.
No, no, it's not sci-fi.
It's just a sweeping historical epic, I'm sure, but I haven't started it yet.
What car music are you listening to right now?
If you have time.
Or podcasts.
Podcasts?
No, I don't.
I've tried.
I run regularly and I've tried to do the podcast thing, but it hasn't really said.
I don't like people talking in my ears when I'm trying to run.
I like to sort of vibe out.
He's not going to date you, Rosemary.
Actually, I shouldn't say that, should I?
Rumors and Gossip Abound00:07:25
I don't know that for a fact.
There's a lot of rumors and gossip out there now.
Actually, I take that back completely.
Rosemary, you're on the right track, but I don't think he's the small talk type.
Just a guess.
Yeah, so Kian, why are you asking tough questions and why are you being so mean?
That video by Kean was picked up across the United States because Trudeau is such a fool in the eyes of the world these days.
And that, the fact that foreigners were seeing how stupid Trudeau was, that made Gerald Butts mad.
He went into some weird conspiracy theory saying that we're part of some global conspiracy.
He called us alt-right, which is pretty weird to say about a Jew like me.
Alt-right is, it typically means anti-Semitic.
Obviously not, but sometimes Jews are accused of being globalists, you know, not loyal to their country as part of an international conspiracy.
Maybe that's the insult Butz was going for there.
I'm not quite sure that I'm a disloyal Jew part of some international thing.
I don't know.
He sounded a little unhinged, I think.
I think anyone who knows me knows I'm very pro-Canada.
We are all of us here, the Rebel, whether you're Jewish or Gentile, whatever religion.
We're very Canada first.
We're very anti-UN, very anti-globalist, we're very pro-borders.
It's weird for Gerald Butz to imply that we're somehow not Canadian.
My family homesteaded in Alberta in 1903.
I think it was an anti-Jewish jibe.
Butts does that a lot.
But I think it's proof that that question by Keen really stung.
Anyways, who cares about Gerald Butts?
Kean had one more set of questions, this time for Maxime Bernier.
Hi, Kian Bextee, Rebel News, right here.
My question revolves around journalism in Canada.
Three journalists came to this debate tonight, but they weren't going to be let in, myself included.
We had to apply for an emergency court injunction to be allowed to cover the one English debate that our Prime Minister took part in.
What does that say about the state of journalism in Canada and the contempt that the Prime Minister currently has for journalists?
It's a shame.
You know, we're a free democracy.
We believe in freedom.
And it's too bad that what happened right now.
It's the same thing for me on the stage.
You know, Mr. Sink said that I didn't have my place over there because of what I'm saying about immigration.
But actually, you know, I'm a voice for the big majority of Canadians that want fewer immigrants.
And the fact that some people doesn't want us to debate and some people don't want you also to be here, it's not a Canadian way.
And I hope that you'll be able to be treated like a journalist.
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
And my follow-up revolves around what you were saying.
6% of Canadians want higher immigration.
That's what the data says.
Do you think that the other leaders just think that Canadians need to take some tough medicine or do they just not believe the data?
Well, first of all, I think that they don't want to agree with Canadians.
I think they don't want to do that debate.
You saw that on stage.
You know, they were all against me on that.
But actually, that's a position that it is in line with Canadians.
But the most important also, if you want to preserve that country, if you want that country to be like that in 25 years, that's the time to have that discussion.
And I'm very proud that I was able to have that discussion.
I don't know if you're counting, but I think that's a total of six questions for Keen, six lottery wins, as the judge might say.
And here's our friend Andrew Lawton, who was also there with us in court, too.
He got a question off to Justin Trudeau also.
Good evening, Prime Minister, Andrew Lawton from True North.
This afternoon, a federal court judge ruled that I had a right to be here to cover this debate as a journalist, despite opposition from your Attorney General.
This comes after two weeks of me being kicked out of or not allowed into your campaign rallies.
The Conservatives have criticized you for being not as advertised.
You've advertised yourself as a champion of a press freedom.
Will you take a stand right now, sir, as the leader of the Liberal Party and allow me to cover your campaign like every other journalist?
We are a party and we are a country that respects journalistic rights and respects the freedom of the press.
We will continue to.
So is that a yes, sir?
We are a party and a country that respects the hard work and the freedom of the press.
We will continue to.
Then what time is your plan leaving tomorrow, sir?
I don't think Trudeau looks good there.
I mean, he's very disciplined in that he's not answering, but I think he looks sort of weird and cowardly.
I love the fact that Andrew, just like Keen, was allowed a follow-up.
Now, as you know, Trudeau has done interviews with Andrew before.
I have said like a few of them.
Andrew had a radio show.
I don't know why Trudeau is so scared now.
Andrew's a pretty friendly guy.
I don't think Trudeau's looking good here.
So if you're counting, that's eight questions now from Andrew and Keen.
Two journalists who had just hours earlier been banned by this Liberal Debate Commission.
That's pretty cool.
Well, that's quite a turnaround in just a few hours.
Now, I loved the freak out online by all the left-wingers who were shocked that the rebel was even allowed in.
So I'm not talking about people who just didn't like Keen and Andrew, but by those who didn't want them to be in at all.
I like this one.
Look at this.
This is a hardcore left-wing group called North 99.
When you realize True North and Rebel Media asked eight questions, they're steaming mad.
That made me feel pretty good.
And really, there were three kinds of journalists there last night.
They were the bought and paid for journalists like my former colleague David Aiken, who said that, look, Andrew Lawton was making too much of a fuss, and it was all symbolic.
And really, what a weird hill to die on.
Why not ask a real question, Andrew?
Huh.
Seriously, a journalist was saying free speech and not letting the government determine who gets to come to national debates.
David Aiken was saying that's all a waste of time.
That's not a real question.
I think that's embarrassing on David Aiken.
But then again, he's a proud paid-up member of Unifor, the union that's campaigning against the conservatives right now.
So that's the first kind of journalist who was there last night, the rented-out kind, the kind that Trudeau was more than happy to accredit.
Then there were a small handful of journalists who were forbidden entry.
I learned in federal court yesterday that I think there were three others who were banned.
Now, we didn't hear their names yesterday, but besides Kean Becksy, David Menzies, and Andrew Lawton, there were three more who were banned.
I wonder who, and if they were on Trudeau's enemies list too.
I bet they were.
So there are about 250 journalists that Trudeau personally approved, most of them on Trudeau's payroll.
There were three journalists who were banned and who would be kept out by police like we were last time if they tried to present.
And then there were three journalists who were so accredited that as you can see here, a judge of the federal court himself signed that their names that they were allowed to report because, well, they were free men and Canada is still a free country.
A Huge Night For Rebel News00:08:38
All in all, a huge night for Rebel News and for our viewers and for Canada and for freedom.
Say, I got the final bill from our lawyers today.
They worked on Friday when I retained them.
They worked all weekend and then, of course, they were in court with me all day on Monday.
There were two lawyers and their assistants.
I sent them a $10,000 deposit on Friday when I hired them, a retainer.
I got the rest of their bill today, another $8,000 on top of the 10.
If you can help us out with that, please do.
Please go to letusreports.com.
We could use the help.
But I have to tell you, if it's only 18 grand to fight for freedom, that's pretty cheap.
One last thing, and we'll interview Keenan in a moment.
We won the battle, the one that let us in last night and into the French language debate on Thursday night, too.
But there's a bigger war coming.
We have applied for a judge to review the decision made by the debates commissioners and to go through it meticulously, not just to give us a quick emergency injunction to get us into the debates, because that moment would be lost.
That's all yesterday was.
Did we have enough of a case for a judicial review of this entire decision that a judge could make a hasty, temporary decision to let us in the debates?
Because if we missed them, we'd never get that moment back.
That judge yesterday said yes to the emergency injunction.
But the actual hearing of our appeal is still to come.
That is the big fight.
That's the fight where we'll get all the disclosure, where we'll see all the collusion between Trudeau and his rented journalists, where we'll see the collusion between Trudeau's independent debates commission and his own campaign.
That's the fight that's still looming.
It's going to cost a lot more than $10,000 or $18,000, but it's going to be an even bigger and more revealing victory.
Don't you think?
Stay with us.
And joining us now live from Pearson International Airport as he runs to the next campaign event is the man of the hour, Kian Bextie.
Kean, great to see you.
Congratulations on a great day and a great night.
Thank you so much, Ezra.
It was a spectacular night last night.
I have never had so much more fun than I did when I was able to ask Trudeau a question.
His response was a bit predictable.
It wasn't really a response, but I mean, I've been flying across this country, dozens of flights.
We fought a court case, and finally, we were able to ask Trudeau one question.
That's all we wanted to do.
It didn't seem like, it doesn't seem like in a first world country we should have to pull so many strings to be able to ask the leader of our nation just a simple question, but here we are.
Yesterday morning, you were with me at the federal court.
You had to then fly to Ottawa in the hopes that the judge would let you in.
I was in the courtroom for the whole hearing.
The judge said, even if you get in, it's like a lottery.
Would you get a chance to ask a question?
He was skeptical, but I guess you won the lottery, and so did Andrew Lawton of True North.
You both had questions.
Here, let me just play my favorite question tonight, where you put yours to Trudeau.
By the way, last I checked on Twitter, this had almost half a million views.
By the time this goes to air tonight, it'll probably be close to a million.
I actually think this was the most viewed moment in the entire debate.
Here, let's take a look.
Hi, Mr. Trudeau.
Since your multiple use of blackface became an international scandal, Canada's international reputation has been irreparably harmed.
Have you reached out to any African leaders or any leaders from the Middle East to apologize for your conduct?
Canada will continue to engage in a positive, constructive way around the world, standing up for human rights, engaging with leaders right around the world, because we know that promoting our values and prosperity for everyone around the world is good for Canadians and creates better opportunities for everyone.
So that didn't answer the question at all.
Have you spoken to any African leaders or leaders from the Middle East to apologize for your personal conduct?
I have continued to engage with leaders around the world in a responsible way.
During an election campaign, my focus is connecting with Canadians as I was able to tonight.
And I was very pleased to see so many of the questions turned to the environment in all sections.
There was a clear contrast between those on stage who don't think we should be fighting climate change and those of us who do.
And again, we are the only party with a clear plan to fight climate change.
You know, you're so right.
He said nothing.
In fact, it was a weird segue to global warming or whatever.
But I think the fact that you had a follow-up question just really drove in the point that he doesn't have an answer.
He can't answer.
He won't answer.
And it's pitiful.
Yeah, we wanted to ask more follow-ups, and it was a little bit unfair.
The debate commission was selecting who they would favor.
I'll give you an example.
There was a CBC journalist that was ahead of us talking to Elizabeth May, and they allowed actual back and forth.
They allowed, they said they were only allowing a question and a follow-up, but in reality, they allowed a question and a follow-up and then some banter if you were an approved, a pre-approved journalist.
For Andrew Lawton and myself, we were immediately cut off, not just by the debate commission, but by our colleagues, the other reporters at the other microphone.
For example, with Andrew Lawton, when he finished his question with Justin Trudeau, he asked a follow-up.
Justin Trudeau brushed him off.
Justin Ling, none other than him, butted in and started speaking over him frantically, trying to make sure that Andrew Lawton was cut off.
It was quite pathetic.
It is pathetic.
You know, there were so many things I learned in the court hearing.
You were making your way to Ottawa.
I stayed in the court in Toronto.
Three Al Jazeera journalists, for example, close to a dozen foreign nationals from Germany, Switzerland, France, Vietnam.
I got no beef with those people.
I got no beef with them being in the room.
It's just a little bit of chutzpah that they would try and keep you, a Canadian, out of the way.
You had the biggest accreditation of all.
No one less than a Justice of the Federal Court of Canada gave you your press credentials last night.
How were you received by the media party journalists, the bailout journalists, the unifor journalists who surely didn't want you in?
A lot of snide looks.
Mercedes from Global News, she said that we weren't accredited.
We didn't even fight a court battle, and we were controversial.
That was her takeaway from it.
She since has apologized because now she recognizes that she was wrong.
But in the table of journalists that were there, well, it was actually a huge room.
Andrew Lawton did get some friendly hugs from some conservative staffers.
But overall, we were not welcome there.
And that was abundantly clear.
Isn't that interesting?
I saw some snippy comments even by my former colleague, David Aiken, who said, oh, this was just a symbolic victory.
Why would you even do that?
I don't think it was symbolic at all.
The police who were barring you from these events, that was not a symbolic act on their part.
It was a brutal act of politicized policing that took a federal court judge to push back on.
I have to say it was a very important thing.
Go ahead.
Go ahead.
That's spoken like a journalist who has never been shut out of his trade by police officers and political elites.
Yeah.
That's my take on it.
And I know David pretty well.
And at Sun News Network, he was always the most reasonable, the most modern, and that's fine.
Someone's got to be, I suppose.
But you're never going to be locked out in an event by asking a conventional question that doesn't get anyone's heckles up.
You'll be everyone's best friend, but that's a different job description than being an effective journalist.
I noticed that your question of Trudeau got some pickup by U.S. media.
Why do you think that is?
I mean, I think a lot of conservatives in the U.S. are a little bit sick of Trudeau's moral preening.
I also think that blackface has a special meaning in the U.S. where they have the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, and the minstrel shows.
But why do you think it got so much coverage in the U.S., your question?
Precedent Set: News True00:04:30
You're right about that.
And that's what I was going to say.
There is that history of blackface in the United States.
And as I like to say, Justin Trudeau, in doing what he did, putting on black and brown face, black knees, black arms, black hands, black tongue, he joined members of the KKK and other racists in the United States who do this as a pastime, as a joke, to belittle people of a different background and ethnicity.
Justin Trudeau joined members of the KKK, and that line really resonates with Americans.
This, like you said, it was picked up by American media.
None other than Breitbart actually just shared the transcript.
They just directly took the words, translated them to text and posted it.
That's my favorite.
That's my favorite because every Canadian outlet that has bothered to talk about us just sort of paraphrases what we said and then comments and says, oh, but this was a controversial outlet.
The Rebel's controversial.
we shouldn't pay much attention to them.
Canada land is just in like tying themselves into pretzels, trying to figure out how we got in.
It's, I'm just going to language.
I'm just going to enjoy the victory for now.
I'm very excited for Thursday when we'll be at the French debate and we can do this all over.
Yeah, that's great.
Well, I see you're in the airport.
I think that your flight is boarding.
If you're not tipping anyone off and giving anything away, like we don't want to remove the element of surprise, can you give, in fact, maybe I shouldn't ask you where you're going on the air because we don't want any MPs or candidates to know.
So we'll just look forward to your next video and that'll tell the tale.
Have a safe journey, Kian.
Keep up the fight.
There's, I guess, just less than two weeks to go.
Keep up on sprinting.
When we're done, you can take a break on October 22nd.
Until then, keep running, okay?
Thanks, Ezra.
Take care.
All right, there you have a Kian Bexty who went from being banned in the morning, persona non-grata, as they would say, to being commanded into the event by a judge all in the course of one day and asking the question of the night, at least judging by viewer response.
Stay with us.
More ahead on The Rebel.
Hey, welcome back on my show yesterday that I sort of cobbled together from downtown about our court battle.
Jan writes, a great day for Rebel News and True North and for Canada.
When the judge said he didn't usually watch the debates but was going to watch the debate tonight, I knew you had one.
Yeah, that's right.
And won't that judge have been surprised?
Because he said, oh, getting a question in the scrum is like winning a lottery.
Well, guess what?
I guess we struck gold eight times because Kian asked three couples of questions and Andrew had one couple of questions.
I'll tell you it all together.
The victory was winning the court case and it saved us from a dangerous precedent being set.
The fact that Rebel News and True North had to get a court injunction to attend is outrageous.
Yeah, I mean, that's the thing.
We were alone in there too.
I mean, there was actually a few smarmy anti-rebel journalists who were there to sort of laugh if we lost.
It was so weird that we were considered weird.
It used to be normal to go to court for free speech.
In the past, that place would have been packed with every media outlet in town in solidarity because they would say we'd better, you know, as my old friend John O'Sullivan used to say, better to fight in the first ditch than the last.
So it used to be until about five, ten years ago that whenever one media company had its liberties at risk, no matter the case, no matter the outlet, all the others attended because they knew we'd better stop this right now.
Because if a precedent is set for the globe, it'll affect us at the star.
If a precedent is set at CTV, it'll affect us at CBC.
So they took a fight every battle approach.
There was no one with us in court yesterday.
That's the sad part.
Maynard writes, congratulations for standing out for freedom in the Canadian press.
Shameful of the mainstream media and the civil liberties groups for ignoring the important case against the federal government.
This win is beneficial to the preservation of Canadian democracy.
Yeah, well, I mean, listen, I remember it wasn't that long ago, it was just on Friday when I hired our lawyer.
And he said, Ezra, I want to tell you, we're probably going to lose.
I just want to lower your expectations.
That'll be 10 grand up front.
Oh, I mean, it's almost like you didn't want me to hire him.
Fighting for Freedom00:02:55
He said, 10 grand retainer.
you're going to lose.
Well, you know how to win a guy's heart, don't you?
I said, sign me up.
And wouldn't you know it, we won.
But it was an uphill battle because it's tough to get an injunction on no notice.
I mean, remember, the judge didn't even know we were suing until, I guess, he showed up at work that morning because the whole thing happened over the weekend.
So judge number one, the deputy chief judge, had to find a judge that was free.
That judge had to be found.
Can you do this case on an emergency basis?
Okay.
Then he had to sit down and read both sides.
I mean, we filed maybe 50 pages.
And the government, remember, they had five government lawyers for the Debates Commission and the Attorney General himself.
I think they filed 200 or 300 pages.
So the judge hears about this for the first time in the morning, has to sit down, read through everything, and then he has the hearing from 3 to 4.30.
That was a busy day.
That was an exciting day for the judge, too, if I may say.
And he said he was interested enough to watch the debate.
I bet he chuckled when he saw Keen and Andrew on TV, don't you?
Anyways, I feel, you know, I said to the lawyer, I'll tell you this, let me close on this.
I said to all our lawyers, there was the lawyer for True North, she was great.
We had two lawyers there, they were great.
And I just, I was overcome, and Candace Malcolm was there.
And I said to them that when I look back on my life, that win for freedom to fight back against the cartel will be one of the highlights of my public life.
And I know that sounds a little dramatic, and maybe with the passage of time, I won't feel that way.
I've done a lot of things in my life.
Some of them were important in the moment, but flashed in the pan.
Others were more symbolic, like publishing the Danish cartoons of Mohammed, things like that.
But actually going to court, fighting an uphill battle, taking it to the man, being there alone other than True North, and winning and breaking down the walls of censorship and pushing for freedom and then getting our journalists in and asking the questions.
I do believe that that is one of the best things I have ever done in my public life.
And I guess I would say to you, our viewers, who paid for the bills, and I need your help to pay the new $8,000 invoice.
I would say to you, thank you.
And if you chipped in, maybe you too can feel how I feel.
If you have some paternity in this lawsuit, if you chip in 50 bucks or 100 bucks or $5, whatever, that you two were part of a moment that was so important, a counter-strike against the censors and the deplatformers.
That's how I feel.
I still feel great 24 hours later.
All right, folks, that's the show.
Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, good night.