Ezra Levant and Aaron Rosenberg challenge Justin Trudeau’s press freedom hypocrisy after banning Rebel News from May 4th briefings, citing $131K government legal spending to block access while spending just $18K. The lawsuit demands equal media treatment under civil service rules, despite Trudeau’s reliance on Chinese-affiliated sources and alleged suppression of COVID-19 origin debates—including unproven lab-leak claims. Rebel News’ fight exposes systemic censorship, from Quebec’s FLQ-era media control to proposed 24-hour social media directives, framing Trudeau’s actions as politically motivated authoritarianism rather than principled press freedom. [Automatically generated summary]
It's Justin Trudeau's World Press Freedom Day statement.
He obviously didn't write it.
I don't think he even read it.
But it makes him out to be a big believer in the free press, except that's just not true, is it?
I go through the case against Trudeau's fake belief in free press.
I give you evidence he's against it.
But the key in today's show, it's the last half of the show, where I talk to our lawyer, Aaron Rosenberg, because you know what?
We're doing something about it.
I'm not going to give it away, but you're going to have to listen.
All right.
That's it.
For that, let me just invite you to become a premium subscriber.
Go to RebelNews.com and for eight bucks a month you get the video version of this show.
Okay, here's the rest of the podcast.
Tonight, Justin Trudeau bans Rebel News from his press conferences, but issues a press release saying he supports press freedom.
It's May 4th, and this is the Ezra Levant show.
Why should others go to jail when you're the 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 is government will watch the publisher is because it's my bloody right to do so.
Trudeau And Post-Media Censorship00:06:52
I think Justin Trudeau is the worst prime minister in terms of press freedom since his father, Pierre Trudeau, who brought in the War Measures Act.
As you know, Pierre Trudeau put the country in a type of martial law, arresting hundreds of political enemies without a warrant.
I'm not sure if you know this, but in addition to hunting Quebec separatists with the FLQ terrorist group, Trudeau put the media in Quebec under censorship.
I know this, and I only learned this when I met the man who was appointed the English language censor for Quebec during that period of time.
David Radler was his name.
Did you know that?
Did you know that to fight Quebec separatist terrorists, you had to censor every English-speaking newspaper in Montreal?
Yeah, me neither, but that's why you and I aren't as smart as Pierre Trudeau.
But now you know where Justin Trudeau comes by his love for authoritarianism and censorship.
It certainly has come out during the virus crisis.
Trudeau really couldn't rouse himself to do anything about the actual problem.
He gets out of bed at the crack of 10, does a 20-minute press conference to hand-selected stenographers from the CBC and the other media party, reports, and then goes back to his house and puts on his pajamas again.
The only world leader to take literally 40 days off just out of sheer laziness.
No medical advice to do so.
He doesn't have the virus, never did, never bothered to get tested.
He's just that lazy.
But he hasn't been lazy in what he really cares about, censorship.
As I showed you a few weeks ago, he wants to make it illegal to publish fake news about the virus, which is going to be quite a trick given how he and his staff seem to be the chief communicators of fake news themselves, like this doozy.
Masks have to be utilized appropriately too.
Most people haven't learned how to use masks, so there's many practical aspects of this.
So our advice right now is there is no need to use a mask for well people.
Yeah, or this one.
Canadians think that we can stop this at the border, but what we see is a global pandemic, meaning that border measures actually are highly ineffective and in some cases can create harm.
Yeah, not sure if banning fake news about the virus makes sense when you've got Peking Patty doing your talking for you.
There's no indication that the data that came out of China in terms of their infection rate and their death rate was falsified in any way.
Yeah, that's a bit kooky.
When the Chinese Communist Party is publicly praising you in English language tweets, maybe you're running just a little too pro-commie.
But really, what's the point of criminalizing fake news about the virus anyway?
Seriously, what does it accomplish?
Does it matter if people thinks it comes from eating bats, which is a theory I think the Chinese Communist Party prefers, versus U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who, I don't know, seems to think it might have come from the Wuhan Virology Institute, where they handle viruses like this.
I don't think Pompeo is saying the virus was genetically engineered, though I've heard that theory out there too.
But my point is none of those theories has been proven conclusively.
I don't know.
None of them will likely be proven one way or the other until the Chinese Communist Party is extirpated.
Just like we didn't know the real truth about the Chernobyl explosion until after the Communist Party, the Soviet Union was deposed.
Why is it so important for Trudeau to ban one theory or another?
Nothing turns on it, really.
Everyone has their own theory.
It's human nature to wonder about this virus that has thrown our lives into such a tailspin.
All of us except for lazy Trudeau, that is.
Even if we knew conclusively where it came from, why does he care so much about criminalizing someone who had a dissident opinion, even if it were kooky, even if it were wrong?
We don't criminalize so-called flat earthers.
We don't criminalize people who believe in Bigfoot or aliens, or even people who think 9-11 was an inside job.
It's awfully, you know, communist to want to criminalize gossip about the Chinese Communist Party.
There's a level of admiration I actually have for China because their basic dictatorship.
Trudeau doesn't just want to criminalize journalists he doesn't like.
He wants to pay more cash to the journalists he does like.
It's a carrot and a stick.
In fact, in Trudeau's proposed massive new bailout for the economy, he literally proposes larger grants for journalists than for the entire agricultural sector.
By the way, the largest recipient of Trudeau's existing bailout, Postmedia, which currently receives $140,000 per week from Trudeau, they're still failing.
I see they announced they're closing 15 newspapers and laying off about 80 staff and reducing the salaries of the remaining staff.
I'm not happy about that, but neither am I happy about the other 2 million Canadians who've been laid off in the past month.
The thing is, waitresses, bartenders, retail sales clerks, barbers, they've all been laid off because the government forced them to close.
Newspaper journalists were actually deemed essential services, and you'd think the news is more newsy than ever, but post-media still failed to make a go of it.
Same with the Star of the Globe.
Maybe it's because of really weird stories like this one in post-media that claims that, no, the virus didn't come to Canada from China.
It came to Canada from Europe and America.
They really argue that in post-media.
Yeah, I'm old enough to remember way back when the first case came to Canada.
It was on January 25th in Ontario.
A man flew in from China, breezed right by customs, went home and got really sick.
Then he went to the hospital.
The province had an emergency weekend press conference.
He came in from China.
Then his wife got sick right after him.
I don't know why post media would lie about that.
I like a lot of things about post-media, but I'm not sure why they would lie about this, except for something that's been on my mind more and more.
Newspapers are dirt cheap.
They're going out of business every week or so, which means you could literally buy them for nothing, just agree to take them over.
You'd actually be saving post-media and other companies, you know, like Saltwire in the Atlantic.
You'd be saving them a lot of money and termination pay and shutdown costs.
So if you had a million, a few million, a few tens of millions of dollars, or seriously, if you had $100 million, you could buy almost every daily newspaper in the country combined.
Here's the stock market capitalization of post-media with all the dailies.
Toronto Sun, Ottawa Sun, Winnipeg Sun, Calgary Sun, Ambassador Sun, Saskatoon Star Phoenix, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, National Post, the value of all those companies, they're all owned by Postmedia.
All their shares on the stock market, just over $100 million for all of them.
Now they have some big loans too, but seriously, we know China has trillions of dollars in foreign currency reserves.
We know they like to invest in Canada.
Why wouldn't they just buy up some newspapers?
Do you think the left-wing journalists who work there would object?
Do you think it would be hard for them to swap one government patron, Justin Trudeau, for another government patron, Xi Jinping?
They're already carrying China's water.
I mean, it's painful.
With a handful of important exceptions like the Globe and Mail Steve Chase, I really can't tell the difference between most Canadian journalists and Chinese journalists working for Xinhua or the People's Daily.
Oh, you better believe that Canada's journalists would be fine if China actually did own them.
Trudeau's Media War00:08:04
You bet they would.
At least they'd get paid.
That's all that's important to them.
And you bet Trudeau would be fine with that, too.
He'd probably still give them a taxpayer bailout.
Now, as you know, Trudeau loves the media that he can rent or buy.
He loves them, but he hates with a rage as hot as a thousand suns, the handful of media who just won't be bought.
There's so few of us I can count us on four fingers.
Blacklocks, the research website based in Ottawa that does great work reporting on Parliament's details.
True North, that's our friends Candace Malcolm, Andrew Lawton, Anthony Fury, a couple others.
The Postmillennial, a great website based in Montreal, and of course us.
That's four.
I think I just named them all.
He hates us.
As you know, Trudeau's hand-picked debates commission literally banned us at Rebel News and True North from asking questions at the leaders' debates last year.
We had to go to court to get an emergency injunction against him.
Oh, he hated that, and he wasn't done with us.
Even after the election, where he lost his majority, you'd think he'd be chastened, but he wasn't.
His election commissioner summoned me to an interrogation at a high security facility in Quebec where they threatened me with various penalties.
I took in a hidden camera to document their insane threats, including their refusal to rule out a police raid on our offices.
Okay.
So if she does, but please pass on to her that if there's any subpoenas or orders like that, just put them to me my email.
And I'll, because I want my lawyers to respond to that.
So no search and destroy raids, no SWAT-style bust-down-the-door raids, fellas.
Do we have an agreement on that?
You're not going to be that, Tim.
I'm saying, if you need something from me, if you need documents.
If we need something to you, we're going to reach out to you.
Okay, so you're undertaking right now that you will not raid rebel offices without notice to me in advance.
Are you undertaking that now?
As I said before, we can't undertake that.
You're the investigator, Tim, and you're saying you will not undertake to me that if you want a document, you'll email me instead of breaking down the door with a warrant.
You will not give me that undertaking here, Tim?
I don't think anyone's going to break down the return.
Luckily, they haven't done that yet, and I hope they won't.
I think some of the liberals' worst plans have been put on hold by the virus.
Like Stephen Gilbo, the convicted criminal that Trudeau appointed to cabinet as heritage minister.
Like him saying he wants to license news websites, license them like we're in, you know, China?
Media organization would need to have a license.
Yeah, not good.
But don't forget he was specifically instructed by Trudeau to come up with a plan to censor social media sites like Facebook in 24 hours.
So no trial, no opportunity for defense, just demanding it like a king would treat a lowly subject.
That's going to be revived.
It's literally the second item on Gilbo's job description.
That's coming at us.
I tell you all this because, and you'll laugh so hard, because yesterday Trudeau celebrated World Press Freedom Day.
Look at this.
By celebrate it, I mean that someone on his staff wrote up some nice words while Trudeau stayed at home in his pajamas and his vacation beard.
Let me read this to you.
A statement by Prime Minister on World Press Freedom Day.
I'll read some.
Today on World Press Freedom Day, we reflect on the crucial work of journalists in Canada and around the world.
We also honor the dedicated journalists who have lost their liberty or their lives while in pursuit of the truth.
The theme of this year's World Press Freedom Day is journalism without fear or favor.
It reinforces the fact that press freedom cannot be achieved unless journalists can work safely, free from censorship, intimidation, and violence.
When journalists and other media workers cannot investigate and report without interference, the public is deprived of reliable, accurate information, and the foundation of our democracy starts to erode.
Now, there's some obvious points there, media free from violence.
Can you name a single journalist in Canada over the past few years who's been physically attacked?
Just one.
From the CBC or CTV or Thoronto Star or anything like that?
I can't.
Maybe I missed one or forgot one, but I don't think such a journalist would ever stop talking about it if it happened, so I'm going to go with no.
But I can name you five rebel news journalists who have been attacked in the past five years.
It's every few months we always sue the person who hits us, but I'm just saying not a word in our support or our defense from anyone in authority, let alone other media.
I think they all sort of like it.
They egg on the radicals, don't they?
I mean, look at this.
It is disappointing to see the conservatives and the member opposite engage in peddling rebel media conspiracy theories.
It is disappointing to see the conservatives engage in peddling rebel media conspiracy theories.
Yeah, when Trump demonizes CNN, the entire media party gets all a flutter about it.
How dare you?
When Trudeau does it, the media party nods along approvingly.
There's some comedy here, the guy who's proposing new laws to censor people with incorrect opinions, talking about being free from censorship.
But then again, his deputy prime minister, Christy Freeland, was literally at a media freedom conference when she tried to ban rebel news at the conference.
Remember that?
When Sheila Gunn-Reed and our friend Andrew Lawton from True North was there.
What about the rest?
The rest of us?
No, no.
No, no, no, no, no.
That's...
Take us to the room and we can see if we can...
No, we're not going, Brittany.
You're John.
We're all going to be a good idea.
This is a media freedom conference.
Yeah, this is ridiculous.
Please don't do that.
Yeah, here's how Trudeau's statement ends.
He didn't write this, of course.
He didn't even read it.
It was issued in his name by whoever his nanny is.
Used to be Gerald Budds, might still be, I don't know.
So here's what someone wrote for him and someone else read and approved.
A free-thinking, independent, and respected media is the cornerstone of any democracy.
One cannot exist without the other.
That is why Canada continues to defend press freedom and condemn all attempts to stifle the press.
It is why, together with other members of the Media Freedom Coalition, Canada calls on all states to protect access to free media and support the free exchange of information during this pandemic.
Today, we recognize all the journalists and media workers who start conversations, shine light on stories that would otherwise not be told, expose injustices, and hold the powerful to account, often at great personal risk.
They are a vital part of all healthy democracies, and through their work, they spur change and increase transparency that benefit all of us.
He's the guy bringing in pandemic censorship.
He's the guy blocking conservative reporters from attending his daily press conference.
He's instructed his ministers to license journalists and punish them deeply if they resist his censorship fiat.
That's Justin Trudeau, just like his father, really.
Except back then, when Pierre Trudeau brought in the War Measures Act, there were a few journalists who asked him if in fact it was too much.
He was going too far.
And I think it's our duty as a government to protect government officials and important people in our society against being used as tools in this blackmail.
No, you don't agree to this, but I'm sure that, once again, with hindsight, you would have probably found it preferable if Mr. Cross and Mr. Laporte had been protected from kidnapping, which they weren't, because the steps we're taking now weren't taken.
But even with your hindsight, I don't see how you can deny that.
No, I still go back to the choice that you have to make in the kind of society that you're living.
Well, there's a lot of bleeding hearts around who just don't like to see people with helmets and guns.
All I can say is go on and bleed.
But it's more important to keep law and order in this society than to be worried about weak-kneed people who don't like the looks of a society.
At any cost?
At any cost?
How far would you go with that?
How far would you extend that?
Just watch me.
Yeah, today it's the rest of the media party, the rented journalists, the sold-out journalists, maybe soon the China-paid journalists, who are actually just fine with Trudeau's censorship, just fine with it.
In fact, they're the ones calling for it.
The CBC especially, as you can see in their disgraceful smear against the Epoch Times last week.
Shadowy Privy Council Briefings00:14:54
It's up to us, my friends.
It's up to you and me to stand up for our freedoms, don't you think?
Well, wait till our next guest.
I'll show you what we're doing, not just talking, what we're doing about the free press here in Canada.
Stay with us.
You don't wanna miss this.
Well, look, we're in the commentary business, the news business, the opinion business.
We got all that.
But every once in a while, you have to stop talking and start doing something about it.
You know, the old joke, everybody always complains about the weather, but no one ever does something about it.
Well, today is the day we did something about it.
You'll recall that in October, when Justin Trudeau's Handpicked Debates Commission banned us from attending the leaders' debates, we went to the Federal Court of Canada and in a long-shot emergency application, we won the day and we won a court order commanding Trudeau's staff to let us in.
It was a great victory, not just for journalism, but for freedom.
Well, as you may know, for several weeks now, Justin Trudeau has been having these very tightly managed scrums outside of Rideau Cottage.
That's what they call his 22-room mansion.
We were banned from attending in person, but we were told, well, you can join by conference call.
And the conference call was managed by the Canadian government, so by civil servants, by neutral, non-partisan public servants, not Liberal Party hacks.
And so more than 20 times we've dialed in and said our name and affiliation.
And 20 times we were not picked.
While the same pet reporters for Justin Trudeau are picked again and again, sometimes twice even on the same day.
For example, the Canadian press, obscure freelancers like Justin Ling, who throws softballs at Justin Trudeau, picked regularly.
The statistical odds of us being on 20-plus calls and never being called once, and other pro-Trudeau stenographers being called almost every day, well, it's to the point where it's statistically impossible.
Of course it is.
We're being banned.
And so we've reached out to the same crack team of legal eagles who fought the censorship of us at the Federal Debates Commission and won to fight this one too.
And joining us now via Skype from his home office is our friend Aaron Rosenberg.
You'll recognize him as one of the debate commission lawyers.
Aaron, great to see you again.
Oh, so nice to see you.
Thanks for having me.
Well, thank you for being our lawyer.
And you and your colleague David Elmiller have put together a lawsuit and today filed it in the very same federal courthouse where we had our trial in October.
And it's styled Rebel News Network Limited applicant versus Canada Privy Council Office and the Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary of the Cabinet and the Attorney General of Canada.
So we are suing the government.
Why don't you take our viewers through it?
I've read the document.
Obviously, I've approved it.
Tell us what the case is and what it isn't.
Well, this is a case about two very important principles.
First being freedom of the press.
Second being holding government to account.
That means government accountability and transparency.
Both of which appear to be severely lacking in the context of Justin Trudeau's daily press briefings.
What we have is a system that is arbitrary, that's shadowy, that's run by the Privy Council, and that is meant to provide vital information to Canadians about this ever-developing crisis.
And unfortunately, these press briefings provide access to a severely limited number of appointed reporters.
And as a result, media organizations like Rebel and others are denied the opportunity to put important questions to our leaders, and most particularly our prime minister.
And so if organizations like Rebel are not able to put questions to our prime minister, then Canadians across the country are not being provided the information that they so deserve during these really trying times.
And so we put together this application to hold the administrator of these press briefings to account so that organizations like Rebel and others can hold the government accountable for the information that Canadians deserve.
Yeah.
You know, him hiding out in his house, not going to work for nearly two months, it's strange, it's bizarre.
Even Boris Johnson, who got the virus and went to the hospital, he's back at work.
The only world leader who's hiding out is very strange.
I think he's hiding from the problems, hiding from scrutiny.
And that's what gets me is, I mean, seriously, some of the softball questions are so unbelievable.
Let me just show you two of them.
Here's one where a reporter, I think, from Reuters, actually said, how are you holding up?
Are you worried about burnout?
They're saying to this, the guy who works half an hour a day.
Take a look at this.
Yeah, secondly, you're speaking to us every day.
The Deputy Prime Minister is either having meetings or speaking to us.
Dr. Tam is speaking to us virtually every day.
What are you guys doing to prevent burnout?
I mean, there's no way you can continue at this pace.
Are you drawing up some sort of rotor?
If you think that was a one-off, look at this series of questions in French asking with outrage that Trudeau was allowing hand sanitizer in the country without English and French bilingual labeling.
I'm not kidding.
This is the kind of softball questioning.
It's like being kissed by a little puppy that the media party puts to Trudeau.
Just take a look at this.
Good morning, Mr. Trudeau.
Health Canada yesterday decided to lift certain restrictions with respect to cleaning products.
The official languages committee says that this is about people's safety.
Why was that decision made?
Why should there not be profit information on products coming in from the United States?
Does that mean, Mr. Trudeau, that there could be other exemptions in the coming weeks?
Anyhow, my point is that Trudeau chooses these loving questions, but it's not actually him.
And Aaron, that's a very key point I want to tell our viewers, and you and I discussed this at length.
We're not asking a court to make Justin Trudeau answer us, to make Justin Trudeau like us, to make Justin Trudeau invite us to a Liberal Party hangout.
This is a nonpartisan government agency that's doing the vetting.
This is not Trudeau or his political staff.
This is the Privy Council office that's supposed to treat Canadians equally, regardless of any characteristics.
They're the ones who obviously have this secret blacklist.
And we're trying to get through the civil service.
If Trudeau says, I'm not answering the rabble, or I hate the rabble, or maybe he'll actually answer us, as he finally did in a leader's debate, we're suing the Privy Council, which is acting like a censor, or, I don't know, maybe Trudeau's nanny protecting him from any tough questions.
Well, that's right.
And, you know, it's hard to bring home the critical nature of these briefings, of these opportunities.
You know, much can be said about the content of these briefings, but this is really, you know, House of Commons only started doing virtual sittings last week.
And so this was really the only opportunity that Canadians had to see the Prime Minister, the head of state, talking about providing updates on this pandemic as it pertains to Canadians.
And so other than that, you know, where else are you going to go for your information in terms of what the prime minister and what our public officials are doing about this pandemic?
So if the press cannot put these questions to the prime minister during this opportunity, then it's highly unlikely that they'll be able to get answers to those questions.
You know, if Justin Trudeau wants to invite over his pet journalists, they're all on the government payroll pretty much.
If he wants to invite them over for coffee, I'm not going to say, hey, I'm going to sue to get an invitation to get to the private Christmas party for Justin Trudeau.
But that's not that.
Let me read from paragraphs three and four in the lawsuit, because I just want to help our viewers understand we're not actually suing Justin Trudeau.
I don't believe that you should be able to sue Justin Trudeau or Donald Trump or Jason Kenney to make them answer you.
Although I should note that Donald Trump loves going to CNN and he loves taking on the toughest questions.
Trudeau's a bit of a coward that way.
We're suing the Privy Council Office.
And let me just read from paragraphs three and four of the lawsuit because I think they make this clear.
The respondent, the Privy Council Office, PCO, provides objective, nonpartisan support to the Prime Minister, portfolio ministers, and cabinet in order to facilitate the effective operation of the federal government.
The PCO is led by the respondent, the clerk, who also serves as secretary to the cabinet and head of the public service.
The clerk's role is to advise the prime minister and elected government officials in managing the country from an objective, nonpartisan public policy perspective, unquote.
So that's, and by the way, folks, you can see this whole lawsuit.
It's only nine pages long.
It's very plain English on the website below this.
Aaron, I wanted to read that part of your beautifully drafted lawsuit.
Because I say again, I don't expect to be allowed into a Liberal Party club event.
I don't expect to be allowed into the personal home of Justin Trudeau.
But if the nonpartisan civil service is having an event, they should act like the nonpartisan civil service, just like the post office should deliver my mail and the electric company should put electricity to my house.
If the nonpartisan government is having a press conference, we should be allowed to make calls.
And we're not.
And other media have already given up.
Blacklocks reporter, TrueNorth, they've simply given up.
I don't want to give up.
I want to sue.
And I'm grateful to you guys putting together such a great lawsuit.
Well, I appreciate it.
It's an honor to do this type of work.
Look, you know, these types of media organizations, independent media organizations, need to have the opportunity to put these questions to the prime minister during this critical time.
And the Privy Council, whose purported role is to act in a non-arbitrary, non-partisan manner and to provide support to the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister's office, it's hard to understand at this point why these types of media organizations cannot participate in these important briefings.
And the other thing is that, and something that you highlighted earlier, Ezra, is that the federal government has reiterated time and again its commitment to freedom of the press, free expression in Canada.
In fact, I believe yesterday was World Freedom of the Press Day, and the Prime Minister put out a statement heralding the federal government's action and commitment to freedom of the press, especially during this pandemic.
And yet this process is interfering with media's opportunity to put questions for all Canadians to the Prime Minister.
And so I think that this process raises a lot of questions about the federal government's commitment, or stated commitment, to freedom of the press at this time.
You know, as you were talking, you made me think about how vociferously and vigorously the Trudeau government opposed our lawsuit last time in October when they kicked us out of the leaders' debates.
I remember you and your colleague David worked all weekend and you fought like crazy and you worked all weekend and the hearing was on Monday.
And our total legal fee was $18,000 and it was money well earned.
The two of you guys and your staff worked basically four days straight and we won.
Well, we finally saw how much the five government of Canada lawyers, they billed taxpayers $131,000.
I don't even know how you could do that.
They only worked for four days also.
They billed almost 10 times as much.
They had five lawyers.
It was crazy.
My point is, Trudeau will go to any extreme length to stop us from asking him questions.
He spent $131,000 last time.
I think he's going to go crazy here.
He's going to throw so many lawyers against us.
And you know what?
I think the worst part of it is most media party journalists of the CBC and the bailout newspapers are going to say, yeah, we don't want rebel news there because they don't want any competitors there asking better questions than them.
They don't want us to stink up the joint by asking accountability questions instead of, hey, Justin, how are you holding up?
Fighting for Accountability00:05:17
Well, yeah, and you know, and it's also important to remember that at the Debates Commission, you know, when Rebel was asking, was demanding access to the media scrum at the debates.
Well, as it turned out, when the Rebel reporters were granted the opportunity and given the access to the media scrum, in fact, they asked important, hard-hitting questions that became the standout questions at the media scrum itself.
And so it's understandable why the federal government might, for political reasons, want to evade rebel news.
Ultimately, it's critical that Rebel keeps up this fight to ensure that these hard-hitting questions are being asked of the federal government and the prime minister, especially during these really tough times for Canadians.
Well, I remember when we contacted you in such a rush last time, because, of course, they only banned us the day, like the Friday before the Monday where the debates was.
It was outlandish behavior.
And you, I remember our conversation on the phone.
You said, Ezra, I want to let you know this is a long shot.
You probably won't win.
It's going to cost you money.
And I said, well, we've got to fight anyways.
And the bill was $18,000.
And the miracle is we won.
You and I haven't talked about the details here, but I think we should let our viewers know this is probably going to be just as large a fight, if not larger.
And it's also a long shot fight because no one's ever tried this before.
No one's ever said we have the right to be treated equally by the civil service to at least ask a question.
If Trudeau ignores us or insults us or says pass, that's up to him.
And I would never seek to command him to answer.
But no one's ever tried to compel the nonpartisan bureaucracy to let a reporter ask a question.
So this is new law and it's very important law.
Do you think that the battle here will be just as tough?
Do you think it'll be even tougher maybe?
I want to know because we have to crowdfund this and we've set up a page, letusreport.com.
Tell me what we can expect to come in from the other side.
They threw five lawyers at us, which was crazy.
They'll probably do the same here, right?
Well, that's right.
I mean, if history is any indication, money is no object in relation to dealing with this.
They will hire the best lawyers in the country to fight Rebel, to ensure that Rebel is not successful in this application and that it does not proceed to ask the tough questions to the federal government, including Prime Minister.
I think we're going to see a big fight.
We are facing a big battle here.
Well, I know you're up for it.
You and David did such a wonderful job and the Debates Commission.
You know, I've been in too many courtrooms in my life, but that was some of the finest advocacy I've ever seen.
Now, of course, I don't want to get off track, but that fight is still going.
We're still battling the Debates Commission.
They're still trying to shut us down.
They know the next election could be here within months or even a year or so.
So they're trying to bat us down.
We're still fighting them.
I don't think we've actually reported that back to our viewers, but this is the big fight now.
Last word to you, Aaron.
You filed this today, and it'll be served directly on the government by the federal court, if I understand their procedure.
I know things are sort of in a slowdown because the courthouses are physically shut down because of the virus.
So I don't know if we'll get our justice quickly.
How soon does the government have to reply to our lawsuit?
Well, the government has 10 days to respond to this lawsuit by way of filing a notice of appearance.
So they're on pretty strict timelines.
Again, that's all subject to the current court shutdown, which we expect to be lifted fairly soon.
But yes, these timelines are very short, and they will have to respond very quickly.
Well, I'm glad I couldn't ask for a better team of lawyers than you and David.
And you know what?
I remember when you said, Ezra, this is a long shot of the Debates Commission.
I remember what I said.
I said, we have to do it anyways, if not us, who?
And so I want to tell you in advance, I've read the lawsuit.
I think it's great.
I thank you and David.
I hope we win.
I think there's a chance we win.
But even if we don't, fighting for free press and fighting against Trudeau's slow strangulation of alternative voices in this country, I can tell you right now, no matter the outcome, this was already worth it in my mind.
So thank you to you.
Thank you, Ezra.
All right, there you go.
Folks, if you want to help out, go to letusreport.com.
I believe we can win.
We won last time.
We got the same legal eagles.
And we got even worse censorship.
They just couldn't be clear about it.
It's statistically impossible what they've done.
And I want to air that out.
Stay with us.
Your letters to me next.
CN Suing Railway Blockaders00:02:12
Hey, welcome back to my monologue Friday about CN suing the railway blockaders.
Barb writes, excellent, about time they're held accountable.
Yeah, I want to dig more into the story.
I don't understand why the court case was filed back in February, but it was sort of low-key, and CBC's running it as news.
I'm trying to figure out what is new, if it's still proceeding, but I thought it was worth going through nonetheless.
Dave writes, amazingly, they did not break up the blockades until Quebec was running out of propane.
If Alberta was running out of propane for heat, we would finally be fought out now.
You're so very right.
I mean, it was when Quebec started talking about armed resistors, armed protesters, armed terrorists, only then that people started to get serious about protecting the railways.
They don't care about the West in Ottawa.
They sort of like the fact that it was shutting down Alberta's essential industry.
You tell me how long they would stand for that if it was an essential industry like, let's say, Ontario's remaining auto sector that was blocked like that.
On my interview with Joel Pollack, Paul writes, great to see Michael Flynn.
It's been a long time coming.
People need to be going to jail over this.
People need to be losing their jobs over it.
Well, yeah, I don't understand how all the FBI and CIA and other deep state permanent security networks, how none of them have been charged with anything.
Clearly, they were breaking a lot of laws.
They were lying under oath in many cases.
I don't know.
Is Donald Trump afraid to prosecute and investigate?
Is he being counseled against it?
I don't quite understand why not a single Democrat has been charged, let alone convicted or sentenced.
But a bunch of Trump's people have had all those things happen to them for trumped-up charges.
I don't get it.
Well, what do you think about our new letusreport.com lawsuits?
I think it's pretty exciting.
And again, we're not demanding that Justin Trudeau pick us.
We're not demanding that Justin Trudeau answer us.
We're demanding that the so-called neutral, nonpartisan civil service let our calls through.