Rebel News journalists David Menzies, Ezra Levant, Anna Slatz, and Avi Yamini recount police crackdowns silencing dissent in 2020, from Peel Regional Police diverting resources to enforce a $65 ticket while ignoring a mass shooting, to NYPD arrests of press covering Black Lives Matter protests—including pregnant women—and Victoria’s "move-on" orders targeting Rebel News. Ezra and Avi vow legal battles, exposing mainstream media complicity like Channel 7’s Paul Dowsley, who allegedly downplayed their treatment. Frankston Police threaten home raids over unfounded "compliance checks," revealing systemic intimidation. The episode exposes how governments weaponize law enforcement to suppress critical reporting under emergency powers, undermining press freedom and public accountability. [Automatically generated summary]
Hello my rebels and I hope you're having a good Christmas time.
Hopefully you're having a chance to take a break from a busy year or maybe you're still on staycation and have been for many months.
Either way, it's a pleasure to have you listen to the podcast.
Over the days ahead, we have the best of the Rebel compilations of some of our favorite videos this past year.
I hope you enjoy them.
We'll be back with original programming very early in the new year, but I think a lot of these videos you're about to hear today in the next few days may well be new to you because they were on our YouTube channel, but they were not on my show, The Ezra Levant Show.
So I hope you enjoy these because I think most of them may be new for you and they're really some of our best work.
So without further ado, here are the best of the Rebels shows from 2020.
And just in closing, let me invite you to become a Rebel News Plus subscriber.
You get the video version of these shows, which the podcast is great, but seeing the visuals, especially in some of our most dramatic coverage, really makes a difference.
Just go to RebelNews.com, click subscribe.
It's eight bucks a month.
As you know, we don't take a dime from Trudeau.
So this is how we, well, we rely on you, frankly.
Okay, here's today's show.
Rebels Arrested: Trespass to Property Act00:15:59
Tonight, in our year in review, rebels being arrested.
It's December 29th, 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 will buy a publisher is because it's my bloody right to do so.
You think we're in the journalism business, and we are, but increasingly we're in the legal business.
We fight public interest law for other people through our Fight the Finds project and other projects like that.
But too often, we're defending our own freedoms, our own freedom of association, assembly, freedom of the press, freedom of speech.
Rebels who have been arrested.
That's the subject of today's Best of the Rebel year-in-review, Rebels Under Arrest.
I have some terrible news to report.
My friend and colleague David Menzies, beloved by many public interest journalists, was just arrested.
I'm telling you to leave, so you should leave.
I think it's incredibly important that you know.
He was there reporting on the corrupt mayor of this city, Patrick Brown.
Are you ready to leave now?
I am not, sir.
I am here to...
I'm going to help you off the problem.
Let's go.
He's under arrest.
He's not under arrest.
I swear to you.
You're not touching me, sir.
That we will go through such a disclosure procedure, and we will have every one of the officers there, and we will answer the question, who made the order to arrest a journalist doing public interest journalism on a public sidewalk?
I'm not under arrest, so you can't touch me, right?
Are you wanting to leave then?
I am not.
What they have given to us is an opening to give that rotten city hall an enema.
I didn't come to play games.
My time is too valuable to come here and play games in a Brampton parking lot.
Believe me, there is a very important constitutional principle at stake.
Look at this.
Four cars and all you cops pulled off the shooting file.
You must be proud.
You're not listening to me.
Two, not three, but four police cars came to arrest a journalist.
The ideal outcome is that we go out there and no one interferes with our civil liberties.
That's all we want.
Yeah, we just want to do journalism.
Well, here we are again at the Earnscliff Recreation Center.
This is the home to Patrick Brown, hockey night in Brampton.
Him and his mostly Barry buddies come down here typically at five o'clock on Wednesdays.
They've been doing this for several weeks.
Sometimes he shifts the time around, folks, so he can try to give us a slip.
As you know, we've been told by security and police we are a persona or media non-grata here.
We've been given these, I don't know what it is.
It is a from Paladin Security notice prohibiting entry.
This is evidently some sort of a trespass notice, but it's published on paper with a corporate logo on it.
The lawyers we've run this past say this isn't worth the paper it's written on.
You may as well give somebody a card from community chest or chance saying go to jail, go directly to jail, don't pass go, don't collect $200.
Well, we were shoot off the property last week, as you know.
Get off the property.
Okay, sir, walk faster, get off the property.
But we're back and we have lawyered up and we're going to see if Patrick Brown does indeed come back here for his weekly game of shiny.
I've got some questions for him, for example.
First of all, why has he lied so much?
We also have the big boss man himself, Ezra Levant.
Yeah, he has come down to the Earnscliff Recreation Center too.
Well, David, it's great to see you.
Thanks for breaking this story.
That was an amazing exclusive.
That look on his face when he realized that he was caught red-handed.
I'm not here today on that story.
You've done a great job.
I think you've covered all the bases.
I'm here for a different reason.
Because I saw that when you came here last week to ask these questions, a bunch of Brampton taxpayer-paid private security tried to shoe you away.
That didn't work.
And then three police cars, plus an unmarked police car, of the Peel Regional Police, pulled up right here.
A bunch of cops came out, argued with you for a bit, and you had a lawyer there, and said, get out.
And you did a pretty good job of saying, no, we're journalists.
We're here to work.
But at the end of the day, the cops started pushing, physically pushing.
Oh, and Cameron.
Sorry to interrupt you, but speak of the devil and he shall appear.
Here comes the first Paladin security van.
So I imagine this is the initial volley of fire.
We're probably going to be told that we're trespassing.
I mean, mall security, private security, whatever.
They're guys working for a living.
That's fine.
They're not real police.
When the real police came and honored the false trespass notices, pushed our people and said, get out, I thought that's unacceptable.
Because we're law-abiding people.
We generally support the police.
We don't like this anti-police mania that's gripped much of the world.
But we also believe in freedom of the press.
And there's simply no way that we will be deterred from reporting on public property, on a public sidewalk, a public interest investigation into a public person, namely the mayor.
So it looks like a gentleman has presented himself here.
can see we brought with us a lawyer named Giddy Mammon and maybe we should get him and sorry I think I overheard you sir say that we cannot be here Yes, you guys have been trespassed.
You guys are not allowed to be here.
What do you mean by you guys?
What's rebel news?
It's the media.
It's the media, so the media is being trespassed.
Usually the way it plays out, Ezra, is first the Paladin Security Service come, then the police at obviously a cost of thousands of dollars.
And if I can just point out, as we were discussing earlier today, our good friend Joe Warmington of the Toronto Sun has a front page story.
This happened in Brampton, folks.
It was a shootout at a cemetery with the ostensible reason to add three more people that were there to, I guess, bemoan the loss of a loved one at the cemetery.
This is real crime, isn't it, Ezra?
This is attempted murder, and yet they're going to send out three, four cruisers today?
Well, we'll see.
I'm here because we have ourselves a freedom of speech problem.
We have ourselves a rule of law problem.
We have ourselves, perhaps, a politicization of the police problem.
Part of me really doesn't care what private security does.
I think it's gross that Patrick Brown is apparently using taxpayers' money as his personal security force.
I think that's in poor taste, but poor taste is Patrick Brown's middle name.
What I'm more concerned about is the Peel Regional Police, which has a good reputation.
And if they are going to be running errands, like it's one thing for this gentleman here to run errands for Patrick Brown.
I get it.
You know, it's his job.
He's not a cop.
I don't have to listen to him.
But at least not on public property where I am.
But it's another thing when the cops come and say the same thing.
What's that?
Sorry.
Police will be contacted if you guys are refusing to leave.
What's my name?
I'm not sure you'll find out.
Well, you said I've been trespassed.
I don't even think that's a verb.
But why would I leave?
You guys have been trespassed.
Please make it away.
What does that mean by being trespassed?
I have not been trespassed.
You guys are more than welcome to press.
I'm on the sidewalk.
No, not every year.
This is City of Rampro Property.
I'm glad you acknowledged that.
Hey, can you do me a favor?
Can you show me your license?
If you don't show me your license, you break.
This is the Private Security and Investigative Services Act.
every person who's acting as a security guard or holding himself out as one shall on request produce his or her license this guy here's not the problem This is just some guy.
I'm not going to be mean to him.
But if a Peel Regional Police officer comes and says you can't do public interest journalism on the public sidewalk of public property, we've got ourselves a constitutional issue.
Giddy, what do you make of what's going on so far?
Well, it's interesting that a member of the press is being denied the opportunity to report on government misconduct.
I mean, it's not a little right.
It's a right that's guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Without a free press, you have a government that can act with impunity, and that would be a tremendous threat to democracy.
It's not a rule or regulation.
It's contained in the supreme law of the land.
I don't propose to negotiate my freedoms with a corporate security team.
They are what they are.
It's a blue-collar job.
I respect people who work for a living.
I'm just not going to give up my civil liberties to stand on a public sidewalk to do publicist interest journalism about a public politician by asking to see their security guards license.
That's my way of saying, I know my way around, fellas.
Don't try and think you're going to take away my freedom of speech.
And they're not.
They're not.
They're standing over there.
That's fine.
How do you do?
Ezra Levant's my name.
Do you shake hands or just wave in the time of pandemic?
No, no, I think one of these guys called.
Hey, I worry.
I'm Ezra Levant.
So, my colleagues, how are you today?
Good.
Why are we back again?
Doing journalism in the public interest on public property.
That's not true, sir.
May I introduce my lawyer, Giddy Mammon?
He's a bit tougher than my last lawyer.
He's a bit better briefed on the law this time.
This gentleman here has been trespassed already several times.
That is true.
It is true.
And that's what they're telling us.
And he's just advised me that he's requested that you guys leave the premises and you're refusing.
So now I'm asking you to leave the premises.
Oh, there is a fourth vehicle here.
The thing is: trespass to property act.
It's an arrestable offense.
If you refuse to leave, you can be arrested.
So I'm just asking you: are you refusing to leave or are you going to be leaving the property?
We have not violated the trespass to property activities.
It's a flawed notice, both in form and substance, sir.
This is what we were served, sir.
It's got Paladin's corporate logo on it.
It's you know what?
We're not here to argue with you about that.
I'm here to tell you that you're a trespasser.
But it doesn't work that way on public property.
We're not.
You know, let's hand it over to Giddy Mammon, who's ready, who has been practicing for this moment by studying the law, unlike our friends from Paladin.
Go ahead, Giddy.
So the Charter of Rights under Section 2B gives them freedom of the press.
Charter of Rights is the supreme law of Canada.
It's important, it's an important right.
It's enshrined in the Charter because without that, you have no checks and balances on government.
So there's case law, very clear case law, that talks about trespass and balancing the rights of the press.
You are here to enforce the law as you determine it exists.
The Charter of Rights allows them to be on public property and report to the public what they find.
That is a far greater interest that outweighs anything in that trespass notice that may have been issued to Mr. Mansies.
Now, if you have some authority that suggests that when you embarrass the mayor of Brampton, you lose your right to freedom of the press, then clearly that would be the law.
But there just isn't such law.
Now, we came here today to exercise 2B rights under the Charter.
Now, you can arrest him for doing that, but we came here to make sure that the right of the press is not abridged by a little yellow piece of paper.
So you have a job to do.
You have to decide whether you want to de-escalate the situation, let this man report, right, or arrest him.
The whole thing today is to tell him to leave until he needs to leave.
It's as simple as that.
I completely understand.
We're not coming here wanting to arrest you.
That's not the case, right?
We've been here.
I think this is the fifth time we're here now.
This isn't what we want to do.
That's not what we want to do.
We just want to keep the peace and enforce the Trespass to Property Act, which means that all we're asking you is to leave the premise.
That's all we're asking you.
If you fail to do so, then you can be arrested.
I don't want to do that, though.
If you don't agree with the Trespass to Property Act, then you'll have to have your day in court and go deal with it that way.
No.
I completely agree with the Trespass to Property Act.
It's very good.
It's very useful.
The way it was used in this situation is unlawful.
It's clearly unlawful.
That's my role is to challenge legislation.
If you challenge that in court, right?
I'm just enforced the Trespass to Property Act.
I'm just here to do my job, sir, practice journalism.
Issued a trespass under the Trespass to Property Act.
It needs to be a money known.
Okay, but this isn't the police.
Hold on, sir.
Hold on.
Look, look how many police officers you have to do.
Is it important?
I know.
You decided how many officers to deploy.
If I get called, I have to attack.
Of course, they have to attack.
But you chose to come with four police.
Who's wasting resources?
Do you guys come away from the shooting at the cemetery to tackle David Mancy's?
No, we're not talking about it.
Pulled off the shooting case.
Who sent four cars?
I don't know why you have to be so challenging, sir.
Because I'm a journalist on a public property.
That's why.
They said that they've trespassed this man with the hat.
They're liars.
I've got the form right here.
With all due respect, sir, Giddy Manman is my lawyer here today.
Public property.
This works on private property, mate.
This is my law society card.
Okay.
And I don't advise people to break the law, okay?
I do.
No, no, you believe that I advise my clients to break the law, but I did not actually do that.
I'm asking you to make the leave.
I understand that.
I understand.
Okay, we're not here to argue for this.
It's as simple as this.
You're not supposed to be here.
They've told you to leave.
You're not leaving.
I'm telling you to leave.
So you should leave.
I think it's incredibly important that you know this.
Why We're Heading to Court00:15:42
Are you willing?
Are you ready to leave now?
I am not, sir.
I am here to help you off the property.
Let's go.
He's under arrest.
He's not under arrest.
Well, then, why are you touching me, officer?
Why are you taking TPA?
That's assault.
I will arrest you for TPA then.
Let's go.
That's assault.
Well, I'm not under arrest, so you can't touch me.
Are you wanting to leave then?
Arrest him or go away.
You said that there's TPARPA.
Arrest him or go away, mate.
Just arrest him.
Okay, I'll arrest you or do you.
Okay.
Let's do that.
I'm getting arrested.
What do I do now?
Would you like me to play hands?
Peel Regional Police.
Brampton's finest arresting a journalist for trying to ask questions of the mayor.
They're errand boys for the mayor.
Can we back up?
Peel Regional Police pulling their men off of a mass shooting at the cemetery.
I'm an officer safety issue.
It's an officer safety.
Don't lie.
Please don't lie.
Stop lying.
You're at the back of my officers.
My colleagues.
You're not listening to me.
You're not listening to the law, mate.
You're not listening to the law.
This is public property.
There's a different standard for the trespass act than public property.
Take it up a proper way instead of coming up here.
Like, what's getting why are you listening to a hand-scrawled note that's not even served?
Does he have it in his hand?
I could verbally ask you or tell you that you're not allowed on the property.
If I didn't have the right to be here, he has the right to be here.
Not when the agent of the property has asked you not to be here.
Not on public property, mate.
You're confusing private property with public property.
We will.
Look at this.
Four cars, and all you cops pulled off the shooting file.
You must be proud.
Someone has to decide.
The courts have to decide.
Yeah, and the courts can decide.
But in the meantime, if you feel that this is the best way to de-escalate the situation, so be it.
I've leave you in the room.
Is that not enough?
Have they disturbed anybody?
Have they bothered anybody?
Have they destroyed any property?
Have they posed a threat?
Sure, it is.
If you're a security person, is this my first time being able to do that?
Hold on, let me.
I'm talking actually.
No, I'm going to talk.
Go ahead.
Feel free to talk.
This is the fifth time in a role.
I understand that, right?
They are agents of the property whether you like it or not.
Right.
This is what I get.
I get all the discussions.
They arrested David Menzies.
He's in the car right now.
Sure.
Go ahead.
If you think this is the best way to handle the situation, that's fine.
There's courts.
There's courts.
I think the best way for him just to take it to the court.
The best way is to allow the press to do their job.
That's the best way.
You don't want to do that?
That's fine.
That's your judgment call.
And that's an opinion, right?
Of course it's an opinion.
It's a legal opinion.
That's my opinion.
You're going to argue that it's public property.
It is public property.
All I know is that they're the agents.
They are in charge of the property.
They asked them to leave.
It's the same.
So you want to hear my point?
No, not really.
Then there's not a conversation, right?
That's fine by me.
What you're doing is doing.
You can talk to your colleague here.
Efren, this is a very bad day for the rule of law in Canada.
What you may have just seen is David Menzies, a public interest journalist on public property investigating the misconduct of a public person, the mayor of Brampton.
But four police cruisers were sent to arrest him if he didn't stop his journalism.
They gave him a hand-scrawled form of a trespass notice.
By they, I mean the hired guns of the private security firm.
But it doesn't affect public property.
Public property is governed by the parks bylaw.
You can't just have mayors kicking off private people from public property.
So this was an unlawful arrest.
And I'm going to confer with our lawyer, Giddy Mammon, and I'm going to confer with David.
But right now, my instinct is to not only appeal this atrocious arrest, but to file a civil suit against everyone involved here.
This story about Patrick Brown sneaking into an arena that he banned kids from is an interesting story, but we've covered it already.
But far more dangerous is a story of police listening to private hired guns arresting journalists on a public sidewalk.
That's why I'm here.
That's why we brought a tougher lawyer, Giddy Mammon, with us.
And that's why I believe we're going to wind up in court.
It'll be interesting to see if they try and arrest the rest of us.
But I don't think that security guards, as fine people as they are, can stop a respected journalist from doing his job.
I just don't think that's the way our society works here in Canada.
You know, I do a lot of immigration.
I bring people from outside of the country to Canada.
You know why?
They come here because we have freedoms.
We have rights.
We have freedoms.
And nobody, no cop, no minister, no journalist, no lawyer, nobody is better than the other one.
We're all the same.
We're all under the same law.
That's what I do.
That's what I'm looking for here.
I didn't come to play games.
My time is too valuable to come here and play games in a Brampton parking lot.
Believe me, there is a very important constitutional principle at stake.
No one else seems to be interested other than these guys.
So if you have to arrest them, arrest them.
Arrest them.
We know what to do next.
I just don't want to have any problems with you guys.
You guys seem like fine people.
So, you know, you know, the other officer doesn't want to hear from me.
That's fine.
I respect that.
I spoke with a mother and his kids are at summer camp and I see all this, she's fearful of the kids.
She can't be fearful for me because I've never- She's fearful all the- I'll give you my identification.
One second, Ezra.
Maybe that will help.
You know what you can do?
You can do.
You can take my identification.
You can look me up.
See, if I have a criminal record, I have four children.
I never had a problem with the law.
No one has any reason to be afraid of me.
Ezra, I don't know what his record is.
To be honest, kids would be more afraid of you with guns and all that than they would have me to sue.
This is a entire production every week in the middle of the year.
It's not a production.
It's not a production.
Look, your job is to de-escalate.
This is how you feel you're going to do it.
That's okay.
That's your judgment call.
Fair enough.
Here you have a clearly orchestrated response.
This doesn't happen naturally that you have four or five cars coming.
This was a political decision, and our litigation will smoke that out.
And we'll see who your master is and if it was real policing.
And this guy here, despite the Private Security Act, will not show his license to me on demand.
That's an offense.
Are you going to arrest him?
Are you going to arrest him for that?
It's illegal for him to hold himself out as a security guard without furnishing his license on demand.
I've asked him about five times.
I think you have to arrest him, unless you're working for Patrick Brown.
I can guarantee you right now, there are fewer Peel Regional police officers investigating the mass shooting at the cemetery than are here investigating David Menzies doing journalism.
And it is not an accident that five cop cars or whatever the number is were dispatched within minutes.
If you have a robbery or a stolen property in Brampton, get ready to wait weeks for the police to get back to you.
But if David Menzies has a question for the mayor, well, the police will be there in minutes.
There's something rotten in this town, and I think only litigation will bring it out.
I was hopeful when I came here today that it would just be the mall cops.
And listen, there's a place for mall cops, the mall.
I was hopeful that the Peel Regional Police would be too busy chasing down the mass shooters to come here.
Alas, I was wrong.
I'm troubled by the lack of rule of law in this country.
The one thing I will say about this time, as opposed to the last time, is at least they didn't push the cameraman around too.
At least there was not a physical assault on our cameraman.
And I credit the presence of our lawyer, Kiddie Mammon, for that.
I'm going to stick around a little bit longer.
We'll see what happens with David.
He's still in the police car.
That one security guard there, I'm giving him a hard time because he won't show me his security guard's license.
He doesn't like it when the rules are applied against him, but by God, he'll push them against David doing journalism.
I think in the course of the litigation that is ahead of us, Ezra, we're going to get all the discovery that we need.
We're going to find out exactly what is happening here because I think that video that David took, really, you don't need to see much further than that.
He embarrassed Patrick Brown by showing that he was there.
We saw his hockey bag.
Somebody carried it in for him.
We all know what he was doing there.
He baldface lied about it.
It's embarrassing.
And to make sure you don't get in his face again, what does he do?
He makes sure that you guys are trespassed.
So we're here to show that the press doesn't fold, not this press.
The press doesn't fold so easily.
And somebody is going to be held to account, Ezra.
I saw that officer grabbing David and trying to push him off the property.
He had no right to do that unless he was arresting him.
He said, no, I'm not arresting him.
So David wasn't being threatening to anyone.
You know, I was here the whole time.
You know, I'm so glad you were here because it's those, having that calm legal thinking in the heat of the moment.
I'm angry because I love my people and I love the free.
And listen, the story of Patrick Brown sneaking into this arena, that story's old now.
It's a month old.
And we've told it.
I'm here because of the police overreaction.
You know, Ezra, I'm going to tell you, what I'm thinking about, David is going to be okay.
Nothing's going to happen to David, okay?
But what's going to happen, the people who are really going to look bad, David, is not going to even be Patrick Brown.
And it's not even going to be these officers who showed up.
It's going to be your colleagues in the press, okay, who are letting you fight this fight on your own.
They probably want David to be arrested.
Not understanding, not understanding that if this continues and this goes to other networks and other newspapers and other journalists, that as soon as you say something that is slightly embarrassing to some government official, something like this is going to happen to you, then we effectively have no press in Canada that we can count on to out the government when they misbehave.
That is not the country that I signed up for when my family came to Canada.
We came here so everybody is treated exactly the same.
I heard the squawking on one of these security guards, Walkie Talkie.
I think they've got a surveillance unit here because someone was saying, oh, there's a camera in the tree line.
There's someone like someone was calling the shots.
I think that Patrick Brown or his flunkies have spent tens of thousands of dollars tracking David and our journalists.
And God knows how much has been spent in police budgets.
We will fight back.
So help me, God.
I promise everyone, friend and foe alike, we will fight this to the Supreme Court if necessary.
It's that important to me.
What did they say in the car, David?
Well, I've been, I guess if these paladin security notices of trespass are invalid, we sure got an official one now, boss.
It's a ticket.
I think it's for $65.
Failure to leave premises when directed, the Trespass to Property Act, $65.
David, let me swear on the altar of God, I will spend $65,000 fighting this.
And Officer 3953 and Officer 4002 will be sued for false arrest.
And this is the guy who assaulted you.
I swear we will fight this to the end.
You know, I hope to God for, you know, we're funded by our viewers.
I hope the fees will never come to that extent, Ezra.
But, you know, I do believe in fighting for our rights.
You know, I know these fellows are doing their job, but they're not doing their job.
That's the problem.
They're doing Patrick Brown's errands.
Yeah, that is true.
And it is a sad day.
I feel for the people of Peel Region that so much law enforcement resources have to be deployed.
There are four cars here today taking off that mass shooting to come here today to take off big old bad you.
I guess so.
And I feel bad for that.
I feel bad to the taxpayers.
But my ire is not with these officers.
It is with Mayor Patrick Brown.
This is a personal vendetta.
Following orders, we learned it's not a legal excuse.
I was just following orders.
I was just following orders.
Yeah, where have we heard that before?
I remember that.
It's in the Nuremberg.
Have a good day, okay, buddy.
All right.
Take care.
Be safe.
David, you know what?
You're such an amiable fellow.
You're such a nice guy.
You're even nice to your jailers.
I will be less nice.
Well, you know, the only contempt I have in my heart is for a mayor who is refusing to lead by example, a man who is obviously, in my estimation, Ezra, very petty, very vindictive.
The fact that all of, you know, it's like all the king's horses and all the king's men have to come to the Earnsclift Recreation Center to shut down the practice of journalism.
And we had an excellent lawyer.
We have an excellent lawyer in Giddy Man, but they just wouldn't listen.
And maybe we have to go to a court of law to make them listen.
Absolutely well.
Well, David, thanks for your courage.
And, you know, I'm impressed with how even keeled you are, for I have nothing but bile in me.
I can tell you you've got the eye of the tiger, Ezra, and I know that's going to serve as well in a court of law.
I can't stand for this.
Well, thank you for being courageous.
And a number of us had come here today expecting and prepared to be arrested, including some of our team here and even myself.
And I thank you for undergoing that unpleasantness on behalf of not only all of us, but on behalf of this freedom that will be tested in this court case.
Well, and you know, Ezra, that's the thing.
It's for the greater good, isn't it?
This is about taking a stance in the public square, being able to practice journalism without having to be thrown into a police cruiser or thrown behind bars.
It would be great if the other members of the media, like media, like Giddy said, were so, you know, passionate as we are about things like freedom of the press, freedom of expression, freedom of speech.
But they're not, so I guess we have to do it.
Well, David was put in the back of a police car forcibly, and then he was walked off the property.
And, you know, David is such a good-spirited guy.
He was so pleasant with the officers, they had a friendly goodbye as if they were old pals.
And for that, you have to admire his good humor.
I don't have that good humor because I feel like we have been wronged.
Not personally, it's not a personal wrong.
It's the Charter of Rights, Section 2B, that all Canadians have has been wronged, first by the private security, and second by the Peel Regional Police.
Justin Trudeau's RCMP Encounter00:11:13
And so what I think is so important to do is to take the ticket and turn it around in sort of a judo move.
The ticket, I looked at it, it was actually only a $65 ticket.
We've spent much more than that on legal costs to be here today.
We will spend probably $65,000 in a lawsuit, not only appealing this ticket all the way to the Supreme Court, but suing the members of the Peel Regional Police who allowed themselves to be used as pawns by Patrick Brown.
You know, I was a little testy with some of the cops here because they were a little too gleeful in smiting the freedoms that they're dedicated to protect.
But at the end of the day, I have to remember it wasn't these cops that made the decision to send four police cars and one, two, three, four, five, six cops.
They didn't decide to do that.
If they had their way, they'd probably be out investigating this mass shooting at the cemetery.
They were directed to do this by someone higher.
And I swear to God that we will find out who did that and we will smoke it out because justice demands it for David, but our charter rights of freedom of the press demand it for all of us.
And symbolically, by walking back here now, before we leave, we demonstrate that we do not bend the knee to Patrick Brown, his paid personal security retinue, or the Peel Regional Police, even if they're directed to be here by some corrupt boss.
For Rebel News, I'm Ezra Levant.
For over two months, Canadians have been in lockdown, staying in their homes.
And Justin Trudeau has been doing largely the same.
He's been hosting these press conferences that have been a replace for Parliament here at the Rideau complex here in Ottawa.
I've been on the phone with Justin Trudeau for about two months now, calling pretty much every single day.
And I'm always getting the cold shoulder.
The parliamentary press gallery reigns supreme here.
They're not allowing anyone who is not approved by Justin Trudeau, by Terry Guillain, really, to ask the Prime Minister questions over the phone.
There's four questions for reporters on the phone every day, and those questions go to reporters across Canada, but they largely are from the press gallery.
Now, me in Calgary on the phone, it's not working, so I decided I would come here to Ottawa.
I'm at the Princess Anne entrance.
Every day, I get an email from Justin Trudeau's office saying that reporters can come here.
There's open media coverage.
They can come here to the Princess Anne entrance and then go forward, proceed to Rideau Cottage.
I'm going there right now.
I'm going to see if they let me in.
And then when I do, I have a slew of questions that have been building up for me to ask Justin Trudeau over the past two months.
So I'm going to ask them all today, hopefully.
We'll see if we can get in.
Let's go.
So, you are with Rebel News.
So, they just let us in.
I'm a little bit surprised right now.
I didn't think that we were going to get this far.
I showed them my badge, which I guess to be fair was good enough for the Hong Kong Police Force not to tear gas me.
So, I guess it was good enough for them.
They said they directed us to the P1 entrance.
We're going to follow the CBC van and see if we can get in.
Just before we got in, Le Devoir, which is an organization in Quebec that has gotten a huge share of all of the questions over the phone, they were in that car right before us.
And after that he let them in, he radioed forward to someone saying who they were and who they were with.
So, right after we went in, I presume they sent some sort of message to Trudeau or his staffers to say Rebel News is in the house.
So, hopefully, they don't stop us now because I have a few questions to ask.
So, we're here.
We're at the doorstep of Justin Trudeau's house, right here.
The media that has come in so far has already put their stuff down right here, and they're just sort of waiting to be let in to the final step of this press conference.
There's a lot to go through.
He's the Prime Minister, that's fair, I guess.
So we're here waiting with the rest of the media to get in and ask these questions.
I shake your hand too, but what's interesting here is Terry Guillain, actually, the former head of the parliamentary press gallery, turned PMO staffer.
Shows sort of illustrates how close the two organizations are tied to each other.
He came out with his mask on and then was being condescending as usual.
It's funny, the first time I saw him was in a hockey rink when he body checked me in northern Saskatchewan.
The second time I saw him was actually at the White House.
He was a little starstruck, I think.
So, my guess is he doesn't want us here.
So, I'm going to read out now the questions that I would be asking that I hope to ask, because I do hope that I get in.
I'm going to ask the Prime Minister on January 23rd, a committee of 15 officials at the World Health Organization had voted on whether to declare the virus a global health emergency.
It was a split decision, but China actually ended up winning the vote, and the WHO did not declare an emergency.
Teresa Tam was on that committee representing Canada.
I want to know which way she voted.
Right now, we have no idea.
The follow-up is such.
Mr. Prime Minister, you have allowed Dr. Teresa Tam to remain employed by the World Health Organization throughout this pandemic.
If there is a conflict between the WHO's interests and Canada's interests, which boss does she follow?
Or does she simply agree with whatever the WHO says, even though they have been wrong on so many occasions?
Now, we want to ask those questions to Justin Trudeau.
They're very straightforward questions, very reasonable questions.
And let's hope that we can do it.
Go ahead, Justin.
Wait, are you ready?
Okay.
No?
Oh, you're not going in?
No, I'm sorry.
I have to use my badge with that.
No, I'm good.
Why is that?
Are all of you members of the media okay with this?
How the federal government is treating media in this country?
You're going to allow them to pick and choose what reporters come in.
Sheep.
That's what you guys are.
Close P1.
So do we just wait here?
Does it feel good censoring media in this country?
This badge was actually good enough for the Hong Kong police force, and it's not good enough for you.
Is that true?
I'm not answering any question right now.
Why is that?
Did Justin Trudeau tell you that he didn't want any journalists that would ask difficult questions in there?
I'm not making any comments.
Why?
Because you're ashamed?
Not at all.
No comments.
Is this open to the public?
No, it's not.
It's not.
Why am I here then?
I'm going to be warning you.
Any disturbance, anything, it'll be escorted out of the site.
How did I get in here if it's not open to the public?
You're not coming in.
That's it.
But I'm in the Rideau complex.
You are.
This is where the governor general lives.
This is where the prime minister lives.
How did I get in here?
I got all the way here until a partisan political staffer said no, he's not allowed in.
I can escort you right now if you want.
I'd rather not.
Okay, so I'm here within my rights.
Sergeant LeCook.
Turn off the microphone.
I'll answer the question.
Turn it off.
Put it on the ground.
Sergeant LeDuc, he says.
I'm in charge of all the security of this site, including Riddle Hall and Prime Minister Dance, okay?
My legal counsel is telling me I don't have to put anything on the ground.
This is Canada, not China.
As long as I'm on my ground, I can order it to do anything I want.
Sorry?
As long you're on my ground, this is my site.
I'm in charge of security.
This is your site?
See, actually, it's the taxpayers that own this building.
I'm in charge of security, and that's all I'm going to answer right now.
There's no picture on the ground.
No picture on the ground?
I'm not allowed to take any pictures of the security fans here.
Ask you to review your camera right now.
Sorry?
I'm going to ask you to review pictures right now.
You want to review my pictures?
If you don't show me, I'm going to ask you to escort you out.
I'm not showing you my pictures, man.
Okay.
This is in Hong Kong.
Okay, let's go.
You're not walking this site.
I'm actually hanging out.
No, I'm telling you, being in charge of the site, you're not welcome.
Okay.
I'm going to ask you to leave or we'll be escorting out.
Yeah, I don't have an intention to leave.
I want to ask you.
Do you have a car here?
Sorry, what?
Do you have a car here or did you walk in?
I walked in.
Okay, let's go.
Are you going to arrest me?
I'm going to escort you out.
So he's not arresting me.
Okay, let's go.
Don't touch me.
This is Ottawa, Canada, 2020, when Justin Trudeau is having his RCMP throw out a journalist for no reason, because I wouldn't show him my phone!
I wouldn't show him what pictures I've taken.
You're twisting my arm harder.
How do you sleep at night knowing that you are leading to the death of this democracy?
What was his name?
Sergeant LeDuc.
I'm not resisting anything.
You're just doing a bad job.
I'm not under arrest, but you have your hands on me like this?
What are you doing?
Are you going to walk free out of the site?
This is cute and all, but I'm not all that into you.
I was allowed in here as a journalist.
And then when a partisan staffer, a political staffer, says, no, we don't want that particular journalist in here, you do his bidding.
Laughing?
You think this is a joke?
So this is where we are in Canada.
2020.
I go to ask very simple questions, very straightforward, level-headed, and questions that the Canadian public needs answers to.
But his political staff will do whatever they can to protect him.
They have the press gallery on a leash.
Just a big disgrace is what is going on here.
If you want to support our coverage, if you want to see more of it, as we try to ask Justin Trudeau very basic questions, which will expose him as a puppet of China, go to letusreport.ca.
We have one ask.
We want to report on what is going on in Ottawa during this global pandemic.
Help us do that by going to letusreport.ca.
If you can pitch in a few bucks to help me with my trip here and home, my cameraman as well, it would go a long ways.
We're not done here in Ottawa.
Stay tuned for more.
The media is exempted!
The media is exempted!
Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!
Hi everybody!
It's Anna Slatz, and I am in New York City, where some dramatic events have unfolded over the last 24 hours, as some of you may have heard.
Black Lives Matter Protests and Looters00:04:02
I was here in New York City trying to get some great footage and some great context for the Antifa riots and George Floyd protests that have been racking many U.S. cities.
As many of you know, I was in Washington, D.C. just before this.
I was sent out by Rebel News just to get the real story and to see what was happening on the ground.
Unfortunately, my plans were stifled, to say the least.
After a short period of time covering the protests and even a little bit of the looting and destruction that happened here on the 2nd, I was arrested by NYPD and I was arrested largely for filming them while they were taking down innocent bystanders who were just in the scene of the looting while letting the looters go and run free.
I started the evening by marching with the Black Lives Matter protesters who had assembled.
The protest was largely peaceful.
When we got to Union Square, there was well over 2,000 people involved in the marching demonstration.
No property had been destroyed.
Nothing of that sort had taken place.
But I got to witness a few interesting interactions that happened in Union Square between Black Lives Matter protesters.
While some Black Lives Matter protesters were out there with their megaphones condemning any looting or destruction and requesting their fellow marchers not to promote or engage in that, some other Black Lives Matter protesters were suggesting that it was in fact a form of reparations and that they should be allowed to loot and pillage and destroy as much as they wanted to.
Someone goes and loot something.
That's what's promised to them.
We're taking our own shit.
21st year after the Civil War.
So we need to stop this whole bull****.
We need to be peaceful.
Peace, peace, peace.
No, no, no, no, no.
Later on in the evening, there was a very interesting interaction I was witness to, but unfortunately could not get on my recordings, and that was between a young man who was involved in the march and some of the march's leaders.
This young man was trying to discourage the marching line from heading up certain streets because he informed us that there were looters waiting in the dark and shady spots of those streets for the marching line to converge upon where they were so that the looting could begin.
Looters had managed to actually rip down the plywood guard for the doors.
As they were coming out, some were actually just throwing the clothes up into the air, just igniting even more chaos as people rushed to go and grab whatever they were throwing and dropping.
One Black Lives Matter protester who was furious that anyone was looting the Zara began to get into physical altercations with the looters.
It's a protest, but we will stop these lunars!
You're here!
We will stand up to this guy infiltrating our roof!
A black ally!
You're not an ally!
As I continued to film, the NYPD showed up.
And when they did show up, of course the looters scattered.
But rather than going for the looters, the people who obviously had handfuls of clothes, big backpacks full of merchandise that they had taken from the Zara, or even people who were coming out of the Zara in the broken glass entrance, they began just arresting random bystanders.
People, perhaps, who they knew would not resist arrest, would not try to run, make their life a little bit easier.
Oh my god.
So the police are arresting.
Arrested Bystanders00:07:07
Please suggest.
I recorded one man who absolutely had nothing to do with the looting, brutally trackled to the ground and NYPD shoved his face into the pavement while attempting to arrest him.
Shortly after that, a swarm of NYPD began to brutally call out anybody who was even remotely close to the Zara, whether or not they had poor intentions or not, threatening to arrest all of them.
I became a target for the NYPD.
While I was holding up my press pass, clearly showing it and yelling out, I am media to all of the NYPD officers who looked my direction.
I began to be brutally shoved around with a baton to my chest, telling me to go home, that I was past curfew, that I was breaking the curfew that exists here in New York, one that goes into play at around 8 p.m. every night.
However, media is exempt from the curfew, just like essential workers, such as those in health care or grocery or transportation.
So I was yelling, media is exempt from the curfew.
It's not exactly something I should have had to say to the NYPD, is they should know the laws that they are enforcing.
After I took a baton to the chest, an NYPD officer grabbed me by the throat and threw me into the middle of the intersection.
Media is exempted!
Media is exemption!
After stumbling my way to the next sidewalk on the parallel street, I was accosted by a police officer and a white-shirted lieutenant who then demanded that I be arrested.
Media is exempted!
The mayor!
The mayor said media is exempted!
Media is exempted!
No!
No!
Media is exceptional!
Media is exempted!
Stop!
They then took me to Brooklyn Central Processing, where they put me in a cell that was maybe very generously measured at 5 feet by 16 feet.
And there were 20 other women in the cell with me.
We were literally back to chest.
And these women were in tremendous amounts of pain.
Some of them had injuries.
Some of them had their cuffs on so tight that their hands were bleeding.
Some of them had big swollen fingers because they'd been wearing their zip ties with their metal cuffs for hours and hours and hours.
It included two health care aides who had been arrested while caring for their client, their patient.
It was a woman with lupus who had a catheter in her chest for another condition.
And they told me how their patient had literally been begging the NYPD not to arrest them because she needed help with her catheter and with her medications and so on.
They arrested these two girls for being out past curfew and they charged them with burglary.
There was a 12-year-old boy in the male cell that was directly beside the female cell, measured exactly the same, perhaps with even more bodies in it.
He was 12, a 12-year-old boy, and he looked 12.
He was so short and tiny with such big eyes.
I'll never forget how scared he looked.
At around 3.30 a.m., I was transferred from Brooklyn Central Processing to Manhattan Central Processing, where I got to experience yet another booking.
This time, one that included a full search of my person in a pretty degrading way.
And I was put in a cell that was, you know, very similar in condition to the one that I experienced in Brooklyn.
It was overcrowded.
When I got in there, it made nine women that had to share those three metal benches to try to get some semblance of sleep.
Of course, I never slept.
While in Manhattan, they refused to give people phone calls.
There were a few women that I shared a cell with who routinely broke down thinking about how they weren't able to contact their families.
And when they told me how long that they had been in that cell, I was in shock.
Some of those women had been in there, including a pregnant woman, had been in there for seven days.
I actually started to lose hope at one point that I would ever be released because what was supposed to be a very quick processing where I had my charge and I spoke to a judge and it would get ultimately dismissed turned into a fear that I would be forgotten like the rest of those women were.
The rest of those women who, by and large, after speaking to so many of them, had never been involved in the protest or the looting and were just standers-by that the NYPD just happened to be able to grab.
These were just anybody they could grab, anybody at arm's reach who would comply and who would disappear through the system.
After I was released from Manhattan Central Processing, I was actually greeted by some strange bedfellows.
The National Lawyers Guild, which is a pretty infamous group, charity, that mostly handles Antifa legal support, was actually waiting for me outside the back entrance of the prison that they snuck me out of.
They said, oh, you're Anna Slatz.
Yes, I am.
They very kindly drove me to Brooklyn where my items were still in holding.
I'm not going to stop covering riots or marches.
I'm not deterred by what the NYPD did to me.
I am emboldened, I am strengthened, and I will continue to do what it is I feel like I do best, and that is get right to the heart of the action and show you what is happening on the ground wherever you want to see it.
But I want to thank you all for showing me such a tremendous amount of support during a really desperate and scary moment in my career.
I also want to thank my employer at Rebel News who continued to fight for me behind the scenes even though I was unaware of it most of the time just because of how cut off I was from the rest of the world but there were so many things being done that were all aimed at trying to get me out as fast as possible.
There was a website established while I was in called Save Anna Slatz and if you'd like to continue to support me you can visit that website.
You can visit stopantifa.com which is where I've put the majority of my riot coverage so far from Washington DC.
So this is Anna Slatz in New York City.
Live Melbourne Protests00:02:04
A free woman once again and going to be back up to my old antics very very soon.
Have a good night guys.
I want to start this report by firstly thanking everyone for all the love and support you've shown since the footage of my unprovoked and violent arrest on Saturday was released.
And an extra special thanks to the over 10,000 people who have already signed my petition.
It's humbling.
If you haven't signed it I'm sure after watching this report you're going to want to.
So when you're done head over to standwithavi.com and sign and share my petition demanding an end to the Victorian police state that detains journalists for doing our job.
This report is going to show you what really happened on Saturday from the moment I head to the protest.
It exposes how police are abusing their new state of emergency powers and even worse how the mainstream media is helping them get away with it.
Watch it from the beginning to the end and then share it far and wide.
This is one of the protests that I actually have no idea how it's going to end today.
We're now driving to the Freedom Day rally, the anti-lockdown protest that has been banned in Melbourne.
You've seen over the past week we've seen Victoria police heavy-handedly kicking indoors, arresting pregnant women in their homes in an effort to stop this rally from happening today.
Police warned that the entrances into the city are going to be blocked so we're expecting probably a roadblock here.
You're going to live it, experience it.
I'm going to take you all the way into the city and then to the protest and we're going to report on what's actually happening there because we know that the mainstream media is not going to give you the truth.
Here we go.
This is Dictator Dan speaking right now, live on the way.
Journalist Arrested Live00:15:42
There's two active cases.
They arrested her in front of her children and dragged her out of her home in cuffs for two active cases.
There's over 100,000 people who live in Ballarat.
The chances of her protest causing an outbreak, having any sort of risk is near to none.
The crazy thing is during Black Lives Matter, they allowed those protests to happen where the threat was far more real at the time.
Here we go, we've got a roadblock ahead.
Apparently COVID compliance checks stands for, is a euphemism for shutting down free protest.
here we go guys three in the car and they're filming is the problem There you go mate.
Not too bad, how are you?
Yeah good.
There's my work permit.
What's your name?
Avi.
Avi Yamini, that's my work permit, mate.
Your last name?
Yamini.
Internet publishing and broadcasting for news media purposes.
As per the guidelines.
Absolutely.
We've got three permits if you want.
They're all from the same house, Iggy?
Not from the same house.
We've got three separate permits if you need.
Yeah, but you're traveling inside a car.
That's part of the work.
That's the work.
The job is the whole journey.
So that's part of.
Can you describe the work to me?
So I'm a journalist for Rebel News under the Yemeni report.
And this is my sound guy, that's my cameraman.
And our job today is to cover what is happening in the CBD and this.
No problems.
Thank you, Parker.
Here we go.
I have it on my phone, yes.
guys can you provide the permits so they're obviously yeah yeah they've got the permits Give me the permits.
That's one permit.
Where's your work here?
Okay, so we're starting at the shrine and then we're following it through to Parliament wherever it's going.
That's what it says on the permit as per the regulations.
Can I ask you to basically channel 9, channel 7, they're all coming here.
Are you going to question them the same way?
This is what we're doing here.
Okay, I'm just asking because you seem to not understand what the media does.
This is what we're doing.
Here's the permits.
Here's the permits.
We are just doing the job.
No, that's fine.
That's fine.
That's fine.
So let me make it clear.
We're going to cover the events in the CBD and the roadblocks and everything that was announced.
That's why we have three in a car.
We have the permits as per the, here we go.
we go and we are yep give me the ids boys You see it?
I think you know who I am.
How you doing?
Having a good day?
In our work, we've got to stay very, very carefully within the guidelines because, unlike the mainstream media, I highly doubt they're doing this for the mainstream area.
Thank you, sir.
Yeah, no problem.
We're bearing right with you.
The world is very interested to see how they're going to react to media covering what's happening in Victoria.
Okay, thank you very much.
We have checked your thank you very much, sir.
Thank you for your service.
This is a crucial moment because police pulled us over.
They challenged me a little bit.
They didn't want me to go in, but I provided all the required legal documentation.
And in his words, they checked our credentials and were all right to go.
From here, we head straight to the Shrine of Remembrance where the protests were planned to start.
I began doing my job just like any of the other journalists there.
20 of guess one.
He just said his opinion.
And just like the other journalists there, I followed the protesters as they marched for a good couple of hours to Albert Park.
Over the next few days, I'll release a lot more of what happened on the march.
I mean, like the stuff that you won't see in the mainstream media.
But this report, I want to focus on how the police behaved as they trapped the protesters by the Albert Park Lake.
So there's been numerous, quite intense, heavy-handed arrests here today.
We walked around for there was probably a good two hours where there was no arrest, no anything.
It was quite peaceful until I'm sorry.
I'm just going to stop here for a second.
As you can see, I was just doing my job.
There was no one even around me.
The bloke marched up to me while I was doing a piece to camera.
You can actually hear me laugh because I seriously thought he was joking.
If you watch my content before, you'll know that sometimes cops walk up to me and banter a little bit.
You know, I guess they like my work or they appreciate it or they find it funny or they see my sense of humor and they join in.
But I quickly realised that this power-hungry commander was not bantering.
No arrest, no anything.
It was quite peaceful until arrest.
But this guy who's going to be placed under arrest right now.
I am sorry.
I've got my permit in my pocket.
My permit is in my pocket.
I'm fine, I'm fine.
I've got my permit in my pocket.
I work for rebel news.
I am lawfully here.
I've got my permit in my pocket.
My permit is in my pocket.
I'm fine, I'm fine.
I've got my permit in my pocket.
I work for rebel news.
I am lawfully here.
Can you grab that?
And that's my mic cover there.
Can you give it to my staff?
Mean this one, mend this one.
Can you grab the mic in the mic, Kate?
At this point, police forcibly take me away with my hands still cuffed behind my back like I'm some sort of violent criminal.
But what they didn't realise is I was still mic'd up and was recording everything they were about to say.
So what did I do exactly?
Hinder.
Hinder what?
How did I hinder?
How did I hinder?
I've got my permit in my back pocket.
I've got a pass.
I was at the roadblock.
I got let in properly.
I followed all the chief health officers.
All the chief health officers' directions.
I had the work permit and it was checked as I came in here by Victoria Police.
So I've got it all on camera.
Yeah, no, you're here for a hinder.
What hinder?
What's a hinder?
Hinder police.
What did I hinder police with?
How did I hinder police?
How did I hinder police?
Is that on?
Is that camera on?
Yeah, it's on.
It tends to go missing.
So how did I hinder police allegedly?
How did I allegedly hinder police?
That's what I'd like to know.
You've placed me under arrest.
You haven't told me how I've hindered police at all.
But we're totally under arrest, aren't we?
Yeah, on what basis?
For what?
Basically, they couldn't get me for breaching any COVID restrictions, so they had to make up a hindering allegation.
Only there's one problem which you all witnessed.
I was alone with no one around me.
I wasn't stopping anyone from doing anything, let alone hindering police.
But the arresting officer then goes off and talks and left me alone with two other cops holding me still with my hands tightly cuffed because I was some sort of threat.
So I thought I might as well chat to them.
After all, I was there to get some answers.
I feel for you.
Why didn't you think they did this with Black Lives Matter?
Why didn't they?
It wasn't illegal.
It was illegal to protest in Black Lives Matter, mate.
What?
It was.
It was staged.
So Ballarat, stage three.
Ballarat's the same.
Why is Ballarat illegal?
I don't have an opinion.
I'm asking you facts.
I don't need to.
I'm not going to answer your first question.
I'm having a conversation.
You've got me handcuffed.
I agree.
I feel for you, bro.
I feel for you.
I feel for you that you have to do so.
I just want to understand why there's such a heavy-handed response to a protest that I'm not even a part of.
I don't actually agree with half these guys.
But the fact that you're going in like this, arresting journalists because why?
Because it's stage four.
But Ballarat, stage three, police.
You've seen that footage, yeah?
You're not Daniel Andrews.
You're not going to deny that one.
To be honest, I don't really care.
And right there is the problem.
The government has given these unprecedented powers to a pack of power-hungry people who don't actually care.
Then suddenly I noticed when we were standing there a police officer from the police media unit walking by.
Police media unit.
How do you feel about them arresting somebody, a journalist?
I'm here as a journalist.
I have the passes.
I have the, they've got all my things there.
They've just arrested me out of nowhere.
Avraham Yamini.
I work for Rebel News.
I've got my permit on me.
They've got it there.
They've arrested me for.
They now change it to hindering.
So I don't understand how they're in Victoria, in Melbourne, they've placed a journalist under arrest.
And a few minutes later, the arresting officer returns.
So I'm just going to give you a caution, alright?
As long as you pass us along, you don't have to say to do anything.
Anything you say to do, maybe give me evidence.
Do you understand that?
I do.
All right.
The hinder, you're between our police lines.
We've got two police lines.
You're in between.
Our four commanders asked you to move and you've got in his way.
When did he ask me to move?
The world is my witness.
You've all seen the footage.
He barges in as I'm doing a piece to camera pointing, going, this bloke is not here for purposeful reasons.
Put him under arrest.
Did anyone hear one time him asking me to move?
I would have complied.
I wasn't there to be in their way.
I was there to report what was happening on the ground.
It was obvious he didn't like me.
He knows me.
He recognises me.
He doesn't like the fact that I'm holding them accountable.
But don't take my word for it.
Let's watch it again.
Numerous, quite intense, heavy-handed arrests here today.
We walked around for, there was probably a good two hours where there was no arrest, no anything.
It was quite peaceful until you're under arrest.
All the journalists were there.
I was where all the journalists were.
What's your reason for hindering police?
No comment.
Please call my lawyer.
I've got my lawyer in my pocket.
So now what's going to happen now?
You're getting released with inquiries pending.
So I'm getting released, a pending inquiry.
Yep.
And then, but I'm going to give you a direction to move on, alright?
So you're not allowed in the Albert Park precinct for the next 24 minutes.
Excuse me, police media unit.
Excuse me.
Do you want to understand that?
No, no, one second.
Police media unit.
I'm getting a direction as a journalist to move on from an event of public interest.
Is that okay?
Are you okay as the police media unit with this direction?
So are you okay with it?
And then after you've been released, after your arrest, I'll have a chat with you.
Okay.
That makes sense?
Yep, no one.
Do you understand the 24 hours and you understand the area?
Yep.
And if you come back, it'll be a continuation of the police.
Well, I'm having a conversation with them.
You may get a ticket or you may get arrested again.
All right.
So just to quickly unpack that, they allege I was hindering police, which I can easily prove I wasn't.
And they're using that as the basis of their move-on order, which means I haven't committed any crime yet.
That's why they're releasing me.
But now they've issued me with this move-on order on a false pretense.
Now if I disobey that order, I'm committing a crime.
Do you see how that works?
In summary, they want to remove a journalist who is critical of the state issuing unchecked powers to police.
And this is their tactic to do so.
Go straight to the media person?
Yeah, I am.
I've got to find my staff.
Go straight to the media person if you don't go there.
I am going there, mate.
You're going to breach the police.
Don't threaten me.
Don't threaten me.
I'm not worried.
You are threatening me and you think like I'm making it very clear so you don't get I'm not worried I ain't worried about it.
Mate, you just need to do what you've been doing.
So if they tell you you're in the way they're trying to do their business.
I was never told that at first.
All right, it doesn't matter.
My point is, my one question that I have for you is as the media unit, the police media unit, do you think it's okay in Victoria that a journalist was arrested, let go straight away?
I had all the permits.
I told them I had the permits.
I was arrested and then given a move on direction from an event of obvious public interest.
Is that okay?
Are you cool?
Do you know what I told you before?
You need to do what you're being.
Okay, and what legislation and what legislation did I get?
the police and if you've got a complaint to make, you need to go through the complaints system.
Okay?
What's your name?
Anita Brenz.
Anita Brent.
Yeah, I'm one of the sergeants at the media unit.
I'm happy to chat to you further about it, but just not at the moment, okay?
You've got to do what they say.
But we're in a country where there's freedom of press.
There's freedom of press, and you should hold that dear.
Now, as a journalist, I was arrested in front of everyone.
I've got all the footage.
I was arrested, thrown to the ground with my permit in my pocket.
I showed the police before coming in here, and then I was given a move on order as a journalist.
This is 2020 in Victoria.
This is not supposed to be a police day.
How convenient for the police, eh?
Leave now, comply, complain later.
Who should I complain to exactly?
The police?
So they can do some sort of internal review?
I'm good.
We're going to go above the police.
That's why I need you to sign and share the petition at standwithavi.com.
But my day didn't end there at the protest.
I head towards my camera guys who were waiting for me so we could leave together.
As we did, we came together.
When I noticed that they were standing where a couple of journalists who had actually seen me under arrest, and I thought I'd take the opportunity to ask them how they felt about my treatment.
There was some young Channel 9 journalist, I don't really know him, and there was a guy called Paul Dowsley who has more than 25 years under his belt with Channel 7 News.
They just happened to be standing exactly where my camera guys were waiting for me.
You got that caution there, yeah?
You got that caution.
See, I didn't get that caution, and they threw me onto the ground.
Can you put your mask on?
Oh, there you go.
All right.
Do you think it's cool that they're throwing journalists down on the ground?
I didn't see what led to your caution.
You got moved on, correct?
I saw that when I was arrested.
What was that move on for?
Just because we're in a police safe zone.
Okay.
So they claim that I breached that, and then the footage is hectic of throwing me onto the ground based on that.
Have You Seen This?00:05:07
Have you ever seen that in Victoria?
Can you please put your mask on while you're near me?
You're allowed to as a journalist.
I feel unsafe with a lot of that.
Can you put your mask on, please?
Are you allowed to film as a journalist without your mask on?
Yes?
Only when socially distanced.
Socially distanced.
When socially distanced.
Okay, so can I ask you?
I'm about to go.
I'm moving on.
So you're not 1.5 from me.
Can you stop that, please?
Okay, so I'm just asking a question.
When they interview, they don't have their face masks on.
I'm just asking you, have you ever seen in Victoria a journalist thrown to the ground doing his job, obviously covering an event of public interest?
This is public interest, yes?
Have you ever seen that in Victoria as a journalist?
I also did not see you get thrown to jail.
The footage is going on.
I've got the footage.
Let's say it's true.
Have you ever seen that?
Yes or no?
I don't want to comment on something I haven't seen, sir.
Okay, mate.
Now you've seen it.
Can you comment?
I'm not holding my breath.
I offered to show it to him around the corner, but he didn't want to come.
But a junior journalist pretending he didn't see what happened or even the cops abusing their power again didn't bother me that much.
It was to be expected.
What bothered me was the fact that a very experienced journalist didn't seem interested at all.
Are you cool with that?
I've got to walk arresting a fellow journalist is kind of a big story.
It's huge.
It's what they do in communist China.
What I didn't realize is until I was reviewing the footage is that my cameraman just happened to capture the journalists talking between themselves before I got there.
Have a listen to what Paul Dowsley was saying off camera.
Same here.
That's right.
for being in a pub.
He was like, you're in a place on time.
What is it for a lady's sexist?
He told me to go see next to the SP.
You're not listening to me.
I don't listen to it.
Come on.
I do it.
You said consistency.
Yeah.
It's true.
It's true.
Consistency, that's it.
That's what you hope for.
clear consistent I'm talking about to the media Paul Dowsley doesn't mince his words when it comes to describing the police there on that day.
Check me with arrest.
Now it's clear that Paul knew exactly what happened to me and that police in general were out of control at the protest on the weekend.
But guess what?
The seasoned journalist didn't feel the need to tell the truth in his report on Seven News that night.
This is exactly why no one can trust the mainstream media.
Because when they think there's no camera, they tell a completely different story.
Check me with the rest.
But I guess I can't go too hard on Paul because after all, who wants to pay the price of holding the state accountable?
That night, after not being charged with any crime, not even being fined, I got a visit in a clear attempt of intimidation.
Wasn't he involved in a protest?
Okay.
Oh, your name was.
I wasn't.
No, no.
You were there, though.
So let's not dispute that.
Are you going to Channel 9 tonight?
Are you going to Channel 9's house?
Are you going to see the journalists in Channel 7, Channel 9?
Are you going to their house tonight to compliance check?
If their name's on our list because they were processed for hindering, then yes, we will be.
So I was there as media.
Okay.
Okay.
And the world's seen exactly like the first 10 seconds of the arrest, which is not the whole video.
I've got everything from the moment that you guys let me into the rally, checked all my paperwork, and then arrested me.
I've never been, no, I was never asked.
I was never asked to move on.
Nothing like that.
That is a lie.
Okay, well, I'm not here to dispute that.
So I've never not complied.
You're coming to my house with my kids in the middle of the night when I have never not complied.
Unlike every other journalist here, don't come to my house.
Okay, your name's on our list because there's...
What's your name?
Who is that?
I'm Senior Company Barrett.
Barrett.
I'm from Frankson Police.
It narrows it down.
Yeah, so you can take me off your list because you're not welcome at my house to do a compliance check to journalists who you are.
If we've got information that suggests that you're acting in the middle of the day.
Show me one place where I've acted.
I report.
I'm a commentator.
I'm in the media.
Don't come to my house then.
We'll see you tomorrow.
You're on a list.
We'll see you tomorrow.
Police have crossed the line and I need your help to fight back.
So please, again, sign and share the petition at standwithavi.com because together we can win.
I don't need Paul Dowsey or any other fake news journalists.
need you to stand with me and to share the truth.
Well, that's our show for today.
Thanks so much for watching.
Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rubble World Headquarters, good night.