Ezra Levant and Rebel News reporters—including David Menzies, Yankee Pollock, and Kian Bexty—detail Canada’s escalating civil liberties crackdown: RCMP raided Grace Life Church with 200 officers after protesters dismantled a militarized fence, while Montreal police illegally detained Menzies for 10 hours in a filthy cell during a warrantless Airbnb raid. Facing $60K+ fines and lawsuits against four police forces, Levant calls the harassment systemic corruption, framing it as proof of their role as watchdogs. Despite financial strain and threats, they vow to continue exposing abuses, with all footage set for release at lockdownreports.com—a defiant stand against what they claim is Canada’s most hostile police force. [Automatically generated summary]
The police crackdown on Grace Life Church in Edmonton, including the massive display of armed firepower of a police detachment that went out there this Sunday to confront peaceful protesters, just shocking.
But even more shocking was what happened across the country in Montreal.
17 Rebel News reporters went out there and we stayed at an Airbnb to cover the lockdowns there.
And wouldn't you know what police found where we were and they tried to storm into our Airbnb without a search warrant?
We refused and that turned into a 10-hour standoff.
This is one where you're really going to want to see it with your own eyes.
I mean, you'll hear a lot of interesting things in the audio version, of course.
But to actually see Quebec police demanding to be let into a hotel room without a search warrant and to see the violence they perpetrate against our people, you got to see it to believe it.
I don't think you would believe it just from listening to the audio podcast.
You'd say, no, no, that can't be happening.
It happened.
You can get the full video version of this podcast by going to RebelNews.com and clicking subscribe.
It's just $8 a month.
You also get Sheila Gunn Reed's show, David Menzies' show, Andrew Chapazo's show.
So lots for that $8 a month, which, by the way, is only about half of what Netflix costs.
And in this case, I think it's news you simply won't find anywhere else.
Anyways, please consider subscribing at RebelNews.com.
Click subscribe.
Until then, here is today's podcast.
Tonight, civil liberties under attack will take you from the Parkland Church in Edmonton to the raid on the rebels' Airbnb in Montreal.
It's April 12th, 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 the government will want to publish it's because it's my bloody right to do so.
What a terrible weekend it was for civil liberties in Canada.
Then again, what a terrible year it's been for civil liberties in Canada.
And I regret to report what you already know, which is if you were relying on the legacy media, the mainstream media, the corporate media, the government media, the bailout media for your news, you probably wouldn't know about it.
In fact, you would probably be told the opposite of what's happening.
I want to tell you about two big stories this weekend.
The first, what happened at the Grace Life Church just south of Edmonton in Parkland County, Alberta.
Sheila Gunreed was on the ground there.
And then I want to talk to you about what happened in Montreal, where 17 rebel reporters were on the ground.
And we had our own Airbnb hotel raided by Montreal police.
Both of these are outrageous examples of civil liberties violations.
In the case of Montreal, it was deliberately targeting us for our journalism.
Finally, I'll show you the interview that we have yet to publish with David Menzies when he was released from jail in Montreal.
That's right.
David Menzies was thrown in jail and used as a sort of bargaining chip with us by the police.
I'll tell you that story.
But first, let's go to Edmonton, or rather Parkland County.
As you know, the church has been praying peacefully for months throughout the pandemic, and there has yet to be a single case of the virus there, let alone an outbreak.
This is what it's like.
I've been there myself.
Church Under Siege00:02:56
So, Father, we come and acknowledge your sovereignty that this is your world.
We want to worship you this day.
We want to sing praises to you.
We want you to be exalted.
We want the gospel to sound forth from this pulpit around the entire globe.
We want you, Father God, to vindicate your name.
For months, whenever the police tried to go into the church in the middle of the service, well, the church leaders there knew the right way to handle it, calmly but firmly reminding the police that they have to obey the law.
including the law that says it's actually a crime to interrupt a church service.
Take a look at this and take a listen to this cop making an excuse.
We respect the work that you do in the community.
We respect you as police officers, but in our worship service right now, people are praying, people are singing, people are listening to the word of God be preached, and they can't do that with your presence in the building.
And with all due respect, the law has now put our pastor in prison.
And so for the RCMP to come into the service, it is absolutely a disruption.
We have seen the arm of law enforcement come against us.
So to come in our building is absolutely intimidation at this point.
That's why we can't let you in.
Once again, I'm sorry you feel that way, but you have to understand that we also have a job to do.
Yeah, we do.
Okay.
So under that authority, that's why we're here.
We're not here to go up and down the aisles.
We're not here to.
You actually will be.
No, when you go inside, you will see that you will be.
Our people are sitting right there.
And our service has now, we are officially starting.
Right now we have.
It's a big waste of time.
We were starting before that, but now he's in the pulpit.
We're already praying and singing.
Yeah, he's in the pulpit.
I haven't been in, so I don't know what it's like.
But like I said, it's not that we're here to interrupt anything.
But you will.
And it's not an interpretation.
You will be.
It's a fact.
You will be interrupting.
We are standing firm on the criminal code 176 that protects these rights.
I'm sorry you feel that way.
again that is not our intent okay and if there's no intent then well i don't think intent is what intent is what it comes down to Well, of course, the church kept on having its services, and so they imprisoned the pastor, James Coates.
He served 35 days in maximum security at the Edmondson Reman Center.
The church did not stop.
They kept on opening their doors.
In fact, I visited during one of those weekends, one of those Sunday services.
When the pastor was released, well, what would happen?
Church Services Continue00:16:02
Well, we saw what would happen.
About a week ago, police raided the church at dawn.
And there was no one at the church.
And they, I presume, changed the locks.
They built a fence around it.
And they permanently stationed police on the property, essentially expropriating the church and transforming it into a paramilitary garrison.
To me, the gross touch was putting their latrines right on the front entryway into the church, an utter desecration that they surely would not do with any other religion or denomination.
The reason the police turned it into a permanent compound is they think that the church members will simply go back in if they leave.
And they're probably right.
But just stop for a think for a second.
If this were to have happened in another country, let's say China, if there were a mighty church that 600 people were meeting in every week, and the Chinese People's Liberation Army conquered it, turned it into a base, built a fence around it, and had it as their command post.
Imagine what we would be saying over here.
Well, here's how that looked when it went down, not in China, but in Canada.
Just incredible to see that.
Even more incredible to juxtapose it with this tweet by Jason Kenney back in 2014.
He talked about how inspiring it was when Chinese Christians physically stood to block the People's Liberation Army or other Chinese agencies from conquering their church.
And then it was Jason Kenney, the Premier of Alberta, who authorized the raid by Trudeau's RCMP on the church this time.
It was very interesting to watch the reaction in the local community.
For example, the neighboring Indian band, the Enoch band, well, they sent some drummers over in support of the church.
take a look at this.
Well, the big showdown, of course, was the first Sunday following the militarization and the occupation of the church.
What would happen?
Would Pastor James Coates walk onto the property again and be arrested again as he was a couple of months ago?
Would the church mums and kids walk on and perhaps be clubbed by the batons, or God forbid worse?
I mean, if you have dozens of armed policemen, heavily armed, with pistols and batons, and who knows what other weapons they brought in on their trucks, doesn't that suggest that you think you may need them?
There's a scenario where you think you'll be shooting people.
Why would you put dozens of RCMP with special weapons and tactics on a church if not for some use of them?
Absolutely raising the temperature and provocative.
Would the church itself rise to the provocation?
Well, the answer, as Sheila Gunread could have predicted, was no.
Because this church wasn't doing any of this to defy the government to fight with the government.
They were doing it because they just wanted to pray.
And so incredibly, this weekend, this Sunday, the pastor and his congregants didn't show up.
Now, that doesn't mean they didn't go to church.
They had a secret service.
They went to an underground church at an undisclosed location.
Stop and think about how incredible that is.
A house church, an undercover church, an underground church.
These are terms we use for secret churches in places like Saudi Arabia or China or in the former Soviet Union where people had to meet in secret to pray in secret lest the authorities in the police state find out about them.
Pastor Coates and his congregation met in secret in Canada in 2021.
How does that make you feel?
There were still close to a thousand protesters who showed up, not with the congregation.
As Sheila Gunnreed shows us, many of them were in the same mold as the pastor, praying peacefully, in fact, praying for a change of heart of the cops.
an example of that, singing a prayer.
Be in prayer constantly to our God on behalf of our province and on behalf of our nation.
Heavenly Father, thank you so much for being able to be here.
Thank you for being able to have a beautiful sunshine shining on us.
Thank you that you are God who looks down from the heavens and who does thwart the plans of the evil.
And so, Father, I pray that you would thwart the plans of the evil.
I pray that your kingdom would come and your will was done on earth as it is in heaven.
Father, thank you for being able to gather here with other believers, gather here with people to stand up and to say, Father, would you come and would you convict the world of their sin?
Would you convict each one of us of our sin?
May we repent and turn to our God and turn from our wicked ways that you might hear from heaven and be our God and heal our land.
Father, I pray that this meeting would honor and glorify you, that we would honor and glorify our leaders, that we would honor and glorify the RCMP.
But, Father, I pray that you would transform the hearts and the lives of each one of us, of our leaders, and of the RCMP.
Father, thank you so much for being able to be here.
Thank you for being able to lift up your name and praise you.
Of course, there were others there, well-meaning but more aggressive in their tactics.
They thought a fence on a church by a police militarization was outrageous.
And so they started to knock down the fence, even though the more pacific protesters told them to stop.
Take a look at that.
It was very interesting.
One faction of protesters wanted to tear down the fence.
Another wanted to keep it up, saying the fence itself was not the problem.
Very interesting, but I think the most compelling image of the day, one that has been viewed millions of times around the world, is what the police, what the government, what Jason Kenney, the premier, Tyler Shandro, the health minister, Casey Maddu, the justice minister.
and Justin Trudeau's Alberta RCMP detachment did.
They had nearby a staging ground for dozens.
I've heard reports ranging from 50 to 200 heavily armed RCMP officers, including with gas masks.
And they deployed them stormtrooper style when they heard that fence was coming down.
Here, take a look at this.
Now the shock troops are coming.
They have gas masks, so they're getting ready for pepper spray.
Dictators need protection from churches.
200 cops.
Communists and Nazis need to be protected from churches.
They're on the wrong side.
The police should be taking the fence.
Gas masks.
Pfizers and stuff.
Gas masks.
Tell my daughter tonight that the police are here.
200 cops.
And a helicopter.
Men in uniform that keep the floor.
40 vehicles for one church.
Can you believe that is happening in Canada in 2021?
Well, what I would say to you is, I bet you don't know that that's happening, or at least with those facts, if you were watching the legacy media, because at best, they ignore the story.
And at worst, they smear the church as being a super spreader or some sort of armed militant group.
When in fact, they're so pacifist, they literally didn't show up.
And the worst any other protester did was knock down that fence around there.
Normally, I think we should all be shocked that a massive police force was deployed with guns to face families at a church so, so gross.
And yet, all the people who should care don't care.
They're silent.
Just our Sheila Gunread is there.
That's what was happening in Alberta on Sunday.
But let me show you where 17 rebels were on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning.
I was one of them.
As you know, for months, we've had our reporter on the ground in Montreal, Yankee Pollock, going out at night to show you what the lockdown is like in that province when they have a curfew.
Seriously, Quebec, a province with adults as well as children, has a curfew for adults as well as children.
It was at 8 o'clock, then it was extended to 9:30.
Now it's brought back to 8 p.m.
Imagine springtime when it's still light out, being told by the state you must stay home or you will get an enormous fine and perhaps even a beating.
I'll get to that later.
Well, our friend Yankee Pollock is exempt because he's part of the media.
Media are considered essential under Quebec law.
And Yankee would go out and show what it was like during the curfews.
And police absolutely hated that.
They hated that he was reporting on them at all.
And they started saying things that, I don't know, got my heckles up calling him Jew media.
It was a refrain they used more than once.
Take a look at this.
I'm giving you my papers.
No problem.
Just like it.
What?
Who are you, sir?
I'm with rebel news.
I'm not media Jewish.
Who are you?
What's your name?
I don't rebel you.
This is why we're documenting what's happening here, guys.
So why are we getting such a tough time?
We've been through this so many times.
Well, they were saying these things and doing these things to our Montreal or Yankee Pollock.
So we started sending other reporters in solidarity with Yankee and also to see what else was going on.
We sent Ephraim and Mocha and Lincoln and Sid and David.
In fact, as you saw, they were calling Yankee Jew media.
The names I just told you are not Jewish.
In fact, they're of every different background.
And yet the police had it in their mind that rebel media was Jew media, were the Jews and were against them.
And that was fair game for them to say those things.
And anyone who simply pointed a camera at them, well, they would be arrested, handcuffed, and fined.
Take a look at this.
What's going on?
Are you just saving me?
I'm not in a crowd.
I'm not in a crowd of 20, though.
My colleague is detained.
I have to stay.
Let's go.
I'm on public property.
No, babe, put your mask on.
I'm not in a group of 20, though.
Hey, doy situation.
I'm not in a group of 20, what?
Keep walking.
You want to take care of yourself?
That's fine.
That's fine.
Okay, go.
Keep walking.
Tickets, fine.
Let's go for obstruction.
I don't rebel you.
This is why we're documenting what's happening here, guys.
So why are we getting such a tough time?
We've been through this so many times with you guys.
You're going to come look.
We don't understand now.
Why is he being arrested?
He's not talking to me.
Doc's men seeing the protesters.
Why did you arrest the two members of the media?
It was so obvious what they were doing.
Mocha was up in Quebec on another day, and like everyone else, he was standing outside without a mask.
But because he was pointing a camera at the police, they came over and gave him a ticket.
They hate reporters, or at least reporters who report on what they're doing.
Let's take a look at this.
Don't have your mask.
It's okay.
I don't know.
Why are you having your hands on me?
Why are you having a hand?
You're not allowed to manhandle.
It doesn't have to go anywhere with you!
Give him a...
Your name and badge number!
799.
I'm not a part of the demonstration.
Yes you are right now.
No, I'm a journalist.
I'm away from the crowd by myself.
Okay.
You want to give me a fine?
Okay.
No, I respect, but I'm not in a group of 20.
No, no, I am away from everyone else right now.
Okay, you can't give me a ticket.
Okay.
Okay, I'll come with you.
I'll comply.
You can't give me a ticket.
It's no problem for me.
I have a mask that I will wear it when I interact with the crowd.
Right now, I'm by myself, as you can see.
You want to give the ticket?
Okay, let's go.
Okay, you don't need to touch me.
I'm coming with you.
You don't need to touch me.
Okay.
We got 600 tickets that we're fighting.
And we have 600 tickets that we're fighting.
And if you touch me or assault me or damage my property, we have no problem suing you too.
Good, fine.
Thank you.
Okay.
Yes.
Ordering you to wear a mask.
Yes, but I don't obey you.
You refuse to comply.
Yeah, I don't obey you.
Yeah.
Just adding your ID.
Yeah, okay.
Okay.
So you have the right to remain silent.
You have the right to a lawyer.
And if you refuse to wear a mask after that, go back there.
You're going to be detained in the cell.
In a where?
In the police station.
Why?
For not wearing a mask?
Wow.
I'm going to release you.
You go back in the protest.
You have to wear a mask.
If you don't, you're going to be detained.
Do you understand?
Again, like this?
No, you go to the police station.
To jail, basically.
Yeah.
Until the protest is done.
Okay.
You understand?
Yeah, I understand.
100%.
Well, they were abusing Yankee Pollock and they were abusing our team of four or five reinforcements.
So I thought, let's all go out there and reassert our freedom of the press.
So 17 of us went out there and I was looking for accommodations and I realized that for 17 people to go to Montreal it might be cheaper to stay in a place we can rent in full.
Reasserting Freedom Of The Press00:07:25
And Airbnb, which as you know is basically a modern way of booking bed and breakfasts online, Airbnb had a unique hotel.
It was actually a boat that was turned into a permanent houseboat, permanently docked in the old port of Montreal.
And it worked out that booking this houseboat, which had been turned into an Airbnb, was actually cheaper and more convenient than staying in a real or regular hotel.
Plus, it had the benefit of being very private.
We could have the whole place to ourselves.
The place accommodated 21 people.
We were just 17.
We fully complied with all the rules.
We checked in and were assigned our rooms by the host of the Airbnb.
Everything was in compliance with the rules and the laws.
We stayed there on Friday night, but then on Saturday morning when we were having breakfast, all of a sudden police came to the front and tried to get on our boat.
Take a look at this.
Is there any responsible on that boat?
Is there any responsible on that boat?
Nobody?
If nobody is responsible for that boat, I have the right to come in this premises.
I need somebody to be responsible for the boat.
I know.
Yeah, you had an overhead.
Go get a warrant.
Go get a warrant.
Get a warrant.
Yes, I have a right to be here.
Go get a warrant now.
Go get a warrant.
You're not going to get in without a warrant.
I told them to get a warrant.
Well, they didn't like that.
They pulled me aside, grabbed me, wouldn't let me move.
Key and Bexty the same.
David Menzies the same one after another.
They grabbed us and wouldn't let us on the boat.
As you can see, we still had young reporters on the boat, and they're smart cookies.
They kept saying to the cop, come back with a warrant.
Come back with a warrant.
The police demanded to get into our Airbnb and to go through our reporters' stuff.
Our computers, our rooms where our reporters work.
We had set up sort of a, I mean, it was an Airbnb, but we had a computer in the main room that we're using to edit.
The police wanted warrantless access to that, and it's obvious why.
For a month, we've been a thorn in the side of what's become Canada's most notorious police force for corruption.
Earlier today, we typed into Google those three words, Montreal police corruption.
And just look at the endless, endless news stories about corruption going all the way to the top.
Canada's most corrupt, most abusive, most violent police force had finally found some media criticism, and they were going to get their revenge.
Quickly, 30, 40 police came out front in bicycles, in cars, in trucks, and they kept demanding warrantless search and entry into our hotel room.
And I kept saying no, get a warrant.
And so since they couldn't find a judge who would give them a warrant, they decided to punish us.
They turned the entire area into what they called a crime scene.
They pushed us around, wouldn't let us get back on the boat.
Here's them manhandling me.
Now they didn't rough me up too much.
Here's some manhandling Kian Bexty.
This is heartbreaking to me because we tend to black back the road afterwards.
But the absolute worst was what they did to David Menzies.
By the way, we were all standing outside the ribboned off, you know, that yellow police tape, that orange police tape.
We were all standing outside of this by now, but they weren't getting what they wanted.
They couldn't find a judge to give them a search warrant.
We did nothing wrong.
And then we wouldn't let them in.
We did nothing wrong.
So they decided to, I don't know, I know it sounds crazy to say it, but I think they decided to get a hostage.
They took David Menzies, arrested him, put him in the police car, and later took him to what he told me was the dirtiest jail cell you could imagine.
We'll have a full interview with David in a moment.
But they took David away and then they pushed the rest of us even further away.
Take a look at this.
And look at the violence.
Look at the casual nature they have as they are violent towards women in particular.
This is the police brutality that you come here to observe.
And here they come.
Look at it.
I don't know what you're saying.
Why do you need...
Hey, hands up her!
Hands off her, man.
That's my rear door, man.
You feel big?
Crooked cops.
Corrupt.
You're pushing me with the bison.
Are you kidding me?
Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
Shake.
Shame.
You got very tough.
Good job.
You can push a girl.
You're so strong man, you're so strong.
Look at the strong man over here.
Don't touch my phone!
Excuse me.
No, I want to see your name.
Thank you.
There's their names.
Incredible Testimony00:10:24
What I'm about to tell you is incredible.
In fact, it's so incredible, I thought perhaps I misremembered it.
So I just checked with our lawyer today.
Did I remember this correctly?
And she said yes.
We had three lawyers working with us that day.
As I said, they arrested David and they took him away.
We had a senior criminal lawyer said, oh, they'll just give him a summons for a court date and let him go immediately.
But it turned into one hour, two, three, four, five hours.
And then the police said to our lawyer who was on the scene, if you let us search the Airbnb without a search warrant, we'll let David go.
And if you won't, we won't.
They were literally using him as a bargaining chip.
If David did something wrong, which of course he didn't, that's its own thing.
But to use that to extort entrance into our Airbnb because no judge would give them a search warrant, that is truly outrageous.
But that's how you roll in Canada's most corrupt police force.
So it was 7.30 at night, and we had been in this standoff with the police for around 10 hours when suddenly we heard word that they had released David from the police station and suddenly the police were packing up their police tape and just leaving.
We were free to go back on the boat.
No one was given any tickets.
It was just done.
Here's a little video I recorded from the roof of the boat.
I was still sort of stunned by it.
Take a look.
It's 7.42 p.m., another beautiful night in Montreal.
Look how gorgeous it is.
But I've spent the last 10 or 11 hours kicked off this Airbnb houseboat that we paid for because a group of Montreal police demanded access to the boat for no probable cause with no search warrant.
That's the gate right there.
I told them to get lost without a search warrant.
So they turned the whole place into a crime scene, literally putting up criminal do not pass police tape.
They arrested my friend David Menzies and held him in a police station for hours.
And they roughed up, well, they even pushed me around a little bit and Keyam Bexty too.
Trouble is, they couldn't find a judge to sign their Kakamimi search warrant because we did nothing wrong.
We rented an Airbnb that had a capacity of 21 and there were only 17 of us here and we were just having breakfast.
It's really a hotel, that's all.
So I'm very happy to say I'm back on the boat.
I don't know if you can tell that I'm literally on the boat.
There's three cops down there, but you know, they're just enjoying the overtime they're making.
And, you know, we're going to retake the boat.
We're on the high seas.
I mean, my nickname at Rebel News is the Rebel Commander, so I guess I'm the commander of a boat again.
Anyways, the police disgraced themselves.
I'm glad that we didn't knuckle under to their bullying.
And I'm sorry that David Menzies was put into custody so illegally.
I still love Montreal.
In fact, I love it even more because now I know how badly it's being victimized by police.
It does not deserve this awful police force that it has.
And they're frankly shameful.
And if they think they're going to stop us from reporting on their brutal policing of the lockdown, they're dead wrong.
And they're going to have to do a bit better than they did today.
We still have a lot of legal bills.
We're told that massive fines will be coming to us in the mail.
We're going to have to fight them.
And I think we have to go on the offensive too.
Please help us with that.
I can't fight this fight alone.
We're massively overspent.
You saw that outspent like 100 to 1.
You saw what they had going on today.
So if you can, please go to lockdownreports.com.
Thanks very much, everybody.
We had a win today.
Let's savor it.
I read in today's La Press that they're going to be mailing us various penalties, fines, and tickets.
Obviously, we'll fight all those.
And I understand that David Menzies has a court date in Montreal.
Obviously, we'll fight that like hell too.
He wasn't arrested for doing anything wrong.
He was arrested as a bargaining chip.
They couldn't convince a judge to let them search our reporters' stuff.
So they thought they could take one of our people and bargain his freedom to get in.
Well, when David arrived, I saw him coming down that ramp we had been pushed up, and I walked up to him.
And here's my interview with him.
It's about six minutes long.
Here's what David said happened to him after they snatched him.
Well, I'm sorry you didn't know what you went through.
You're a hero for journalism, a hero for free speech, a hero for the rule of law, you're a hero for Rebel News and a hero to me.
A hero for the concussion and judgment.
You know, I'm so sorry you went through what you did.
It was surreal.
But everybody saw the world saw it.
I hate the fact that you too often have been the target of police violence and I pledged to you as the Boston Revolution as your friend that we will seek justice for you through taking legal proceedings against the police.
Ezra, you don't have to make that pledge.
You always have our backs there.
So thank you.
How are you doing?
Tell us a little bit about what happened after they put you in the back of the vehicle.
Well, I was brought to a jail and they took all my belongings, I guess, as a regular procedure.
And then I was brought to a cell and the cell was filthy.
I wish I had my cell phone, but they don't allow it there.
There were, I don't understand this.
There was all kinds of bits and pieces of half-eaten food, like muffins and sandwiches, and they were just strewing everywhere.
I had to clear a bench for myself.
The toilet was unflushed.
It stanked.
But the worst part of it is, Ezra, the boredom, especially someone like you, imagine you being separated from your devices, your books.
You have nothing to do but to look at a jail cell.
And all I could think of, I thought of a couple of things.
The two Michaels that have been there for all coming up for a thousand days.
I experienced a few hours that felt like an eternity.
I don't know if these individuals will ever be the same.
And I thought of Chris Guy on the no-fly list.
And I thought about me in a jail for practicing journalism.
And then I thought about Omar Carter getting a $10.5 million check for practicing terrorism.
Like, Ezra, the world's insane.
It is insane.
And I hate the fact that your personal experiences have to prove it.
But I look at today and some might see a failure.
Our time was wasted.
We've incurred many thousands of dollars in legal fees.
It stressed everyone out.
And worst of all, you spent hours in jail.
That's a failure to most people.
But I believe it's a success in one way.
It proved our thesis that the Montreal police is corrupt, that they're brutal, and that other journalists in this city and indeed this country don't care about freedom of the press.
So your sacrifices and think, oh, you look like, although it was rough, you look like you're not deeply injured.
Inside, I'm crying.
Listen, you've got such a good sense of humor about everything, but my point is what you personally experienced proves our thesis more than anything about the rotten state of affairs.
So let's get you back on the boat.
We retook the boat.
Let's get your feet up and happy about it.
And you know what?
We did have a win in the end.
And I'm glad you're okay, my friend.
Well, thank you.
I have to come back to this city that is normally beautiful.
In May, I have to get mugshots and fingerprints and the whole rigmarole.
But you know, Ezra, you know, we've seen bad behavior by policing the world over.
Abby Yamini getting tackled in Australia.
The UK, that's another level.
You know, Toronto acting up pretty badly since January.
This is another level.
This is, you know, I'm saying this with a degree of naivety.
The only experience I've ever had with the Montreal Police Service is via Justin Lash Gags, one of my favorite shows.
And I thought, what an incredible police service giving their cruisers, their uniforms, to the comedians to do these elaborate pranks.
I could never see Toronto doing that.
And so I always thought they had this kind of like jocularity about them.
Yeah, that's a PR exercise.
This is the real Montreal police, Ezra.
But I'm glad all's well that ends well.
I'm glad you got the bulk bags in my presence.
I can't hardly wait to hear that story.
Sure.
Well, I mean, we were busy doing what we could while you were in the joint, and we had a lawyer going full tilt.
From what I hear, you obviously have been charged and you'll have to come back in a few months.
We will obviously cover your legal defense.
We have three excellent lawyers in Montreal who we were working with today.
We will have a top legal defense for you, but we don't just play defense.
You mentioned our friend Abiyamini.
We're suing the brutal Victoria Police for him.
We're suing two other police forces in Canada right now, York Regional Police and the Toronto Police Service.
We will serve this most corrupt police force, the Montreal Police, with a lawsuit for their various offenses against us, assault, false imprisonment, false confinement, whatever our lawyers advise.
So, David, we've got your back.
Don't worry about the legal costs.
I know we can rely on our crowdfunding viewers at lockdownreports.com.
We will get justice for you, my friend.
Ezra, you're the best boss ever.
Well, you're nice to say it.
You have been through too much.
And today, the tide was turned.
The day started awfully when they tried to invade our Airbnb with no warrant.
But the day ended well with your freedom and our retaking of the boat.
And tomorrow, we go on the hunt.
Okay.
Well, in the meantime, we better get on the boat.
We've got an hour and 10 minutes before curfew.
All right, my friend.
We're so glad you're okay.
Thanks for suffering for all of you.
Supporting David00:03:50
All right.
Just incredible.
Obviously, we're going to support David every step of the way.
I feel terrible that he happens to be the one who gets the brunt of it so many times.
Other police forces, even that one time he was attacked by a dog.
I'm tremendously grateful to David for showing his courage and his good humor.
Wasn't that something?
After sitting in a filthy jail cell, he still had his sense of humor about him and he was still just happy to be on the team of rebels.
In fact, the next night he went back out there with our chief videographer Mocha and David and they went out there for a protest against the curfew and they noticed something.
It was a wonderful positive protest to people who didn't like masks, didn't like curfews.
But amongst them were some black block style antifa thugs that had a double purpose.
First, they like smashing things up anyways.
But if they could smash things up and light fires at an anti-lockdown protest, they could have the blame for their riot on the head of the peaceful protesters.
It was a double win.
Burn stores down, trash capitalism, which they love to do, but to defame and discredit peaceful anti-lockdown protesters.
Take a look at what Mocha and David filmed on Sunday night.
What an
incredible weekend.
What a stressful weekend.
Are you as proud of our reporters as I am?
Whether it's Sheila Gunread out there in Parkland County, the Grey Slave Church, every weekend telling the truth in a way that's so compelling that no other media does.
Are you proud of her?
Are you proud of David and all our young reporters?
Mocha, who's fearless, and all our youngsters who, even when I was being detained by police, and they had the strength to say to that cop, you will not get on here without a search warrant.
Aren't you proud of those youngsters?
Some of them were as young as 21.
In fact, one new reporter joined us.
He just turned 18.
Aren't you proud of their gumshin?
Proud Of Our Young Reporters00:02:18
The next generation of rebels, I feel great about it.
And you know, in the end, we had that victory.
And I felt like we bonded as a team.
And I feel like we know our work is important and we have to keep doing it.
If the Quebec police are cracking down on us so brutally, that tells us that we're doing something right.
Now, it's obviously hard to do.
We have to pay for the legal defense for David when he's called back to Montreal.
We haven't received in the mail what La Presse says is coming.
I don't know, tens of thousands of dollars worth of fines.
Obviously, we're going to fight them.
We're not going to pay them.
But most of all, we cannot stop doing what we're doing.
We have to continue to.
We can't let Canada's most corrupt police force win.
We can't let them intimidate us, physically hurt us, storm us out of the news business.
It looks like they've managed to turn Montreal's local media into lapdogs instead of watchdogs.
Well, we will be the watchdogs.
We will continue to shine a light of scrutiny on them.
I think that city needs it and the whole country needs it.
We're going to put all the videos up from our trip to Montreal at lockdownreports.com.
17 of us were out there and we were kept off of the boat for a long time.
The houseboat that we were renting is an Airbnb.
So we didn't have a time to process all the videos we made.
We're still catching them, but probably will be for a few days.
That said, you can find it all at lockdownreports.com.
I don't know what the legal bill here is going to be.
I don't know how hard they're going to try and throw the book at David for.
I don't know what else they're going to send in the mail.
I don't think they have a case.
I think it's so clearly them just expressing their revenge on us for reporting on them.
I think we have to go on the offensive.
We have a pattern of their abuse against us, including those weird Jewish comments that goes back a month.
I think we have to take them on.
It's dangerous to take on Canada's most corrupt police force, but if we don't do it, who will?
My friends, that's the show for today.
I'd love your thoughts on what happened this weekend, both at the Grace Life Church near Edmonton and in Montreal at a little Airbnb houseboat.
Let me know at ezra at rebelnews.com.
Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, good night.