David Menzies, a former Sun News Network journalist turned Rebel News contributor since 2017, recounts how the CRTC’s politically motivated license denial crushed Sun News despite its Canadian ownership and content. He highlights Rebel News’ global reach and fearless coverage—like his LCBO fraud case, ignored by courts—or FOI-driven exposes on transgender prison policies sparking outrage over "woke cowardice." Mainstream media’s ideological censorship, he argues, stifles truth, while Rebel’s audience-driven model thrives on authenticity. [Automatically generated summary]
Today we're sitting down with a man who actually might give you too in-depth of an answer when you ask him a question.
Yes, it's my friend David Menzies, and we're learning all about him today on The Gun Show.
You know who the most requested guest on The Gun Show is?
It's someone who's never been on the show before in any capacity.
And the reason he's never been on the show before is because we talk to each other two days a week for well over an hour on both of those shows as we co-host the Rebel News daily live stream.
It's my friend David Menzies, and I know a lot about him, but maybe you don't.
You know, we know that he's fun and we know that he's fearless and we know that sometimes he's shameless and we know he's got a less than politically correct sense of humor, but that's what we love about him.
But do you know how he came to be a rebel?
Do you know what he would be doing if he weren't a rebel?
I didn't.
And so I thought, why not sit down and ask my friend, David Menzies, all those questions where we get to learn a little bit more about him together.
by popular demand please enjoy this interview i recorded with my friend and my colleague david mendes earlier in the week david you are one of the most requested guests to the gun show And I think in my six years of doing the show, once a week, I get an email saying, Sheila, you got to interview David.
And I'm like, I talk to him three days a week or two days a week on the live stream.
CRTC License Denial00:04:45
How much more Sheila and David do people want?
But apparently they want some.
And hopefully this will help them get it out of their system.
David, I have a question for you.
How did you end up at Rebel News?
Like, I know what happened at Sun News, although I have a question about that too.
But how did you come to be?
I think you're a day oneer, right?
Originally, Sheila, on a freelance basis, yeah, pretty much a day oneer and then became full-time.
I think it was 2017.
So we were into the second year of the company.
But you are right.
I was with the Sun News Network, and that's where Ezra was.
And I had a bit of a relationship with Ezra going back to his Western Standard days.
I freelanced for the magazine.
And I'll tell you, Sheila, what happened to Sun News was really a tragedy.
We were applying for a license, and I thought our case was fantastic that would have allowed us to continue broadcasting.
And it was a license so many of our, so many other channels did have.
But what they didn't have, which we had, was Canadian content.
You couldn't get more Canadian, Sheila, than the Sun News Network.
And this is important to the CRTC.
It's the reason for the very existence of the CRTC to promote and even mandate Canadian content.
And we were owned by Quebecor, major conglomerate based in Quebec.
Sun News Network was based in Toronto.
We had bureaus and staff all across the country.
We were Canadians telling Canadian stories to a Canadian audience.
What I'm saying, Shelly, I don't think we could get more Canadian unless I got a tattoo of a Maple Leaf flag stamped on my butt.
And believe me, nobody wants to see that.
So the thing is, the other channels that had the license we were going for, Sheila, I would say about half their content was old American sitcoms that they were just rerunning on an endless loop.
They had it.
We didn't.
The CRTC denied our license.
Now you say, oh, why is that?
Well, they don't have to give a reason.
But I'll tell you what I think the unspoken reason was.
It was just the fix was in.
We were this right of center news network.
Even before Sun News Network went on the air, there was a petition by the liberal elite, Sheila.
If you can imagine, they were calling Sun News Fox News North, as if that was- Don't threaten me with a good time.
But I mean, as if that was some kind of a slur, like this is pornography getting on the airwaves.
And simply put, the people, you know, the liberal leaning leftists on the CRTC, they love Canadian content, but it's got to skew a certain way, and that is left of center.
And that's what did us in.
I will say this, Sheila.
You know, you talk about what's the saying, when you're given a bunch of lemons, make lemonade, you know, there's always a silver lining in a dark cloud.
I am having more fun, more fulfillment today with Rebel News.
What Ezra did on, you know, basically his kitchen table the day after Sun News Network went off the air in February of 2015, created from scratch, from nothing, this incredible news network.
And I think we are telling, dare I say it, even more profound stories than Sun News Network was.
Our reach is more global than Sun News.
And while I love Sun News, I think we've gone on to better and bigger things here at Rebel.
And, you know, when I look at our talent and I'm looking right at you, Sheila Gunread, you're a big reason for it.
We have so many smart, energetic, and even young people here.
I think what we're producing, you know, for a fraction of the price that Sun News was doing as a legacy TV network, I think it's quite remarkable.
And I'm just so happy to be on this ride with you and all my other colleagues here.
Yeah, I'm proud of the work that we do because not only do we tell the stories, so often we are able to help fix the stories or at least make them better.
Radisson Strangler Controversy00:09:25
It's one thing to tell somebody's story of being stomped on by the government.
And it's one thing to tell the stories of the little guy, the working man, the forgotten people.
But to give those people a hand up when they think the world has forgotten about them, and in some cases, the world truly has, that's the part of the work that I'm the most proud of.
Now, I want to keep talking before you interrupt me.
I want to keep talking.
I want to keep talking about Sun News because you did the morning show there.
I might have been one of the only viewers to the morning show.
I want to know what happened.
You might have been.
I want to know what happened to the Man Cave set because that set was deadly.
Where did it go?
You know what?
I took home a lot of the problems.
Well, a lot of the problems were mine to begin with.
You know, the 1972 Teen Canada jersey, the goalie stick.
I think there was a little stash of Playboy magazines.
That would probably be too politically incorrect to have in the man cave today.
But I would love to revive the Menzoid man cave.
I thought it had such a, I don't know, it kind of resembled a rec room circa 1973, I think.
You know, and, you know, maybe when we expand our studios here, there is room for that because I do have a lot of those original props.
I wonder if I could sell them on eBay.
What do you think about that, Sheila?
Do you think they're collectible in any sense?
You know, there's a real rise in mid-century modern decorating, and there was a lot of orange, burnt orange, brown, velour shag.
There's a lot of that.
And there was a lot of that in the Mancave set.
I really liked the set.
That was probably one of the reasons I got up that early to watch.
Wow.
I didn't know that until you just said that.
But, you know, I'll tell you, Sheila, if there's a lot of interest in mid-century burnt orange, maybe I should put myself on eBay.
I was going to say.
I was going to say that's your whole aesthetic.
Mid-century modern burnt orange.
Now, another, just remaining on the Sun News days, I remember the Spice Man case.
Professor Polaputty, you see, has been nicknamed the Spice Man because it was his use of Spice that thwarted the bandit in the first place.
You were on my radar before that.
Like, I liked David Menzies because he was on with Charles Adler and you wrote kind of fun, witty columns.
Don't let that go to your head.
But then you took the mannequin to the police station.
So, thief, get away from me.
Stop victimizing me.
The police aren't on their way because they don't believe in upholding the law against honest citizens.
Ha, Do you remember that?
What happened to the mannequin?
That lady just stole it from you.
It's actually not mine, but I borrowed it.
Thank you very much.
All right, sir.
I'm going to take off the band of property.
Oh, my God.
Yeah, it ended up in police storage.
And I don't know if we're going to throw to a clip of that.
But I can tell you, Sheila, that was absolutely incredible because that was my first filmed assignment out on the streets.
And I would argue it was the best one.
I guess that what comes to mind right now, he peaked too soon.
But the thing is, there was a restaurateur.
We're going back 10 years ago here, Sheila, who was, I thought, and I think most of the city thought was being unfairly persecuted.
Somebody had broken into his restaurant.
It wasn't the first time.
And he might have even had a knife on him.
And the restaurateur, I think his name was Mr. Polopotty.
He had all he had at his disposal was a tray of spices, which he threw at the thief.
Now, if you can imagine, the thief, the break and enter person, he got away, but the police, for whatever reason, decided to charge the restaurateur.
I mean, where the hell is Castle Domain?
I mean, once you're invaded, either in your home or your business, I think you have the right up to lethal force to fight back because there's nowhere else to run, right, Sheila?
So what we did, there was this silver mannequin that was at the Toronto Sun newspaper for whatever reason.
It was for some promotion.
And I said, can I borrow that?
Because we were going to do a demonstration that if you are being harassed, here are the proper spices to use.
So not to take over your show, but why don't we throw to that clip?
Yeah.
And you'll see exactly what happened.
What I am asking you to do is, This is to take I got some other ones.
Hold on, sorry.
You know what?
You're not even trying there.
You're not even trying to.
You're not even listening.
Sheila, you couldn't have timed it any better.
That was turning into a real nothing burger story.
In fact, had that officer not arrived, if she had arrived a minute later, we would have been gone.
The reason why we were delayed in our departure is when I tossed the cayen pepper, it was a windy day.
And both my cameraman and I got the cayen pepper in our eyes.
And so I was standing there like this for like three minutes.
And so was the cameraman.
My eyes were watering.
And when my eyes opened, there were these two police officers.
That's how so many of your stories end, though.
Then there were two police officers.
Oh, it was unbelievable.
I also have to tell you an unpublished epilogue to that, Sheila.
I received several emails from Toronto Police Service officers, especially female police officers.
And they were basically saying, oh, karma is a bitch.
This woman was so hated by her subordinates that they were over the moon.
This has been shared everywhere.
As a matter of fact, when Ephraim and I went to a police division to report the Radisson Hotel assault, that was that nut bar, David Strong, who got handsy with us and our camera.
The Radisson Strangler.
The Radisson Strangler.
That's a wonderful gunnism.
Excuse me.
Take the pic.
Take your.
Hey, get your Rebel Job News out of here right now.
Why is it Rebel Crowd News, sir?
Get out.
Robert, I'll call the police.
Good.
And then you'll be charged with assault for what you just did.
After the formal interview was over, the officer said, Did you used to work at Sun News Now?
I said, yeah.
He said, oh, that thing with the spices.
He says, you have no idea how that has lived on, right?
So, so even the police were on my side with that one.
And I think that sergeant has since retired.
Maybe that was a factor in her early retirement.
I don't know.
But yeah, that was spectacular.
And you know, it's like what Esra says, Sheila.
And that's why we like to go out into the field, so to speak.
When you go out there, you have no idea what's going to happen.
You have no idea who you're going to meet.
And I say that on a positive and negative thing.
I mean, look at you.
What happened to you with that little weasel, Dion Buse, at a woman's rally, decided to get physical with you?
I will bring it to you.
Whoa!
Come now.
This is one of the strengths of Rebel News.
Instead of being in front of a green screen and yammering away all the time, because anyone can do that, to actually go out into the field, meet people, talk to protesters, whether they like us or don't.
I think that's our strength.
And I think it's something the mainstream media doesn't do.
Or if they do it, it's always a certain narrative, isn't it, Sheila?
And I mean, if I wasn't employed by Rebel News, I'll tell you this much.
I'd be the number one fan of Rebel News because no one is delivering our perspective out there.
It's one big chorus of trained SEALs funded by the government and the mainstream media now.
And I don't think this nation, this world has ever needed a Rebel news more so than today.
I agree.
Now, I want to ask you, I have a couple of questions about your work at Rebel News.
What is the story that you're most proud of?
Oh, you know what?
That's a fantastic question.
You know, I think, let's put it this way.
I would turn it around and say, which story seems to have resonated so much with our audience.
And Sheila, if you can believe it, and it's right now the one-year anniversary of this story, this one.
Did You Get Your Bottle?00:08:18
Yes.
With all the insanity in the world, with all the lockdowns, with all the assaults on our freedoms and charter rights, with the war in Ukraine, the most oft answered, asked question I get from people, Sheila, on the streets, it happened to me at Hillcrest Mall on Sunday is, hey, did you ever get your bottle?
And the answer is no.
It happens to me.
I'll be out at a protest in Edmonton or God knows where.
And they're like, hey, Revolutes.
I'm like, yeah.
Did David ever get his liquor?
Like, what?
I'm fine.
Thank you for asking.
But yeah, no, he didn't.
And it's incredible, Sheila, because for those who don't know the story, I went to, this was never a caper.
This was never a story.
This was me on my own free time buying three bottles of Glenn Farkas 105 Scotch.
When I went into the Leaside LCBO liquor store in Toronto, it got off on a bad foot because, well, you know what, Sheila, my mask was evidently below my nose.
And twice I had a COVID care and employee yell at me.
And I think this, I'm just guessing right here.
Maybe it was an honest mistake.
Maybe it was malicious.
But when I bought the three bottles, when I got home, they were all, they were packed in canisters and one was empty.
So I bought three, but I only received two because people say, well, how could you pick up a canister and not notice there was no weight in it?
That was the thing.
They were locked behind a cabinet.
So the first time I actually picked up the, you know, the canister was when the empty canister, that is, was when I got home because it was a bag of three and I didn't notice the, you know, the weight was one-third less than it should be.
And LCBO head office ordered the store.
I mean, to their credit for a change, they ordered their store, and this was just in a matter of like 24 hours, give them his bottle.
And so Mocha and I went down there to get the bottle, do a little victory lap video.
And the manager decided, no, you're not going to get it.
But she, it's not her liquor store, Sheila.
She, this is a government-owned monopoly.
And basically, and this is where it becomes inexplicable to me, Sheila.
She wouldn't give the bottle to us.
Not only that, she called the police, which was happy about.
Yeah.
I said, officer, you got a case of fraud here, not trespass.
Ask you to leave your story to phone the police.
Okay, phone the police because then I can file a complaint of fraud against you, actually.
In the aftermath, and it's been a year now, I understand our lawyer sent a demand letter to the LCBO, basically to fulfill what they agreed to, to give me my bottle.
It was ignored.
So I think it's heading to small claims court.
Good.
But Sheila, I don't understand it.
It's inexplicable in that LCBO corporate agreed I had been ripped off.
They told that store to give me my bottle.
The manager would not give me the bottle.
And now when we reach out to the boss at the LCBO, hey, you know, live up to your agreement.
It's like, oh, just go away.
We're ignoring you.
None of this makes sense, Sheila.
But I think it resonated with our audience, especially those in Ontario and other provinces, unlike Alberta, where you have a privatized system, where you have government monopoly liquor stores.
They're telling you what you can buy and what you cannot buy.
And if you don't like it, it's our way or the highway.
Literally, you know, in the case of people in Toronto, drive the Buffalo.
And of course, if you don't have your vaccine, you can't even do that.
You can't get over the Peace Bridge anymore.
And so it's this authoritarian oligarchy that is in the booze business.
But why is the government in the booze business in the first place?
Their role is to tax and to regulate.
That's it.
Not to warehouse and retail alcohol.
That's the way it used to be in Alberta until I believe the early 90s when your system was privatized.
And that's the way it should be everywhere.
And by the way, for this, the biggest fallacy of all, Sheila, is, oh, well, the government can't get rid of those liquor stores.
It's a cash cow.
No, no, no, no.
The LCBO reports its revenues, including the taxation.
So in other words, if the system here was privatized, the amount of money that the government would bring in on tax revenue, Sheila, would be just the same, whether it's a private or a government-run system.
So that's a falsehood, too.
So for all the viewers out there that are still wondering if I'm going to get my bottle, we're not going to bend the knee.
Maybe they want us to go away.
We're not going away.
You've inspired me, Sheila, to give our lawyer a call later today and find out what's going on on that file.
Yeah, I think for Albertans, it resonated with us too, because if not for Ralph Klein, that could be us.
But also for us who have a liquor store in every corner, and if they rip us off, we don't shop there anymore.
We get to choose to go somewhere else, but they don't rip you off because of, you know, they're required to give you at least decent customer service because there's some accountability and checks and balances built into capitalism that there are not built into a government system.
You have government employees just getting away with ripping off the taxpayer, and there's no accountability.
And it's everything that is absolutely wrong with government.
They're stealing an entrepreneurial opportunity from the working man, largely immigrants actually out here in Alberta who open up liquor stores.
The government has just stolen that opportunity from them.
You've got to pay people who rip you off government wages and benefits to work in retail, which is crazy.
That's factored into the price of your liquor.
And then when they do rip you off, you get stuck in the feedback loop of government bureaucracy where it's like, we'll help you, but this guy doesn't care and we'll send you back down the chain and then back around and back around.
And in the meantime, a year later, David Menzies has to engage a lawyer to get a bottle of whiskey that he paid for in the first place.
And this is it, Sheila.
When you have a government sanctioned monopoly, you don't have to provide customer service.
A quick anecdote.
In Richmond Hill earlier this month, I saw a guy, he got to the L CBO at Young and Crosby.
It was just like 10 seconds after 9 p.m.
And they had already locked the doors.
I was on my way out.
And he was basically begging the employee there, you know, I ran for eight blocks.
You know, I just need one bottle.
And she was going, I have, I have to check with my manager.
I'm not supposed to let anyone in.
I don't know if he actually did get in.
The point I'm making here, Sheila, is that if this was Sheila Gunn Reed's liquor store, we're open till two.
Pardon me?
We're open till 2 a.m.
Exactly.
But even if this guy came at one minute after 2 a.m. and he very kindly said, Oh, please, I just need a bottle of such and such and I'll be on my way.
Are you going to say, Oh, no, sorry, sir, 2 a.m., it's very strict.
Or, you know what?
I'm going to cater to your needs.
Absolutely.
Come on in.
I think you would let him come in because you're in a competitive situation, Alberta, and he'll remember you being mean to him and he'll never go to your store again.
He'll go to somebody else.
So it was just, you know, a little vignette I saw of the authoritarianism in retail when retail should always be about customer service excellence.
I still, it just shocks me that the government is involved in liquor sales there.
And the liquor stores are closing at nine.
Where are you living?
This Toronto, those small town liquor stores out here are open till 2 a.m.
I know we spent a lot of time on this and I know they need the studio for the live stream shortly.
So I got to move along.
Generation Trudeau00:06:51
What story was the most fun for you?
And I guess where did the costumes come from?
You know what?
I'll tell you, Sheila, as the saying goes, not so funny when it happened.
But looking back, and we were playing this just earlier this month because of what I call the trans sanity that's happening.
You might recall I went down to the Air Canada Center, now the Scotiabank Arena, where the Toronto Raptors play to try out as a Toronto Raptors cheerleader.
And I mean, the costume was ridiculous, but the mandates were you had to show your midriff rights.
And we were just coming off a long winter.
You know what I'm saying?
And my persona is Lady Menzoid.
I'm going to see if I can crack the team.
And it was a goof.
It was a spoof.
I walk into this building.
There were Sheila, I would say, 300 of the most beautiful, most athletic women I have ever seen in my life.
And along comes Herman Munster in a mini skirt, trying to get a cheerleader job.
And like the stink guy I was getting, although one woman did come up to me and inexplicably said, you know what?
I so support what you're doing.
And I thought, like what?
Kicking a woman out of the cheerleading squad, you know?
And basically, the way it ended was me saying in the most outrageous thing I could think of, Sheila, that the Raptors blew it by not hiring me as the first male pro sports trans cheerleader because it could have been like Jackie Robinson in 1946, the first black baseball player that was allowed to play in Major League Baseball.
He was the one who broke the color barrier.
I could have been the first trans cheerleader in all of pro sports.
I mean, just think about it.
It'll be like when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier.
Now, I can tell you that was five years ago, 2017, Sheila.
And, you know, and our haters were going, oh, here's Rebel News and Menzies at their transphobic basketball, blah, blah, blah.
But just earlier this month, a university professor at Purdue, Professor Cookie, I'm not making that up.
She wrote a piece where she was comparing Leah Thomas, the male cheater who is cleaning up in the pool in the NCAA.
This gender and woman studies professor was comparing Leah Thomas to, drum roll please, Jackie Robinson.
So what I'm saying, Sheila, is that what was a goof, what was a parody, what was a stunt in 2017, and which incurred the wrath of the leftist progressives, in 2022, it's become real.
The idea of biological men competing against females is being likened to Jackie Robinson, the first black man to play in major league baseball.
It is outrageous.
It's despicable, but look what's happened in just five years, Sheila.
And we're supposed to pretend it's stunning and brave and not absolutely unscientific mumbo jumbo.
You know what I would like to see you revive?
And I say this as the editor-in-chief, Generation Trudeau.
Now that the pubs are open again, the weather's warming up, let's go out and see what's up with Generation Trudeau, the young Trudeau voters.
That was fun.
You know what, Sheila?
You must be psychic because we were just talking about that the other day.
Now, remember, there were two Generation Trudeau ones.
One was Generation Trudeau on campus, where we go and we make up a completely outrageous premise.
I mean, I think the first one was one of the best where we went to Ryerson and we went to predominantly female students because it was 2016.
It was the 100th anniversary of the women's suffrage movement.
And I had my little clipboard and I said, well, you sign a petition to denounce women's suffrage.
And like ants to a jam jar.
And I mean, this was during the 100th anniversary.
Surely, if you don't know what the word suffrage meant, it was in the news cycle that year.
And we got dozens of signatures from mostly women saying, yeah, you know, those who conduct suffrage on women, they should be called out.
What about those people, as I was asking your friend earlier, that actually support women's suffrage?
I guess we need to educate them.
So there was Generation Trudeau on campus where we make up something and the brainiacs on our university and college campuses, they always fall for it.
And then there's Generation Trudeau after dark, in which we just ask a straight question, no trickery, because the interview subjects are all wasted and inebriated and fully drunk.
And if I were to think any sort of like woman power or anything like that, like I think that we would actually run the city in country.
Every second time we do that, there's always like some female Ryerson journalism student that comes up and gives us a lecture on the ethics of interviewing drunk people.
And I would think that you're a sexist piece of shit.
And it wouldn't be the first time that's been knowledge.
And I always say this, I say, listen, sometimes alcohol works as truth serum.
You're really getting, you know, but the thing is, it's unintentionally hilarious.
You're right.
Finally, after two years, the pubs are back open.
So we're going to go down again at closing time, which is after 2 a.m.
And all you have to do is put a microphone in somebody's face.
And the hilarity that ensues is astonishing.
So yeah, thank you for reminding me about that, Sheila.
Yeah.
And, you know, with regard to women's suffrage, I might seriously sign that petition, depending on the day and how many of my fellow females voted for Justin Trudeau because of his hair.
Some days I'm like, should they have given us the vote?
I'm not, I'm not sure.
I'm willing to hear arguments.
What would be the one thing that our viewers would be surprised to know about you, David Menzies?
Oh, my goodness.
Let me think about what would they be surprised to know about me?
I would say maybe it's this.
Sheila's Secret Sport00:12:41
Even at my advanced age, I love cycling.
It was a beautiful day in Toronto yesterday.
Got the road bike out for the first time in once.
And, you know, I live in Richmond Hill.
You just go a couple of clicks north of Elgin Mills.
You're in the country.
You have endless kilometers of pavement where you don't come across a stop sign or a traffic light.
It is a cycler's paradise.
And basically, well, Sheila, let's put it this way: as you know, I am fat, but without my cycling regimen, I am circus fat.
I don't want to appear as a subject on my 600-pound life.
So, without that, and I can tell you this: sometimes I have to drag myself on the bicycle, but I will say this: that I think as a species, we were never meant to be 100% sedentary.
And what I notice is that when I'm on my bike and you know, you're burning the calories, you're getting into a sweat, you got the endorphin rush.
Um, I think it helps the brain as well.
Because, Sheila, I can't tell you how many times that mid-ride I have an epiphany.
I come across a fantastic idea for Rebel News.
Oh, of course, this would be a gem.
And I'll say this to everybody out there.
You know, we've had a tough two years with the gyms cruelly and unnecessarily shut down.
Um, but you know, get active.
I mean, it almost sounds like I'm auditioning for one of the roles in the participation ads.
Remember those when the 60-year-old Swede was more physically fit than the 30-year-old Canadian?
But yeah, that's maybe something people don't know about me in terms of my personal life.
I'm, you know, I buy a lot of lottery tickets too, Sheila.
I got to tell you, I my dream is to buy the performance Batmobile made by fiberglass freaks in Indiana.
I think there's only five left officially licensed by DC Comics.
Yeah, so while other people use their lottery winnings, I don't know, to buy real estate and see compound returns every year, I want to buy a Batmobile.
I just want to cruise Yonge Street as the Caped Crusader.
Oh my goodness, that's the best.
Poor Lady Menzies in her Robin outfit.
Oh, can you imagine?
I mean, really, the Robin costume was surely designed for a female, right?
I mean, like red tunic, green short shorts, yellow cape.
Oh, say it loud, boy wonder, say it loud.
Um, by the way, David, I think people could put together the fact that you are a cyclist because we've all seen your legs when you tried out for the cheerleaders, and your legs looked great.
That was the first thing I thought about when I saw that video.
Was well, David's got no shame, but also nothing to be ashamed of with those legs.
Oh, my favorite.
Yeah, I've never been objectified before, Sheila.
You'll get over it.
Um, one last question because I know they need the studio for the live stream.
What would you be doing if you were not working for Rebel News?
Um, probably cutting somebody's lawn or something, uh, driving for Uber, maybe.
You know, Sheila, here's the thing.
And it's sad, but if anything happened to Rebel News, or if, you know, for whatever reason, it was decided that I'm no longer needed here.
Even with my decades of journalism experience, even with my track record, my name is mud in terms of the media.
I think that would be true of every rebel.
The first thing they would look at, because right now we're in a realm of cancel culture.
Sorry, with a couple of exceptions.
If you, if for whatever reason, rebel news fell apart or we all got fired for some reason, the only way our careers would be salvageable is if we turned around and tried to burn down what was left on our way out the door.
And I think we all know who I'm talking about.
Anyway, keep going.
No, but I mean, you know, the truth of the matter, Sheila, is that the mainstream media now marches in lockstep with one another.
They're all government funded.
They are all trained SEALs.
You know, the commentary we do, the stories we do here, you would never see in the mainstream media.
It would be third rail stuff.
It would be too politically incorrect.
And again, it goes back to what I said, you know, without Rebel News, you wouldn't get our content basically from anyone.
But the point is, my journalism career would be over because nobody would hire me.
I used to be a guest, like in the here and now, I used to be a guest on a lot of radio stations and some TV stations.
I'm persona non grata.
What have I done?
Have I committed a crime?
Have I defamed anyone?
Have I been sued for libel?
Am I, you know, too much of a loose candidate?
No, I would say no.
It's just that I have the wrong ideology.
I have the wrong viewpoint.
When I listen to TV and radio these days, Sheila, I mean, the great Dick Betto's quote comes to mind.
If some of these cats don't get off the air soon, I'm going to stop breathing it.
Okay.
It is just a vapid and vacuous and safe way of covering the news.
I think when you go safe, I think when you go politically correct and woke, you are going boring.
That is the biggest sin of all, I think, in this business, Sheila.
I always say, be good, be bad, be so bad that you're actually good, but to be boring is an unforgivable sin.
And that's what I see out there in the media landscape.
Now, even if I agreed to be part of the boring chorus, it doesn't matter.
The first thing they'd see on my resume is rebel employee for the last seven years, and that goes right away into the trash bin.
So I really don't know what I would do.
It would have to be something outside of journalism.
I don't think I have the brainpower to start my own news network like Ezra did, because, you know, Sheila, it's one thing to record a video and post it on YouTube or what have you, but it's quite another thing to monetize it, to make it an actual business.
And that's what this is.
I mean, I believe we've doubled our staff in the last year.
And these aren't volunteers.
Everyone's getting a paycheck signed by the big boss man.
This is the brilliance of Ezra.
And I'm not trying, you know, to praise someone just because he's my boss, but to create something out of nothing and then actually, you know, monetize it and make it profitable without dipping your hands, your filthy claws into the taxpayer trough.
Twas ever thus with the CBC.
Now it's every newspaper and magazine, practically, isn't it, Sheila, in the mainstream.
I think that is an incredible achievement.
And one last point.
I think a lot of the journalists and the mainstream or legacy media, however you want to call it, I think they resent us in a way because they're jealous of us, Sheila.
We get to cover and we get to say the things they so desperately want to, but realize that if they did, they're going to be reprimanded or even fired for doing so.
And because we have that kind of editorial freedom and it's pure freedom, we don't answer to any master.
Our audience is our master.
We don't get taxpayer handouts.
We're not funded by some secret Mr. X billionaire.
I think they resent that.
They resent the way that we can depict and cover stories.
And much of the hatred is just based on jealousy, Sheila, nothing else.
Yeah, I agree with you.
I'm not sure that I would find another career in journalism.
Not sure that I would want one.
I'd rather not sell my soul to be liked by a cabal or a coven of other journalists that hate my guts anyway and hate everything that I stand for.
I'd rather be authentic than be in the Cool Kids Club.
And for me, I do like being liked by certain people.
And for me, it's when I'm out in the world and I hear from somebody who's seen one of our stories that I wasn't sure that anybody would care when I ever did the story, but they say, well, thanks for covering that thing.
Or I didn't think anybody cared about that issue either.
But then you talked about it.
And then I realized that there were other people just like me.
That's the stuff I care about.
As you were talking, I was Googling a quote from Andrew Breitbart and it was in, I remembered it like that.
It was a righteous indignation.
It was in his book, Righteous Indignation.
And he writes, While adulation has its moments and can be like a bath in warm water after coming in from a snowstorm, the psychic high from standing up for what you believe in and being attacked for it far surpassed the comfort to be derived from that bath of praise.
That's how I feel about everything every single day.
You know, and I'll tell you, Sheila, you are a gem.
I don't know anyone harder working at this company, except for maybe the boss, Ezra.
I don't even think Ezra sleeps, actually.
He sends texts at weird times.
I know.
And hopefully you don't know something I don't know.
Hopefully you don't know about some meeting.
I have to go into the boardroom where there's a certain piece of paper and the hue is pink.
So I have to resort to, you know, Johnny LaRue.
Please, Mr. Caballero, give me one more chance, please, please.
Because I would cry for this job.
I would.
I have no shame.
Well, David, I know they need the studio.
And I know you're a busy guy.
You have stories to do today, or at least that's what you tell me.
I'm the editor-in-chief.
So don't lie to me.
Would I lie to you, Sheila?
No, never.
I just want to thank you so much for taking this trip down memory lane and letting our viewers get to know you in the way that I do.
I think you're just a real asset to the company and a real asset to me in my life because you just are a really genuine friend.
So thanks, David.
Well, thank you so much, Sheila.
One thing, never abbreviate asset because you know what you end up with.
And Sheila, like I said, this company is all the stronger for you.
You have an incredible work ethic.
I think you're the best journalist in Canada when it comes to going through those FOI information claims.
You're able to go through reams and reams of data and pick out the smoking gun moments.
No one does it better than you.
And I'm so happy to be on your show.
And thank you so much yet again, Sheila.
Thanks, David.
We'll see you on the live stream.
You got it.
Well, that was fun.
I talk to David Menzies, like I say, a couple hours every single week live on air, but there's always so much to learn about him.
He's like an onion.
You just keep peeling back the layers.
And there's just more and more and more David, if you like that kind of thing.
Now, this is a very David Menzies-centric show, and I'm teasing him.
I think it's pretty clear that you know that I have great affection for my friend David Menzies.
But this is a very David Menzies-centric show, and I thought I would devote my letters portion of the show, the new letters portion of the show, because I didn't always have a letters portion of the show, where I read viewer feedback.
And I thought, why not read viewer feedback to one of David's stories?
Reading Viewer Feedback00:04:12
His most recent story was a commentary on transgender athletes competing against biological females.
And when will somebody have the tenacity, the bravery, the honesty, or the unmitigated gall to just say the emperor has no clothes.
So let's read a comment from Rumble on David's recent commentary on this.
Obuthin writes, not just women in sports face these fake women and have ended up losing their right to fairly compete and be recognized as the best in their sport after years of physically conditioning their bodies to their maximum ability.
Nope, that's not the complete damage done with all this gender mix and match that so many political hacks are shoving down society's throats.
If you are a woman or a woman in your family that ever goes to prison, you could end up being placed in a prison cell with one of these men.
That's right.
Our woke politicians have approved that a male prisoner that identifies as a woman and that has no surgery to remove their male reproductive organs can and will be placed in the same cell as a woman prisoner.
This is already happening and has been happening for some time.
The mainstream media refuses to address this so as to make it a conspiracy theory.
I guess it's just make-believe that female prisoners are reporting that they have been raped by these so-called transgender prisoners.
If I understand things correctly, there are even female inmates who are now pregnant because of these men.
All thanks to our woke politicians who find it more important to secure votes from the woke community than to protect members of society.
Even if these members of society are in prison, they still deserve to be safe in their own cell, in their own bed, not raped by the roommate as they try to sleep.
But again, no one person in the administration that governs the prison system seems to give a damn.
All they seem to come up with are extremely lame and ignorant and self-serving excuses to try and justify why they are allowing one of the most hideous crimes to be committed against another human being while these people are under their care and oversight.
To allow this to happen shows just how cowardly these officials are and that they do not have what is needed to run administer this system.
Cowards, one and all.
It's interesting that this comment was left on one of David's stories about transgender athletes because David Menzies has been a staunch advocate for the safety of women in Canada's prison systems.
He's covered many protests where women are protesting outside of women's institutions for the safety of the women who are incarcerated within.
And even at one of his protests, I thought it was very compelling.
A person who identifies as transgender, female to male transgender, was there saying that this is completely unacceptable, is dangerous for the women inside the prison.
Even reasonable trans people see the problem with putting male offenders, biological male offenders in with biological women while they are incarcerated behind bars, captive victims for these still remaining biological male offenders.
Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.
What a great and thoughtful letter.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
I'll see everybody back here in the same time, in the same place next week.
If you would like to have your letter to me read on air, it's really easy.
Just send me an email to Sheila at rebelnews.com.
I don't think you could forget that.
Sheila at rebelnews.com.
And just in the subject line, put gun show letters so that I can easily search it and find it.
And I do not screen them for quality and I don't screen them for content.
So write what you want.
I'll pick it at random and I'll read it on air.
And you know what, frankly, the longer the better.
Thanks to everybody in the office in Toronto for turning this into a show.
I'll see everybody, like I said, back here in the same time, in the same place next week.