Ezra Levant exposes Canada’s World Press Freedom Day (May 3, 2022) hypocrisy as Trudeau and Freeland touted press rights while banning Rebel News from events, assaulting reporters (e.g., David Menzies beaten), and suppressing dissent via Bill C-11. His Democracy Fund conference trains citizen journalists like Raquel Dancho to counter systemic censorship, with Canada’s ranking dropping from 8th under Harper to 19th under Trudeau. Mocking "convoy go home" protesters’ selective outrage—harassing unvaxxed citizens but ignoring Trudeau’s no-fly list—he frames their behavior as cancel culture, a "fascist belief," mirroring Libs of TikTok’s tactics. [Automatically generated summary]
Today I'm going to talk about World Press Freedom Day.
That was yesterday, actually.
But I had a chance to look at who was talking about it and who wasn't and what they were saying about it.
And I'm going to do a bit of a reality check.
When the government is the one talking about press freedom, that's the time to hold on to your wallet.
That's today's show.
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All right, here's today's podcast.
Tonight, Press Freedom Day came and went, and Canada was an embarrassment.
It's May 4th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Why should others go to jail when you're the biggest carbon consumer I know?
There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
The only thing I have to say is government about why I publish them.
It's because it's my bloody right to do so.
Yesterday was Press Freedom Day, or Media Freedom Day as it's now being called.
So little of our media is done on printing presses.
That word is archaic.
I noticed that most of the people talking about it were government people.
In fact, the media itself, the press itself, doesn't really seem to care about freedom anymore, certainly not their own independence.
I think they gave that up when they took Trudeau's bailout money.
In fact, if anything, I think that most of the mainstream media are positively hostile to the idea of press freedom.
Here's just one example.
I could give you 20.
It's a cartoon by, you probably recognize his style, DeAdder is his name.
He does cartoons for various newspapers in Canada as well as for the Washington Post in the States.
And there he is with a cartoon depicting freedom as a dangerous thing, as a trick, as something to be worried about.
And this was on the eve of Press Freedom Day that this was published.
That, I think, is the typical position of the Canadian media in 2022.
They really have been deracinated so completely that the press doesn't speak up for the press.
Most of the people yesterday talking about press freedom were from the government.
And of course, the government talking about press freedom is like the tax department talking about your wealth or Colonel Sanders talking about chickens.
They're the destroyers of your wealth, of chickens and of press freedom.
You might think, well, that's not true.
I mean, corporate corporations are hostile to the media.
They may be hostile, but there's no actual danger to, for example, there's no physical danger.
There's no danger to life and limb of journalists from the private sector.
The entirety of the threat to journalists is from the government.
And so to see in Canada the government posing as the savior of freedom is quite a laugh.
There's a group called Reporters Without Borders, a Reporter Sans Frontières, as they're also called.
And they have an annual ranking.
They say that Canada in the press freedom rankings fell this past year from 14th best in the world to 19th out of 180 countries.
And here's their website.
Say, while Canada continues to demonstrate a strong commitment to international press freedom protections and practices, there is more room for progress, particularly with regards to press coverage involving the rights of Indigenous peoples and land disputes.
What?
I'm not saying there are no issues about those things, but you've got one sentence to sum up press freedom in Canada, and you're saying that it's tough to cover land disputes?
What?
I'll read a little bit more.
Canada's two largest newspapers, the Globe and Mail and the National Post, circulate widely throughout the country.
What?
Well, first of all, they're not Canada's largest newspaper.
That's the Toronto Star, unfortunately.
And the Globe and the Post do not circulate widely.
In fact, they pretty much shut down any places in the Atlantic where you can even buy them.
Both newspapers are shrinking.
I don't even know where this comes from.
I'll keep reading.
The largest radio and television broadcaster is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which is taxpayer-funded, produces two hours of news daily, both local and national, and broadcasts a separate 24-7 news channel.
Other media options include local newspapers, cable television, and other online and radio sources.
More than 80% of Canadian media is owned by just five corporations.
That may be true.
Of course, the government has a finger in all of them, or 99% of them, through the bailout.
Political context: media outlets in Canada are generally free of pressure from politicians, political parties, and political movements.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is owned by the government, but operates independently.
Can you imagine writing that with a straight face?
The government has publicly acknowledged that, quote, media freedom remains an important part of democratic societies and essential to the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Well, I'm sure they say that, but then again, so does Cuba and so does Iran.
I'll keep reading because it's just such a quirky report.
Legal framework.
I mean, we've been talking about Bill C-10, now called Bill C-11, Bill C-36, Bill C-18, or I can sum these up by their other names: you know, censorship provisions, government regulating the internet, the online harms provisions.
But this is what these folks at Reporters Without Borders talk about.
They say, Canada has repeatedly demonstrated a legal commitment to freedom of the press, including shield laws to protect journalists and their sources.
However, in a few instances, journalists have been arrested while covering protests, particularly those over Indigenous rights and land uses.
These arrests demonstrate that more legal protections or better applications of current existing legal protections are necessary for Canadian journalists.
Well, again, that may be true.
I understand that there were some folks who were arrested at a protest at the Coastal Gas Link.
I don't know if they really were journalists or if they were just protesters with cameras.
I think everyone should have the same freedom.
You know that our own reporters were arrested repeatedly.
David Menzies was taken to jail for covering the lockdowns in Montreal.
Lincoln Jay, Efron Monsanto, our own Alexa Lavoie was shot in the leg.
Yeah, there are problems in Canada, not just, I don't know, this land dispute thing.
Sociocultural context, although the majority of Canadians still say that they have some trust in media institutions, overall trust in media has declined recently in Canada.
Social media harassment is a threat to journalists with an online presence, and it's particularly prevalent against female and minority journalists.
So you see what they're doing here is they're saying that talking back, clapping back, arguing back, heckling back to journalists is a threat.
Now, if there is an actual criminal threat, then go after it.
But this is not actually what press freedom is about.
Press freedom is not about the freedom of journalists to say whatever they want, usually smearing people on the right, and then the ability to censor the public from talking back.
This is a flawed study.
Look at this last one, safety.
While journalists are typically safe to do their jobs in Canada, reporters covering the 2022 Freedom Convoy to protest vaccine mandates received death threats, were spat on, and were verbally and physically harassed.
The window of a CBC Radio Canada news cruiser was broken.
So again, harassment or being heckled is the threat to media freedom.
No mention of our own reporters being shot with a gun.
And it's framed as we need to stop citizens from talking back to journalists.
I say again, the threat to journalists, not just now, but throughout history, has not been from private citizens or private companies.
It's always been from government.
You can see that this rating system is infected with that bias, and they're moving towards journalism is about the elites being able to speak with no populist clap back.
This is a completely flawed state.
Let me tell you the real state of journalism.
I want to tell you eight examples of how press freedom is being infringed, not from people heckling us or being mean to us, but by the government.
And these eight examples are just rebel news examples.
Example number one, our friend David Menzies was beat up by Justin Trudeau's personal bodyguards.
Remember this?
It needs a lot of paperwork for me.
Just stay back.
Stay back.
What are you doing?
Get off me.
Hey, I can.
Hey, this is assault.
I'm on a side.
What is this?
I'm on a sidewalk.
I am on a side.
What is this?
You cannot touch me.
No question or not.
Hey!
Are you kidding?
Are you kidding?
Let's go.
What is this?
You can't.
Am I under arrest?
Because otherwise you have no right!
You don't think that's worth mentioning?
That the Prime Minister's personal bodyguards beat up our journalists and just threw them down so you can go, no charges.
You don't think that's worth mentioning?
Here's a second example.
Maybe this can get your attention.
You were talking about the trucker convoy.
Alexei Lavois shot in the leg.
What are you doing?
Hold him!
Have you seen that covered literally anywhere?
I'm not talking about this reporter's ranking now, which is pretty clearly flawed.
But did you actually see any coverage of Alexa being shot in the leg by any other mainstream media, CBC, CTV, Global, any of the newspapers?
Don't you think that's odd?
I don't know if you know this, but I am still to this day being prosecuted by Elections Canada for publishing the book, The Libranos, still to this day.
In fact, we're in the federal court right now.
That's example number three.
Example number four affects some of our journalists, including me.
Sheila Gunnread was blocked from the Environment Canada-run Twitter account of Catherine McKenna when she was still Environment Minister.
And I've been blocked by Stephen Gilbeau.
I'm not talking about their personal accounts.
I'm saying they turned off the government Twitter feeds for me.
They blocked me.
I'm not talking about what Stephen Harbor, what Stephen Gilbeau does as a liberal or what Stephen Gilbeau does in his personal life.
The government-run, government-owned account that broadcasts news and announcements by the ministry, by the department, has blocked rebel news in the person of me and Sheila Gunn Reed.
If they can turn off that service, they can turn off anything to you.
They can ban you from anything.
This is a punishment because we ask difficult questions.
Example number five, the most obvious one: banning journalists from attending press conferences.
Here's a blast from the past couple years back: Kian Bexty, our alumnus, being physically frogmashed out of the prime minister's press conference because he not did not that he did anything wrong, he just had the wrong point of view.
Remember this?
Are you gonna arrest me?
I'm gonna 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.
Well, that was just a warm-up.
Of course, Trudeau has twice now banned rebel news reporters from election debates, and twice now we've gone to federal court.
Twice now, the courts have sided with us.
But look at how petulant he was when our reporters were ordered in by virtue of the court.
Look what he said to Alexa Lavoie, who asked, I think, one of the best questions in the last debate.
Remember this?
Alexander for Rebel News, Monsieur Trudeau, I'm going to rapidly pass.
You have media that can government.
You have expressed your opinion in 1980, disinformation.
If it was, if it was the case, the supreme federal court allowed us to do it.
Rebel News vs. Trudeau00:14:20
Just scientifically, they surrounded.
My question is the surrounding.
Israel is the most vaccinated vaccine.
And once again, their rappelle de vaccine.
And what two vaccine do you do?
Ma question est, plusieurs Canadiens ne désirent pas avoir un rappel de vaccin.
Allez-vous leur enlever leurs privilèges reliés au passeport vaccinal?
Et aurez-vous l'obligence de répondre à ma question en tant que premier ministre?
Ou allez-vous encore diaboliser mon média?
J'ai partagé ma perspective sur ton organisation hier soir.
Je n'ai plus rien à dire.
Ça demande bien qui vous êtes.
Merci.
So that's all old news, but I mentioned new legal developments because that ranking of Canada didn't have anything to say.
C-11 is a new bill.
It used to be called C-10.
C-11 has introduced a requirement that tech companies like Google and Facebook change their algorithms to suit the government's tastes.
So, I mean, I'm furious and frustrated all the time with the algorithms that suppress conservative views and promote liberal views that the tech companies do on their own.
But now, C-11 commands those companies to follow Justin Trudeau's whims.
And the eighth one, I'm not sure if it goes to journalistic freedom, but it goes to something about journalism, is that Canadian governments, not just the feds, provincially too, routinely violate access to information laws.
You know, some of our access to information requests about Trudeau have been delayed six years for years.
Now, we'll wait them out, but the thing is, once we finally get them and they're heavily redacted, they're, you know, the story has gone.
The news has gone.
The government gets away with them.
So, I give you that as the background.
Even this weird and wacky international rating system that clearly doesn't know what's going on in Canada, even they say Canada has fallen four places in the world.
But I put it to you, they're not even familiar with half the terrible things that's going on in this country.
It's really weird.
And that's why the government gaslighting on Press Freedom Day is so gross.
Like I say, the private sector doesn't care about press freedom anymore because they've sold out to Trudeau, like the CBC, CTV, well, I guess CBC's private sector, but all the newspapers have sold out, so they don't talk about it.
But take a look at this.
This is from Christia Freeland.
Democracy depends on a vibrant free press.
Yet today, around the world, journalists face attacks, persecution, and violence for doing their job.
To support our democracies, we need to support our journalists.
World Press Freedom Day.
You know, Christia Freeland talks a lot about foreign journalists, but she doesn't respect domestic Canadian journalists, which is actually her job.
You know, it's funny, she's obsessed with Ukraine, and I can understand that.
She's Ukrainian by heritage, and it is an important news story.
But her friend Vladimir Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, has arrested reporters for criticizing the government.
I don't think that she is even handed about it, but I really don't care about Christy Freeland's views about Ukraine.
I care about her views about Canada.
I just think it's very strange.
And she herself, I want to give you a little flashback.
I don't even know if you remember.
A few years ago, before the pandemic, Sheila and I traveled with Andrew Lawton of True North to London, England, where Canada was co-hosting a media freedom conference with the British government.
And Christia Freeland was there.
So we're at a media freedom conference on Media Freedom Day.
And Freeland just gave a speech, and she was going to have a press conference.
And Sheila and Andrew Lawton were there.
And Christia Freeland said, You can't come into the press conference at a media freedom conference.
Now, incredibly, in what may be the only time this ever happened, the rest of the press corps said, well, if they're not allowed, we're not going.
Obviously, these were not your Ottawa, Toronto, you know, mean girls.
These were, you know, European-based journalists in the main.
But here, take a look at this.
This is how that went down.
I'm going to play an extended clip.
Here's Sheila, who was denied access to Chrystia Freeland's event.
CTD, Al Jazeera, CDC, and the National Health Organization.
What about the rest?
The rest of us?
The rest of you will have to see that.
No, no, no.
No, that's nonsense.
No, no, Take us to the room.
No, we're not going for New York.
We're all going to be a good person.
This is a media freedom conference.
Yeah, this is ridiculous.
Don't do that.
Yeah, if you're at a media freedom conference that you co-sponsor and you're not willing to walk the walk there, I'm guessing you don't actually believe in it.
Now, here's Trudeau's heritage minister who took over from Stephen Goodwill.
This is Pablo Rodriguez.
He's thanking a room of journalists on World Press Freedom Day, and he says that they're the front line of fighting disinformation.
The society, not the government, the society needs you.
Take a look at the clip.
So I also want to recognize the incredible work that you guys, as journalists, have done in Canada through over the past two years, from keeping Kenya's up to date on the pandemic to providing on-the-ground coverage of the war in Ukraine, even keeping Kenya's informed what's going on at their local city hall, which is fundamental for our communities, for different regions.
So all of this is essential.
And you're at the front line of fighting disinformation.
We need you.
The society, not the government, the society needs you.
Now, that's not actually the purpose of journalists.
The purpose of journalists is not to critique other journalists.
I mean, you can do that.
I mean, I do that.
It's sort of fun.
But the purpose of journalists is to find the truth.
And one of the important democratic functions of journalists is to hold the government to account.
They're a kind of official opposition, but they can be more free.
They can be more rambunctious than a political party.
I mean, the official opposition of the country is a political party that typically minds their P's and Qs.
And there's certain things any political party doesn't want to talk about because they're trying to get votes, whereas journalists can be freer.
They don't have to win an election.
They don't have to worry about not saying certain politically incorrect things.
So you can see that Pablo Rodriguez says that journalists, he doesn't say your job is to hold government to account.
Why would he say such a thing?
He says their job is to fight disinformation, which really means he thinks their job is to criticize the critics, to go after his opponents.
And he was talking to a room full of journalists, every single one of whom was on his payroll.
That's the thing about this QCJO journalism license that they're denying to us.
Without that government journalism license, you're not allowed into federal government events.
You're just not.
So every single journalist in that room was on his own payroll when he was thanking them.
In fact, I don't know if you remember this story a few weeks back.
Obviously, it's from Blacklock's great people.
Government grateful for coverage.
Let me read a bit.
Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez is promising more media subsidies after thanking reporters for their freedom convoy coverage.
Look at the role that the journalists played, said Rodriguez.
I think there are even more things we should be able to do, said Rodriguez.
We're looking into that in the context of supporting the whole ecosystem.
Rodriguez made his remarks in a webinar hosted by Canada 2020, an Ottawa think tank affiliated with the Liberal Party.
Canada 2020's executive chair is a past president of the Liberal Party of Canada.
Invited guests at the webinar entitled The Future of News included executives with the Toronto Star and other federally subsidized media like The Logic and The Narwhal.
None of the participants reported on his remarks.
Isn't that amazing?
That's the funny thing is, see, when you're taking millions and cumulatively billions of dollars from Trudeau for your media company, you're probably not going to report that to your own viewers.
You become complicit in it.
You're on Team Trudeau, keeping things on the lowdown.
Remember when $61 million was given out in a rush by Trudeau before the last election?
Not a single one of the recipients reported on that.
It was us and one other independent news agency that did.
Pablo Rodriguez, Christie Freeland, they're atrocious, but Trudeau himself is obviously the worst.
Here's what he said on Twitter.
What a laugh.
To journalists across the country and around the world, thank you for your relentless pursuit of the truth and for your commitment to sharing those truths.
Today we celebrate your work and we pay tribute to your colleagues who have been injured or lost their lives on the job.
I don't think any Canadian journalists lost their lives on the job.
I don't know any who were injured other than our own reporters who were assaulted by his goons.
But at least he did talk about finding the truth.
But he put out a larger press release.
I'm going to go through most of it with you.
I want to show you the doublespeak.
And this goes to my earlier point.
The government really shouldn't be talking about press freedom.
The government is the mortician for press freedom.
The government is the antithesis.
It's the enemy of press freedom.
But the only thing our press these days has to say is that freedom isn't good anymore.
Here, let me read.
The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today issued the following statement on World Press Freedom Day.
Today on World Press Freedom Day, we honor the many journalists here in Canada and around the world who work tirelessly to seek out and report on the truth.
We also reaffirm our long-standing commitment to the freedom of the press, a foundational pillar of our democracy, and recognize who have been injured or lost their lives defending freedom of the press.
While Canada enjoys a strong and free press, we know that this is not the case everywhere.
Many journalists face censorship, intimidation, violence, imprisonment, and false arrests.
This year alone, many journalists were killed and hundreds imprisoned in the line of duty around the world.
This serves as a reminder that we must continue to advocate for journalists and for a strong and free press.
But like I've told you several times today, our journalists have been jailed, our journalists have been shot, our journalists have been arrested, our journalists have been frog-marched out of federal events, our journalists have had to go to court to get in.
Our journalists, once they were given in by the courts, were condemned by Trudeau.
How can he say these?
How can you be such a sociopath that you know what you've done?
You're active in persecuting and denying rebel news, and yet you claim to be a champion of free journalism against censorship.
Oh, but he loves to beat up on Russia.
As Russia continues its illegal and unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine, we think the reporters on the front lines who are risking their lives to deliver accurate information to the world in the age of disinformation and misinformation.
Independent fact-based reporting is vital.
We must all come together to support the work of journalists and double down in the fight against disinformation.
Again, what's the disinformation thing?
It's a war over there.
So there's disinformation on both sides.
I mean, that whole ghost of Kiev thing was, you know, obviously a myth.
You know, it's war.
Truth is the first casualty in a war.
And again, I'm more interested in what he thinks about journalism and freedom here in Canada.
But look at his obsession with misinformation and disinformation.
One man's misinformation and disinformation is another man's talk back.
And everything here from all of these politicians and from the Reporters Without Borders group itself is focused on protect elite speech, demonize critical speech, protect speech that praises the government, demonize the opposition as disinformation.
Let me read a little more.
The government of Canada is supporting media freedom at home and abroad.
As co-chair of the Media Freedom Coalition and as 2022 chair of the Freedom Online Coalition, Canada is working with international partners to defend media freedom.
We are also addressing the challenges and the spread of disinformation online by giving people the tools to recognize disinformation and working to build a healthy information ecosystem, including through the Digital Citizen Initiative and new investments in Budget 2022 to fight disinformation.
Canada is also providing $13.4 million over five years to bolster the G7 rapid response mechanism, which strengthens coordination between countries in identifying and responding to foreign threats to democracy, including state-sponsored disinformation.
Well, he should know.
That's not journalism that he's supporting.
That's anti-journalism.
That's government criticizing journalists.
That's government vetting journalists.
It's not the government's place to vet journalists.
It's the journalists' place to vet governments.
It's incredible how he can say these things.
I remind you that short weeks ago, only after an access to information request was made by Professor Michael Geist, did we see the hundreds of submissions by not only the public, but by experts in the industry in response to Trudeau's online plans.
You might remember that Twitter said the only other place they've seen this kind of censorship is in places like China, North Korea, and Iran.
How perverse is it that Justin Trudeau, who is bringing in North Korean-style censorship, is the chair of some international freedom group for the internet?
Obviously, the whole thing is corrupted.
You know, I think the fact that Justin Trudeau and Christia Freeland and Pablo Rodriguez did more talking about Media Freedom Day than the journalists and the journalist organizations tells you a lot.
Teaching Citizen Journalists Efficiently00:02:00
But what they said and what they're getting away with, my friends, I think this is going to be the battle for the years ahead.
The pandemic was their template.
It gave them the excuse to censor in the name of public health.
But they're just getting started.
I think the biggest battles are yet to come.
Stay with us for more.
Well, look, we have here...
It's our friend Shila Gunrid, our chief reporter and managing editor here at our world headquarters in Toronto.
Good to see you.
Thanks for having me, boss.
Well, it's nice to have you in town.
You're in town for the Democracy Fund Student Journalism Conference that Rebel News is co-sponsoring with True North.
That's a great tag team right there.
Why don't you give us two minutes on that?
So we have journalists, young journalists, citizen journalists from all across the country coming in to the student journalism conference, where hopefully we will be able to arm them with the skills they need to do citizen journalism.
And one of the things that I aim to teach them is practical skills that we didn't really have the opportunity to teach me when I started at the company.
So, you know, of course, part of my role here at Rebel News is to onboard the new journalists, bring them up to speed with our systems, but also teach them how to do things efficiently and quickly and often alone.
You know, back in the before times when we used to travel internationally, I would put all my equipment in a backpack and go across the world and cover a UN conference or to cover a protest alone.
And we can do that efficiently.
And it's one of the best ways for student journalists and citizen journalists to tell the other side of the story because you roll up to these protests and you see CBC with their three satellite trucks, their chase producer, their sound guy, a cameraman, the on-camera journalist, and a guy holding a sheet of tinfoil.
Teaching Truth to Young Journalists00:06:14
And it doesn't have to be that way.
And that's what I hope to teach them.
You know, and Rebel News has grown over the years, and sometimes we have cameramen plus a journalist.
It feels like a luxury.
But in the early days, it was, you know, Rebel, part of the rebellion inherent in the name is rebelling against that high-cost, you know, bloated model that was sinking the industry.
I mean, when I came from Sun News Network, there were 10 people that worked on my show, and it was not much longer or more intense than the show I do here.
In the control room, they had five people.
We have one person here.
So being cheap and cheerful and running around, it's even easier now with, I mean, every cell phone these days has an amazing camera, and you can even edit it right on your phone.
Those are great practical tips these kids are going to learn.
Yeah, I hope so.
And, you know, part of the point of being a citizen journalist is that there really is no huge financial commitment to entry into doing journalism because it's not a thing you do.
It's not a guild you join.
That's what the government's trying to do.
They're trying to put up a barrier to entry: this QCJO qualified Canadian journalism organization journalism license.
That's exactly a barrier to entry.
They hate the fact that just any old nobody with a cell phone is a journalist these days.
They despise it.
And half the talk about disinformation and misinformation is just a way for the official corporate media to crush any new contenders.
Yeah, and we're seeing it today.
I saw a story that came out, I think it was in the Ottawa Citizen about Justin Trudeau using military planes to surveil the convoy.
And what's the first thing Justin Trudeau did when he was asked about it in the House of Commons today?
He cried misinformation and disinformation.
So a year ago, two years ago, we heard science denier or vaccine denier.
That was the shut up.
Before that, it was racism.
You're a racist, that's the shut up.
Now the new shut up is disinformation, misinformation.
Yeah, yeah, you're exactly right.
And the reason that's powerful is because they'll get the tech companies to ban you.
Exactly.
You know, science denier, okay, well, that's a point of view, but no, no, this is some sort of evil words, some dangerous words.
It's not just wrong words, they're dangerous.
And the words themselves have to be deplatformed.
I'm excited about these kids that are coming from all across the country and a couple of kids who cannot fly because of no fly list are joining via Zoom.
And half the content is going to be how to be a journalist, half is going to be on civil liberties and freedom.
And I think that's important.
I have this dream that if this student journalism conference goes every year, you know, 20 or 25 kids a year for 10 years, you put through 200 kids, 250 kids over a decade, maybe only 10 of them get really involved full-time as journalists.
But you have created a crop of truth-speaking citizen journalists.
I'm very hopeful that they can be an antidote.
I know there are thousands of state journalists and corporate journalists, but to have a sense of connection and camaraderie and networking and community, I think it's hopeful.
I think it's exciting.
Yeah, and you know, when you think about the impact that our journalists have had here at Rebel News, if you, and, you know, on some days there are only 10 journalists working out in the field.
So, you know, to find and do like a talent ID camp or an ID camp of journalists this way, think about the impact that that can make when you have double the size of rebel news journalists out there in the world who care about civil liberties and who have the tangible skills and the fearlessness to not only take on the story, but also take on their critics.
Yeah, and that's the worst case scenario of only one a year out of these kids full-time.
I mean, I did a student journalism conference back in 2014, so long ago, and I see the alumni still.
I mean, one of them is Raquel Dancho, the MP, the Conservative MP for Winnipeg, who's quite good.
And you could tell she was good even back then.
So just to help give some speed and direction to these young folks, I think good things have come from.
Well, I'm really glad you're there, flying the flag for Rebel News.
And I know True North has some folks there too.
I'm going to pop by myself.
Dave Rubin is joining via Zoom.
I think it's going to be Robbie Picard.
Yep.
So there's going to be a great lineup.
Hey, I want to just ask you a little bit more about Press Freedom Day.
It really irks me that that day has been colonized by the censors, that Christy Freeland and Justin Trudeau, who are leading the world's worst, the free world's worst censorship campaign that Twitter has compared to North Korea's, that they are calling themselves the free speech people, the free press people, and no one's really calling them on it.
Yeah, you know, it's funny how the liberals conflate defending free speech with giving journalists money.
Those two are not the same thing.
But for some reason, Justin Trudeau, but not just Justin Trudeau, the mainstream media also thinks that that's the same thing too.
It's actually the opposite.
It's colonizing the media with your thought, with your viewpoint.
You know, I wrote it up for the website the other day where Justin Trudeau has overseen one of the most drastic declines in press freedom in the free world.
And I went back and looked at where Stephen Harper sat on this issue in his last year in office.
Canada was at number eight.
And I remember 2015, although it seems so long ago, the media could not shut up about the stranglehold that Stephen Harper had on his party and on information and how poorly he treated journalists.
But Canada right now, even though the rankings are a bit funky and skewed and they don't make a lot of sense, but even by their metrics, their left-wing metrics, we've plummeted to 19.
Yeah, I mean, the things they said about Donald Trump being a fascist, I mean, it's oh my God.
Well, listen, I'm proud of the Rebel, and you're a chief reporter.
Americans Cross Borders for Abortion Rights00:02:15
I'm delighted to have you out here.
And every time you come out here, it's a little bit different.
We have new folks.
I mean, we've had to rearrange some of the desks just to jam more people in here.
It's sort of fun.
It's great to see you, Sheila.
Thanks, Blossom.
All right, there you have it, Sheila.
Gunread, our chief reporter.
Stay with us.
Your letters to me, including a comment about my scruff.
That's Hexed.
Hey, welcome back.
Your feedback Neil Thompson says, wow, all of a sudden the definition of a woman is now clear.
Yeah, you're exactly right.
I saw Gavin Newsom saying, well, if men could get pregnant, this, you know, abortion would be a sacrament.
Hang on, I thought you said men could get pregnant.
Ray-Ban Knights 432 says, there are bigger problems to worry about.
This is just another political distraction to get the left proactive again.
I think there's some truth to that.
It's incredible to see the entire Canadian political establishment jump on this.
We will defend the right to abortion in Canada.
The right to abortion in Canada is actually the most liberal in the world.
There are no limits on it whatsoever from the moment of conception to literally the moment of birth.
And it's government subsidized to boot.
You can get a sex-select abortion because you don't like baby girls.
If there was ever a genetic test for if there was a gay gene, you could in Canada legally get an abortion to abort a gay baby.
That's why there are groups like Gays for Life worried about that.
If you can get an abortion for any reason or no reason, that could be used for eugenics.
I mean, that is the state of law in Canada.
What was funny is Trudeau and his cabinet were talking about how they were going to let Americans come to Canada for abortions.
Now, obviously, that's perfectly legal, just like Canadians go down to the Mayo Clinic for medical treatment.
It was just a PR stunt, but it made me think, besides the fact that now Americans get to get in our waiting lines for healthcare up here, they could probably buy their way to the front.
I thought, I wish they cared enough about my freedom of mobility as a Canadian, as they do about Americans.
I know it's just a PR stunt.
I mean, Americans can come up here for any reason.
They can get an abortion up here if they want, of course.
Hypocrisy In Her City00:12:03
It's nothing new.
But again, they're just so blind.
They have millions of Canadians on a no-fly list because we're not vaxxed, our personal health choice.
And yet they're rolling up the red carpet for Americans' personal health choice to fly across the borders.
That's the real question.
Would they allow an unvaxxed American woman to come up to Canada for an abortion?
That would test Trudeau's commitment to freedom of choice, wouldn't it?
Theo says, imagine my surprise to see the Ezra Levant show being guest hosted by Grizzly Adams.
Yikes.
I had to go back to the intro and listen to the now famous It's My Bloody Right to Do So a couple of times to match the voice and make sure it was really Ezra after all.
You know, I am trying to grow a beard.
I'm about three weeks into it.
I'm obviously failing.
It looks like I just forgot to shave or something.
I obviously lack the manpower to grow a beard.
I think I'm going to try for about like another week.
And if I don't have more success, I'm going to go back to my soft as a baby's bottom cheeks.
I just, you know what?
I remember why I haven't tried growing a beard since I was 20.
I just can't do it.
So thanks for only being very gentle in your jokes.
My friends, that's the show for today until tomorrow on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters to you at home.
Good night.
And keep fighting for freedom.
And let me leave you with our video of the day, our friend David Menzies.
It's the director's cut of the No More Comments lady, who I think was dressed up as a witch.
I'm not sure.
Anyways, I'll leave you with that.
See you tomorrow.
Sunny day.
Hi, ma'am.
Your sign says convoy go home with peace symbols on it.
What does that mean?
It means peaceful protest.
If you're going to protest something as nebulous as freedom, then you can't encroach on others.
I'm not sure I understand.
Is nebulous as freedom?
The concept of a nebulous freedom.
They don't have a specific title, a specific reason for being here.
They're all over the place, and all they're doing is suppressing Ottawa residents, Ottawa businesses.
We are being harassed and held hostage for their supposed encroachments on freedom.
What does a single white man have to say to anybody about a bodily autonomy freedom?
I'm not sure what race has to do with this.
He didn't say anything about race.
He said a white man.
Single white man.
Sure, race.
Okay, so I mean, what does race have to do with it?
When I look at people that are gathering here today, it's right across the multi-diverse spectrum.
No more comments.
Oh, okay, then.
Well, by the way, when it says convoy go home, didn't the convoy go home in February?
They called it a convoy.
It's a convoy.
You mean this gathering here?
Is that a convoy?
Please go away.
Okay, then.
No more comments.
No more comments.
It just seems to be...
No more comments.
No more comments.
You can't articulate your position.
No more comments.
No more comments.
Have I triggered you?
No more comments.
No more comments.
It's like interviewing a Coke machine when your soda doesn't come out.
No more comments!
She just...
No more comments!
No more comments!
It's like a fembot has malfunctioned.
And you think that if somebody is going to go on a corner...
Walk away!
No more comments!
Why do I have to walk away?
Walk away!
No more comments!
No more comments!
Why do I have to walk away?
a public place no more comments no more comments do you mind me asking what do you do for a living No more comments.
I'm now interviewing a sign.
Why is it when the left can't articulate itself, it goes into a meltdown?
In any event, I am not going to bother asking her any more questions.
Good golly, could you imagine living with this person?
Holy cow.
But the irony is profound.
She wants this peaceful protest to be shut down.
She finds this an affront to her sensibilities.
But look at this.
She is herself demonstrating.
She's got some sort of an amplification device.
But that's okay because she thinks she's righteous.
Now, if you have a sign that's proclaiming something such as convoy go home and the convoy went home in February, tomorrow is May.
What is the point of demonstrating if you're not going to articulate your position to people in the media that could further your position?
Anyways, we have some sort of interaction going on here.
Are we home?
Are you home?
Are you ready?
We'll just sit by and watch this.
This lady by her apparel.
Hey, hey, Mike.
This is done with love.
It's done with love.
Okay, let's go.
I apologize.
We can't be doing that.
My apologies.
I just wanted to.
How you doing?
How are you doing?
Good, sir.
Be quiet and respect her.
We all need to respect everyone's free speech.
That's why everyone's here.
We're here for her freedoms, too.
We're here for her freedoms too.
Okay, she has every right to be doing what she's doing.
She has every right to be here.
She has every right to be here, just like everyone here.
So let's not...
We all have ours to be here.
This movement is done with love.
Thank you.
Okay?
Sir, those are good words.
I'm just wondering, though, I can't help but notice the hypocrisy here.
I agree with free speech, freedom of assembly, protest demonstrations, but she wants everyone to go home.
But she finds that it's okay for her to stand on a corner.
I have no problem with that.
But isn't there a double standard here?
There may or there may not be, but that's regardless of double standards, it's her right to be here and it's her right.
We're here, all of the veterans served, so that everyone could be here and do what she's doing.
Sir, I want to be here, so do I.
I couldn't agree with your position more, sir.
I would fight for her right to be here, but she wants all of you to leave.
She's allowed to want that.
But don't you see the double standard here that you are having a peaceful demonstration here?
What's wrong with that?
There's nothing wrong with that either.
We're expressing our free speech and she's expressing hers.
And any of us, any veteran, would die for her right to do what she's doing.
A hundred percent.
But I don't think she understands that because...
I think she does.
Or whether she does or not is not my concern.
Okay, then.
Because we're standing on the principles of what's right and fair and what should be the standard in a free and democratic society.
Right.
But I would say this is someone that subscribes to cancel culture.
If you don't think her way, she doesn't agree to disagree.
She wants all opinions eradicated that don't fall in lockstep with hers.
That's what I'm getting at, the double standard.
I'm 100% with you.
I would fight for her right to be here.
I don't want her to leave.
She wants something to say.
It's hate speech.
This is hate.
I mean, this is hate.
Oh, you find it to be hate, sir.
Well, I mean, it is hateful.
The extreme left claim to be a party of inclusion.
But, I mean, come on, man.
This is hate the other way.
I'm not sure if it would meet the benchmarks of hate, but I hate in that history.
I can't remember, but I mean, it's a hateful message.
It's not a message of love.
And I think over here at the convoy, it's a message of love.
I think it's a message.
I respect their right to totally protest.
100%.
Have fun.
It's a message of hypocrisy.
She is demonstrating, and I fully support her right to demonstrate.
But the purpose of her demonstration is saying to those people, leave, get out of my city.
Is that a double standard?
It's a hypocrisy.
You people.
The residents of Ottawa.
You know, you live in the capital of the country.
This capital belongs to everyone, whether you like it or not.
You chose to live in the capital of Canada.
If our leader is a bad leader and pisses people off, well, this is what happens.
And you live in the capital, man.
Go live in a real, go live in Karachi, Pakistan.
Go live in, like, India and tell me if you guys like honking and noise.
Like, this is nothing.
You guys had it.
This is nothing.
Nobody even lives downtown here.
It's all a joke.
It's all a charade.
I'm getting the feeling you might have more rights in Karachi, Pakistan than you do on Parliament Hill these days.
I mean, yeah, but like, I mean, those are noisy cities.
This is not a noisy.
This is the boringest city I've ever been to.
Honestly, I'm from Montreal.
This is a boring city.
There's nobody out past eight o'clock.
No wonder they're freaking out that the protests come here.
It's not a fun city.
We tried to interview this lovely lady here.
Lady?
Oh, yes.
Sadly, she got rocks thrown at her house.
She had to pay a lot of extra money to travel because she was kind of locked in her house.
That's not right.
Who threw rocks at her house?
She doesn't know.
Okay.
So what I said to her, though, that she kind of is rebutting a little bit, look at, I wish these palaces and castles were in the middle of nowhere.
So that when we protested, which we have the right to do that, we didn't bother anybody that lived around them.
But that's not where they built them.
They built them right here.
So sadly, this lady and that lady and likely this man, they chose to live down here.
So with living here comes the benefits of all of this stuff, as well as the baggage.
It's a plan to divide us with hatred.
Because with hatred in your heart, your vision is blurred.
You don't see the reality of what's really going on.
I'm not sure what her political viewpoints are.
She just screams no comment.
Anyone ask questions?
And that speaks volumes too, sir.
If you're going to demonstrate in public with a sign and an amplification device, wouldn't you want to articulate your viewpoints to media outlets?
But she just ends up screaming at us.
Well, in fairness, right?
I actually had a decent conversation with her.
I really and truly did.
Because I just came over as a friendly guy and said, can we talk?
And she said, as long as you're not going to hassle me.
She's very jaded with the public.
She didn't want to speak to me because she's afraid of getting COVID.
Oh, really?
Yeah, she's awesome.
What is that?
You're not Typhoid Mary, are you, ma'am?
She's afraid of getting COVID.
And I just want to say something.
You're actually a real Canadian hero.
This is a real Canadian hero.
Come here.
Oh, look at that.
So are you?
Wow.
Wow, can you believe?
Look at all this hatred in the air, folks.
Look at all this.
Holy.
I bet you knew.
I bet you do that to all the girls around Butler.
I know.
It was so nice talking to you.
And sir, she's all yours now.
No, no, she's a great lady.
Hold on, Rob.
I just want to say your makeup is very, very pretty.
Her makeup is pretty.
Well, there's always a silver lining, isn't there, folks?
Your makeup is pretty.
Well, folks, is that not an example of perverse irony?
Here we have a sole demonstrator who doesn't like the members of Rolling Thunder and their supporters demonstrating or celebrating at the National War Memorial.
Yet she wants to demonstrate.
And believe me, I support her right to demonstrate, even though I think she's, well, quite frankly, full of nonsense, but that's not a crime.
In any event, I think this woman is the poster child for cancel culture.
What a shame too many people are subscribing to such a fascist belief.
For Rebel News, I'm David the Menzoid Menzies.
If you guys see those Libs of TikTok videos, that's pretty much what they look like.