David Menzies examines how Quebec’s Premier François Legault won a larger majority despite opposition parties securing over 50% of the vote, with CAQ gaining two seats per percentage point while others received far less—suggesting electoral system bias. He warns Legault may use this as justification to expand COVID-era restrictions like $2,000 senior incentives and defamation lawsuits against critics, including veteran James Topp, falsely branded a "white supremacist" by Global News in August without consultation, despite a retracted URL. Meanwhile, Iranian Canadians protest Masha Amini’s death at the hands of the IRGC, demanding Canada label the group a terrorist entity and sever ties with Tehran’s regime, while Menzies critiques Liberal MP Majid Johari’s silence and Trudeau’s inaction on human rights abuses. The episode ties these struggles to a broader call for defiance against authoritarianism—whether in Quebec, Ottawa, or Iran—to preserve freedom through bold resistance. [Automatically generated summary]
Welcome to Rebel Roundup, ladies and gentlemen, and the rest of you, in which we look back at some of the very best commentaries of the week by your favorite Rebels.
I'm your host, David Menzies.
Well, for those hoping for regime change in the People's Republic of Quebec, Monday was a sad, sorry day indeed.
The Legault government was rewarded with yet another majority mandate.
What went wrong or do most Quebecers have no trouble whatsoever with their rights being eclipsed in the name of COVID-19 safety protocols?
Our Montreal reporter, Alexa Lavaux, will weigh in with her analysis.
Most Canadians would likely consider veteran James Topp.
He's the man who marched across Canada in the name of freedom, to be a true patriot, but not global news, which actually maligned Mr. Topp as a white supremacist.
Drea Humphrey will weigh in on why Global News is now being sued by Topp for defamation.
I hope he takes him to the cleaners.
And I'll share some of your letters about that massive protest in Richmond Hill, Ontario last Saturday by mostly Iranian Canadians denouncing the Iranian regime regarding the death of Masa Amini, that 22-year-old lady who allegedly broke the hijab dress code and paid for it with her life.
Outrageous.
Those are your rebels.
Now, let's round them up.
I mean, as an English Canadian, if I were to tell you what little I knew about Francois Lago when he first won, I would say he was a little more business-oriented, a little bit anti-political establishment.
But I think he's really become the lockdown guy and the big government guy and the anti-freedom guy.
So maybe that's sort of the vote that Eric Duem and the Conservative Party has picked up.
You know, I'm just looking at the CBC projections, and again, that's just a projection.
There's still a lot of votes yet to be counted.
In fact, it looks like most polls have not been counted yet.
But still, I was just doing some math.
I was just doing it myself here.
The average of the four opposition parties is that they needed, for every 5% of the vote they got, they got one seat.
That's just the average.
Whereas the Coalition Avenue Quebec, they got 10 times that.
So for every vote they got, every percentage of the vote, they got two seats.
Let me say that again because I think I might have garbled a bit.
The vote for the CAC was so efficient that for every percent they got, they got two seats.
But for the opposition, for every percent they got, they got one-fifth of a seat.
So the opposition combined, which had more than 50% of the vote, only has 29 seats.
Do you see what I'm saying?
Like the CAC had 10 times more seats for every vote.
And I don't want to over talk about that because that just sounds like complaining at the electoral system.
But it shows how lucky Legault is.
He will have less than half the votes by the time we're done, but he will have probably 80% of the seats, Alexa.
Do you think he will think this is a complete endorsement?
Do you think Legault will say, you see, everything I did was popular.
I don't need to listen to critics.
They're all wrong.
I was right all along.
I'm going to go even harder now.
What do you think that's the lesson Legau might take from things?
Well, as you know, like Liker Mobaux, it's governing with surveys.
It's always you a call for something that he wants to implement, like for the curfew or for the mass.
He always did like some survey, and after that, it was like, This is what Kimaker wants, so I'm doing it.
And it would do again because it would say, Oh, I wasn't right.
That's what the Kimaker wants.
So now I know that I can do whatever I want.
You know, folks, my heart breaks for Quebec.
The lockdown guy, the vax guy, the curfew guy.
Yes, that would be Premier Legault.
He was actually re-elected on Monday.
So, what gives?
Do Quebecers like to have their rights and liberties abridged in the name of fighting a pandemic?
Or is there something more at play in this story?
And joining me now is our Montreal-based reporter, Alexa Lavois.
Bonjour, Alexa.
Bonjour.
Okay, I must say, Alexa, in my visits to Quebec in the last two years, at every protest I attended, the F Legau chant would erupt.
And based on this passion that I heard, I thought there might indeed be regime change coming to your province, given how brutally locked down Quebec was during these last couple of years.
But no.
So, in the immortal words of Fred Willard, what happened?
Oh, this is really complete.
You need to understand that one of the promise of Mr. Legault four years ago was to change the scrutiny, like how the vote mode was working.
So, they were supposed to change it because it's not working well and it's not representing the democracy anymore.
What we can see so far, the Conservative Party is segone in most of the riding, but with 13% of the vote, they got zero seat.
When we look at the Liberal Party, with 14% of the vote, they gained the first opposition with 21 seats, I think.
So, we are in a good position to ask questions.
We need to do something about how the vote is working because right now, you have just one position, and the rest of the voice is not heard.
We can see that Mr. Legau had win 15 seats.
This is a lot, no, more, it's 16 seats because it was 74 seats in 2018.
Now, he's at 90 seats.
But it's really difficult to understand because now we have more than half a million of people who are our friends with nobody to represent their voice at the National Assembly.
But, you know, Alexa, it was ever thus with our parliamentary system, you know, first past the post as opposed to a you know, a proportional percentage ranking.
Um, I'm a fan of the system as it is, to be quite frank.
Uh, I'm just wondering if we drill down deeper in terms of who was voting for the Legault government again.
I was told that he really captured a lot of the votes from the seniors in Quebec, that they, I guess, drank the media Kool-Aid, the mainstream media, that is, that having a curfew, having these mask regulations, having these brutal eclipses of Quebecers' rights and freedoms, that this was a good thing because the premier, he's keeping us safe.
What do you think about that?
But just before the vote, Mr. Legaud did a video saying, if you get us elected, you will receive between $400 to $600 to fight inflation.
And for the 70 years old and more, you will receive $2,000 in check at your home.
So, of course, like everybody was like, oh, but for $2,000, it's a lot for seniors.
You need to understand that for some of the elderly people, they are not rich.
They need to pay their medical place.
And at one point, they need money.
So $2,000 for them, it's a lot.
And I'm not blaming them.
I understand that they need money.
But the thing is, like in Quebec, the population is more old than active.
So for sure, like, but you need to understand one thing.
The people who vote for Mr. Legault in 2018 is not the same people who vote in 2022.
So Mr. Legault promised the same electoral program that the Conservative Party now, four years ago, it was almost the same promise that the Conservative is promising now.
So what happened is like Mr. Legault did promise so much for the active population who voted for him in 2018.
And now most of the people who voted for De La Caque, now they did vote for the Conservative Party of Quebec.
But I know that with my exit poll, some of them that believe in mainstream media, who think that Eric Duhem is an extremist and he should not be like represent in the National Assembly, did vote for Mr. Legault by a strategic vote, not because they wanted him, but because they didn't want it to give any space to Eric Duhem.
Fascinating.
And, you know, Alexa, maybe we should wrap it here.
I'm piggybacking on the conversation you and Ezra had on election night.
And it's this, and it's very ominous, I think.
If we go into another COVID wave, if we go into another lockdown phase, I think Premier Legault is now so emboldened because all of the stuff he did to the residents of Quebec, he didn't get punished at the polls.
He got rewarded with an even bigger majority.
I think if we do ever go into a COVID fighting lockdown mode, as the backroom Turner overdrive lyric goes, baby, you ain't seen nothing yet.
He might lock down even more severely the province of Quebec, which you could make the argument was perhaps the most locked down jurisdiction in all of North America.
Last word goes to you, Alexa.
But it's not only lockdown, it's not only like COVID stuff, but I will say he wants to turn completely our energy to electricity when he knows that we will have less and less electricity and we can't maybe have some problem to give like to produce electricity.
So I think just making like some mistake on the decision on electricity economy or any other big decision that we will fail will give some vote to the Conservative Party.
Well, maybe who knows when the next election will be, I assume four years, and we'll see what happens there.
But I really wasn't expecting the result that we saw on Monday.
I don't think you were either.
And now I, like I said, I just worry about how emboldened Premier Legault is, not just for lockdowns and COVID policies, but for anything.
He must feel like he's King Midas right now, Alexa.
So hopefully he will keep his arrogance in check, but I wouldn't bet against it.
But in La Bose, like La Bose writing for the two candidates, one have 200 vote different with La Caque, and the other one was about the same.
So it was so tight.
But just because of that, it's La Caque who gained like all the riding there.
So it's when you look at the electoral like map, it's all light blue everywhere.
Oh, geez.
Well, you could always, I guess, go down to Florida where Yankee is.
That seems to be the freest jurisdiction in all of North America.
And I know there's a lot of Quebecers that love to lounge in the beach there.
So maybe that's an option as opposed to enduring four more years of emperor, or I mean, Premier Lego.
Alexa, thank you so much.
It was excellent election coverage.
Wish the result was different.
You have yourself a wonderful Thanksgiving, my friend.
Many Have Already Seen That Article00:12:03
You too.
Thank you, Alexa.
And that was Alexa Lavois in Montreal.
Keep it here, folks.
More of Rebel Roundup to come right after this.
Well, you've been marching since February.
It is quite astonishing.
How many kilometers, real quick, have you marched?
Yeah, probably between 6,000 and 6,500 now.
Oh, my goodness.
Wow.
Well, you would think that would be the main story when you hit the news.
You're marching for freedom.
You've done so long and people have come together.
But instead, there was a different article that was put out back in August.
And that's why you and I are talking today.
You have retained a great lawyer.
His name is David Amalov from ReLaw.
Now, we're familiar with that firm.
We know they do amazing work.
So congrats there.
But tell us why you filed this notice of libel.
Yes, I think we had been taking the innuendo, the rumor mongering, the insinuation, and the guilt by association, too, I might add.
You know, with dignity and grace from the corporate media, this kind of this commenting, the stealth censorship, if you will.
But what happened on August the 18th, there was an article put out by Global News.
And they In the URL of the article itself, I have several, there's several labels applied.
I won't repeat them here, but they're egregious enough.
Again, they're insinuating that I am an extremist or the far right, whatever that actually means.
I'm not sure.
So I felt that now that was the time to stop taking the stuff lying down and to start pushing back a little with regards to at least getting some advice about potential legal action.
And that's what we did with Mr. Almala.
And he agreed with what he saw there.
There was in the URL a particularly offensive label applied to me, as well in search engine optimization.
So Google search tags, in other words.
And this is done, I think, deliberately.
And the article itself is not very accurate to say that I've not even been asked to comment on an article that is written about me or in which I'm referred to at least.
I think is a self-problematic.
So this is what we did.
We saw this happen.
I said enough's enough.
Let's see what we can do as far as legal action.
We reached out to Mr. Almala.
He agreed that there was potential there.
And we then began a crowdfunding effort to fund the legal action against global news over this article.
Well, I got to tell you, with covering many freedom protests, you know, and getting my boots on the ground and speaking to the people, which is not something you see as often with, you know, global news reporters and things like that.
I heard that from so many people that they were getting labeled with these horrible names, like all of a sudden, freedom represented, you know, white supremacy in these things.
It's really concerning.
The article you're speaking to is called or speaking about is good PR, why anti-hate experts are urging politicians to step up vet practices.
It was written by Rachel Gilmore, who's made a little bit of a Twitter buzz recently for, you know, saying that basically journalists are at risk from how other politicians or things like that are putting them out there.
So it's interesting when you're saying you felt like you were tied to these horrible things that could paint you a certain way.
Is drama queen Rachel Gilmore of Global News the dumbest journalist in Canada or the worst journalist in Canada?
Or maybe it's a blend of both.
After all, can you imagine insinuating that armed forces veteran and freedom fighter James Topp is a white supremacist and an extremist?
What a malicious dolt this fake news huckster is to imply that Topp is a threat to society as opposed to somebody that is standing up to a government that seems to rejoice in stripping us of our rights and freedoms.
And with more on this story is our Vancouver-based reporter, and that would be Drea Humphrey.
Hey, Drea, how are you doing there?
I'm good.
I'm glad I'm not on your journalistic bad side.
Yeah, keep that in mind.
No, no, I call him as I see him, and you're as good as gold, Drea.
But you know, Drea, I hope Mr. Topp's case is heard sooner rather than later, given that global news is allegedly on the brink of bankruptcy as they lobby the government for yet more taxpayer-funded bailouts.
That tells me that the vast majority of Canadians aren't buying what global woke news is selling.
Thank God.
But this hit piece by Rachel Crymore is beyond the pale.
What do you think her motivation was in terms of defaming James Topp in such a fashion?
Well, only she can speak to her motivation, but I did notice that she did two articles that were sort of focused on MP Pierre Polyev, who, of course, was campaigning for the leadership of the race.
So if I had to guess, I would think the point was to, you know, sort of vilify him by association.
But boy, did she pick the wrong person to do that with when you pick James Topp, you know, one of the Canada's freedom heroes.
He is the perfect example if you want to start some sort of movement for human rights of how to do so peacefully.
The man has just been walking across the country through all types of weather since February, first in British Columbia, and he's been doing so peacefully.
And people have been so inspired and encouraged.
And here he is, you know, being put in articles without being reached out to, ones that could make people believe he's a white supremacist simply for standing for the freedoms that so many millions of Canadians want to have back.
You know, well said, Drea, and I will say this: while vilifying an armed forces veteran like James Topp is beyond the pale, and there's no evidence to support their conclusions that he's a white supremacist nor an extremist, I do understand the motivation in terms of vilifying and demonizing Pierre Polyev, because should he become our next prime minister, there's a new sheriff in town,
and the mainstream media and the CBC, those billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies, they're going the way of the dinosaur.
So Global News and all the other lamestream media outlets, they have a very good motivation to tear down Pierre Polyev.
They don't want to see regime change ends and sorry, regime change occur, rather, Drea, because that means their paychecks and your thoughts.
Well, you know, I think the legacy media over the last two years has gotten away with vilifying freedom people and giving them labels, you know, maybe headed by our prime minister, you know, making them look racist and things like that.
And I think that's worked for a long time.
I think, like I said, Topp was sort of an afterthought for a different mission, but boy did it backfire because he lawyered up and he got a really good lawyer from RELA out in your neck of the woods.
And they said, you know what, we think you have a case here.
And Global News has 30 days, well, had 30 days, of course, time has passed to respond from that.
But you can see that they went ahead in that article and already Have done sort of a retraction to point out that none of the names in this article are in fact.
We're not saying they're white supremacists.
So, already a little bit of an action there, but I'd say that's a little too late.
Many people have already seen that article.
Less are going back to look at it and less they are following the reports that are covering this horrendous form of journalism.
No, I think you're right, Drea.
And Global News knows that it is in hot water because, as it was mentioned in your report, they have put an editor's note on the original story, an update, and it states the following: quote, the URL for this story has been revised to omit a reference to white supremacist to avoid any misunderstanding that persons named in the URL are associated with that label,
end quote.
So, you see what's happening?
They're already bending the knee.
They're already trying to repair the damage.
And as we know from our own defamation training, the faster you can go to correct a wrong, perhaps the least amount of damages is going to be applied to you, as opposed to a media organization being arrogant and saying, nah, we're fine where it is, or we'll get around to it.
So, this tells me, Drea, they know that they screwed up big time.
It certainly looks that way.
And what's also concerning about this is that they use the URL and search engine optimization tabs, big words there, to link.
That's what links talk to this.
So, that means when people are searching things like white supremacists in Canada, whose name pops up from one of the biggest news organizations in Canada?
This is unacceptable.
I'm so glad that he's taking a stand because enough is enough of these baseless, harmful labels.
And you know, you know, I guess we'll wrap it here because I go back to Rachel Gilmore, who seems to be the biggest drama queen in Canadian media right now.
This is someone who has been moaning that she's being attacked.
That's the word she uses.
And it's not the kind of attacks that you or Alexa Lavois or Sheila Gunreed have endured, i.e., physical attacks.
It's mean tweets.
And here she uses her platform to basically write a mega mean tweet regarding James Topp.
It's absolutely deplorable.
The other thing I got to ask you too, Drea, what is it with this chick that she is continually taking her blouse off?
You know, she's getting tattoos.
She's getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
It's like, look at me, look at me.
You know, I wonder if Rachel Gilmore doesn't realize that the true measure of a woman or any person is from here to here.
What's in your brain?
Because this woman just comes across as a bimbo to me so often.
I don't even know why her corporate masters at the failing global news tolerator.
Why Iran Ally Risks Everything?00:09:37
Last word goes to you, Drea.
Well, I'm slightly annoyed that I know her name.
Let's put it that way.
That's about all I say.
But I think we should end with a quick update on Top because that's really who people should be talking about on Twitter, not Miss Rachel Gilmore.
And so I spoke with him today, got an update.
And so he said the meet and greets went great, but he is very much looking forward to finally taking a rest.
And so this Saturday, he will be heading back to British Columbia and doing that.
So you can catch up more on him on CanadianMarches.ca.
But yeah, he's been marching forever.
I don't know how he did that.
Oh, I think he's marched over 6,000 kilometers, you know, which is astounding.
And one day, if I bump into him again, I got to ask him how many pairs of running shoes he's got through in that journey.
But you know, the media being the way it is, Drea, when he flies back to BC, your neck of the woods, they'll probably condemn him for the carbon footprint by going on a jet craft.
You know, they're probably going to say, why didn't you march back like how you marched here, right?
So they are despicable.
But Drea, great report.
Good to hear that.
That's a well-deserved rest for Mr. Topp.
And I know you'll give us another update, especially regarding this defamation lawsuit once we have more information.
Thank you so much, Drea, and you have a happy Thanksgiving.
All right.
Thank you, David, and everybody else.
Bye.
And that was Drea Humphrey in Vancouver.
Keep it here, folks.
More of Rebel Roundup to come right after this.
David Menzies for Rebel News here in Richmond Hill, Ontario.
And a massive protest is taking place right now on Young Street between 16th Avenue and Major Mackenzie.
It's actually being closed to traffic.
That's how big it is.
Thousands of people are here.
And the reason is much like the reason for protests erupting in Iran and all over the world.
Late last month, Masha Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, died in police custody very mysteriously.
Why was she arrested, you ask?
Well, the morality police arrested her because she wasn't wearing her hijab properly.
Can you imagine?
So the protest has spread to all of Iran's 31 provinces, to cities around the world.
And here we are in Richmond Hill, where there are literally thousands of people taking to the street.
And I got to tell you, folks, two questions spring to mind.
One is, what can Canada and other Western democracies do to help the Iranian people right now, especially since thousands have been arrested, dozens have been killed while demonstrating?
And secondly, isn't it funny?
Maybe he's here, but I don't think he is.
The liberal MP for this riding, the riding of Richmond Hale, that would be Majid Johari.
I don't think he'll dare show his face today, much like he didn't dare show his face at the vigil two years ago when the Ukrainian Airlines plane was shot down.
That's because if you can imagine, folks, Majid Johari actually supports this regime.
Yes, a Canadian member of parliament is an ally of the biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world, and it even terrorizes its own people.
In any event, let's wade into the crowd and see what these folks have to say.
The Islamic Republic is not Iran.
I think most people here, virtually everybody, would agree with that.
I guess there's a lot of people experiencing buyers' remorse from the 1979 revolution.
Yeah, I agree with that.
And that's why we're all here.
And we're supporting the people and our people and their voice in here.
And you know, it's such a shame what happened to Miss Amini.
She was arrested by the morality police, died for not allegedly wearing her hijab properly.
How can this force be called the morality police?
That seems to be the most immoral thing possible, killing someone for not wearing clothing properly.
That is just shameful and this is not right.
These protests have spread to all 31 of Iran's provinces.
They've spread to major cities around the world.
Here we are in Richmond Hill, thousands of people.
Here's a big question though.
In terms of tangible change in Iran, what would you like to see countries like Canada do to help the Iranian people?
Sure, the main thing that we want to get across is getting the IRGC as a terrorist organization.
They have a lot of family here.
There's going to be people here that you don't know.
They're associated with the regime back home, but they are.
They're going to be taking pictures of everyone, trying to catch them back home, putting them in prison.
So that's something we want to put a stop to.
They own a property in Bridal Path.
They own multiple businesses all around the GTA.
We want to put a stop to that.
Vancouver, all across Canada.
We want to put a stop to that.
Well, that was the scene in Richmond Hill last Saturday when more than 50,000 people showed up to protest the Iranian regime.
But these people realize that they have no ally in the Justin Trudeau liberals.
The very MP for Richmond Hill is pro-regime, if you can believe it.
And this government, for reasons that remain somewhat baffling, has yet to put the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the terrorism list.
Then again, when it comes to Prime Minister Blackface McGroper, he has admiration in his heart for the basic dictatorship that is China in terms of getting things done.
Maybe he also admires Iran for the same reasons.
Despicable.
In any event, you had plenty to say regarding the ever-growing thirst for regime change in Tehran.
Farzoon Melakani writes, Thanks for covering this.
You are the voice of freedom.
Majid Johari better be kicked out of the parliament.
This is an example of the penetration into the Western world's democracy.
Make sure Majid Johari knows that he is not wanted here.
Well, I'll tell you something, Farzoon.
I get more hopeful rather every day that the Mullahs are headed for defeat in Iran because Johari, you know, kind of like a rat jumping off a sinking ship, is suddenly down with the Iranian people.
Can you imagine?
Sorry, Majeed.
Nobody is buying what you're selling.
As the saying goes, a leopard cannot change his spots.
Outdoors Pat writes, another fringe protest.
Indeed, Pat.
And where was Justin's chief enabler, Jugmeet Singh, when all this was going down?
Or is this NDP woke clown of the belief that denouncing the Iranian regime might somehow be deemed as Islamophobic?
What a loser.
Blue Sky writes, OMG LOL, you really think Trudeau will do anything about this?
No way.
He has proven he likes countries that are dictatorships.
And have you ever seen the anger in his eyes when a strong woman stands up to him?
You are correct, Blue Sky.
The prime minister, unlike Pierre Polyev, was noticeably absent from this protest.
But then again, in fairness, he was preoccupied with urgent business.
I just can't remember if that urgent business was surfing or bungee jumping or channeling the band queen at a karaoke event.
Oh, let's pray for regime change in Iran and in Canada too.
My bag is itchy, writes, just guns.
Wow.
You see, people, you never know what can happen.
And this is a perfect example why gun rights are important and banning guns should never be allowed.
Indeed, Mike, and would it be great when all the currently legal firearms that are being confiscated from law-abiding Canadian gun owners in the upcoming gun grab, that all those guns would be sent to Iran to help the revolution?
That would be the right thing to do, which means, of course, the Trudeau government won't do it.
Shameful.
And Miriam Hugervorst writes, please do your proper research first before you parrot mainstream bias.
There are very few independent reporters in Iran, and this looks very much like another Arab Spring or color revolution effort on behalf of the usual suspects, not our friends.
Oh, I totally disagree with you, Miriam.
I've lived in Richmond Hill for 24 years.
Richmond Hill is home to a huge Persian population.
And I can tell you, every single Iranian I have met, with the notable exception of the liberal MP for Richmond Hill, Majid Jabroni, is anti-regime.
Look, the Shah was by no means a Boy Scout, but when it comes to the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the vast majority of Iranians now indeed suffer from buyers' remorse thanks to the vile theocracy that has taken place in Iran.
Rebel Roundup Wraps Up00:00:21
Let's hope there is a second revolution, the sooner the better, in order to oust this hideous and misogynistic regime.
Well, folks, that wraps up another edition of Rebel Roundup.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Have yourselves a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving.
See you next week.
And hey, never forget, without risk, there can be no glory.