Ezra Levant recounts Tommy Robinson’s June 25 Calgary arrest—detained for six hours under CBSA immigration orders, not local police, after a speech to 150 attendees—with bizarre travel restrictions blocking him from events in Edmonton and Toronto despite no passport surrender. Legal challenges led by Alan Hepner and Kevin Zemp expose Ottawa’s arbitrary rules, while viral media attention (30M+ views) frames this as a free-speech battle amid Trudeau’s political instability. Levant’s surety offer and crowdfunding efforts aim to restore Robinson’s tour, exposing government overreach in silencing dissent. [Automatically generated summary]
I'm in Calgary with Tommy Robinson, who's scheduled to give a speech in Edmonton tonight and Toronto on Sunday.
Alas, he was arrested by border police, and given conditions, he cannot leave the city.
I'll tell you the whole legal saga, but first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus.
That's the video version of this podcast.
Just go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe, it's eight bucks a month, and you get the interesting visuals that accompany this podpit card cast.
Excuse me.
And in today's show, for sure, you don't want to miss that.
All right, here's today's podcast.
Tonight, after his first speech in Canada, Tommy Robinson is arrested.
I'll tell you exactly what happened and what we're doing about it.
It's June 25th, and this is The Ezra LeVance Show.
Shame on you, you censorious thug.
Oh, hi there.
I'm in a very natural setting.
I'm by myself.
I don't have a videographer.
I came to Calgary because this was the first stop in our three-city tour of Tommy Robinson speaking in Canada.
And the Calgary event was great.
We were very excited.
We were looking forward to Edmonton.
I was excited to show Tommy Robinson around my home province or the province of my youth.
And then out of nowhere, four plain clothes police undercover, I guess, and four uniform police grabbed Tommy, handcuffed him, arrested him, piled him into a couple of vans, and took him away.
Here, take a look.
How's your love?
You got one more D. We'll bend my stuff, we'll bend my stuff.
We'll bend your stuff.
Absolutely.
For an outstanding immigration law.
Tommy, yeah.
I love you buddy, I think I'll put these in front of you.
Yeah, you can't check me in there.
Thank you.
So, wait.
Calgary is fine.
Justin Trudeau.
Tell me, do they tell you what you're being arrested for?
Thank you.
Where can I go to help him get a lawyer and get bail?
He'll have access to a lawyer.
Which police?
Which police?
APU.
Keep you going downtown and APU.
Which precinct?
APU or downtown?
Where can I go to help to help out?
Which precinct?
Go to your ballot box.
That's how you can help out.
Ezra Levant here with an emergency update.
I'm standing outside the carriage-in hotel in Calgary, Canada, where Tommy Robinson just finished giving a major speech to 150 Calgarians about freedom of speech and law fare and his battles in the UK.
No sooner did he finish that speech and walk outside, but he was swarmed with 10 police officers, half of them undercover in plain clothes, half of them uniformed, who put him in the back of an SUV.
There were three police vehicles and they drove him off.
We asked what the charge was.
We asked where he was being taken to.
Police refused to give us the answer.
Tommy was in town as part of a three-city speaking tour for Rebel News.
Tonight was the first night in Calgary.
Tomorrow night in Edmonton, he's expected.
And next Sunday in Toronto.
Police have obviously jumped in to upset this and to do who knows what.
They wouldn't tell us.
I immediately got on the phone with one of Calgary's top criminal lawyers, who himself jumped on the phone.
Step one is to locate Tommy.
He could be at a number of different holding centers depending on what the alleged offense is.
We think it might be an immigration warrant, and so that tells us where to find him.
We will be working.
As you can see, the sun is setting.
It's after 9 p.m., but we have got the lawyer engaged.
I am now going to see what I can do to assist in finding him, deploying the lawyer, and freeing Tommy, not only so he can finish his speaking tour in Canada, but that he can fight what's another obvious political stitch-up.
I am not surprised that the Canadian government, which takes orders from Justin Trudeau, would engage in censorship of a free speech activist like Tommy Robinson.
That seems to be Canada's reputation these days, but as you know, it's Rebel News' reputation to fight back.
Those sirens I hear are from an ambulance.
Don't you worry.
There's not more police coming.
In fact, I think the good guys are just getting started.
Well, I was lucky I hadn't gone home for the night, and a whole team of ours followed him downtown to the federal building.
I didn't know they took arrested people to the federal building.
That's news to me.
Here's how that went.
We can cover all of that.
I mean, Rebel News will put up a surety bond for him.
We can insist and assist with accommodations for him.
We can sort of be his guarantors or assurities.
I just got a phone call from one of Calgary's most senior criminal defense lawyers, Alain Hepner.
I interrupted him at his home, of course, at 9:30 p.m., moments after Tommy was arrested so unceremoniously after his well-received speech in Calgary.
For those who are just joining this insane story, Tommy was speaking in Calgary to a great crowd.
It was a wonderful speech about censorship, about government lawfare.
And he steps out, feeling great after standing ovation, and he's swarmed by police, half of them undercover, half in uniform.
They bundle him up in a SUV and they drive him here of all places.
It's the federal building called the Harry Hayes Building.
And if you can see over here, they have a sign of what's banned.
Bicycles are banned.
Skateboards are banned.
Rollerblades are banned.
And political speech that Justin Trudeau doesn't like is banned.
I've never heard of people being detained at the federal building, and that's a whole new question we got to look into.
But I moments ago received a phone call from Alan Heppner, and I got some details on the reason for Tommy's arrest.
It's an alleged immigration infraction.
Right now, the lawyer is working with the police to see if there is a way that Tommy can be released under a set of conditions rather than being held in jail for an undetermined period of time.
I offered to be Tommy's surety.
That means to put up a bond to guarantee that he would be of good behavior.
Goal number one is to get him out of custody.
He's in a holding situation here at Harry Hayes, but if they transfer him to the remand center, that is an atrocious place for anyone.
So priority one is to get him out of this building.
Priority two, once that is achieved, is to find a set of conditions or orders that Tommy can live with to get out of jail.
And I don't know what those will be.
I'm absolutely delighted that our lawyer is working at this late hour.
We have the best person in the city on it.
I'm really amazed that he's able to jump on this case within minutes.
Hopefully the lad will be out and not spend even a single night in custody.
I haven't talked to the lawyer about his fee.
I just wanted to get him working.
I will obviously pay the fee.
If you can help me crowdfund that fee, I'd be grateful to you.
We set up a little crowdfund page at TommyTrial.com.
If you can chip in a few quid or a few dollars, I'd be grateful.
I want him out.
I want him safe.
I want him free.
And I want him speaking truth to power.
Frankly, as a Canadian, I'm a little bit embarrassed of what happened to him.
48 Hours in Custody00:02:23
That's not the Canada I know.
The Canada I know and love believes in free speech.
What Tommy saw today was the Canada of Justin Trudeau.
Let's get that lad out and let's get him doing what he does best.
We were there till very late trying to get in.
Tommy was eventually released after midnight after we managed to hire a lawyer to connect with the arresting officers.
Tommy, you're out.
I'm out, but I'm banned from leaving Alberta.
I'm banned from leaving Calgary.
Banned from leaving Calgary.
I have to see.
I have to have my part.
The conditions are, conditions on release are, I have to give my passport in in the morning.
I'm not allowed to leave Canada.
I said, what if I just want to go home?
they said you're not allowed to so if there's certain conditions i'm not allowed to i have to come here every tuesday wednesday and friday And I have to give them the address of where I am, notify them of any hotel I'm staying in.
But not, I don't understand it in the sense of.
Do you have to make any bond or surety?
Do you have to burn any money up?
No bond or assurity.
No, they just said, I just have to wait now.
But I said, well, how does that make sense?
Because I meant to go home anyway.
it's my daughter's birthday and they said well you don't automatically you can't go home basically you can't you don't have we You don't automatically have permission to go home.
We're taking your passport and you're awaiting a hearing.
Now, obviously, fixing these problems is priority one, but in terms of your Canadian speaking tour, we had you scheduled for Edmonton tomorrow.
I'm not allowed to go to Edmonton.
They made that clear.
You're not allowed to, it says it here.
Red Deer.
What's Red Deer?
Red Deer.
That's a city in central Alberta.
Okay, that's where I'm allowed.
Not allowed south for Red Deer.
It says, turn in your passport no later than 11 a.m.
Remain in southern Alberta, Red Deer to the USA border at all times.
That's so weird and arbitrary.
That's to stop me going to Edmonton.
It's to stop me talking in Toronto.
That's the sole purpose of this.
What's what I said?
The sole purpose of this is to stop me having discussions and talking in the cities I was meant to be in.
Maybe we'll have to reschedule that Edmonton event in Red Deer.
In Red Deer, yeah, yeah.
Maybe we'll have to get a bus to bring our Edmontonians down to Red Deer.
Now, this is all waiting for what?
Like, what are we waiting for?
Is there a hearing?
They're waiting for a hearing, yeah.
They said waiting for a hearing, but I said, how long can a hearing take?
They said, they didn't say.
48 Hours in Vancouver00:04:01
So they said originally they were talking about holding me here.
They said they might hold me for 48 hours and then transfer me to Vancouver on a plane.
48 hours in this building or local jail?
In a jail.
So in a jail for 48 hours and then transport me in a plane to Vancouver.
In a plane to Vancouver.
Why?
Because that must be where their centre is.
So this was immigration and immigration, yeah.
And inside there, were you just in an office?
I was called into immigration.
I've done a three-hour interview in immigration.
To come in here.
I went through immigration.
I said that I went through immigration to come in here.
I don't want you to say anything that you think is confidential that you want to share only with a lawyer, but what exactly have they accused you of?
They haven't accused me of anything, just immigration violations.
immigration violations and they said they detained me under you ever been to canada before No.
And they arrested me under a warrant.
Did you get my recording from in the back of the car?
Yeah.
Where it was saying that I was recording it in the back of the car and it was saying the man who's authoritative.
And do you know what?
I'll be straight up.
The three officers were lovely.
And they said this isn't us.
The copper said that.
Can I ask you who's made the order for my arrest?
The minister's delegate.
The minister's delegate.
Who's the minister's delegate?
It's one of the artists.
One of the what?
One of the artists.
One of the officers.
Is that government?
So just like.
The director with the CBSA.
A director with who?
CBSA General Border Services Agency.
A director with the CBSA has signed the order to have me arrested sign and an arrest warrant.
Okay.
I'm guessing now what, and you look to know what arrest me, you've left all my stuff there, my passport, but you're going to deport me.
No, there's a whole procedure that we have people.
There's a whole procedure.
I believe that.
Yeah, they were really nice.
They were really nice.
Even then, they were really nice.
They said, look, this isn't us.
And this goes because I said, well, how can I be held?
What you're saying, I just can't leave.
I haven't even got anywhere.
I've got a hotel room for a night.
How can I be held here for weeks and weeks?
He goes, well, you're held.
We're taking your passport tomorrow.
So you have to apply for everything.
Well, let me say this.
You dealt with Alan Hepner on the phone.
I spoke to him on the phone, yeah.
In my experience, he's one of the top criminal lawyers in Calgary.
Now, and if this is more an immigration matter, he'll know the right people.
I believe, just based on what you've told me in the last five minutes, that it may be possible to get an expedited hearing in front of a judge to alter these conditions.
Yeah, it's because the conditions, because if I'm in Canada, I'm in Canada.
Because these were just conditions placed on you by the police, right?
There was no hearing, there was no judge.
These were by the police to, if I want to get out.
So if you want to get out, agree to these conditions.
You did the right thing by agreeing to it, just to get out of there.
The idea of sending you to Vancouver is insane.
They probably would have put you at the Remand Center, which is an awful, awful jail here in town.
So you made the right decision by agreeing to those.
We'll be back here by 11 in the morning to give them my passport.
We'll work with Alan or whoever immigration expert he advises to see how quickly we can get in front of a judge to vary these.
This is the police's opinion.
And they had custody of you, so they really had you.
I believe so.
I'm not an expert in immigration law, but I'm glad it's a Monday as opposed to a weekend.
We should be able to get you into court quickly.
Tuesday, Wednesday.
What did I say?
It says on there.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday.
I have to be in here between 9 and 12.
Just to check in, is that what you said?
Just to check in, yeah.
Check in on Tuesday, Tuesday, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
That's Tuesday and Wednesday.
Even that doesn't even make sense.
That's just, I don't know, I've got the weekend.
Go do it for the weekend.
Well, I don't want to make light of things, but I got to say, I mean, I was born and raised in Calgary, and it's a wonderful city.
I asked them, I asked them specifically, I said, look, your borders are open like every other country's borders.
Is this normal?
It's four cars of officers turning up.
They were armed.
Are all your officers armed?
Are your officers fired?
They had firearms.
Most police aren't.
They are, okay, not in England.
I said, is this normal to come and pick someone up?
Meet the Detained Journalist00:15:13
I said, you've seen what I was doing.
I was just doing a speaking engagement.
They said, where have you been?
I said, yesterday I met NZAF Badawi.
That's why I travelled here.
I've just met family, spoke to them, and today I was talking about freedom of speech.
You were talking about the very things that happened to you in the moment you can finish your speech.
You talked about law fair centers.
They mentioned a threat to national security.
That's what they mentioned.
You hear them in the car.
Yeah, what?
Did they particularize that?
No.
No, one of the reasons you could be being detained is for this reason.
It's like, free speech.
You know, as you said- I'm out, because I was sort of thinking, not again.
Not again.
And I'm in Canada.
Well, let me tell you, we've posted a few tweets and a few short videos, and even though it's, what time is it here, it's, it's, it's.
It's late at night here.
It's not morning yet in the UK, so it's that time when North America and Europe are sleeping.
But despite that, the videos that we've posted about your arrest have been seen hundreds of thousands of times.
And they've been retweeted by people who are shocked, including Jordan Peterson, by the way.
And I understand you're scheduled to meet with him?
Well, I was scheduled.
Now it doesn't look like I'm possible to, does it?
Well, let me say the opposite.
I believe that, and by the way, this was a federal thing.
This was Justin Trudeau's border services.
This isn't a local Calgary Police.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
This wasn't Calgary Police.
He says that, didn't he?
I recorded him.
So I've got the recording on my phone.
So I recorded in the back of the car with my phone in my pocket and just said, tell me who instigated this.
And he gives me the name, doesn't he?
He gives me the name on there.
and I think he said it's federal government.
Well, listen, you've had a busy, you're probably still jet lagged because you just got in the country.
I'm glad you're out too.
Thanks for getting the lawyer.
He's the best, and we'll get the best.
We'll see if we can get before a judge, see if we can get these conditions altered.
I want to meet the people in Toronto.
I still want to go.
I want to go to Toronto.
I certainly wanted to meet Jordan Peterson and Tammy Peterson.
I've admired and watched them for a long time, which is what I said to them.
I'm not here as a risk.
I'm here as a journalist.
I'm a journalist.
Did any of them watch the presentation?
No.
And they were waiting outside till it was over?
Yeah, well, I just, I went upstairs and then as I come walking outside, they just come running over.
So they're waiting.
Did they handcuff you?
Yeah, they did.
Why would they do that?
That's outrageous.
Yeah, I said that to them as well as I was back in the back of the car.
Just take my handcuffs off, man.
At least unlike the Metropolitan Police, they didn't pepper spray you.
No, they didn't.
And you know what?
They were really nice.
I'm going to say, I don't think they liked what they were doing.
And in fact, they were saying, I asked him multiple times.
He said, look, I can't comment on our country's situation and I can't comment on any of these things, Tommy.
And he kept it, they seem very sympathetic.
You know, Calgary is the freest.
They seem very nice.
The police officers are very nice.
They all shook my hands on the way out of the door as well.
They just said, look, this is what it is.
This has come.
And they said, this isn't our decision.
They made that very clear.
This isn't our decision.
None of it's our decision.
You hand your passport in, whether you can leave the country, it's not down to us.
It's from up there.
Well, it's pretty late, and I know you'll be wanting some sleep.
If they try and hold me in the country, so I'm Mr. Lydia 7th.
I wonder if they're going to try and hold me in Canada for months.
I've got lots going on in the UK.
That's what I was thinking.
They're going to detain me and keep me here for months.
Because he said, like, it's not up to you when you go home.
You can't just go home.
Well, that's madness.
And I, listen, what they said, that's their opinion as police.
That's not, I think, get in front of a judge.
You came to this country to do public interest journalism, speaking.
You came by invitation of Gad Sad and Tammy and Jordan Peterson.
You came here in good faith.
I did in good faith.
I've had a nice time.
I've been in Montreal.
I said to them, I've been in Montreal for a week.
I had a lovely time.
I said, I went to the Bad Badawis yesterday For dinner, I said, I've come here now with Rebel Media.
Said, I worked for Rebel for two years, said I've come to thank their supporters.
What's the problem?
Well, I don't understand the problem.
It's not like there's been a high-risk event.
It's not like there's been any protests.
There wasn't a single protester at your event tonight.
Nothing.
It was a nice event, wasn't it?
I really, yeah.
I was just about to go get some did us.
We just found the name of the best steakhouse in the city.
It's like, boom.
Well, we'll help you out.
We'll get whatever lawyer.
I mean, I'm from this town, so I think we've got some friends that we can get together to help.
Folks, if you want to chip in to help cover the criminal lawyer who did his work tonight and the immigration lawyer that we'll likely need, I'm not an expert in these matters, but it seems to me that step one is to get before an actual judge and have these conditions varied.
I do not believe it makes sense to keep you here indefinitely.
Yeah, indefinitely for how long?
That's what I said.
For how long?
I asked him, for how long?
He said.
So we're going to get right on this first thing in the morning.
I'm glad you're out.
I'm glad you're not staying in a cell.
If you want to help cover the lawyers, the criminal lawyer, the immigration lawyer, go to tommytrial.com.
I was planning on spending tomorrow going up to Edmonton with you.
So, you know, we'll spend the day.
We'll spend the day lawyering.
I don't know what we can do with our Edmonton event other than cancel it.
I mean, we could try and bust them down to Red Gear, but I think we've got to focus instead on getting you a legal solution.
Tommy, I'm glad you're out.
Well, one of Tommy's instructions was to present himself to the same federal building this morning to hand in his passport.
But that's a strange thing because he can't go home.
They want to deport him, I suppose.
But he can't leave if they have his passport.
I think, no exaggeration, the last seven days I've had 680 pieces of bacon.
Literally.
Right, I'm on the way to the police station, which is one of my conditions upon release from last night, to surrender my passport.
So I have to give them my passport.
Got lots of conditions in here.
I have to report to the police station three times a week.
I'm sort of a bit conscious that I may well get here this morning because I've seen it's now blown up all over.
It's viral everywhere.
So I may turn up this morning and they may just grab me again.
That's what I'm conscious of.
So we'll find out now.
I don't know what that means because yes, I was concerned yesterday because they said you'll be getting detained in inter custody, which is a prison.
I don't know what a prison is going to be like here.
I don't know what it's going to be like for Islamic prisoners.
If it's an immigration center, it's going to be full of probably Islamic migrants.
So who knows, man?
We'll see now.
But all in all, what have I come to do?
I've come to give a couple of talks.
I gave a great talk last night.
It was a lovely event.
A really peaceful, nice event with great people.
I don't understand the problem.
And I was detained for three hours at immigration on the way in it.
If there was any problem, they could have sorted it out then.
So who knows?
It seems like it's a control order, that this is a control order they've given me to limit my movement in Canada from going to other cities and having discussions.
I was meant to meet Jordan Peterson and his wife, Tammy Peterson, for discussions.
That would be a big platform for me.
I was supposed to be in Toronto for an event.
I was supposed to be in Edmonton for an event today.
It seems like they're just trying to control that, which is controlling free speech, which is controlling people's movement, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press.
I'm a journalist.
Why is it?
Time will tell.
Ezra Levant here with Tommy Robinson.
Tommy, we were at this exact building last night.
They finally released you just after midnight.
It's now the following morning and you have to present your passport, surrender it.
Tell me how you're feeling today and what's going on.
More confused about everything.
As I said, I spent three hours in immigration.
I've been here.
When you landed in Montreal.
When I landed in Montreal, I spent three hours in immigration.
They contacted people I was staying with.
They wanted addresses.
They wanted to see my return flight.
They had all that information.
So I was just surprised.
Even when they've detained me last night, it seems like this is to control where I can and can't go because I'm not allowed out of this city.
We were due to have an event in Edmonton.
I was due to meet Jordan and Tammy Peterson in Toronto.
We were due to do an event in Toronto.
This limits me doing that.
I'm also a bit conscious that I may walk in here now.
I've got to surrender my passport, but I think they may detain me.
I don't know.
I don't trust them.
So I don't trust them.
I don't know what they're going to do.
As I said, I come here.
I've met Rafe Badawi's family, N. South Badawi.
I've just, I'm not causing any problem in Canada.
No, you're an invited guest.
You're here to do public interest journalism, to tell us the story of your journalism, to learn about Canada.
You are, I guess you could say, a tourist or a visitor.
Even as we drove here, we saw migrants.
I saw migrants absolutely off their head on drugs with no shoes on running around the street acting crazy.
That's who.
It's like I said to the gentleman last night, you seem to get really, really heavy-handed on the wrong people.
Like, yeah, you do need tough borders.
You do need to monitor who's coming into your country.
But at the minute, you've got lots of dangerous people entering on a daily basis without any papers or passports.
Well, we're going to go in because we want to make sure we're not late.
You've got that 11 a.m. deadline to hand it off.
God forbid, if you are detained, we have an excellent lawyer named Elaine Heppner who did work with them last night.
We've got a meeting with him scheduled that we're going to try and revise the conditions that you're under.
The crazy thing is, I said to him, it's my daughter's birthday coming up.
I said, so if I want to go home, I've got a flight book to go home.
They said, no, you're not free to go home.
It's so weird.
Like if they don't want you.
If you don't want me, get rid of me.
Yeah.
So we're going to go in.
Hopefully, it's just handing a passport and you're free.
But if you are detained, we'll get straight to work in getting you out.
We are scrambling to try and rearrange things so you can do some public interest work here in Calgary and maybe even fit in a trip to Banff, Alberta, which is allowed in your conditions.
I want you to see the Rocky Mountains.
I want you to have them.
I want to see him as well.
As I said, if I'm stuck here, I want to see him as well.
One last thing.
At breakfast in the hotel today, people were coming up to you to say hello, ordinary people.
It's sort of neat here, even thousands of miles away from the UK.
People know who you are.
Yeah, it's good.
And all they're going to have done is raise my profile.
And hopefully, if they raise my profile, people don't listen to the headlines and the smears.
They actually listen to what I'm saying.
And all I'm saying is giving, we're ahead of the curve from Canada.
We're way ahead of the curve on the problems that open border immigration are going to bring you, the problems of Islamization.
We come with a warning.
That's what I've come here to do.
Give Canadians a warning, but also to tell them to wake up and stand up.
The time to be silent is no longer.
You're going to lose your country.
You're going to lose your identity.
You're going to lose your children's freedoms and safety.
One last thing.
We did hire the top criminal lawyer in Calgary.
His name's Alain Hepner.
He was amazing.
He got straight on it last night, worked till after midnight.
I've spoken to him today.
If you can help me crowdfund the legal bills for Tommy, I'd appreciate it.
I don't want to give away all of the details of what we're doing, but we have meetings with him.
If you can help chip in to crowdfund that cost, I'd be grateful.
Go to savetommy.com.
Save Tommy.com.
Get me to Toronto.
I still want to come to Toronto.
I still want to come to Toronto.
So whatever legal avenue there is to try and get me to Toronto, if we can try and maneuver these conditions, then I want to try.
I've come to Canada.
I've come to Canada and I know there's hundreds of people who have already paid to attend an event.
I want to come and speak to them.
So we went there to drop off his passport, but they wanted to do more than that.
They wanted to talk to him about his plans.
It's clear they want him out of the country, but they're not quite sure how to do it.
Here's an update on how that interesting conversation went.
No, this ain't where it was now.
I'm standing inside the Harry Hayes building.
That's the federal building in Calgary.
I'm in the fairly secure office of the Canada Border Services Agency.
That's basically the Border Police.
These are the people who arrested Tommy last night and held him until we were able to get him released on conditions just after midnight.
Tommy was required to present himself this morning before 11 a.m. to surrender his passport and to have a discussion.
He has surrendered the passport and is now being fingerprinted.
I was allowed in the room as an observer.
I'm not a practicing lawyer, but I was a lawyer in the past, so I'm aware of certain legal issues.
I asked if I could get a proper lawyer on the phone and they said yes.
I made a phone call and we think that we can get a really top immigration lawyer to join the conversation.
Alain Heppner is a top criminal lawyer.
We think we can get a top immigration lawyer just so we have the best advice possible from people who do this every day.
While we're waiting for that second lawyer to come through, they're fingerprinting Tommy.
They say they're going to come back for me in about five or ten minutes and we'll have the discussion really.
It almost feels like a kind of negotiation.
Does Tommy just want to go home?
Does he want to finish his tour in Canada?
Will that be permitted?
Let me tell you the most important takeaway before I they're gonna come and grab me any minute to go back in and I definitely want to be in there.
They took note of the massive global media footprint.
They raised that, not me or Tommy.
So they are extremely aware that all eyes are on Calgary and it is clearly animating them.
I have to say they have been exquisitely friendly with me.
Maybe they're just friendly people by nature, but I think they know the eyes of the world are on this.
And so they want to be on their best behavior.
And by the way, Tommy's on his best behavior.
And if there's a path forward, I hope we can find it.
To me, that would include allowing Tommy to go on with the show.
He has a speech planned for Edmonton tonight.
I don't know if it's possible to say that.
He has a speech planned for Toronto in less than a week.
He has other appointments, including a podcast with Jordan and Tammy Peterson.
Oh, looks like I've got to go back in.
Thanks.
Yes.
Thank you so much.
So the option has been given that, obviously I'm not allowed to leave Calgary, but they asked what my plans would be and when I'd leave.
I said, I want to go to Toronto.
I've had an event planned about freedom of speech.
I want to go to Toronto.
And Ezra then offered to put up a bond for that to say, because I have to sign in here on a Tuesday, Wednesday, and a Friday.
So I could go to Toronto on a Saturday, be there Sunday, come back on Monday, and I can still meet their conditions.
So Ezra put forward and said he'll offer a bond.
They sounded susceptible to it.
You know, if I'm putting myself in the shoes of that frontline immigration cop, he looks at Tommy and says, that guy's a handful.
And I get it.
Tommy used the word for Rebel News.
He is a handful.
But I said to him, give that job to me.
If you're worried about Tommy complying, put it on me.
I'll guarantee that he shows up where he's supposed to.
I'll guarantee that he gets on the plane when he, I'll drive him to the airport.
And I even offered to put up a bond, which is basically signing a check to the government that they hold as ransom for your good behavior.
And I think that they were sort of pleasantly surprised by that idea.
And we got on the speaker phone, a very senior immigration lawyer, Kevin Zemp, who sort of walked us through it.
Border Police Script Readings00:06:22
And he reminded the border police about free speech.
because Tommy is here to talk about free speech, which in itself is an act of free speech, and it is so crystal clear to me that this arbitrary rule, that Tommy can't go north of Red Deer or south...
It doesn't make sense.
It's what Louis said.
doesn't make sense.
How can that make sense?
Just make sense.
There is only one reason for that weird geographical rule and it's to stop Tommy giving the speech.
So the lawyer chimed in then, a very polite lawyer, but very sound.
And he said, Tommy has his free speech rights too.
So we've got a half hour lunch break and they're going to take it up the food chain, but that's what scares me, Tommy.
The media was worrying them though as well.
The first comment he made, the first comment he made is, look, we see how big this has gone.
I'm so glad you're we didn't mention it.
We didn't bring it up.
It was the first thing on his mind.
I think that when yesterday in the truck, the cops said to you that the director of the CBSA ordered your arrest.
Is that what I heard correctly?
So this is the big boss man.
This is Trudeau's hand-picked boss of the border police, who from Ottawa would have ordered your arrest.
And the way you described it, the cops who picked you up...
When we got down here, they couldn't have been nicer.
They went and got me at Tim Horns.
So I think you've got the frontline border police who realize you're not a threat.
There are actual illegal migrants to Canada every day.
There are real border crises.
You're not it.
They want to let you go.
And frankly, they'll be happy when you're gone.
But they don't want to put you in jail.
They don't want to do these things.
But the bosses in Ottawa.
and so let's see what the I make a good faith offer Put me in charge of Tommy.
Make me responsible for him following the rules.
And I'll pay a bond to guarantee it.
Time will tell.
Tom will tell.
All right.
We put to them the idea that I would become the surety, that I would become the guarantor of Tommy's good behavior.
I've sort of done that before when Tommy worked for Rebel News.
I was sort of in charge of him following the rules.
It's a tough thing, to be sure, to manage Tommy Robinson.
He's sort of lightning in a bottle.
But I offered to do that and basically to take the problem off of the cops and onto myself.
And they seem to like the idea, but of course it wasn't theirs to make.
They had to kick the decision upstairs to their bosses in Ottawa.
No, they've just refused.
But they've refused.
Not the officers, they've refused.
They just said, let's come back.
No, we're not changing the conditions.
You're not allowed to leave this city.
They're not telling me when I need to go home either.
They just said, you're not allowed to leave the city.
You know, I thought, I thought, I thought they were, no, no, they really seemed like they were going to let us go.
I think the local cops thought, get Tommy out of our hair, stop the hurricane of global bad press and get him on his way.
I thought they would take the deal where I basically say, make me the cop.
I said, I'll fly home.
I want to go to Toronto.
I'll fly straight home.
Once I've done my event.
But they kicked it upstairs to the boss.
In fact, they were late.
They said, give us half an hour.
We got back there.
They weren't ready.
They needed five minutes.
They needed 10 minutes.
They were obviously having a back and forth debate with their Ottawa bosses.
And then they come back, and because we had the immigration lawyer on the phone, they come back and said, no, you're only allowed five days from when you do a speaking event.
You're allowed five days.
And the immigration lawyer said, no, you're not.
You're allowed five different dates.
That's the USA representative.
So if you guys go to the lawyer, that's a reference to our call in.
Okay, thank you.
That's my turn.
Thank you.
Officer Jordan is not going to be available after tomorrow, but I'll be covering until Wednesday and then he's back Wednesday.
So that's his turn.
So I'll give all this to our solicitor.
Yeah, okay.
Cool.
All right, cool.
Thanks very much, Cheers.
So when I say give all this to our solicitor, it's because they said, well, now we're not letting you do that.
What are you doing next?
And obviously the immigration lawyer was on the phone.
I said, well, we're going to court.
Yeah.
We're going to court tomorrow, hopefully.
I mean, you can see those were them right there.
We had to give us some paperwork here because we're retaining Kevin Zemp, who's the leading immigration lawyer in the city.
I feel like we've had some really good representation.
Let me give you an example of that.
They came up with some rule, they just invented.
They can't rule, they say, you're not allowed to talk for five days, and he just said, no.
Our lawyer knew the law.
And he read it.
He said, no, you're not allowed to do a seminar of more than five days.
Tommy gave a speech and he's going to give another speech.
Our lawyer caught that.
That was obviously a trick that someone in Ottawa cooked up.
These two here were like reading from a script they were handed.
I'm not mad at these two.
Yeah, and I don't know who's pulling the strings in Ottawa, but I know this.
We have an excellent lawyer who on the phone said, let's go to the room.
He said, wait, wait, let's go straight to court.
He said, this is a free speech fight.
Let's go to court.
I'm excited about it because we are, I think we have the moral high ground here.
Tommy is exercising free speech, and they're stopping him from talking about free speech.
This is a battle that's happening in the UK, happening in Canada, happening around the world, this free speech battle.
I want to tell you these are great lawyers.
Alan Hepner on the criminal side, Kevin Zemp on the immigration side.
I need your help, though.
I haven't got the legal bills yet.
I'm a little bit scared.
If you can go to savetommy.com, because I think we're going to be in court as soon as tomorrow.
Do you know what?
Say we win.
That's what I said.
I said, say we go to court tomorrow and we beat them and we win.
And then we go to Toronto for our speech and our event.
It's going to blow.
It's going to be massive.
Because they've tried to stop.
They don't want the public hearing what we're coming to say.
So yeah, I'm excited.
But again, I don't know how much all the lawyers are going to cost, but we're hoping we're in court tomorrow.
If you've contributed, I'm personally grateful.
It's a battle for free speech and it's about, we want to win.
And at least we want to be in the fight.
We are in the fight.
If you have tickets for the Toronto event, don't give up.
We're trying to save that Toronto event.
We're coming.
So we're not refunding your tickets yet until we have our day in court.
All right, we better get going.
We've got a lot of stuff to do, but thanks for your support, everybody.
Thank you.
Well, unfortunately, the proposal we had was not accepted.
We have a few excellent lawyers on this case.
And so in the days ahead, we're going to try whatever we can to get those conditions amended so that Tommy Robinson can indeed finish his speaking tour in Toronto as scheduled on Sunday.
We have a lot of people who have signed up at TommyTour.ca to hear him speak.
And it would be a shame if he isn't allowed to do that.
Every Seat Up For Grabs00:02:37
In addition, he had events scheduled, for example, an interview with Jordan Peterson and Tammy Peterson.
That's being scuppered now because of this geographical restriction, which feels like it's very political in nature.
There's no real reason why he can go to Red Deer or Lethbridge, but not Toronto.
They're all within Canada.
He can't leave the country anyways because he doesn't have his passport anymore.
It's an interesting battle and it's very exciting.
And as usual with Tommy, millions of views follow.
I mean, the video I uploaded of his arrest outside our event was seen millions of times.
And by my rough estimate at this point, all the different videos of the different moments of his arrest are about 30 million.
The guy is a global free speech force.
And in fact, one of the very first things that the cop mentioned to us when we met with him was how much media coverage this has received.
Obviously, the Trudeau government wants Tommy Robinson out of here.
The question is, will they be reasonable with him while he's here or will they be political and punish him?
We'll find out.
I'm going to stick around Calgary for another day to see if I can help the legal resolution to this problem.
Of course, there's a lot of stories going on across the country and around the world.
An absolutely stunning, shocking rebuke of the Liberal Party and Justin Trudeau in the Toronto riding of St. Paul's, which has been liberal since I was a child, going conservative last night.
Just an absolute referendum on the Trudeau government.
Trudeau says he's not stepping down.
I'm not so sure.
I think he might be saying that now and planning a graceful exit.
I can't believe that there is anyone happy in the Liberal Party.
To lose St. Paul's in the heart of Toronto to a conservative means that every seat in Toronto, every seat in BC, every seat in every city is up for grabs.
I don't even know if Montreal seats are safe.
This could be the Kim Campbell 1993 election for the Liberals.
They could literally be wiped out.
Here's hoping.
Anyway, that's my report from out here in Calgary.
I will stay out here because I think that it's incumbent upon me to try and fix things for Tommy's tour to get things back on track.
I'll keep you posted.
If you want to chip in to help us cover the legal fees, feel free to go to savetommy.com.
There's a lot of action.
It reminds me of the wild times when Tommy worked for Rebel News, and we had these wild moments every week.
But I think it behooves us as his hosts here in Canada to help him out.