Ezra Levant and David Menzies celebrate the August 29th dismissal of all charges against Menzies, who faced four arrests this year—including two in March/April for documenting a pro-Hamas protest near Toronto’s April 7th vigil—highlighting police abuse and Charter violations. Menzies compares the system to Kafka’s The Trial, noting 46 minutes spent waiting like a criminal while prosecutors ignored due process. Levant warns authorities after Omar Khadr’s $10.5M settlement, vowing lawsuits for false arrests. They contrast Canada’s delayed pandemic accountability—like the 2025 Taylor v. Newfoundland hearing—with U.S. rulings, exposing government overreach during COVID mandates, including Peckford and Bernier’s blocked travel. Rebel News stands alone against censorship, pushing for legal precedent to curb state abuse. [Automatically generated summary]
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Thanks.
Tonight, we won.
A Toronto court drops the last of the charges against David Menzies.
Now we go on the hunt.
It's August 29th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Shame on you, you sensorious bug.
Ezra Levant here, look what's behind me.
It is the Rebel News truck, and there's our friend David Menzies on it.
You can see the message: Stand with David.
Well, I literally am standing with David.
We're together outside the courthouse.
Let me just spin my selfie stick around.
You can see this is the Toronto, the Ontario Court of Justice in Toronto.
We are here for justice.
We haven't got it yet.
David, how many times have you been to court over those false arrests that were done to you when you were just doing journalism?
I'm talking about when you scrummed Christia Freeland, when you went to cover the pro-Hamas activists in the streets of the city, when you went to cover a pro-Israel rally and the Hamas idiots crashed it.
How many times have you been to court now because of the police arresting you for doing your journalism?
Well, Ezra, no court appearance yet for the matter with Freeland.
And of course, that's now a civil matter with our lawsuit.
The Mountie himself dropped the charges within one hour.
But for this, I would say we're up to about a half dozen at least.
That's for the obstruct police charges in March, the trespass charges right across the street at City Hall Ezra, literally the town square where Pierre Polyev was holding a vigil, the six-month anniversary vigil for the massacre in Israel in October 7th.
Over 2,000 people there.
The pro-Hamas people had the hood spot to chat genocide at a vigil.
And my cameraman Ephraim Lonsanto and I, we were physically assaulted.
I never even got a question out.
I saw the police coming.
I thought, oh, thank goodness, they're going to bear witness.
And they arrested me for trespass.
You know, I'm sick of it.
It's you've been arrested by my count four times this year.
Four times within five months.
That's outrageous.
That's the kind of thing you expect from police states.
And in fact, it is the literal definition of a police state where the police are getting involved in politics and journalism.
You've committed no crime.
That's been evident by the fact that on several of these matters, the police dropped the charges, but not before conducting committing false arrest, false imprisonment, assault, and just stopping you from actually doing your work, interference with your economic affairs.
They are targeting you.
It is so clear.
I understand there is a chance that today this fourth and final arrest will be dropped by the government.
But you said you've been here half a dozen times.
I'm here in person.
They're putting you through the wringer.
Every time we're here, we have to hire an expensive lawyer because we just have to.
We're fighting against the unlimited resources of the state.
The government is conducting itself poorly.
They have not released what's called the disclosure package to you.
They're either afraid to, they're hiding it, or they just are so slothful that they're not getting it done.
There's a chance they'll drop the final charges today.
I want to be here when that happens.
So we're going to go into the court.
I'm going to live tweet the court.
Now, it's a quick court.
I'm not sure if it's called docket court, but it's just sort of case after case after case.
Usually procedural matters.
I think it's a justice of the peace that runs it.
You tell me if I'm wrong on that.
No, no, I believe you're right, Ezra.
And you know, the mockery, I think, is, as you've stated before, Toronto is experiencing a record climb wave.
And we're talking serious stuff.
Assault, murder, attempted murder, carjacking, car theft is off the charts.
And the idea of clogging up the court's time and, you know, being a time vampire to you and I.
We have to come here.
We have expenses.
We're not out there, you know, covering real journalistic issues that we should be.
And as you've always said, the process is a penalty, isn't it?
And everyone on the inside of this building gets paid no matter what.
The cops are getting paid.
The judges are getting paid.
The clerks are getting paid.
The bureaucrats are getting paid.
And the lawyers are sure to getting paid.
Everyone in here is a winner except the people.
All right, we got to sign off.
We got to get into the court.
I don't know if you saw, but the Stand With David truck is literally circling the courthouse.
I don't know if I caught it the last time it went around.
You know what bugs me is you've had to come down here and the cops who arrested you falsely, they don't even have to show up and waste their time.
They're probably out at Tim Horton's yucking it up, just having a ball.
They're breaking the law time after time, but as God is my witness, we will turn the tables and bring them to court for false arrests and other things like that.
Now let's just wait a minute because before I sign off, I don't know if you saw it in the background, but it passed by once you're here.
The Stand With David truck, if you want to learn more about this outrage and if you want to help, because we have to hire a lawyer every bloody time.
And she's a great lawyer, and I'm glad she's on our side.
But we have to come up with a doe for it, unlike the rogue police officers.
Unfortunately, they're not even rogue.
They have the full support of the chief.
Let's just wait a minute to see if the truck is making another round.
And while we're waiting, Ezra, doesn't that say something?
Our lawyer is a veteran criminal lawyer.
She has said she has never seen anything like this.
Never.
You know, the idea of a journalist on public property practicing journalism, getting arrested, handcuffed, roughed up, held for hours.
As you said, it is banana republic stuff, isn't it?
Yeah.
All right, David.
I was going to wait for the truck to do one more loop.
He's doing big loops around City Hall and the court.
So I've seen him go by twice.
Maybe he's being arrested.
Well, you know, don't joke.
He was stopped by police, York Region Police a couple of days ago.
They stopped him.
They filmed the videos on the outside of the truck and then they let him go.
I wish I was there.
I would have had a few words for those police.
Like you say, there is a massive crime wave in the greater Toronto area and indeed across all of Canada right now.
And I'm talking very serious crimes, home invasion robberies, obviously car theft, extortion.
There's stabbings and shootings.
There's a general state of misery.
And the police are putting aside all that unimportant stuff to focus on our truck.
Unbelievable.
And they should be ashamed.
All right, I'm not going to wait for the truck to do another loop.
He's probably taking a wider arc.
We'll see the truck later on.
We're going to go inside now.
I'm excited because I know there's a chance the charges will be dropped and that will clear the way for us to turn the tables.
I want you to follow along on Twitter at my Twitter handle as Ezra Levant.
And of course, if you want to help us fight back, go to Stand With David.
I'm Standing With David.
I hope you do too.
Cheers.
Ezra LaVange here.
I'm standing in front of the stand with David Billboard truck.
What a glorious vehicle that is, shining bright in high death.
And let me spin around because the man of the hour himself, David Menzies, is here.
We just got out of court five minutes ago where the Toronto police in their disgrace and Doug Ford's prosecutors in their disgrace finally dropped the last of the Toronto police charges that were against David Menzies and he walks free, a completely unblemished record.
He was arrested four times this year and all four times they dropped their BS charges against him.
We've had to come to this courthouse so many times, but I got to tell you something, folks.
If you think this is done, let me tell you, it is not done.
Now we go hunting for these charter violators, for these free press violators, for false arrest, false imprisonment, assaults, and all the other things they did to David.
We're going to go after them now.
and you can help us at standwithdavid.com.
Refusing to kill the wagon, Mr. Menzies.
I would say to the Toronto Police, the RCMP, the York Regional Police, and any other police force that thinks it can handle rebel news abusively, and that is think twice.
We will sue you, we will find you, and we will come to court with you.
We will outlast you because unlike you, we actually believe in something called freedom.
Ezra Levant here, we're standing outside the Toronto courts.
It's called the Ontario Courts of Justice.
I don't know if we got justice today, but we got something.
Standing next to me is David.
David, they threw out, they dropped, they withdrew, they stayed, they abandoned the last of the Toronto police charges against you.
How you feel?
You know, in a way, I'm disappointed, Ezra.
And I know a W is a W, as they say in the sports world, whether it's a blowout or a default.
But in one respect, I would have loved to have seen the police on the sand and explain why I was arrested twice in March and April for practicing journalism in the public square, while to the left and to the right of us were the pro-Hamas Hitler youth movement chanting genocide.
And nothing we can do here.
They're blocking streets.
Nothing we can do here.
But on the presumption, you might ask a question, because in each case, Ezra, I never got a question out, that might offend and enrage the mob.
We're going to arrest you, I guess, for your own good.
And you'll go to jail for your own good or what have you.
I just would have loved to have seen them make the case, because to me, there is no case.
You've been arrested four times this year.
All four of them have been thrown out or abandoned.
All four of them were false, therefore.
False arrest, false imprisonment.
They've assaulted you.
They burned up your time.
I don't know how many times you've been at court.
I was here because I heard that they might be dropping the case today.
And we sat in there for 46 minutes while every low-life thug and criminal in this town was paraded through.
There was a guy for concealing a weapon.
There was like every thug.
And amongst all these thugs was a journalist who was charged by the police, thrown in with the thugs.
I was seething by the time it came to your name.
And the prosecutor, you know, the French word enri, it's not just bored, it's bored and tired.
Oh, well, oh, who's next?
Oh, David Menzies.
Who's got the, anyone know what the, like the prosecutor, she, I wish she were animated by hatred.
She was animated by bureaucratic inertia, couldn't give a damn, didn't know her file.
Your worship, I don't know the number that's going on.
Do we have to delay it again?
Like, incompetence, and every single person in that room was getting paid no matter what happened.
Guilty or not guilty, delay, a delay.
They don't care.
They are part, they're cogs in the system.
And the prosecutor, and they withdrew the charges against you.
They didn't even have the courtesy to say why, to say this wasn't in the public interest, let alone, God forbid, someone in this gross system actually says, sorry, I'm looking at this staggeringly large building.
I don't know how many hundreds of millions of tax dollars went to build it, and it looks like its purpose, which is just to grind people down.
And amongst all these thugs, there's you, and they trapped you in this system as a punishment in itself.
You were acquitted of all the matters, but you were punished nonetheless.
Yeah, and you know, Ezra, I'm a little baffled because I thought my charge was trespass, but it came up in court, failure to leave the premises, which I guess is really technically the same thing.
But I mean, if we go back to that day in April 7th, the six-month vigil for the Israeli victims of October 7th, more than 2,000 people in the square, including Pierre Polyev leading the vigil, the pro-Hamas having the chutzpah to chant for genocide during a vigil.
But who asked me to leave the premises?
I mean, it wasn't like, remember when Afro-Indigenous Rising some four years ago illegally camped out for three weeks, breaking 11 sections of the Trespass Act?
At least back then you had City Hall Security telling the police, hey, we don't like those independent media types.
They might incite the mob.
But this officer, Chang, badge number 7724, he never once said what I was doing as being illegal.
He was just frog marching me away.
And when he was getting handsy with me, I asked if I was under arrest and he went right to arrest mode.
But the point is, Ezra, City Hall Security, anyone running City Hall, never said, I think, to the police, we want that guy off the square, which is when the police would act.
Beginning of the End00:07:07
They were acting on their own volition.
And that is literally right behind us, Ezra, the town square.
If you can't be there as a citizen, if you can't be practicing journalism there, where can you do it?
David, what you described reminds me of the book by Franz Kafka called The Trial.
And let me just read, and this is a translation, I think it was written in German.
This is the first sentence of that book.
Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph.
He knew he had done nothing wrong, but one morning he was arrested.
That's a great first sentence in a book.
I was live tweeting this in court today.
I said, why was David Menzies arrested?
Who complained?
What law did he break and exactly how did he break it?
Who was the victim of the supposed crime?
None of these things are known to us.
It doesn't matter.
All that matters was that the Toronto police needed some excuse to stop David from asking questions.
The abusive system that actually doesn't care and that the world doesn't care.
And I can only imagine how many times this happens to people who do not have the resources to fight back in any way.
David, we are going to turn the tables.
I remember when Churchill remarked on the North African campaign, he said, I think it was there, he said, this is not the end, and it's not the beginning of the end, but it's the end of the beginning.
And so this is the end of the beginning.
The police shot their shot, so to speak.
God forbid they actually shot a shot.
The police have arrested you again and again, and this was the last of them thrown out.
That's the end of the beginning.
Now it's the beginning of the end.
We're going to go after them.
We've already filed the laws.
We've already got a lawyer, Lawrence Greenspawn.
We're suing not just for the actual damages done to you that we can measure.
You were arrested, you were handcuffed, you were assaulted.
But our Charter of Rights allows courts to punish governments that are abusive by giving what's called charter damages.
It's the reason why Omar Cotter got $10.5 million from Trudeau.
Omar Cotter didn't actually suffer any harm.
He's a terrorist, murderer, thug.
But because his charter rights were violated, he got $10.5 million from taxpayers.
The Toronto police will obviously continue to keep harassing you and all of their other enemies until someone, namely a judge, gives them a $10.5 million bill for it.
And maybe they'll think twice about coming after Rebel News and David Menzies.
Wouldn't that be wonderful, Ezra?
But I've got to tell you, I am of mixed emotions because despite everything that's happened to me and us, I still back the blue.
You've got to back the blue.
This whole defund the police.
That's nonsense.
What do you have then?
The rule of the jungle.
And I have a lot of respect for the individual men and women on the Toronto Police Service and other police services that I've interacted with.
I truly think there's something bigger at play.
I think someone may be in the brass, maybe beyond the brass, maybe in the mayor's office.
I don't know.
I'm not claiming to have the answers, but they are being directed.
I mean, when you see this footage of those thugs actually carrying out physical assault against Efren and I, and I'm the one that gets arrested, how, you know, I can't even imagine the most incompetent police officer making such a bad call.
I think there's some unspoken strategy behind the scenes, behind the current NESRA, and in disclosure, if this goes to trial, wow, I would love to find those answers.
Well, I promise you, as long as we live and breathe, we will pursue this.
And the Toronto Police Service should think twice about arresting you again.
I remember in Australia when our Australian reporter, Avi Yamini, kept getting arrested and arrested and arrested.
And finally, we took him to court and they realized that they were in deep trouble.
They actually gave him a letter of apology.
Avi turned it into a t-shirt.
Then they went after Avi's bodyguard, Daniel, and we sued on his behalf too.
And they actually gave him a six-figure settlement.
So I would say to the Toronto Police, the RCMP, the York Regional Police, and any other police force that thinks it can handle rebel news abusively, and that is think twice.
We will sue you, we will find you, and we will come to court with you.
We will outlast you because unlike you, we actually believe in something called freedom.
Last word to you, David.
Ezra, I just want to say on the Avi Yamini matter and all the other matters that we are fighting, you know, I told you off camera earlier, I was talking about this over dinner with Lady Menzoid, and she said to me, you are so lucky to have a boss like Ezra Levant, somebody that, you know, isn't going to abandon you.
Oh, you're on your own, mate.
Not only defend our rights, but now the ball is in our hands.
We are on offense.
You are the Patrick Mahomes of journalism as far as I'm concerned.
And now we are going to get accountability from these people.
And you know what?
It costs a lot of money.
It takes a lot of time.
This isn't a trifle by any means.
And I just want to say, I guess, Ezra, I'm so happy to be a rebel news reporter.
I am so glad you are a lion when it comes to standing up for the rights and freedoms of your employees.
So thank you.
and anyone out there that wants to contribute with standwithdavid.com, it would be greatly appreciated.
Right on, well, that is true.
We've hired, we've got two lawyers helping on this file now.
Sarah Miller, a civil litigation expert who people would remember from the Arthur Pavlovsky case, and Lawrence Greenspawn, who I've gotten to know over the last year for his work with Tamara Leach.
And I truly believe that Lawrence Greenspawn is one of the finest criminal lawyers in the country.
In fact, I've told him, I think you were there when I said to him, if I'm ever arrested, I want him representing me.
And I know a lot of lawyers, and he would be my personal choice for me if I was ever in a pickle.
We are going to flip the script, turn the tables, and go after these human rights abusers at the police.
And I hope they see the light like they did in Australia and come clean, admit wrongdoing, apologize.
But if we have to go the distance to court, I tell you that we will.
Go to standwithdavid.com.
I enjoy standing with him.
Look at the gorgeous, gorgeous truck, which we've been driving around all day today outside this courthouse.
Look, one of the things that makes Rebel News different is what David says.
We actually sometimes get into the fight.
Most of the time, we're just telling you the other side of the story.
Most of the time, we're just showing you what's going on.
But every once in a while, we say we have to actually do something, because if we don't, who will?
If you follow my live tweets today, you'll see I referred to a time 20 years ago in Canada where every news agency in the country would have in the past gotten together, chipped in a thousand bucks each, and hired a top lawyer and would have intervened in a court case like this today.
20 Years Of Advocacy00:03:05
It was a beautiful idea because it made it cheap because if 20 different newspapers and radio stations and TV stations all chipped in a dollar, $1,000, that's not a huge burden for a media company.
And it allowed them to get a great lawyer together.
It was sort of an all-for-one and one-for-all three musketeers.
And it showed the courts, look, this is a very serious freedom of the press issue.
And it had a great impact.
That used to be called the consortium.
That's what they called it when the news companies got together.
They don't do that anymore because Justin Trudeau has colonized them.
So they don't care about freedom of speech.
They're paid not to care.
It falls to Rebel News, which is very bizarre because we're such a small company and it's so hard to raise this money in $20 and $50 dribs and drabs.
But I tell you, we will.
And Ezra, two things on that note.
How quickly things have changed.
Back when you were the publisher of the Western Standard, when you were the only one in Canada that had the courage to publish the Danish Mohammed cartoons, back then, we're going back some 15 odd years ago, you did have people in the mainstream media coming to bat for you.
Today, if you were to do that same thing, I bet you would be 0.0.
And you know, I'm no fan of, say, the CBC, the Toronto Star, but if that happened to a CBC or Toronto Star reporter, I would be as outraged as what happened to me that day on April 7th.
But there's no quid pro quo.
As you've said before, the watchdogs have become Justin Trudeau's lapdogs.
They're getting paid by the federal government, which is an inherent and egregious conflict of interest.
So we are on our own, my friend, I think.
Well, we're on our own in terms of the establishment.
No other media is with us.
No other journalism advocacy group is with us.
No NGO is with us.
We're all alone.
No one's on our side except the people.
And I'll take those odds every time.
From downtown Toronto, standing in front of the glorious Rebel Billboard truck, this is Ezra Levant saying, keep fighting for freedom.
You're listening to a free podcast of the Ezra Levant Show, but did you know that we have a video version of this too?
Just go to RebelNewsPlus.com.
Click subscribe.
It's only eight bucks a month.
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So think about watching the Ezra Levant show, not just listening to it.
We put a lot of effort into our visuals, especially some of our on-the-scene reporting.
So please go to RebelNewsPlus.com and click subscribe.
Subscribe for the content, but subscribe to keep us strong.
Thanks.
We're gathering up a bunch of Rebel News supporters and we're all coming to Calgary, Alberta, to spend the day with you.
You're invited to what we call Rebel News Live.
Canadians Locked In 202200:16:07
It's just what it sounds like.
You'll have a chance to schmooze one-on-one with all our rebel talent and some of our favorite guests.
Tamara Leach will be back and a very special guest speaker.
I can't announce who it is just yet, but you're going to, well, it'll knock your socks off.
I'm very excited about it.
You can get your tickets now at RebelNewsLive.com.
Come hang out with us, Rebels, and your fellow Rebel enthusiasts.
See you in October 5th in Calgary at RebelNewsLive.com.
I remember very soon after the pandemic and the lockdowns were announced, that the state of California brought in draconian rules, including a prohibition on singing out loud in churches.
Well, singing as a form of prayer has been since before recorded time.
And this, of course, was a violation of the First Amendment.
This very quickly made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and it was a wonderful ruling.
I haven't looked at it in a couple years, but it was written so poetically in which the Supreme Court of the United States said that the state of California was welcome to regulate singing.
It absolutely could, but they couldn't regulate the singing in churches more harshly than they regulated the singing in American Idol in Hollywood.
And so they struck down the rules because they had exemptions for the favored classes.
They did everywhere around the world.
And even if they didn't, well, the fancy people simply didn't pass, didn't follow the laws themselves.
Laws were for the little people, don't you know?
But what I take away from that is this: the U.S. Supreme Court realized that it was a bonfire of American civil liberties and nothing less than the First Amendment itself was at stake.
And so, very quickly, I would say it was within months, they ruled and struck down that law and others as well.
There was a famous case in California, and I believe there was another one from Massachusetts.
It's been a little while since I read them.
And I say all this because it is now almost 2025, and we have been in this state of pandemic or post-pandemic for what, four and a half years now.
And if I'm not mistaken, and our next guest will correct me if I am, our Supreme Court has been too busy to take a single substantive case emanating from the lockdowns.
It's been four and a half years.
I say again, this dramatic case that dealt with violations of civil liberties was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in very short order, within months, I tell you.
And here we are coming up on the five-year anniversary of the declaration of the pandemic.
And I don't think our court has bothered with anything as trifling as the curfew in Quebec, as the mandatory vaccinations or you'd lose your job, or a hundred other outrages.
And so it brings me to the troubling headline I see before me today.
Supreme Court of Canada declines to hear COVID vaccine travel mandate cases.
And those are cases in which the plaintiffs included Brian Peford, the former Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador.
In fact, the last surviving signer of the Constitution and Charter of Rights of 1982, and another case with Maxime Bernier as a plaintiff.
And the reason they sang is, well, the pandemic's over, so it's moot anyways.
There's no point in even hearing it.
Our Supreme Court is so, so busy, you see, dealing with very important things.
And lockdowns and pandemics just don't make the list.
Joining us now to talk about this is the lawyer for the Justice Center of Constitutional Freedoms, Allison Payovich, who joins us from Calgary.
Allison, nice to meet you.
Thanks for coming on the show.
Thank you so much for having me today.
Am I correct in saying that the Supreme Court of Canada has yet to hear a civil liberties case emerging from every level of government regulating to its heart's content during the lockdowns?
And please correct me if I'm wrong, but I really don't think they've actually touched on a single lockdown case.
Am I wrong?
That was the case up until this year when they announced that they have agreed to hear a case out of Newfoundland called Taylor versus Newfoundland.
It involved a case of a woman who wanted to travel to Newfoundland from out of province to visit her ailing mother.
And there was in Newfoundland a travel restriction that prohibited any out-of-province residents of other provinces from entering Newfoundland during that time.
And she took that case to the Newsfoundland Court and she raised Section 6 of the Charter, which is the mobility right.
And the court found that the mobility right was infringed, but that the infringement was justifiable based on the circumstances.
You know, it's COVID and government was just doing what it needed to do.
And the case went to the Newfoundland Court of Appeal.
The Newfoundland Court of Appeal dismissed its remoteness because it found, you know, the travel restriction is gone.
The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear that case.
It's unclear to me as to whether that the Supreme Court of Canada's judgment will, if the applicant is successful, whether the case will go back down to the Newfoundland Court of Appeal to be heard on the merits there or if the Supreme Court will adjudicate the charter issue at the highest level.
So they have agreed to hear this very narrow issue.
But I will say, in contrast to our case, I mean, I'm sure that case was, you know, beautifully presented to the court, but we've got a mobility case on such a greater level where Canadian citizens couldn't get on airplanes to leave the country, basically locking Canadians in the country unless you wanted to swim across the Atlantic, which government witnesses admitted was permissible in cross-examination.
So it's really, really distressing to our clients and to Canadians as a whole, vaccinated or unvaccinated, because now Canadians just don't know whether they're living in the kind of country where this is lawful behavior from the federal government.
Well, first of all, thank you for telling me about that case.
I was unfamiliar with it.
And that does sound like it was an atrocious violation of our Constitution.
I've never before heard, I mean, when foreign nationals come to our country illegally, cross Wroxham Road, their very first act on Canadian soil is an act of lawbreaking.
They are not required to stay in one province or another.
They have mobility rights.
And when Canadian citizens are not allowed to travel across provinces because of a COVID scare, that's an atrocious violation.
But what I don't understand, so you're saying this will be heard by the Supreme Court, whether they decide to send it back or hear it in full.
You're saying they have accepted this case and it'll be heard in 2025.
Is that what you're saying?
I don't know when that case will be heard.
I'm not sure of the date, but that's certainly ought to be later this year or in 2025.
Yeah, I don't think it, I mean, the Supreme Court moves as slowly as a glacier.
At the very least, late, late 2024, if not 2025.
So five years after the lockdowns begin, our Supreme Court has decided to take a look at a case.
So I can no longer say they haven't bothered with a single case.
Now I have to say they mentioned they do with one case.
But as you point out, although this was a violation of this woman's rights, it was one person.
Whereas it wasn't just airplanes.
If I recall, it was trains and it was ferries and it was ships.
And it wasn't just to leave the country.
It was to get around within the country.
You couldn't fly within your own country.
There was no science behind it.
I know that the Justice Center examined in great detail different decision makers in the government.
And they admitted that there was no science behind it.
They admitted that this was not actually an act of public health based on science.
How can you say, if you're the Supreme Court, we're going to hear this case of this poor woman in Newfoundland?
That's not moot, or at least they're going to rule on that.
But a massive travel ban that affected tens of millions of people, that paralyzed the whole country, that's moot.
We don't need to ask any questions about it because it's over now.
How do you square the circle?
It's very difficult to understand.
And I can tell you, it didn't get a lot of media attention.
But one of our clients, as you mentioned, was the former Premier of Newfoundland, Brian Peckford, actually had a hand in drafting the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
And when he comes to the court and says, I drafted the charter myself, and I'm telling you that I believe a plethora of my rights have been violated.
I'm asking you to hear my case.
And he can't get his day in court.
That's very troubling to Mr. Peckford and should be for all Canadians.
We also have the unique circumstances of Maxine Bernier, who is the leader of the PPC Party of Canada.
And specifically, in his circumstances, he's trying to build his political party.
And Canada is a large country.
It's very difficult for him to drive from city to city, town to town, across the country, meeting people and growing his party.
He needs to get on an airplane to do that, to be competitive with his political opponents.
And here you have one of his political opponents basically instituting a policy which prevents him from fairly participating in the democratic process and getting a fair shot at becoming elected.
And that is novel.
We've never seen this before.
And when the federal court below said, well, there are no novel issues in this case.
This case is not important enough.
It's not evasive of review.
We've had other COVID cases, so we don't need to hear this.
Actually, no, this is extremely novel for Maxine Bernie and anyone else who wants to follow in his footsteps and try to campaign across the country.
If they can't do that, that is unfair and it's certainly undemocratic.
You know, I can't believe that such an atrocious, draconian, bullying, tyrannical, unscientific, prejudicial, partisan, and generally unfair law can be implemented on people.
And just because, I mean, how long was it in effect, the no-fly zone for unjabbed people?
Was it a year?
It was in effect, no, not quite a year, but I know for the people that it affected, it felt like a year.
It was the end of November of 2021.
I think the first two weeks you could still get through with a negative PCR test.
But then at the end of November or the first couple weeks of December, you had to show proof of vaccination.
And then the Prime Minister decided to lift the mandate in June of 2022.
And ironically, that was immediately after some of the evidence came out that you referenced, which was that the COVID recovery team at Transport Canada admitted in cross-examination that she'd never received word or memo or request or anything from the Public Health Agency of Canada, which gave a health reason, a medical reason to implement the travel mandate.
Shortly after that evidence came out, the federal government lifted the travel bans or unvaccinated people.
So, you know, it was a long time coming.
So people who were trying to see dying loved ones, and some of our clients had very sick loved ones in South Africa and in Europe, and they were unable to go and visit them.
I mean, this was basically like something you would hear about in a country far away with what you think of as a far more totalitarian head of government than we think of as having in Canada.
You know, the word lockdown heretofore had been used to describe prisons when there was a riot and everyone was confined in their cells.
I don't really remember the use of the word lockdown on innocent citizens ever in history.
And so if you're saying this is from November 2021 to June 2022, that's about seven months.
I've got to think that that was millions of people who would have flown, taken a train, or at least hundreds of thousands.
And for a very long time, and they didn't know when it would end, by the way.
And there's certain things you can only do once.
Attend a funeral, attend a wedding, attend a surgery.
Yeah, and hold the hand of your dying loved one, right?
Yeah.
And for the court to say, well, it's no longer in effect now, so we don't need to tell you if it was unconstitutional or not.
Basically, that sends a message to the government that the courts are so slow.
Like I say, that U.S. Supreme Court moved wicked fast.
I'd have to look it up the case about praying in California.
That was within months.
It wasn't years.
The Supreme Court got straight to it.
But what Canada's lethargic Supreme Court is teaching is, hey, governments, be as abusive as you like.
Come up with new and exotic ways to punish people, not based on science, but based on politics.
And we'll move so damn slow that you can have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven months of the most bizarre and arcane rules.
And then as long as you stop it before the lawsuit begins, you're fine.
You're good as gold.
Because we're not going to get into a fuss about what tyranny you did a few months ago.
That's moot now.
I promise you this.
The government learned their lesson, which is they can do it.
They can get away with it and they'll do it again.
I find this atrocious.
Absolutely.
And what's interesting about our case, I mean, the points you make are perfectly valid, but in our case, you may not be aware, but we filed our application at the lower court in February of 2022.
And we had five expert witnesses on our side.
We were partnered with another set of applicants who had four experts.
The government came back with numerous experts, and they were all cross-examined in a short time period in May and June 2022.
And we had a court date of October.
So we were able to get filed and before the court for that charter hearing in less than a year.
So we all moved very quickly.
The crowd moved very quickly and we worked well together.
And we were still unable to get this case heard.
And so you're quite right.
It does send a message to Canadians.
You know, you can dislike the public health orders all you want, but you may never get to challenge them in court.
And what I find really interesting is when the Freedom Convoy was going, if you recall, and I know that you will, the Freedom Convoy, part of the reason why the truckers and lots of Canadian citizens went to Ottawa to protest was to protest, you know, various mandates, but certainly the travel ones were high on the list.
And, you know, they were told by the media or whoever else, no, this isn't the appropriate forum for you to protest.
And you should exercise your rights through the court system.
Truckers' Protest Blocked00:04:40
Have the judges adjudicate.
That's the way to challenge what you feel is unjust.
Well, I mean, this is what happens.
You get these orders that are put in and removed before Canadians can get to the court system.
And then when you get there, the judges do have discretion to hear these cases anyway, but they're deciding not to.
And so where are Canadians left?
They file these court challenges that don't go anywhere, or they peacefully protest and get their bank accounts frozen.
So, you know, what are we left with here in Kent?
What a great point.
You're not allowed to protest in Parliament Hill, even though it was the largest peaceful protest in Canadian history.
You're not allowed to go to court.
Well, you can, but you'll just burn up your money because at the last minute they'll say, oh, sorry, it's moot.
The five political parties that were in the leaders debate in 2021 were unanimous on all the key issues because they included the Green Party, but did not include the aforementioned Maxime Vernier of the People's Party, even though he was at the same point in the polls as the Green Party.
So you're not allowed to join politics.
You're not allowed to go to the law.
You're not allowed to have a political protest.
And of course, social media companies would censor you for disinformation if you disputed health measures.
What a stitch-up, as the British would say.
But it's not that surprising that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court himself issued a statement that he was going to enforce vaccines on the court precincts itself.
So just in case any lower judge was wondering what the Supreme Court's position was on the lockdowns and the pandemic, the Chief Justice himself pretty much winked and said, guys, let me put it this way.
I'm enforcing a vaccine mandate in the Supreme Court building, so govern yourself accordingly.
We don't need to have the fuss and the muss of having actually have a hearing.
You just know what to do.
I find this very demoralizing, which is yet another reason why I thought the truckers were so important and so effective.
And by the way, I credit the truckers for defenestrating Aaron O'Toole as conservative leaders.
So perhaps the truckers helped fix our political system too.
Last word to you, Allison.
Thank you for your work on this.
I guess this is a closed door then.
There's just nowhere else to go if the Supreme Court declines to hear it.
Am I right?
Yeah, there's nowhere else to go for us in this case.
But, you know, it's a real travesty of justice.
You know, being the lawyer working on the file, getting to know the clients very well, and hearing the evidence that came out, you know, winner-lose.
And of course, if we had gone through the hearing and lost and gone through the appeal process and lost, that's one thing.
And, you know, as lawyers, we win some and we lose some.
But having the kind of evidence come out that came out during those cross-examinations on such an important issue, not having that evidence properly adjudicated and going through the appropriate charter test with it is, I can't tell you what a tragedy that is for injustice.
Honestly, I mean, some of the information that we received that came out, most people will never hear about it.
I mean, I know we've done some news releases, but it's really, it's going to get lost.
And the public deserves to know loud and clear that there was no medical health reason, at least testified to, admitted to by the government cross-examination to put these draconian mandates in place.
What would the court have done with that information?
Jane deserves to know, and they deserve to know the kind of country they live in.
And if they cannot count on being able to leave when they want to leave, then they have to make decisions as to whether they want to join their family in other countries.
So these are really critical issues.
And it's so disappointing as an understatement, to say the least.
Wow, very powerful.
So glad to meet you, Alison Payevich, lawyer who was working on the file on behalf of the Justice Center.
Great to meet you.
And I share your views on these things, but I'm glad you fought the fight.
Thanks so much, Ezra.
It's very nice to be here today.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thanks to having you.
Stay with us.
more hat you know there's so many legal battles we're in and And part of it is because we're pugnacious, we're fighters.
Defending Journalists Under Attack00:03:55
Part of it is because if we don't do the lawsuit, no one else will.
For example, when we sue politicians who block people on Twitter, when we sue David LeMetti, the former justice minister, who was destroying the public records in his Twitter account after he was disgracefully kicked out of parliament, basically, you might remember he was the justice minister, brought in the Emergencies Act.
The federal court deemed that illegal.
He quit in disgrace.
And as he was going out the door, he clicked delete.
We went to court to stop that.
So that's an example of litigation that we didn't have to do.
It wasn't necessary for our survival.
It was just outrageous that something was happening and no one was doing anything about it.
So that's an example.
Another example is when we are under attack.
And our journalists are under attack more, I put it to you, than all other journalists in Canada combined.
I know that sounds like an astonishingly large thing to say, but tell me any other journalists in this country who's been physically assaulted.
Tell me other journalists who were arrested four times already in the year, but that's what's happened with David Menzies alone.
I think he's been, I think it's close to 10 arrests total since his time at Rebel News.
And he's done nothing wrong.
You know, David.
All he does is journalism.
The most a critic could say is he's annoying.
He's never rude.
He never blocks people.
He never shouts.
He's just persistent.
And I know that what's happening in Canada is not normal because when we travel to other countries in the world, I see how police are.
I see how they are.
One of my favorite examples is with the V VIPs in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum.
Those are extremely important people, if you can measure the importance of people.
John Kerry, Tony Blair, Albert Burla, the president of Pfizer.
These are just names of individuals that I myself have scrummed, the head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
I don't know if you remember I scrummed him on a walk and talk scrum for almost 10 minutes.
Police couldn't care less as long as I'm not touching anybody or blocking anybody.
The police, they were fine.
And by the way, they were very well armed.
They weren't afraid of anything.
They just simply weren't getting in the censorship business, unlike Canadian police and increasingly UK police.
So we have to defend our people.
And that means we battle.
Another thing that I can say is no one else is doing it.
There's an alphabet soup of NGOs that claim to be dedicated to press freedom that simply aren't.
They either don't believe in it anymore or they're being colonized by Justin Trudeau's subsidies.
Did you know there's something in Canada called Canadian Journalists for Free Expression?
You would think they would be all over David's case, let alone the Online Harms Act censorship bills.
Not a peep.
They're in on it.
There's something called the Canadian Association of Journalists.
They act as lobbyists for more handouts.
There's something, as you know, called Amnesty International, something called Penn Canada.
That's a writer's sort of support group for Writers in Jeopardy.
They are silent about what's going on.
There's the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
When was the last time they helped a journalist at Rebel News?
They don't because they hate Rebel News for ideological reasons, in the case of Canadian Civil Liberties Association, and in the others, they're just on Team Trudeau.
So it falls to us to fight.
And I tell you that because we are going to fight.
And in the case of David Menzies, we're going to take it to the police now.
They're just going to keep arresting him unless we go to court and have a judge review the bullying misconduct of the police and tag them with a large payment.
We're requesting what's called charter damages, which is when the government violates your rights, do they have to pay you a settlement?
Well, they paid the atrocious terrorist Omar Cotter $10.5 million.
They can pay David Menzies some money too.
That's our show for the day.
Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, see you at home.