Ezra Levant recounts his Sunday arrest in Toronto’s Jewish neighborhood after documenting pro-Hamas activists staging a "bloodied chair" mock execution of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, handcuffed and jailed for two hours despite being far from protesters. Police ignored hate crime laws but cited "breach of the peace"—a tactic Levant links to Fleming v. Ontario (2019), where courts ruled arrests for preventing future disturbances were illegal. He criticizes "two-tier policing", highlights David Menzies’ prior assault, and urges support for Rumble ($10 discount via promo code "studio") and Rebel News (donations at saveezra.com), framing his case as a test of Canada’s Section 2B free speech protections. Levant’s legal battle could expose systemic bias against journalists and Jewish citizens. [Automatically generated summary]
In fact, I was in jail just a couple of weeks ago visiting Tommy Robinson in HMP Woodhill in the United Kingdom.
But as I just mentioned, it was as a visitor.
I've visited people in jail before.
It's very different being put in jail.
And what is most surprising is being put in jail for the offense of committing journalism.
And that's what happened to me yesterday in my hometown of Toronto.
I was at home puttering.
And I see out of the corner of my eye this absurd display on the streets of my city that some pro-Hamas activists had reenacted the demise of Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas.
They sort of had, they recreated the scene.
And this is in a Jewish residential neighborhood.
It's not in front of an embassy.
It's not in front of a political place.
All these Hamas extremists come into the heart of a Jewish residential neighborhood and set up this sort of almost like a wax museum of anti-Semitic terrorists.
And they have their flags and their chanting.
And yeah, there it is right there.
Freeze there on that image.
So that's supposed to be Yahya Sinoar in a chair when he ended his life.
And that's supposed to be blood.
And you can see they're all wearing masks in the Hamas way.
So I see that on social media and I say, that's insane.
And that is, no, that's not being pro-Palestinian now.
That's being pro-Hamas.
And I happen to know that if you support the terrorist group Hamas in certain measurable ways, that's actually against the law in Canada.
And I know there's a ton of police there.
So I went down just to take a picture of that.
I was going to make a point about it later, probably tweet about it.
And police physically shoved me away from that.
They said you can't take pictures of that.
You're too close to the pro-Hamas people, and that incites them to be excitable or whatever.
And I objected to that, but I wasn't about to fight him.
I mean, a big cop pulling you away.
Why Photos Matter00:14:49
Never fight with a cop, just some word to the wise.
So they frog marched me away from this display.
And they say, there's a journal, there's a free speech zone over there.
If you want to do journalism, go over there.
Well, the journalism's over there, brother, but thanks for the tip.
No, you go over there.
Well, you're not my editor.
I'm a citizen.
I'm a taxpayer.
And the only reason the Hamas people don't want me there is because I'm Jewish.
And I know this because they say so.
This is not my conspiracy theory.
They explicitly say so.
They'll say so right now if you ask.
And then the top cop comes over and he says, I am the law.
No, you're not.
You're a servant of the law.
We live in a society that has the rule of law, not the rule of thin-skinned little Napoleons in a uniform.
And I said that.
I said, no, I'm a Jew, but I still have the right to be on a sidewalk.
I'm a citizen.
I'm actually a neighbor here, unlike these foreign provocateurs that we've allowed in our streets some reason.
And he said, and he just sort of said, you're under arrest.
And without further ado, let me show you.
I want to play for you.
My friend Ephraim Monsanto arrived shortly after I did, and he sort of saw the kerfuffle.
And he filmed most of it.
It's a seven-minute clip, but I think it's worth watching.
Don't you think, Olivia?
Let's watch this seven-minute clip.
This will catch you up on things.
Now, the only downside of this is Efron.
I don't think this has the audio from my microphone.
So, you won't be able to hear everything I say.
I don't know if we have a fun.
That would be something to link up the audio from my iPhone with this video.
We can do that another time, maybe.
But take a look at what a very momentous seven minutes and 48 seconds in my life was like.
Take a look.
Did you get it?
No, no, is it wonderful?
No, no, no, no, no.
I don't want to arrest you.
I want to film this for you.
There are Holocaust survivors here.
Look back to me.
Stop terrorizing a piece of plastic!
...the area, sir, not.
Where I say it's safe for you.
Right now, it's not safe.
Because you don't uphold the law.
So, you should be there.
Turn around!
The police are here.
It's not agitated.
I don't know.
Get out the office.
I'm not happy that you're here.
If I bring a case, if I bring a game, what's up?
What's going on, bro?
Watch where you're going.
Get back home. Get back home. Get back home.
No, you were working for these hards of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city.
This is the media area.
I can't help you.
I know you have him.
You know you're all sprayed.
I think you're a coward also.
You can have your piece.
You'll do what they say.
Can you pause for a second?
No.
So that's great footage by Efron.
We can't hear a lot of it.
Let me tell you, I was sort of arguing with him.
And Olivia, can you send a note to Efron?
What I'd like to do is I'd like to take the audio from my cell phone, which was recording from my earbuds, and combined it with that video.
Because I think what I was saying to the cop there may be of interest to viewers.
I was basically saying, on what basis are you limiting my ability to take photos and videos of a crime scene?
I mean, I'm not a fan of hate crimes.
I'm a fan of enforcing crime crimes.
What I mean by that is uttering a threat, mischief, vandalism, trespass, assault, all of which has happened in Toronto during the massive anti-Semitic crime over the last 13 months.
But there is on the books a number of hate crimes, and I'm not really a fan of those because I believe in freedom of speech.
But the cops believe in those laws, and yet they allowed this bizarre, perverse, macabre celebration of a terrorist leader, very specifically, that is probably a hate crime.
It may even be supporting terrorism.
There's sort of four ways to support terrorism that are illegal.
I'm not going to get into that now.
So I was talking to the cop about that.
And he basically said, you're causing a disturbance.
I said, no, I'm not causing it at all.
I'm just standing on the sidewalk.
It's these maniacs, these feral foreign provocateurs that are causing the disturbance.
I'm just the path of least resistance.
And I said to him, and I don't know if you could hear that, I said, you're basically saying that whoever has the most bullies, the police will abide them.
Because you're not enforcing the law.
You're just enforcing the mom.
Anyway, keep playing from.
I just wanted to explain what I was saying to that fella.
And Olivia, if it's possible to sync up the audio from my phone with the video from that camera, I think that would be a very useful video to watch.
Anyway, let's keep playing because now I think you can hear some of what I was saying.
I'm trying to keep the peace.
No, you're not.
If you're trying to keep the peace, if anybody wants to stand out of your business, if you want to do it, just stand over here, okay?
I don't have to.
Canada is my community.
Sir, I understand that, okay?
But you're violating that group that is inciting the potential for violence.
I haven't incited anything.
They have.
You're presently law.
And you have obeyed them.
So, again, here's the law.
I know you want me to stand here, but you're not the law.
Well, I am the law.
No, you're not the law, sir.
You're a sermon to the law.
You are not the law.
So now if you want to interview anybody, they know they can come and talk to you.
So I said to you before, you're allowed to retire last week.
Right.
But you had a designated area to stay in, and you agreed to stay in it.
What are you talking about?
Well, absolutely.
Acting Inspector Ford told me they had a media area for you and you guys stayed in it.
He stopped for a second.
So that cop in the middle there on the left, his name is McDuff.
And he wasn't there last week, and he said you had a media area and you stayed in it.
We absolutely did not.
We went and we did our journalism for one reason only, because we had strength in numbers.
We had a dozen rebels from across the country who came in to stand with David Menzies.
So he is misinformed when he thinks we stayed in his media area.
The media area that I care about is called Canada.
And I'm allowed to be on any public sidewalk I like, especially in my own neighborhood, especially when it's a group of anti-Semitic thugs.
And by the way, you'll notice that they are not restrained from coming right up next to me.
So you have all these cops on me saying I'm inciting a disturbance.
But you'll notice all the, I mean, including there was a guy wearing a mask and a camera.
I presume it was someone recording for the Hamas side, you know, within a face, a few inches of me.
And I didn't really care.
But my point is the cops were not enforcing this keep the peace even-handedly.
They were just removing me.
And I was there as a journalist.
Rebel News is not religious.
It's not Christian or Jewish or anything.
It's just Rebel News.
I happen to be a Jew.
Most of our staff happen to be Christians.
But the reason the Hamas extremists were reacting to me is precisely because I am a Jew.
And I know that because they say so, because last week when I was there, they unfurled a dozen anti-Semitic epithets.
And again, I'm not, in my own world, that's not necessarily a crime.
In the world of the police, I think it might be.
But anyway, let's play that clip again.
I just wanted to give that context.
Let's watch.
We're halfway through the clip.
Let's watch some more.
Well, yeah, because you're inciting this crime and then it reaches the peace.
Your presence is inciting them.
And that's exactly what you're trying to do.
No, because you're trying to incite.
I haven't fighted.
I think I went to take a picture of the hate crime that you were doing.
You were done on the other side.
You didn't need to walk over there.
No, I wanted to go out.
I don't know.
I'm going to tell you to move over there.
I allowed to be taken.
I allowed you to take that.
So you're refusing to leave?
I'm refusing to leave.
Why?
Because I'm a Jew, I'm a citizen, and I'm your boss.
And I don't leave because you say Jews are.
But you know what?
In the interest of keeping peace here and public safety, you're under arrest for breaching the disposition.
Okay, pause right there.
Stop right there.
So let me say a few obvious things here.
If you want to put me back on screen for a second, Libya.
At this point, I am far away from the display I went to photograph.
At this point, the police who sort of pulled me away had let me go, right?
Obviously.
So I was no longer near the display they wanted me away from.
The cop who pushed me away had concluded his little project of pushing me away.
And you can actually see there were no Hamas supporters around.
There was no disturbance to be caused.
The reason he arrested me is obvious, because I said, I'm a citizen, I'm a Jew, I have the right to be here on the streets.
I forget my exact word.
I said, and I'm your boss, which of course is true.
We have civilian oversight of police.
We don't live in a police state.
And that's when he said, I'm arresting you for breaching the peace.
But I wasn't breaching the peace.
I had been let go by the other officer.
We were far away from the zoning question.
There actually weren't any Palestinian activists, Hamas activists right nearby.
It was simply his own ego.
He's a bit of a thug, this Macduff.
He's a bit of a bully.
Do you see my point?
If they would have arrested me right near the display, I would not have been happy about it.
But at least their argument, you are near this display and that's upsetting people, you know, on the face of it, it would have some credence, even though that's no excuse to violate my charter rights.
The cop on the right there had frog-marched me out and then let me go.
I was standing far away from things.
And I just, it was that cop's temper that said, you know what, I'll show this guy.
I'll arrest him.
Keep playing the tape.
I'm being arrested because I'm standing on the sidewalk in my city.
I'm a Jew who lives in this neighborhood, and I'm being arrested because the police say that's the path of least resistance.
I was arrested
for standing on the street because I'm a Jew, and they said that was causing a disturbance.
That's right.
All right!
I'll give you something.
What kind of disturbance did they look at?
We got people coming from the streets by the police for the strength of my strike.
I'm just both of us.
We never know.
And now I've been arrested by the police because I refused to get off the public sidewalk.
They said that I cannot be on the sidewalk because that intensely is a disturbance.
They said that by standing there, and I wasn't even interviewing anyone, they said that that was such a disturbance that I would be arrested.
And I think that's a little bit cowardly because arresting me, they know I'm not going to have a riot like there was last night at Montreal.
They know I'm going to go mutually because I'm a law-abiding Canadian.
They're afraid of the Hamas activists.
And they're woke.
And Olivia Chow approves, and Doug Ford approves, and Justin Dudeau approves.
And so I am arrested for the first time in my life in my home city, the city where I pay taxes, because these people, and by these people, I mean these police have been instructed not to touch the hate club.
I went to film the hate club across the city.
They actually have reenacted Yahya Singh Law in Final Moments.
That would be like having a Hitler recreation.
It would be like having someone dressed up as Hitler in a neighborhood where Holocaust survivors live.
They say that that is not a hate crime, and that for me to report on it is unpunctionable.
They have protected Hamas supporters who are calling for the murder of Jews.
They are.
And because it was easier to arrest me than to arrest the Hamas thugs, that's what they've done in my own city for the crime of journalists.
Arrested for Reporting00:03:40
Do you have anything to do with this?
Wait a minute.
Officer, do you have anything to do with this?
You're on 968.
Do you want to go?
Let him go.
That's right.
He's fighting.
Let him go.
Let him go.
Disgusting.
Yeah, and then I was put into a police car.
There's other clips out there.
My friend Mayor Weinstein had an excellent clip that shows me all the way to getting into the car.
And I was driven away to the police station where I was removed from the police car, brought into a processing room, searched again, my belongings put in a Ziploc bag.
My shoelaces taken out of my boots and my hoodie, and I was put in a five-foot by seven-foot jail cell.
To my relief, it was clean.
David Menzies tells me some of the jail cells he's being put on are absolutely filthy.
I'm glad to say that wasn't the case here.
But it was just a plastic slab, which I guess would be a place to sit on or lie down on, and a toilet that on the top of it also had like a water fountain.
And I was just in there by myself.
There was a light, and then there was a bar door.
It was quite small.
It was sort of like being in a, in slightly bigger than a shower.
In fact, it had the same acoustics.
And I didn't have, they took my phone and my watch.
I didn't know what time it was.
I didn't, you know, basically you're alone with your thoughts.
And for someone like me who's really synchronized to their cell phone, it was a little bit, you know, it wobbles you a bit.
What's going on?
What's happening outside?
What are people doing?
They saw me being arrested.
I hope someone out there is calling my lawyer.
They did.
I hope we're showing the film of my arrest.
We were.
I made three phone calls.
My first call was to our lawyer who was right on the file and she agreed with me.
This was absolute BS.
Talked to our rebel news team just to confirm everything was afoot and it was.
And I also wanted to let them know I was fine in prison, in jail.
And I was fairly certain that I would be released because you could see I did absolutely nothing wrong.
And, You know, just causing a disturbance or whatever.
It's not even in the criminal code.
And I don't know.
I mean, when you don't have anyone else to talk to you, when you don't have a cell phone or watch or email, time, you're unaware of how much time passes.
And of course, there's no interaction with anyone.
I'm just saying that it was uncomfortable to be in jail for a couple hours.
I can only imagine what it's like for someone like our friend Tommy Robinson, who's in prison in the United Kingdom for an 18-month sentence.
He'll probably serve nine months in solitaire.
I can't imagine being by yourself for nine months, being locked up in a tiny cell like that for nine months.
I just can't imagine it.
I had three phone calls from jail, and I really enjoyed the calls because it was my only interaction with humans.
I mean, the guards in the jail themselves were nice enough.
They had nothing to do with my arrest.
They were just the people I was dumped on.
But no, it was very interesting.
I knew I would be released with no consequences because what are they going to charge me with what?
Overton Window Arrest00:06:23
But I think that I should not let it be.
I think I should sue.
And here's why.
This is the first time I've been arrested, but it's the sixth time that our reporters have been arrested in 2024.
In fact, just two weeks and one day ago at that exact corner, David Menzies was arrested by these same cops.
And they just do it again and again and again.
You can see there's no basis for my arrest.
Giving a veto to the Hamas crowd of who gets to be on the street or not, that's not the Canadian way.
And that won't hold up in court.
But you do that to me, and here's what you do.
Number one, you humiliate me, handcuff me, frog march me in public.
And you see the braying and the cheering by those Hamas extremists.
They loved it.
I mean, the police were doing what they could only hope to do.
And maybe one day they will do that.
I mean, there's been a lot of violence.
Look at the riots in Montreal on Friday night.
So they're humiliating me and giving exuberant enthusiasm to the Hamas side.
Number two, they're taking me away.
They're stopping me from doing my journalism, stopping me from reporting on the actual hate crime that was going on there.
Number three, they're imposing costs on me.
Now, in the end, my consultation with the lawyer was brief because they let me go without charges.
But in the half a dozen arrests we've had this year, we've had to go to court, I don't know, five, ten times.
We've spent tens of thousands of dollars on legals just for David Menzies alone.
But there's one more thing this arrest does, and it moves the Overton window.
You know what that word means, the Overton window.
It's basically the window of possibilities.
Everything within the Overton window is thinkable.
Everything outside the Overton window is unthinkable.
So what I mean by that is now we have to change our expectations of the country we're in.
The police are no longer neutral.
They have favorites, whether it's based on ethnicity or politics, I don't know, but they're no longer neutral, are they?
You saw the two-tier policing.
That's another way of saying it.
I was subject to one standard, but the pro-Hamas types were subject to another lighter standard, even though many of them aren't even Canadian nationals.
There's a new sheriff in town, and it ain't the cops, it's the Hamas extremists for whom the cops act as concierge.
This is very demoralizing, and that's the point.
When these Hamas thugs do things like snarl traffic, like block important roads, block Union Station, subway in Toronto, block major roads and highways, they're not doing that to persuade people.
They know that's extremely irritating.
They're doing that to show you who's dominant and who's submissive, to teach you the new rules, which is that they call the shots and you obey.
The police follow their lead now, not the law.
So the arrest of me was about the Overton window as much as anything.
And it was about tamping down the one independent news company in Toronto and in some ways around the country that's willing to call out these things.
So it was demoralizing from that sense, but I'm not going to be demoralized because I think the rebel way is when you're knocked down to get up, brush the dust off yourself and get back to it.
And not just to get back to the journalism, but in this case, to sue the Toronto Police Service and Officer McDuff.
Now, I heard something today that Efron had a video mentioned that I didn't have a chance to look at.
Olivia, maybe you can show it to me at the same time we show our viewers.
And that is I was on an interview with Jerry Agar, who's a talk show host here in Toronto on News Talk 1010.
And he was nice enough to have me on the show.
And basically, I said the things I've just said here.
But apparently, Jerry called the Toronto Police for comment on this, which is a good idea.
Get the other side of the story.
It's a good move, journalistically.
And I think Jerry invited them to say a word on his program, too.
It's a large channel.
News Talk 1010 is one of the largest AM radio stations in Toronto.
So normally, if you're in the spokesman business, that's great.
But I understand that the police said we will never go on a program along with Rebel News.
Now, I just heard that from Efron.
I haven't heard that directly from Jerry.
Do you have that clip, Olivia?
Can we hear that?
Let's take a listen.
Missayer of the Toronto Police wrote, hi, Christina.
Thanks for reaching out.
Nobody is coming on Jerry's show to talk about rebel news.
Okay, that's a blow-off.
I've been doing this a long time.
Implicit in that is disrespect for Ezra and by extension, the public that deserves answers as to why the terrorist supporters were not arrested, ignored by the police, but the Jew was.
Christina wrote back, we would appreciate a statement as to why Ezra would be arrested and not the protesters, who Jerry will refer to as terrorist supporters.
No response from the police.
This is the iHeartRadio Talk Network.
All right, it's slightly different than I thought it would be.
They're not saying we would never appear on a program with Ezra.
That's sort of how I interpreted it.
But there's a little bit of that there.
We will not be talking about rebel news.
Why?
Why?
Because we dare to challenge your top cop when he says, I am the law.
No, brother, you're not the law.
You're an officer of the law.
You're a servant of the law, but you are not the law.
Two of the cops, I think I said that same thing to two cops.
And that's another, can you send a note to the social media team, Olivia?
I'd like to have a very short social media clip.
I think I said it to both cops.
I said, you're not the law.
They said, I am the law.
And I said, no, you're a servant of the law.
I think I said that to both of them.
Sort of a blur to me.
Can we do it?
If it is two of them, can you have the team do a short mashup?
I'd love to show that.
And I think you've got a clip there too.
Yeah, go ahead and play that.
I think I had the same conversation with two of them.
Let's take a look.
Are you being arrested?
Because I'm standing on the sidewalk in my city.
Weird Handcuff Around Watch00:03:47
I'm a Jew who lives in this neighborhood.
You're here.
I want to.
I know you want me to stand here, but you're not the law.
I am the law.
No, you're not the boss.
You're a servant of the law.
And I'm being arrested because the police say that's a half of leases.
You had a designated area to stay in and you agreed to stay in.
I didn't know that.
What are you talking about?
Because it's not up to them to say you don't cease to stand.
You're present.
That's exactly what you're trying to do.
No, because you're trying to incite me.
I haven't tried to.
I went to take a picture of the hate crime.
You're not on the other side.
You didn't need to watch.
You're refusing to leave?
I'm refusing to leave.
Why?
Because I'm a Jew, I'm a citizen, and I'm your boss.
And I don't leave if you say Jews are.
Well, you know what?
In the interest of keeping peace here and public safety, you're under arrest for breach of the peace.
Public safety.
Hey, guys.
I'm the threat to public safety with my camera.
Not the 20 people chanting death to the Jews, Intifada to the Jews, Intifada Revolution.
There is only one solution.
Like they're using Nazi-like language.
They're literally having an homage to the terrorist leader, Yahya Sinmar.
It's abominable.
So yeah, that was my Sunday afternoon.
What did you do over the weekend?
How was your weekend?
Now, I'm not sure how long I was actually in custody.
Like I say, they took my watch on my phone.
Let's say it was two hours.
So I don't want to overdo it, but I've never been arrested before.
I've never been jailed before.
I've never been handcuffed before.
And you know what?
I mean, I don't want to get too mad at the beat cops, but you know, I've got a watch.
I've got a watch.
A lot of people wear watches.
And weirdly, they put the handcuff over.
And you know what?
I think they might have cracked my watch now that I see it.
Like they put the handcuff on this wrist here.
And on this one, they put the handcuff around the watch.
So when they tightened it, it was had the watch, like, I mean, it's not thick, but it was extremely tight.
And today, a day later, I've still got sort of dark bruises.
I mean, I shouldn't laugh about it, but like, why wouldn't you move the watch or take the watch off?
Like, I don't know if you saw, can you call up Mayor Weinstein's free?
I don't know if you have the video of me being searched and put in the back of the police car.
Like, like you're handcuffed, you can't do anything, right?
So they took the AirPods out of my ears.
They reached into my pocket to get, like, it was really weird.
When you're under arrest, you're like a baby being lifted by a parent.
Like, you were completely vulnerable.
You're absolutely under the power of the cops, and especially when you're handcuffed.
So it's really weird not being the boss of yourself, the boss of your person.
Like, if someone came up to me and took the AirPods out of my ears and put their hand in my pocket, like that would be deeply invasive.
That's what it's like when you're arrested.
And I was worried that they were going to do to me what they had done to David Menzies.
Remember when they slammed him on the hood of a car?
And once they put him in the back of the car and they hit his head and they cut it?
Like cops can be abusive.
So I suppose I should be grateful that the cops who arrested me, other than that weird handcuff around the watch.
The point is, it was so tight, but the watch was like this, it's a metal thing.
I don't know.
That was really weird to me.
Like, why would you put the handcuff there?
Especially when you took other things.
Anyhow, it was not pleasant.
The main problem with my arrest was not the discomfort.
The main problem with my arrest was not the two hours I spent in solitary in a cell.
Main Problem Was Rights Violation00:02:20
The main problem was not even the humiliation of being frog marched by a pack of braying Hamas hyenas.
The main problem was a violation of my rights, an intangible.
I'm a citizen.
My great-grandfather came to Canada in 1903, settled in Alberta before it was even a province.
That came two years later, 1905.
I'm a fourth-generation Canadian.
I'm a citizen.
I'm a taxpayer.
I've never been arrested for anything in my life before.
I'm a journalist, and some cop says you're not allowed to be here because they're upset with you.
They're upset with me for what reason?
I haven't interacted with them.
I haven't said or done anything to them.
They're only upset with me for one reason.
It's because I'm Jewish.
Now, I don't lead with that.
I mean, we've done 50,000 news stories plus here at Rebel News.
And the vast majority of them have nothing to do with Jews or Israel or anything.
Over the last past year, we've talked about Israel because it's been such an international news story.
But we talk about immigration, we talk about oil and gas, we talk about, you know, we talk about a hundred subjects.
We talk about freedom of speech, talk about Trudeau, we talk about Trump.
Like, we're not an explicitly Jewish organization.
I'd have to do the math, but as far as I know, there's, you know, I'm Jewish and Avi and Yamenian Australia is Jewish, but I don't, just trying to think.
I don't think we have any other Jewish reporters.
Our head of social media does some videos.
He's Jewish, but that's it.
Like, it's 90% Christian or whatever.
The problem with my being there wasn't that I was a journalist.
It's that I was a Jew.
That was the problem to Hamas.
So Hamas said to the cops, he's inciting us by virtue, not of the fact that I was a journalist, but by virtue that I was a Jew.
That was the only thing they were chanting about.
Last week they were saying, go back to Poland, blah, blah, blah.
By the way, I've never been to Poland.
No one in my family is from Poland.
I've never been there.
Rumble Premium Promo00:04:07
I'm a Canadian.
And there's something extremely bizarre about people who just got off the plane, have such a thick accent you can barely understand them.
And they're telling me a fourth generation Canadian to go back to Poland, which is not where I'm from.
They are colonizers.
It's absolutely grotesque.
All right.
I want to just check in with Olivia here.
I want to make sure I'm doing whatever business I have to do.
And I want to talk a little bit about Rumble.
Because what we're talking about here on the live stream, it's carried on, if I'm not mistaken, on Twitter, YouTube, and Rumble.
Is that right, Olivia?
YouTube is atrocious.
They demonetized us.
They throttle us.
It's a disgrace, really.
The only reason we're still on YouTube is that we have 1.7 million subscribers there.
Even though we get no money from them, I still want to talk to them.
I love the 1.7 million people.
I just absolutely despise the middlemen who have cut us off from those people.
So we still publish to YouTube.
I love Elon Musk's ex because they're into freedom.
But the video platform, the freedom video platform that's a counterweight and an antidote to YouTube is Rumble.
And I'd like to read a word on their behalf.
This sponsorship is from Rumble, one that's incredibly important to the survival of the company.
When Rumble first started in 2013, they built the platform for the small creator.
They didn't censor or have biases.
They were fair and treated all creators equally.
No one thought platforms would censor political conversation or censor opinions on COVID, but they did.
Facebook admitted they felt a pressure from the Biden and Harris administration.
Rumble did not.
They held the line.
They're attacked daily for giving us a voice to talk to you.
They're attacked in corporate media.
They're attacked by governments like France.
They're attacked from brand advertisers who refuse to work with them.
Corporate America is fighting to remove speech.
Rumble is fighting to keep it.
Rumble won't survive with brand advertisers.
They don't get much of it.
Watching our show on Rumble is the most they can ask from you.
But if you really believe in this fight and if you have the means, one major way you can help Rumble survives by joining Rumble Premium.
Absolutely, you've got to do that.
Join the community that believes in the First Amendment or in Canada, Section 2B of the Charter of Rights.
Rumble is offering $10 off with the promo code studio when you purchase an annual subscription.
Go to rumble.com/slash premium and use the promo code studio.
Like I said, if you have the means and believe in the cause, now it's the time to join Rumble premium.
If you don't have the means, we're just happy if you watch us on Rumble.
All right, I want to make sure that we have no typos of that.
I believe every word of that.
I've met the Rumble guys.
They love free speech.
And in fact, we'll have more to say about Rumble in a few weeks.
I just want to make sure some of that wording, I didn't know who they was.
It looked like one sentence ended a little early there.
But I am a Rumble fanatic.
And you can see behind me.
Let me just, there you go.
You see our little Rumble.
It says Rebel.
And then it says Rumble there.
Huge fans.
And by the way, they're from Canada, which I like.
And boy, we need the help to fight for freedom in Canada.
You know what?
If you're not deep into Rumble, you've got to.
I mean, I still use YouTube from time to time, and of course, I love Twitter, but Rumble is the video platform if you love freedom.
It is so true.
You know what?
That isn't even emphatic enough to reflect my actual views on Rumble.
So can you do me a personal favor and go to rumble.com/slash premium and use the promo code studio?
It's going to save you $10.
So don't forget to type in Studio as the promo code.
And it's ad-free and you're supporting good guys who are, they really are in the front rank with Elon Musk defending freedom.
If you say, Ezra, how can we help?
Well, help me by helping yourself by getting a premium subscription to Rumble and type in Studio, get $10 off.
Fleming Versus Ontario00:15:00
All right.
I know I'm ranting a bit, but we have so few allies that when a company puts it all on a line, you got to help them.
You got to help them.
All right.
Okay, well, it's 1.38, and I've been talking a lot about my very exciting weekend.
I'm trying to, oh, there's a Rumble rant from Ryerson Gary.
It's nice to support the blue, referring to the police.
However, until the rank and file and their union speak up, how the police elite treat Hamas, one can only assume that they one and all are in silent agreement.
Could be.
But I don't think so.
And just when I start to think so, when I get so depressed about the police, fate has it that I bump into a cop who says, you know what?
There's an officer.
I was chatting.
I was taken to the police station where they have this, I call it a jail.
It's a bunch of holding cells.
It's where you're first taken and they search you and they take your belongings and you sign that and they ask you about do you have a medical issue or this and that.
They tell you the rules.
And so it's sort of a holding jail.
And I'm not going to tell you which cop it was, but I was talking to a bunch of them and those were not the guys that ordered me arrested.
So I was, you know, engaging in banter and chatter.
And I was just trying, you know, I was trying to keep my own spirits high by being upbeat.
I sort of knew that I would get out that day.
I didn't, I was certain they wouldn't hold me overnight because they had nothing.
And I'm not going to say became friends with the cops.
I was only there for a couple hours, but it was friendly enough that on my way out the door, when I literally was leaving, I'm not even, I'm not going to tell you which cop it was, but he said, we should have a drink sometime.
Swear to God, he said that.
He said, we should have a drink sometime.
And it's not because of my scintillating personality.
It's because, you know, he, you know, we didn't get, he was following the rules and he was doing his job, but he could tell that this was a political arrest.
Let me just leave it at that.
And obviously it was.
In fact, it wasn't even political.
It was just that Officer Mikdoff didn't like the fact that I spoke back to him and called him out as a servant, not of our law, but of a servant of Hamas.
It's been interesting to see the public reaction.
It is 1:40 p.m. Eastern Time, and I've done some radio in Toronto.
I did Ben Mulrooney show.
I did Jerry Agar's show, as you just heard.
I also did Fox News Channel.
You want to grab that and we'll play a little bit of that.
I'm doing Newsmax, I think it is, tonight.
I've heard from actually, I have to call the National Post back.
Here's my appearance on an early morning Fox show.
Take a look.
Protests in Canada.
And now a Jewish journalist is arrested at a prohibition rally in his own neighborhood that's in Toronto.
Here's how it happened.
I think you're a coward also.
You can have your peace.
You'll do what they say.
I'm trying to keep the peace.
No, you're not.
You're ready.
You're refusing to leave.
I'm refusing to leave.
Why?
Because I'm a Jew, I'm a citizen, and I'm your boss.
And I don't leave if you say Jews are.
But you know what?
In the interest of keeping peace here and public safety, you're under arrest for breach of the peace.
Take a minute.
I'm good.
Ezra Levant is the publisher of Rebel News.
He joins us now.
I saw this happening yesterday.
I haven't heard from you directly as to how you saw it, but I sent a text around saying, What in the world is happening?
So can you tell us what was it like there at the moment in your own neighborhood?
Sure, it was a residential neighborhood, so there's no Israeli consulate or any political target there.
They were going after you.
Anyway, I basically make the arguments that I made earlier in our show here.
It was just nice to be on Fox.
I wanted to show you that.
I was also on the Charlie Kirk show.
That's sort of a podcast, very large podcast in America.
I've been invited to go on InfoWars.
I think it's still called InfoWars.
I haven't been following the news with Alex Jones, but I think that's coming up in about 45 minutes.
There's a little bit more interest in Canada this time around than there normally is.
Normally, Canadian media are absolutely silent about the fate of Rebel News and when we're arrested.
In fact, you might have, if you listen to the whole Jerry Agar interview, and you can, we tweeted it out.
Someone texted in, oh, this, you know, there's people who say, oh, Rebel News loves being arrested.
They must love being arrested because they're arrested so much.
No, actually, we hate being arrested.
And the more we're arrested, the more we hate it.
And we do not arrest ourselves and we do not ask to be arrested.
You saw me.
I was just by myself, very low-key with a camera.
And the police arrested me because I defied them when they said, get out.
And I said, you're not my boss.
Do you think the police are your boss?
On what sidewalk you can walk or not?
Maybe common sense says walk around if you're a pedestrian, but I wasn't passing by as a pedestrian.
I was there as a journalist.
Are the police my editor-in-chief?
Do I need to convince the policemen that this is a legitimate public interest news story?
That I don't have a Charter II, Section 2 of the Charter, right to be there?
Constitution of Canada, the Charter of Rights and Freedom, Section 2B, gives me freedom of the press.
Not freedom in the press, subject to what some cop finds more convenient.
And by the way, look at all the thugs who were marching along there.
If I was really causing a disturbance, why were they coming along?
And why weren't the police tamping them down?
You know, I want to show you a case, a legal case.
It's from our Supreme Court of Canada.
I only heard about this case yesterday because I, although, you know, frankly, I'm sort of surprised I haven't heard about it before because it's sort of up my alley.
And it's a case called Fleming versus Ontario.
And it's a Supreme Court case, and I'm just calling it up on my screen, and we've got it there for you, too.
I'm going to read what's called the head notes.
Can we do that?
So I've got the same document open that you do.
And you scroll up a little bit more, up a little bit?
Yeah, perfect, right there.
And if you want to put that on the screen, I'll read through this.
So by the way, let me just tell you a little something about how Supreme Court rulings are published.
So the courts, the judges put their heads together and they have clerks and they sort of negotiate how they write this thing.
And scroll down a little bit, right to there.
Perfect.
And so they write a court ruling.
And in this case, the court ruling is, oh, I can't see how many pages long, but it's quite long, the Supreme Court rulings are.
So there's a summary of the case called a head note.
And I'm going to read the head note because obviously I'm not going to read like a multi-page court ruling to you.
So you can see the case is called Fleming versus Ontario.
And it's from 2019.
So it's fairly recent.
You can see the names of the judges, Wagner, Abella, Moldave, Cote, etc.
So this was an appeal from the Court of Appeal for Ontario.
So this case had ricocheted around Ontario, and it was important enough that the Supreme Court thought they would weigh in on it.
So let me read the head notes.
Police powers, common law power of arrest, breach of peace, counter-protester acting lawfully, arrested to prevent apprehended breach of peace by others.
Counter-protester charged with obstructing police, but charged later withdrawn.
Counter-protester filing statement claim against province and police officers seeking general damages for assault and battery, wrongful arrest and false imprisonment, aggravated or punitive damages and damages for violations of various constitutional rights.
Whether police have common law power to address, to arrest someone acting lawfully in order to prevent apprehended breach of peace by others.
Okay, that was sort of sentence fragments.
But you see, so Fleming didn't do anything wrong.
Other people were going to breach the peace if Fleming was there, so cops arrest Fleming.
Well, maybe that ought to be my mental name.
Now, I'm going to read a little bit more.
So again, this is still part of the head note.
Okay, I'm not going to take too much time, but this is the top court in Canada.
This is binding on every cop in the country.
Let me read it to you.
Fleming was arrested while walking to a counter-protest flag rally organized in response to Six Nations protesters' occupation of a piece of crown land.
So, this is in Ontario.
There's a dispute between Indigenous folks and other folks about who gets to be on the land.
The police became aware of the flag rally in the months preceding it and had developed an operational plan given the contentious atmosphere in the community, which had on numerous occasions culminated in violent clashes between the two sides.
There's some similarities here, aren't there?
The plan including keeping protesters and counter-protesters apart.
And flag rally counter-protesters were informed that they were not allowed on the occupied property.
When the police spotted Fleming walking on the shoulder of the road, running along the occupied property, they headed toward him with the intentions of placing themselves between him and the entrance to the property.
To avoid the police vehicles, Fleming stepped onto the occupied property, which appeared to cause a reaction in the group of protesters, some of whom began moving toward him.
An officer then approached Fleming and told him he was under arrest to prevent a breach of the peace.
When Fleming refused to drop the flag he was carrying, he was forced to the ground, handcuffed, placed in an offender's transport unit van, moved to a jail cell, and released two and a half hours later.
Sounds familiar, although they didn't slam me on the ground.
The Crown eventually withdrew the charge of obstructing a police officer, which had been laid against Fleming for resisting his arrest.
Fleming subsequently filed a statement of claim, so he sued the province and the police officers who had been involved in his arrest.
He claimed general damages for assault and battery, wrongful arrest, and false imprisonment, as well as aggravated or punitive damages and damages for the violation of his rights.
This is the most important part here.
Section 2B, that's freedom of the press, freedom of expression, freedom of speech.
7, 9, and 15.
That 7 is, I think, due process 15 is equality.
I forget section 9.
Fleming was successful at trial, but a majority of the Court of Appeals set aside the award of damages on the basis that the police had the authority at common law to arrest him.
The Court of Appeal ordered a new trial solely on the issue of excessive force.
Fleming appeals to the court on the issue of whether the police acted lawfully in arresting him and on whether a new trial should have been ordered on the question of excessive force.
Okay, so that's the head note, but just give me the next paragraph.
Held.
So this is the result.
The appeal should be allowed and the trial judge orders restored.
Here's the takeaway: the following sentence is the summary of the entire case.
Fleming's arrest was not authorized by law, and there is no basis for intervening in the trial judge's conclusion that the province and the police were liable for battery for their use of force in unlawfully arresting him.
As a result, no new trial is needed on the issue of excessive force.
And I'm going to scroll down.
There is a lot in the head notes, aren't there?
And again, this isn't actually written by the judges.
These are summaries, so you don't have to read the whole huge thing.
Can you skip ahead to the words, as there is no common law power to arrest someone?
It's the very last paragraph.
Yeah.
And let me just read this.
Guys, I know I've taken up a lot of your time, but we're learning together.
I was actually unfamiliar with this court case until yesterday.
You'd think I would know it because it's really up my alley.
So let me, I'm going to read the last paragraph of what's called the head notes.
So this is basically the clerk summarizing the lengthy ruling that follows.
As there is no common law power to arrest someone who's acting lawfully in order to prevent an apprehended breach of the peace by others, the police in this case did not have the lawful authority to arrest Fleming.
Well, hello.
Did you see what happened to me?
I was not breaking the law.
There was a breach of the peace apprehended by others.
Other people were going to breach the peace.
I was doing nothing wrong, and the cop arrested me.
He said so.
What's so amazing about my interaction yesterday, if I may, is that the cops were narrating what they were doing because I was asking them the whole time.
It's not like I was standing there and they swooped in and arrested me and I said, hey, what's going on?
We had the conversation for minutes and minutes and minutes before they arrested me.
So I knew what was going on and I knew it was exactly in their mind because they told me.
You don't think that's going to be played in court?
Here, let me finish reading this.
The trial judge specifically found that Fleming had not done anything unlawful before being arrested.
There was no evidence before her that he had committed any offense in walking along the street, entering the occupied property, or standing there with his Canadian flag.
Imagine arresting a guy for a Canadian flag.
That's where we are in Canada.
Nor was there evidence that he had himself been about to commit an indictable offense or a breach of the peace.
The province and the police have not sought to challenge that finding on appeal, nor have they cited or relied on any statutory power to arrest Fleming.
They rely entirely on a common law power to arrest someone who is acting lawfully in order to prevent an apprehended breach of the peace by other persons, a power that does not exist.
That power does not exist.
Well, you know what that cop said?
I am the law.
False Arrest Ruling00:04:51
No, you're not.
And it sounds like you need a judge to tell you that.
In light of this conclusion, a new trial on the issue of excessive force is not necessary as the police were not authorized to common law to arrest Fleming.
No amount of force would have been justified for the purpose of accomplishing the task.
You know, in law school, they use Latin, and they would say, QED quo de erat demonstrandum.
Just demonstrated the whole point there.
I know we spent a lot of time on that, but do you feel smarter?
Olivia, do you feel smarter about the law?
I do too.
And I, you know, I'm sort of embarrassed that I didn't know this case because it is sort of a case up my alley.
Because we have been arrested time again because someone else is getting excitable.
Fleming versus Ontario, 2019 Supreme Court of Canada case could not be clearer.
You cannot arrest someone who's not breaking any law just because someone else might breach the peace because of them.
You can't victim blame.
And it sounds like that was a unanimous ruling.
We've just walked through this case together.
The headnotes.
Obviously, I'm not going to read a multi-page ruling.
Those are the official head notes of the Supreme Court of Canada.
Do you have any doubt that I was wrongfully arrested?
Now I'm glad I wasn't thrown to the ground.
But you heard that last sentence there.
Because it was a false arrest, no amount of force is justified, right?
And I'm not going to overly dramatize the bruises on my wrist, but I want to tell you that hurts.
I mean, I wasn't crying, but it, and the longer you have those things on, it really starts to get at you.
And why did they handcuff me in the first place?
Did they think I was going to, I'm a 50-year-old man, and some say I'm in tip-top shape, but I wouldn't know who would say such a thing.
What did they think I was going to do?
Attack the cops?
Like, seriously, why was I handcuffed?
Other than to humiliate me?
Did they think I was going to run away?
You know, I mean, it's just so absurd.
There was no reason to handcuff me at all.
And they kept the handcuffs on in the back of the police car.
What did they think I was going to do back there?
So did you catch that line in Fleming versus Ontario?
Because the arrest was illegal, no amount of force is justified.
QED, my friends.
Well, it's 156.
I want to make sure that I'm doing my duties here.
Is there any more ad reads I need to do, Olivia?
It's not ready yet.
It's not ready yet.
Okay.
Well, are there any more live chats or rumble rants, as they're sometimes called?
No, it doesn't look like it.
Well, listen, it's nice to be back in the chair.
It's sort of been an intense 36 hours or 24 hours for me.
There's a reason why rebel news is on the front line.
It's because we are often the only people willing to fight.
And so the government knows that if it can stop us, it could stop anyone.
Because who else would be foolish enough to fight?
And if Rebel News is defeated, if Rebel News can be arrested, if Ezra Levant can be arrested, if David Menzies can be arrested, if Rebel News can be punched in the face by the cops, clearly in violation of Fleming versus Ontario, would anyone else say, oh, I'll take a chance at that?
Would a private citizen take a chance at that?
Would another news agency take a chance at that?
No.
Rebel News is the pointy edge of the spear when it comes to civil liberties.
I say again, where's the Canadian Association of Journalists?
You just saw a journalist arrested because the subject of the journalism didn't want them there.
Where's the Canadian Association of Journalists?
Where's Canadian Journalists for Free Expression?
Where's Canadian Civil Liberties Association?
Where's Pan Canada?
Where's Amnesty International?
Where are they all?
And on the Jewish side, where's the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs, CEJA, as it's called?
Where are they?
Where are all the official people?
I know where they are.
They're applying for grants from Justin Trudeau.
So they don't dare criticize Trudeau with a Trudeau mindset.
They don't dare support rebel news.
They're not actually supporting rebel news.
They're supporting the principle that you don't arrest journalists.
But they're not going to say that when it's rebel news in the wind.
Macbeth's Battle Cry00:03:02
I appreciate your support.
We did hire a lawyer yesterday.
Thankfully, we didn't need her to fight the big battle because they released me without charges.
But we're going to take on an even bigger battle.
We are going to sue the police.
I can't abide this.
And now that I know Fleming versus Ontario, so I only read the head note, but still, what they did to me and what they've done to David is illegal.
And it sounds like they need a judge to tell them that.
If you want to help me out, go to saveezra.com.
It's sort of funny.
You know, we have so many websites, Stand with David, Stand With Alexa, Stand With Avi.
Like all our reporters who have been roughed up, we stand with them.
And it's sort of surprising in a way that I haven't been arrested until now, but I was.
And so I wonder if you would stand with me at saveezra.com.
And what are we going to do with that, Doe?
We're going to sue the government.
And we're going to sue them, and we're going to use the case of Fleming versus Ontario as a president.
We're going to talk about our Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
And we're going to call Officer MacDuff as a witness.
And do you want to call up Hamlet?
No, sorry, Macbeth.
Lay on MacDuff.
I'll send you the link.
There we go.
Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 8.
I'll put that in.
Can you find that quicker than I can send it to you?
Yeah, perfect.
Let me read to you from Macbeth.
Now, I maybe shouldn't because Macduff wins that battle, but I love the little saying.
Forgive me here.
Right at the end, if you find the word lay on, can you find the word lay, L-A-Y?
Yeah, so I'll just start right where it says Macbeth up there.
Do you see that?
So this is Macbeth to Macduff.
I will not yield to kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet and to be baited with the rabble's curse, though Burnham Wood become to Dunsenane and thou opposed, being of no woman born, yet I will try the last before my body.
I throw my warlike shield.
Lay on, Macduff, and damned be he that first cries, hold enough.
The cop who arrested me, who said he was the law, his name is Macduff.
Well, lay on, I say, and damned be he who first cries, hold enough, and it won't be me.