Ezra Levant arrives in London to live-tweet Tommy Robinson’s March 20th emergency hearing, where Justice Martin Chamberlain interrupts a lawyer call mid-conversation, exposing Woodhill Prison’s chaotic control under Governor Nicola Marfleet. Robinson’s nine-month solitary confinement—21 hours daily—exacerbates PTSD and ADHD, with the government failing to dispute a psychological report. Levant criticizes UK prison conditions as gang-dominated, citing risks for Robinson due to his anti-Islam stance, while questioning media bias and politicians’ financial excesses, like Trudeau’s $8.4M lifetime pensions and Carney’s evasive responses. The hearing’s procedural delays hint at deeper systemic failures, with Levant’s cautious optimism contrasting the UK’s and Canada’s elite entitlement culture. [Automatically generated summary]
I'm recording this little intro in Toronto, but by the time you hear it, I will be in London, England, where I will be live tweeting Tommy Robinson's court case.
He's applying to a judge to get him out of solitary confinement, where he has been rotting for four or five months now.
You're not supposed to be in solitary for more than a few days.
It's a kind of torture.
He's going to serve nine months if we don't win in court.
So that's what I'll be doing today.
That will be the bulk of the show today.
I'm speaking prospectively because I'm not yet out there when I record this.
What I have just recorded also is an interview with our friend Franco Terrezzano of the Taxpayers Federation.
Did you know that Justin Trudeau is not one?
But two million-dollar pensions.
We'll give the details on that.
But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus.
That's the video version of this podcast.
And obviously, we love to show you things, not just tell you them.
And the eight bucks a month might not seem a lot to you, but it helps us build Rebel News because we don't take any money from the government and its shows.
Oh, yeah, one more thing.
Hey there, Rebel News listeners.
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Tonight, I'm in London for Tommy Robinson's hearing.
It's March 20th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
London Hearing Approaches00:11:09
Shame on you, you SENSORIOUS BUG!
Hi, everybody.
Ezra Levant here at the Toronto International Airport.
I'm about to fly to London, England, and the good news is my flight's right on time.
I'll arrive very early tomorrow morning, and I'll go straight to the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand.
Tomorrow morning is a special two-hour emergency hearing by Tommy's lawyers.
Tommy Robinson is in court tomorrow.
He himself will likely not be there.
He might appear by video link.
But the purpose of the hearing, it's a kind of case management hearing.
Tommy Robinson's lawyers have filed pleadings in the courts saying that his treatment at His Majesty's Prison Woodhill is tantamount to torture and therefore illegal.
You might recall that late last year, Tommy Robinson was sentenced to prison, the maximum term for contempt of court for publishing a video to Twitter.
It was a shocking sentence, the most allowed under law, 18 months of which he'll serve nine months.
That's atrocious to begin with, but they put him in segregation, in solitary confinement, where he remains in his cell for 21 hours a day.
He's only allowed out to shower, to exercise, and very occasionally to visit guests.
But the prison governor is such a saddest.
I don't understand how cruel she can be.
She really is a sociopath.
She plays games with Tommy.
She allows visitors, but then cancels them on no notice and says, well, so what?
they were going to talk about your visit to prison.
That's not a thing.
You know, the most petty example is to turn off GB News in the prison.
That's a TV channel, the only TV channel Tommy likes.
Imagine turning that off in the prison to punish Tommy.
I understand it was a complaint from the prison E-Monk.
Just absolutely atrocious.
Even cutting off Tommy's phone privileges to talk to his own son.
That's Nicola Marfleet, just a gross, gross woman.
But she basically has the power of life or death over Tommy.
And that's the thing.
I suppose you could do a few days in solitary confinement without falling apart.
But Tommy has been in there for months.
And this vicious prison governor shows no intention of changing that.
So Tommy has top lawyers who are going before the Royal Courts of Justice and the High Court tomorrow to make the case that we need an emergency hearing about his treatment.
They'll have as evidence a psychologist report, a psychologist who visited Tommy in prison, and his report will testify to how exactly what you would expect to happen is happening.
No man is supposed to be in solitary for four, five, six months.
If Marfleet gets her way, it'll be nine months.
So I will be in London first thing tomorrow, make my way down to the Strand, and I will live tweet from the court.
You can follow me on Twitter at Ezra Levant.
We'll compile all these at our website called TommyReports.com.
Now I'm flying in and I'm flying right out.
I'm not even staying overnight.
I'm catching the six o'clock flight home.
And the reason I do this, it's insane when you think about it.
It's a seven-hour flight there, an hour cab ride into the city, and then the same in reverse.
So it's really 16 hours of travel for two hours in court.
Why would I do that?
Well, the reason is I don't trust any of the mainstream media in the UK to report on this.
Honestly, their way of dealing with Tommy is either ignoring him when he's doing something good or attacking him if they can.
And I've sat in court with the regime journalists in the UK before, and I read their coverage.
And I think, were we even in the same trial?
They literally hate Tommy Robinson.
And if they don't, they're instructed to by their bosses.
It's really gross.
So I feel that as a Canadian, as a kind of outsider, I'm not susceptible to any peer pressure or whatever it is that makes the media hate Tommy so much.
So I feel like my reportage is an antidote to the lies of the UK regime media.
If you feel the same way, please do me a favor and help chip in to get me over there.
Like I say, I'm going as low cost as I can.
I'm not even getting a hotel room.
I'm just flying there doing the court reporting and flying home.
But if you go to TommyReports.com, chip in a few dollars or a few quid, whatever you can.
I'd really appreciate it.
One more thing.
I want to say a special thank you to Elon Musk.
It's in the public domain now.
But we used to do the crowdfunding for Tommy's lawyers.
But earlier this year, Elon Musk took that over for two of his court cases.
And it's just an absolutely phenomenal act of civic participation and generosity by Elon Musk, a real commitment to civil liberties and freedom of speech.
And I'm just in awe of that man and what he's done for Tommy Robinson.
And I would hope that Tommy's friends take that as encouragement.
That although you feel alone in your own country sometimes, people around the world are rooting for you, rooting for Tommy and rooting for freedom of speech.
And I'll do my best to capture that tomorrow.
I'll be live tweeting from the court and I'll report a video.
I'll record a video outside.
Anyways, I better get going.
We're bored fairly soon.
To follow me, go to tommyreports.com.
And if you can chip in a few quid to help me get over there and back, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks very much.
Oh, hi, everybody.
I just landed at Heathrow Airport in London.
I slept on the plane.
I managed to find a shower here at the airport, so I'm slightly fresher.
I'm fresh as a daisy, no problem, three hours of sleep.
I'm now going to make my way to the Royal Courts of Justice and at 10.30 a.m. Tommy Robinson will have his case heard before Justice Martin Chamberlain.
I did a little bit of Googling and I liked what I saw.
I saw that he said in an interview with the Times newspaper that he thinks the United Kingdom should have a more robust freedom of speech.
He actually said he'd like something like the U.S. First Amendment.
Now, whether or not he puts that into practice for our friend Tommy, we'll find out later this morning.
I'm going to live tweet the whole thing.
You can follow me on Twitter.
Simply my name is Ezra Levant.
And if you get this message too late, the hearings are from 10.30 to 12.30, you can follow what we post to, TommyReports.com, TommyReports.com.
And can you do me a favor and help cover the cost of my travel over here?
Unlike the BBC reporters who will be there today to stab Tommy in the back, I don't get government funding, so I had to pay for my own flight and cab fare.
Obviously, it's about $1,000 Canadian or £500.
If you could chip in, I'd really be grateful.
I believe it's important that I'm there today because I don't trust the mainstream media to tell the truth.
All right, I'm going to get going into the city now.
Oh, hi, everybody.
I am outside the beautiful Royal Courts of Justice in London.
What a gorgeous building.
I'll tilt the camera down so you can see it.
There's a crowd of people outside.
There's always something cooking here.
I said hello to a couple of Tommy Robinson supporters.
His case will be heard in about an hour's time.
Justice Martin Chamberlain presiding.
And Tommy will have a legal team led by the King's Council barrister named Alistair Williams, who's excellent.
I've had a chance to talk to him a little bit over the course of the last few months.
And more importantly, he gets along well with Tommy and was successful for Tommy in defeating the Metropolitan Police ban on Tommy even entering the city of London.
What a bizarre punishment that was.
I won't get into that now, but I think it goes to the fact that there is lawfare against Tommy Robinson being waged by the government.
One of Tommy's books is called Enemy of the State.
It's his autobiography, and it really is the truth.
You know, we like to think that the United Kingdom, like Canada, like the United States, is a liberal democracy with the rule of law, with a light touch.
But as Labrenti Beria, the Soviet secret police boss, said, show me the man, I'll find you the crime.
And it is possible, even in a liberal democracy like the UK, for the state to weaponize things and say, we'll find something to get him.
And I think that's the approach they're taking with Tommy.
It really is a disgrace to the tradition of the UK, which was the crucible of freedom of speech and really liberty and law.
Anyways, I'm going to go in the court now, find my way to the courtroom, make sure I get in there with enough time to get a seat, find a plug for my computer, and I'm going to be live tweeting the proceedings, which I like to do.
It'll be interesting to see what mainstream media attend.
They typically come to Tommy's court cases, and they don't like me much because they take a very hostile point of view.
I think most mainstream media journalists in the UK despise Tommy Robinson for political reasons, for reasons of class, for reasons of peer pressure.
But more than just individual journalists, I don't think that there's any mainstream newspapers or broadcasters who would even allow a journalist to be neutral.
I think the only exception would be there's a number of people at GB News who give them a fair hearing.
But, I mean, the BBC is atrocious.
They're just character assassins.
That's one of the reasons I believe it's important I come over here from Canada is I just don't trust the mainstream media in this country, GB News being an exception.
Anyways, I'm going to go in now.
Follow along on my Twitter handle, which is simple.
My name is Levant.
And if you're seeing this video later, for example, if you live in North America, where it's still night, or very, very early morning, you can catch up at our special website, TommyReports.com.
And if you feel like chipping in a few dollars or pounds to help cover my travel to get here, I'd be grateful.
I flew in overnight.
I slept on the plane.
I came here straight from the airport.
And there's lots of friendly folks here, you know, saying hello, which is a lovely treat to be welcomed by Tommy's supporters.
And then I'm going home.
I'm going home at the 6 p.m. flight, so I'm not even on the ground for 12 hours, but that's the way to do it.
So check out my reports at TommyReports.com, and I'm going to go in now.
Cheers.
I'm with Esla Rabat Levant, who's the publisher of Rebel News, without whom we would not be here in court today for this hearing about Tommy Robinson's treatment in prison, solitary confinement, treatment in prison, and whether it accords with justice, which I think we both agree it does not.
Ezra, can you?
Ezra has been in charge of really got the whole legal proceedings going for Tommy.
Scheduling Drama00:15:52
I don't know what would have happened without Ezra, whether there would be any such defense or even challenging of the courts of the sentencing of Tommy without him.
So in Britain, we're very grateful.
Well, thank you for saying that.
I don't want to contradict you, but I think you're overstating my role.
I mean, I was involved, but I was not the essential mover.
But thank you for your kind words.
And so today, can you just say why were we here?
What were you trying to establish today?
Sure.
Well, Tommy is in an extreme situation where every day counts.
However, the court system moves very slowly.
To get a trial takes months, sometimes even years.
So today's hearing was to see if the courts would agree to hear the substantive case of Tommy's prison treatment on an expedited or emergency basis.
So this judge, after listening for several hours, said that tomorrow he will give a ruling on how quickly Tommy's challenge to his prison treatment will happen.
If I had to guess, I think the judge will lean towards having it sooner rather than later.
Remember, it's not the same as issuing a ruling on the substance of that.
So Tommy will still have to prove that the way he's being treated is illegal.
But this judge will determine how quickly that happens.
Right.
And so we might have to wait another month to go by before that happened.
Or indeed, the judge may not rule that, may say there's no case to be held for no judicial review to happen.
I think Tommy has the right to a judicial review.
I'm not an expert on British civil procedure, but I think he has the right to that review.
Whether or not it happens quickly is what's at stake.
And really, that's an easy call for a judge to make.
What's the cost of it other than moving around some scheduling?
The difficult judge, the difficult job will be ruling on the substance.
But what was interesting today is that there's a little bit of drama, which is Tommy objected to something that the government's lawyer was saying.
He did this by waving in the camera from the prison link.
The judge noticed that and said, okay, it looks like Tommy has something to say.
Let's have a half-hour break so Tommy can confer with his lawyer.
So that happened, but in the middle of that phone call, the prison cut off the call, which is a shocking thing to do, but it sort of proves the point of everything that Tommy's lawyer was saying, which is the prison is abusive, it's whimsical, it's capricious, it's unreliable, it's untrustworthy.
And the judge had this happen to him.
So the judge angrily instructed the government lawyer to ensure that Tommy had a chance to confer with his lawyer without interruption.
So that took more than an hour.
That's why the judge will not issue his ruling until tomorrow.
Because the capricious, unreliable, abusive governor of HMP Woodhill thought she'd messed around.
But as the Brits would say, QED.
Doesn't that prove everything?
It was particularly ironic because this came at the moment that the government's counsel had been listing all Tommy's wonderful prisoners, like being allowed to be locked in the gym.
Well, he didn't say locked in a gym for an hour a week or whatever it was.
And he'd listed all these prisoners.
But when it came to the fact of whether Tommy could even get the attention of a prison guard as he sat in a small cell to say that the judge had said he could call his solicitor, he couldn't even get the attention of the guard.
And then after that, as you say, when he got the call, the call was cut off.
So it was amusing if you have a sort of satirical sense about it.
There were a number of things that I myself knew were false.
For example, visits.
The prison governor, her name is Nicola Marfley, very abusive woman, would grant someone a visit and then at the last minute yank it away from Tommy like a taunt or a tease.
And she's done this repeatedly.
I know because she's done it to me.
She's cut off Tommy's phoning privileges, including his own son.
So I think the judge is a bit of a sadistic woman.
And I say that.
I meant to say the governor.
Nicola Marfley.
Sure.
Forgive me.
I didn't mean to say the judge.
Excuse me.
The prison governor.
Yes.
Sorry, I had no sleep last night.
I got on the plane yesterday in Canada, had a few winks on the plane.
And so forgive me, I'm a little, I messed up my words there.
No, the prison warden, the prison governor.
Yes.
And whimsical, capricious, highly political.
In fact, in one letter to Tommy's solicitor, Nicola Marfleet said that it was because of Tommy's politics that he had to be segregated.
She agreed this, yeah.
And let me say something, speaking as a foreigner.
Because sometimes you're so used to something that you no longer realize.
Yeah, that's right.
And if I may, it was accepted as normal by both the government lawyer and Tommy's lawyer and the judge and everyone in the room that prisons are lawless, violent place run by the gangs.
And this was just accepted as a reason why Tommy had to be segregated because the prison was in no position to government.
Not in reverse.
Nobody, no, it was said that he might radicalize other prisoners.
In fact, we know radicalization is happening across British prisons the whole time.
And, you know, it was deeply ironic.
In Canada, we call the boss of a prison.
We call that typically a prison warden.
Here you call it a governor, but that's sort of Orwellian because Nicola Marfleet is not governing.
It's more like Agnachristian.
Remember the great Agatha Christian about the cruel wardens.
The gangs are governing the prison.
Oh, the gangs.
And I mean, that's obvious.
Who is setting the policy at HMP Woodhill?
The gangs.
What's making the decision to put Tommy in segregation because they control the prison, not Nicola Monthly?
It's stunning to me.
And I don't know if you still see that.
No.
Because everyone in the courtroom seemed to find that normal.
It's not normal.
No, I certainly noticed the thing about the people who are at risk of being radicalized are not people Tommy might meet.
The people are the poor buggers who Swiss justice happened to after the Southport riots.
You know, there's one more thing I'll say, and then I gotta run.
Tommy knew one other prisoner at Woodhill.
Yeah, no, because he said he was Muslim.
And no, somebody said he was Muslim.
Well, Tommy's lawyer, Aleister Williamson, said it was a childhood friend of Tommy's who happened to be a Muslim man.
And Tommy wanted to meet with him for all time's sake.
I mean, I can imagine a buddy he hasn't seen in 20 or 30 years.
And the judge forbade it.
And I just thought that was very interesting.
Yes.
First of all, it shatters some stereotypes about Tommy.
It does indeed.
And it shows the cruelty and sadistic nature of the prison guard.
The other very Orwellian feature of it I noticed was the point that he made to his counsel when we were adjourned that Tommy May is he doesn't know who he has to choose who the prisoner is that he wants to associate with.
He doesn't know who the prisoners are.
So how can he choose to apply to meet with somebody who he doesn't know exists or not?
And this is another cruelty that was deeply Orwellian to me.
The whole thing was very strange, but Street is glad to have this.
And we'll keep our fingers crossed.
Right on.
Nice to see you.
Thanks, everybody.
That was dramatic.
What just happened?
Dan, all morning, Tommy Robinson's lawyers and the government's lawyers have been sparring about his treatment in prison.
And one of the things they're debating about is: does he get privileges like phone privileges, visitors?
And there was some dispute.
So there was a moment there when Tommy, who was joining by video link, waved to get the attention of the court to signal that the government lawyer wasn't accurately reporting the facts.
So the judge said, okay, we're going to have a short break where Tommy can phone his lawyers to instruct them.
Tommy wasn't going to give evidence directly, but he could say things to the lawyer.
But in the middle of that phone call, the prison governor hung up the phone, canceled the call, and Tommy Robinson came back and wrote a piece of paper and held it up his video link saying, I was cut off.
And the judge said, is this true?
And the judge Martin Chamberlain said to the government's lawyer, Mr. Cross, you call that prison governor and you get that phone call going right now and you tell the prison governor not to cut it off until Tommy and his lawyer are done talking.
I mean this judge is very even keeled.
It's tough to read this judge.
But when the prison governor cut off Tommy's call, I think that irritated the judge because it delayed things.
And here's the reason I think that's an important moment, Dan.
It sort of proved that the prison was taking liberties, that the prison was cutting corners, that when the prison says Tommy has certain privileges, well, maybe or maybe not.
Of all the things said this morning, I mean, I think Alistair Williamson, the lawyer for Tommy, he's an excellent king's counsel.
I love listening to him myself.
But I think perhaps the most persuasive moment was for the judge to witness firsthand the whimsical, capricious, and perhaps even abusive nature of the prison.
Amazing.
Especially because up until that point, the KC for the Secretary of State had been saying Tommy gets contact all the time.
There are people in there all the time.
He couldn't even get the attention of a prison guard during the trial.
And that second note you held up actually made the point that all his calls are monitored and that they would have been monitoring that call with his lawyers.
Very, very interesting, and I believe that.
Other things that the Secretary of State, that's the government's lawyer, was saying, I know from personal experience are not true.
I know you visited Tommy, and I visited Tommy once, but my subsequent visits, one of them was approved, and then at the last minute was cut off by the prison.
So is that what the Secretary of State, what the government means by Tommy has visiting privileges?
For a while there, Tommy's own son was cut off from phone privileges.
There's a lot of liberties being taken, and there's a certain cruelty there.
And listen, Tommy's been in solitary for about 150 days.
It's not meant to be that way, Dan.
And listen, I'm not saying Tommy is going to win.
It feels like it's on a knife's edge here.
And we've got about an hour right now, but I think Tommy's got a shot.
And remember what's being decided today, not the substance of Tommy's complaint, but the question, the scheduling question.
Has Tommy proved to the judge that things are urgent enough and emergency enough to have a speedy hearing?
So that's today is not the final disposition of should Tommy be in solitary.
Today is a judge saying, is this something we should fast track because it's really urgent?
And I think the strongest piece of evidence that Tommy's lawyer, Aleister Williamson, presented was a detailed psychological evaluation by a medical mental health professional sent in to examine Tommy and talking about his PTSD, his ADHD, how some of it is from his last stay in solitary confinement, how that is affecting Tommy's mindset.
I won't try and repeat exactly what the doctor said, but it was pretty persuasive.
And by the way, the government didn't dispute any of that psychologist findings.
So you know what?
If I had to guess, it's foolish for me to guess because we're going to find out the result in about an hour.
But I think this judge is going to say, you know what?
Let's have that hearing sooner rather than later.
He's not going to make a final disposition about what happens in the hearing, but I bet he goes for a quick hearing.
One last detail.
I've tried to Google a little bit about this judge.
I hadn't heard of him before today.
His name is Martin Chamberlain, senior guy, obviously pretty smart guy from Edinburgh originally, if I'm not mistaken.
He gave an interview with the Times of London a few years back, sort of up-and-coming lawyer.
They wanted to ask him a question.
They said, if he could pass one law, what would it be?
And you know what he said?
He said we should have stronger freedom of speech in the UK.
We should have a U.S.-style First Amendment.
Wow.
And not usual, by the way.
Yeah, all I need.
Yeah.
And so some of that has to do with Tommy's case, doesn't it?
And if I'm not mistaken, he also weighed in in favor of the, what's that called, existence rebellion, or what's that group called again?
A signature about it.
That's right.
So they're sort of eco-extremists.
And you and I might not agree with them.
But if this judge is strengthening their right to protest, again, if he's being a principled precedent follower, if he applies that matrix to Tommy, well, maybe he's more sympathetic.
If he's a free speecher and a political protest supporter, maybe he's more sympathetic to Tommy.
I don't know.
You don't want to read too much into it because he is guided by the facts and the law.
But the things I could divine about him just by a quick Google, I thought this isn't a bad judge.
Chance for Levant here, we have a break in the court.
And I'll tell you a little bit about it.
So I'm giving you an update.
Of course, I'm standing outside the gorgeous Royal Courts of Justice in a neighborhood of the UK called the Strand.
It's so beautiful here.
I wish I could stay longer.
I arrived at 6.30 a.m.
It took me actually a couple hours to find my way into the city.
And I've got to fly out at 6 p.m.
So, really, as soon as I'm done here, I'm heading out, but I'm glad I came and here's why.
So, what was today?
Today was a sort of a scheduling hearing.
It was a case management hearing, as we call it in Canada, where Tommy Robinson's lawyers were trying to convince a judge to hear a challenge to Tommy's imprisonment status to hear it on an expedited basis.
What I mean by that is justice moves slowly, it takes months to get court dates, but that doesn't work if someone's in solitary confinement where every day counts.
So, today is a special hearing to convince a judge, his name is Justice Martin Chamberlain, that Tommy has a sufficiently important case that's sufficiently urgent that the actual substantive hearing should be done on a speedy basis.
So, today isn't the resolution of the actual question: should Tommy be taken out of solitary confinement?
Today is a resolution of a preliminary question: is that a sufficiently urgent matter for the court to move faster than it normally does?
Now, the fact that they schedule today's hearing fairly quickly in itself is a good sign.
I did a little bit of Googling on Justice Martin Chamberlain, and he once told the Times of London that he thinks the UK should have U.S.-style freedom of speech, like the First Amendment.
That would be amazing.
I wish Canada had that too.
Cautiously Optimistic Update00:12:17
So, any judge who says that, well, I'm feeling good about them.
And there's a UK eco-extremist group called Extinction Rebellion.
They're awful.
Not only do they block highways, they deface priceless art.
They're the worst people in the world.
But this judge, in a ruling, you know, I'm going from memory here, so my details might not be perfect.
Defended the right of Extinction Rebellion to have some of their protests.
And again, I despise Extinction Rebellion, but the fact that this judge is fighting for their freedom to protest, again, perhaps that redounds to Tommy's benefit in this hearing.
So, Tommy's King's Counsel, that's a senior barrister.
Alistair Williamson was on his feet basically going through the facts of Tommy's incarceration.
And the main piece of evidence he was referring to was a medical report by, I'm not sure if it was a psychologist or a psychiatrist, forgive me, who met with Tommy in prison and spent some time diagnosing him,
talking to him, asking him questions about a number of things, and then wrote a scientific medical report on Tommy's PTSD and ADHD, post-traumatic stress disorder and attention deficit disorder, both of which were exacerbated by his last day in solitary confinement, which have sort of flourished again in this day.
So it's a very acute warning of Tommy's mental health.
On his feet in reply, the KC for the government, Secretary of State is the particular office, but it was just a King's Council lawyer, argued that, oh, it's not really solitary confinement because Tommy has the occasional visitor and he has the occasional phone call and he's allowed to do arts and crafts or something, they said.
He was basically saying, tough luck.
There was one instance where Tommy was offered drugs by the health officers at the prison.
Oh, you're having a tough time in solitary for nine months.
We can get you on drugs.
But can you imagine that?
Anyways, it went back and forth.
And I should say that Tommy Robinson was joining not in person, but by a video link.
So Tommy was in the prison.
We could all see him.
He could see us and he could hear the proceedings.
And he was listening to Mr. Cross, that's the government's lawyer, talk about how wonderful Tommy has.
And he has this many visits and this many phone calls.
And it's just a luxury vacation compared.
It's better even than other prisoners have was at one point of contention by the government.
And Tommy started waving his arm madly.
And the judge took notice of that.
And the judge, being no dummy, said, Oh, he clearly objects to that.
And the judge said, Well, maybe we should take a break and let Tommy have a phone call with his lawyer.
Tommy's not going to come and give evidence, but maybe Tommy can give some information to his lawyer, who would then perhaps rebut or refute Mr. Cross.
So the court went on a half-hour break while the lawyers talked to Tommy on the phone.
But then Tommy came back to the room through his video link and he held up a sign saying they cut off my phone.
And indeed, that was confirmed by Aleister Williamson, Tommy's lawyer.
So the judge was not happy with this at all.
The judge inquired and said, Are you serious?
The prison cut off the phone call between Tommy and his lawyer when I instructed the lawyer to talk to Tommy.
In effect, the prison cut off the call to the judge, didn't they?
The judge was not on the call, but the judge instructed Tommy and Tommy's lawyer to brief themselves so that he could proceed.
The prison scotched that.
The prison scuppered that.
The judge was not pleased.
The judge said to the government's lawyer, Mr. Cross, you get on the phone and you tell the prison that they must reconnect Tommy.
And then after some back and forth, they realized that having a video link that would just save time, Tommy would speak directly through the video link and everyone else would clear the court.
So in fact, that's why I'm on the street right now.
But understand what happened.
For the whole morning, Tommy's lawyer was saying how oppressive the treatment in the prison was.
And for the whole morning, the government's lawyer was saying, no, it's wonderful.
Tommy has so many privileges.
And then, as if to prove the whole point, the prison cut off Tommy mid-phone call to his own lawyers, not even just a family or a friend, but to his own lawyers, he was instructing.
This judge is not an emotionally expressive judge.
He would probably be called stone-faced, but you could hear his anger.
And the instructions he gave Mr. Cross, the government's lawyer, were quite stern.
And I would say that the lesson the judge learned firsthand about the truth-telling and reliability of this prison, well, he learned more from that phone call being cut off than from anything the lawyers said all day.
It is my view, based on my first-hand experience with the prison, they gave me one visit with Tommy and then they canceled the next one on very short notice.
It is my view that the prison warden or governor, as they're called over here, Nicola Marfleet, is a sadistic woman.
She's obviously a DEI hire.
In the UK, the prisons are out of control.
That's what's so fascinating is that everyone on both the government side and Tommy's side assume that it's normal that prisons are extremely dangerous and that you get killed or injured in prison because of the gains.
That's just accepted as normal.
In other words, Nicola Marfleet, the sadistic governor of Woodhill Prison, she's not in control of the prison.
The gangs are.
And her lawyer more or less said that.
That's why they're putting Tommy in solitary confinement because the prison doesn't control anything.
Tommy would be killed in moments by the gangs, the largest of which, of course, is the Muslim gang.
And of course, they don't like Tommy because he's a critic of Islam.
So it was sort of fascinating to me that everyone involved, the judge, both lawyers, just everyone accepts that the UK prisons are literally out of control and no one manages them.
So it's quite something that Nicola Marfley, the sadistic governor who rules over this failed state of a prison, I think the judge got a measure of what she's like.
Anyways, I'm on the break right now where Tommy is speaking to his lawyer.
I've got to make my way back in the court.
There are, I think, about four or five mainstream media journalists there.
I have not seen their coverage, but I think we can surmise it's going to be the same as it ever was, which is they hate Tommy.
They're going to spin things as hard as they can.
I'm sure if you read my tweets and compare them to The Guardian or the BBC or whoever else was there today, you'll think we attended two different hearings altogether.
Anyways, I'd say I'm cautiously optimistic because again, today's ruling, which we're expecting to get in about an hour, will not be on the substance of is Tommy being abused, but it'll be on the procedural question: is there enough here to warrant a speedy trial?
And, you know, maybe I'm a fool to be optimistic, but I think the judge might just agree to that.
Anyways, it's such a lovely day.
I hate the fact I have to head on home, but there's a lot of important work I have to do back in Canada.
But I'm glad I'm here.
And I had the pleasure of bumping into Dan Wooten, another independent journalist who actually used to be very senior at various newspapers and other places in town.
He was here.
So Tommy does have some friends, that's for sure.
The highlight for me was when we were all leaving the courtroom so Tommy could use the video link to speak privately with his lawyers.
And I walked up to the camera for the video link and I waved and Tommy saw me.
He waved back and he wrote a note to me.
And it was sort of wonderful, actually, because I hadn't been able to visit the lad because of the sadistic governor, Nicola Marfley.
So anyways, that's my update.
I'm going to go back in there now and I will try and have one more update with the important news of how this is resolved.
So thanks for listening.
By the way, if you want to see my tweets, it's just on Ezra Levant.
That's my Twitter handle.
And I'm going to post certain things at TommyReports.com.
Thanks.
Well, hi, everybody.
It's my final installment on the day.
As you can see, I'm in a vehicle leaving central London on my way to the airport.
I just don't have time to record something outside the court because I don't want to miss my flight and London traffic can be extremely slow.
Anyways, when I last gave an update, we were on an hour break while the judge had Tommy's lawyer and Tommy connect via video link because Tommy had objected to some of the representations made by the government's lawyer.
Now, Tommy and Tommy's lawyer were supposed to have done that earlier by phone when shockingly the prison just cut off their phone call mid-call.
And what's so astonishing about that is that's the very point that Tommy's lawyers were trying to make at that moment to the judge that Tommy was not being treated with the regular privileges of even a criminal prisoner, let alone a civil prisoner.
So the judge himself tasted firsthand the capricious and abusive, if I may, misconduct of the prison.
It certainly was a terrible look for the government lawyers.
And the judge, whilst never out of control of his emotions, he's a very sober-minded judge.
You could tell that he was quite angry with what had happened.
So that delayed everything by a significant amount of time.
Tommy's lawyer once briefed, mentioned some points to the judge who listened to him, but it was not very much more time in court.
The judge announced he was instead of issuing his ruling today, as he had originally planned to do, he's going to do that tomorrow.
And I just can't stick around in London another day, I'm afraid.
But the judge said he's going to release the ruling tomorrow by email.
So it's not like there would be a court to go to, anyways.
And I talked to Alistair Williamson, Tommy's barrister, and asked him if he could send me the results as soon as he got them.
So, in conclusion, it was a very interesting hearing.
I'm optimistic.
I think Tommy had a fairly solid case to begin with.
I think that it's fairly easy for a judge to say, yeah, we'll have an expedited hearing because that's not taking a position on the merits of the case.
It's just saying if we're going to talk about this, we may as well do it while Tommy's still in prison.
Otherwise, it's moot.
And I think the way that the prison cut off Tommy's phone call, I think it lent credence to Tommy's lawyers' claims that he had not, in fact, been given the privileges that a prisoner expects.
Anyways, I'm getting a little bit technical, but it was actually a very exciting moment.
And I just want to tell you that there was that moment when I went up to the video link and waved to Tommy, and he saw me wave back and he scribbled a note on a card and held it up that said thanks because we've been helping with the various things.
So it was actually the first time I've seen Tommy in a few months because the prison has banned me from visiting.
Anyways, it's a three-minute update.
There's not too much to report, but I just wanted to close the day.
In summary, tomorrow we will learn if Tommy Robinson does indeed get an expedited hearing to change his prison treatment.
I hope so.
And I hope this marks the end of his segregation, which is really taxing him physically and mentally.
Anyway, that's my report.
Prime Minister's Pension and Plane Food00:09:13
I'm literally on the way to the airport.
I just wanted to leave right away because I didn't want to risk missing the flight.
If you can help me cover the cost of that flight, I'd be so grateful.
I'm not even staying in a hotel.
I'm just going straight home.
But between the flight and the taxis, it's almost a thousand bucks Canadian, about 500 pounds British sterling.
If you can help me out, go to TommyReports.com.
And I probably did 200 tweets today.
If you want the blow-by-blow, you can find that on my ex-account.
Well, that's it from here.
And I'll keep you posted tomorrow.
I'll send out an email tomorrow when I hear from the judge.
All right, goodbye.
You know, I saw the most astonishing thing in a tweet by Donald Trump the other day.
Hunter Biden had a full Secret Service entourage.
I'm not talking about Joe Biden.
I'm talking about Hunter Biden, his terrible, awful, atrocious son.
And he had a rotating, like there were so many people needed to rotate eight-hour shifts.
And he traveled, he was in South Africa traveling with like 20, an entourage of like 24 Secret Service staff.
And by the way, Anthony Fauci had the same thing.
And Trump tweeted in both cases: let them pay their own security.
And it was sort of, yeah, why is Anthony Fauci getting millions and millions of dollars worth of security?
And I think about the Canadian context that I saw a photo that Justin Trudeau put on Instagram of him looking very, you know, I don't even know what the look was, but it was his first post-prime ministerial photo.
And I'm not saying we should remove his security.
I don't think we should, actually.
But my God, is he ever backing up the truck and just shoveling in dough on the way out?
What I'm referring to in his case is not Secret Service, because I think he should be protected.
I mean, I dislike the guy, but I don't want harm to come to him.
And there is obviously a risk.
But oh my God, the money he's putting in his jeans on the way out the door.
And who better to tell us about is not one, but his two pensions.
He's the tender age of 53.
But he's got two pensions for life.
Joining us down to talk about it is my friend Franco Terrazano from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
Franco, we don't regard someone a pension, but the short amount of time he's worked and the astonishing numbers here, and not one, but two pensions, it just shows the divide between how politicians take care of themselves and versus the rest of us.
The numbers here, I'll let you say them, but I've been reading your press release on it.
They're insane.
Like they're almost eight figures, if you take my meaning.
Go ahead.
Oh, it's nuts, right?
Two taxpayer-funded pensions for life totaling, yes, two, totaling $8.4 million.
Two taxpayer-funded pensions, okay?
So a prime minister.
Now, I know, Ezra, you and most of your listeners know that members of parliament get these sweet, sweet, fat taxpayer-funded pensions.
Well, prime ministers get a second pension in addition to that, okay?
So Trudeau's MP pension, which he can start collecting at the age of 55 for his lifetime, will total about $6.5 million.
And then he also gets a prime minister's pension on top of that.
So that's an additional payment that he can start getting at the age of 67.
And that pension for his lifetime will total about $1.9 million.
So you add up the $6.5 million for his MP pension and the $1.9 million for his prime minister's pension.
And you're looking at a lifetime pension for Trudeau of $8.4 million smackers.
And that is gross.
Yeah.
And I mean, he's not done yet earning money, by the way.
Wouldn't surprise me if he got some job with an NGO that was also fed by tax dollars.
Like, I don't think he's going to run for office anywhere, but I would bet my bottom dollar that he will find some post-PM perch that is funded by taxpayers somehow or another.
And by the way, all MPs, including the cabinet, they just ratchet, ratchet, ratchet up their pay automatically on April Fool's Day, don't they?
I just can't believe they chose April Fool's Day.
Like, that's too spot on the nose.
If that were in a movie, the director would say, no, no, no.
The studio would say, too obvious.
No one would believe it.
Literally every year on April Fool's Day, these guys give themselves an automatic raise.
Must be nice.
Yeah, well, welcome to Ottawa, hey, where taxpayers are both the punching bag and the punchline, right?
So every April 1, while they're hiking your carbon taxes, hiking your alcohol taxes, they're also stuffing their pockets with higher pay.
And it looks like this April 1 is no difference.
Okay.
So the raise this year will range anywhere between an extra $7,600 to an extra $13,400.
Now, after this raise, a backbench member of parliament, along with collecting dust in the House of Commons, will be collecting an annual salary of about $210,000.
A minister's salary will be about $310,000.
Now, I have no idea why a minister of finance who's running a $62 billion deficit would be getting a raise.
But hey, it's Ottawa.
And the prime minister's salary will jump up to about 420,000 grand or about six times more than what the average Canadian worker makes.
And Ezra, let me just add one more thing.
This will be their sixth, sixth pay raise since the beginning of 2020.
Pandemic for you, lockdowns for you, tax hikes for you, inflation for you, cost of living crisis for you.
And this is their sixth.
pay raise all taken from your pocket.
Give me those stats again for his food budget, because if I recall, Stephen Harper actually paid for his own food at 24 Sussex Drive.
I'm going from memory now.
What was the number for Justin Trudeau for his food?
Was there some news about him like a 90 grand a year thing?
What was the stats on that?
It was almost, yeah.
So in one year, it was about 80 grand is what the cost of Trudeau's grocery bill was to taxpayers.
So you're talking tens of thousands of dollars.
I mean, essentially, not essentially, the cost of Trudeau's household grocery bills in one year is more than what the average worker makes in an entire year.
Right?
So I mean, how does that crazy?
Because I presume his ex isn't there anymore.
So it's him and I think he's got two or three kids.
I can't remember.
But a lot of his meals are out and about on the go.
I don't even know how you spend that much.
Like he doesn't have a large family.
Am I wrong?
Well, no, you're right.
How do you spend that much?
But you know, it starts to make sense.
Well, it doesn't make sense, but it starts to add up the story here when you look at other ways that the government spends your money, right?
Like remember the infamous trip of Governor General Mary Simon.
Oh, my God.
And they took a week-long.
Yeah.
They took a week-long trip to Dubai and it cost $100,000 for their airplane food.
That's true.
Or Trudeau's.
So, or Trudeau's week-long trip or six-day trip to the Indo-Pacific back in 2023, $220,000 on airplane food.
I was on the plane yesterday.
I went to Manitoba to cover a church fire, and I was sitting in the back, and you can order a meal.
And I don't know if you know, Franco, you can order a first-class meal from the back of the plane.
And they had this whole chicken dish for 20 bucks, and that's their first-class product.
You can order in the back for 20 bucks.
I don't know how you spend $110,000 on airplane food when I'm not saying Eric Canada is going to win some awards for their food, but it's not bad.
How do you go from 20 bucks a meal to 100,000 plus for a single trip?
Like, I just, I don't know.
Like, if you asked me to dream up a way, all I could come to is, well, maybe that extremely expensive bottles of wine, but even that doesn't add it up.
I don't know.
They're living in their own world.
They're in their own world.
And then they try to hide the cost from you, right?
So remember the governor general's trip gather.
They were in the House of Commons at a parliamentary committee and they were saying, oh, we had eggs, we had omelets.
It wasn't that extravagant.
It was normal airplane food.
Here's the problem.
We had the receipts.
We went through everything they're eating.
They're having stuff like Beef Wellington with Regu.
Like Ezra, I don't know about you, but you can't get Beef Wellington flavor trips on an Air Canada flight, let alone Beef Wellington.
Yeah, that's more like first class on some of those like Emirates or Qatar flights.
Complying with Hidden Conflicts00:05:37
But even there, I know it's not $100,000 for a flight because those airlines are not that stupid.
They'd be in business.
I just, I'll stop talking about airlines.
I do fly a lot, so I just don't know how you like even a private jet.
I just, anyway, I'll stop talking about a good, I just am baffled, but there's a commonality between the raises, the pensions, the food budget at 24 Sussex, the insane airplane catering.
Sorry I got stuck on that.
I just am thinking how.
But the common thread is there's this sort of condescension of we're entitled to this and don't even question.
I don't know if you saw, there was this interesting exchange between Mark Carney and of all people, Rosemary Barton of the CBC, who I don't think has ever asked a tough question of the government in her life.
And she asked about some financial disclosure.
And he said to her, he basically said, how dare you?
Here's a clip of that.
Look within yourself.
Here, take a look.
The rules say that those assets should be publicly disclosed within 120 days, which means you'll campaign in a coming federal election, most likely within the next 120 days, and are serving as prime minister now.
With Canadians not being aware of what potential conflicts of interest you saw.
What possible conflict would you have?
Stephanie, I'm complying with the rules.
I'm complying with the rules in advance.
Are you saying you are not open to any conflict of interest?
Yes.
Look inside yourself, Rosemary.
I mean, you start from a prior of conflict and ill will.
I have served in the private sector.
I have stood up for Canada.
I have left my roles in the private sector at a time of crisis for our country.
I'm complying with all the rules.
Your line of questioning is trying to invent new rules.
I'm complying with the rules that Parliament has laid out and the responsibilities.
That's the Commissioner.
And I will continue to comply with those rules.
So the first question was from Stephanie Levitz, who I think is with the star now.
The second was from Rosemary Barton.
They weren't gotcha questions.
They were just have you disclosed what are the conflicts?
And he said, what possible conflicts could there be?
Why are you implying ill will?
Conflicts don't require ill will.
If he owns a stake in a green energy company, then he shouldn't be in discussions or votes about green energy.
That's not ill will.
That's just the definition of a conflict.
I mean, we know he has a position on China.
We know he has a position on, he's against carbon.
It's not ill will.
It's just he's hiding what he has.
And look at him lashing out there.
Am I overreacting, Franco?
You know what I get the impression of watching that?
Hey, how dare the masses question me?
How dare they question me?
And, you know, this all brings me back to like what we've seen over the last, you know, number of years within the government here, whether it's the raises, whether it's these massive pensions, right?
Whether it's these expenses, whether it's all the crazy taxes, regulations, all of it, all like this ruling class elite mentality here in Ottawa has to change, right?
I truly believe Canadians are so fed up with this that we actually have to see a party leader come out and break ranks with all these other parties, right?
Actually stick up for the working people who have a right to question their leadership and who are sick and tired of paying the bills for all of this extravagance.
And you know the tone there?
I have come back to heal the country and you dare to question me.
Yeah, they're reporters.
They're going to question you every day.
Just heads up.
Maybe he wasn't used to that at the World Economic Forum where he served on the board.
Boy, I tell you, we're in for a bumpy ride.
Hey, I just heard you've got a new book and I see that it's coming out on Amazon on April 10th.
So that's a couple weeks away from now, but I can still see a picture of the cover.
It's called Axing the Tax, The Rise and Fall of Canada's Carbon Tax by Franco Terrazano.
Well, that's you.
You know, we'll have you back on to do a proper discussion of it, but give me the 30-second elevator pitch: Axing the Tax: The Rise and Fall of Canada's Carbon Tax.
Give me a little bit of what we can expect in the book.
Yeah, well, you can pre-order it on Amazon.
Just type in Axing the Tax, Franco Terrazano.
It comes out April 10th.
And you know, I wrote it for two reasons.
Okay, so, number one, you already hear all the pro-carbon taxers, the green activists, trying to spin it like, hey, they are going to claim that the carbon tax is good policy.
It's just that Trudeau bungled it or that he didn't communicate it well enough.
Well, this book shows all the fatal flaws of the carbon tax, why it was always doomed to fail, and why the tax is always going to be a bad policy for Canadians who have to pay the bill, regardless of who's in charge or what they relabel the carbon tax.
Ezra, the second reason I wrote this book is because Canadians have been fighting the elite establishment on the carbon tax since day one.
Canadians never stop fighting, and they deserve this book because they deserve to know that all their hard work fighting the elites on the carbon tax is paying off.
Why the Carbon Tax Fails00:00:52
Well, there he is.
He's an author and we'll have a good heart-to-heart.
I can hardly wait to do that.
Let's do that soon, maybe a little closer to the official launch date.
The books is called Axing the Tax.
All right, my friend, keep up the fight, and we'll keep in touch.
Hey, thanks, Ezra.
What a good guy.
Well, that's our show for today.
I'm actually pre-recording this today in real life.
I am going to be in London, England, just for 23 hours.
I land at 6:30 in the morning.
I go downtown and I live tweet the emergency hearing of Tommy Robinson, who is in the high court to try and get out of solitary confinement, where it's an emergency hearing.
I'll be live tweeting that, and then I'm coming home the same day, not even staying in the hotel.
So I'll be back in the office tomorrow.
Until then, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night.