Ezra Levant and Rebel News secured five reporter slots at the 2025 leaders’ debate after negotiations, unlike past court-ordered battles, but were denied questions while CBC and Radio Canada had four each. Michelle Cormier shut down the post-debate scrum, violating public scrutiny mandates, and Levant faced bullying—including Stuart Benson’s on-camera rant—while rival media allegedly fabricated incidents to justify exclusion. David Mancy exposed CBC’s bias, revealing its intent to block Rebel News despite equal question counts, and criticized the Debates Commission’s ties to government and lack of transparency. Independent journalists like Rebel News, with 1.7M YouTube subscribers, were sidelined not for misconduct but for challenging establishment narratives, exposing systemic media favoritism in Canada’s political coverage. [Automatically generated summary]
Hello, my friends, and good Friday to those who observe the holiday.
Ezra Levant, here I am.
I am back in Toronto after a whirlwind trip through Montreal.
We were there for several days for the leaders' debate in the election.
As you know, in the past, we've had to fight our way in by going to court because the hand-picked Trudeau staffers that run the place, they don't like rebel news.
That's the whole reason they set up this government-run debates commission to keep us out.
Well, in 2019, we went to court and we got a court order letting us in.
In 2021, we went to court and got a court order letting us in.
So this time around, they sort of realized how the story was going to end.
They negotiated with us back and forth, and they finally let us in.
They let us have five reporters who could ask questions.
And in the first night, the French debates, we got four of those five.
I was the only one on our team that didn't get a question.
Four out of 17 questions, which is pretty good.
The CBC and its French version, Radio Canada, had four as well.
But oh my God, did that ever cause an earthquake amongst not so much the politicians, they didn't care, but amongst our rival journalists.
That's very interesting, isn't it?
The government has sort of given up on censoring us, but it's the rival media who haven't.
In fact, they're more vicious than ever.
I'm back in Toronto, but we filmed a heck of a show for you yesterday.
Enjoy, that's probably the wrong word.
Watch with horror and fascination the story of the last two days.
Well, it's 10.30 at night, and I have to say the last 26 hours of my life have been amongst the strangest, and I've had an unusual life.
I have to tell you that yesterday I felt an exhilaration when the rebels assembled next to me came with me to Montreal.
Of course, Alexa Lavois is from here for the leaders' debate in the 2025 election.
Remember, we had to fight hard to bust down the door because they wanted to keep Rebel News out, because it's a government agency that listened to the likes of Justin Trudeau.
So we arrived yesterday, and we had four out of the 17 questions.
They weren't handed to us.
We just got in line and asked them.
Anyone could have done it.
Well, the questions were great, in my opinion.
And so they were off the government narrative.
So for 24 hours after last night's debate, all the regime media were gnashing their teeth.
They were raging.
How dare Rebel News take over our event?
Well, we had four questions out of 17.
Once every four years, we can get a question too.
But I saw Michelle Cormier, the commissioner of the Debates Commission, do a media circuit and basically get whipped and flayed by every regime journalist he talked to, especially the CBC here.
Take a look at this insane broadcast on the CBC where David Cochran basically stops being a journalist and becomes like a lawyer advocate to try and convince the Debates Commission to kick us out or something.
Just watch a couple minutes of this.
Will they be able to do what they did?
Like, you know, Rebel News got as many questions as I think CBC, Radio Canada, Press Canadian, and CTV or Global combined last night.
There were almost 50% of the questions, and some of them ventured into territory that really are not issues in this election campaign.
We're not issues in that debate.
And I'm not saying reporters should be restricted in terms of what they ask, but, you know, if the debate commission is going to organize these things, it didn't seem to have control on it last night, sir.
Well, we're learning from what happened last night, and you'll see hopefully a fair representation tonight.
But didn't the same thing happen in 2021?
Like, I remember vividly at the museum in Gatineau that the same sort of thing happened with people stacking the microphones and the questions is going in a totally different direction.
Well, there's only so much we can do to control free speech, you know.
I understand that.
I understand that.
You know, lifeguards got to look after the pool, right?
And, you know, the debate commission was set up for this, and people are now calling for it to be completely scrapped because of what we saw last night.
I just wonder if you think there's a loss of public trust in the function of this organization.
I think the public will judge us on the debates themselves.
Which I will say was very good last night.
It was very well done.
The actual two-hour event was.
I think we'll be judged on that.
That's the main criteria for us to present debates that actually reach a lot of people.
We have unprecedented reach, broadcast partners.
We're reaching people in communities that are often disenfranchised.
I think that's a very important exercise.
This is peripheral to the main event.
And, you know, like I say, we'll work on it and try to make it easier.
Is it peripheral or is it part of the main event?
I mean, you do the accreditation, you let the people in, you set the ground rules.
I mean, it is all part and parcel of what's happened here.
It is, but for most people, the press availabilities, excuse me, after is not the most important thing.
So we bank on that.
Okay.
Michelle Cormier, I do appreciate you showing up and taking the questions.
I very much do, sir.
And thank you very much.
The least I do with that.
Former journalists, I know you appreciate the importance of doing that.
Totally.
All right.
Thank you, sir.
So, Michelle Cormier, with the debates commission.
That's not journalism, lads.
That is something else, but it ain't journalism.
Anyways, Michelle Cormier is a creature of the establishment.
And the establishment is saying kill the rebels.
But he also knows that we've gone to court twice and thumped him because the Charter of Rights says you can't discriminate against rebel news just because you hate us.
So what would he do?
Well, last night, at the end of the debate, he canceled the whole scrum.
He said that no one would be allowed to have any questions.
And in his mind, he probably thought that was quite clever because it was a way to stop rebel news but not violate the law.
All it did, though, was violate his mandate.
I'm Michel Camille, the executive director of the Legion of Commission.
And I'm sorry to announce that there will be no scrum tonight, people, because we don't feel that we can actually guarantee a proper environment for this activity.
So, as I said earlier, the Commission has decided that there is a code of press press for the chiefs tonight, because we don't feel that we are able to ensure an environment that is a good fit for this event.
The press room will be open until 11am, so you can finish filing.
Code of Press Conduct00:06:56
and I invite you to call the campaign if you know what I'm interested in.
Yes, that's why.
She deserves to call the public as well.
His job was to allow the public to scrutinize the candidates.
In other words, it was an absolute public disaster.
But I thought it was, in some ways, a sign that the citizen journalists have stormed the citadel and we can no longer be kept out.
And it wasn't just rebel news, although we were the biggest force.
There were our friends from Juneau and True North and Countersignal and Western Standard and others.
And it was so exciting.
And now let me bring in my friends because I have left out so many parts in this strange story.
Some of the craziest things happened.
You were about to hear tales that will chill you to your bone and make your hair stand up like a porcupine.
Let's start with my friend and chief reporter, Sheila Gunread.
Sheila, this was freaking madness.
You know, you're excited.
I'm still very angry.
I am too.
I am angry because we took the blame.
We're looking in for the bad behavior of the media party.
We conducted ourselves with grace and dignity and Drea really set the tone for all of us with how to conduct ourselves.
And for two days straight, we were subjected to bullying and derision and scorn and lies and misinformation published about us.
And physical assault.
physical assaults as my friend David found out tonight I mean I don't know.
Oh, Terry Guillain!
Oh!
What are you doing?
Terry Guillain!
What are you going to do?
You touched me with that.
I don't want to touch you, sir.
You're a liar.
You're a goddamn liar.
You're a liar.
Oh, yeah.
Nice try, guys.
You just try.
Look at what you're doing.
Look at the police.
No, the police is bopped by you.
And yet, on the CBC, as we speak, they are painting themselves as the victims of our mere presence.
They're crazy over there.
There was one point where they announced I had been kicked out of the event and my accreditation taken away.
And I'm sitting in the event thinking, what the actual heck are you talking about?
You know, there was some extremely bad behavior in there.
Some of these journalists are really normal people, just ordinary people.
Some of them are deeply radicalized.
Well, and some of them are radicalized by two days straight of CBC misinformation against us.
But that was the most astounding part.
And I think it speaks to why we need to be, why rebel news exists.
In a room full of 200 journalists, they all were lying.
They were all sticking to the same lie.
Even when we had video proof, you were subject to a berating from an unhinged Hill Times reporter for like four or five minutes straight.
He was screaming, yelling, gesturing.
It was really quite unhinged.
You kept telling him to calm down.
You didn't invite it.
He just unleashed on you.
And yet, the room full of journalists who saw it all go down said that you were the bad guy in that.
It was really crazy.
I mean, let's just play a clip of this.
This is a crazy man.
It feels like mental illness.
And something drove him to this.
I mean, I think he's a lefty to begin with.
But to see rebels in his kind of place and that we asked four questions and he asked none, something snapped in his noggin.
Here, take a look.
[background noise]
Yes, after they had already told it to you because you threatened to sue your loans again.
I'm not.
Because you're liable.
Don't you have a third-party advertising truck that don't take care of everyone else?
How much did you spend on care party advertising this election?
Between Reddit News and 4 Canada, companies you own both of.
How much money have you spent to influence this election?
I'm assuming you're favoring conservatives.
How much did you spend?
Like, you're a journalist.
Let's be honest.
So Rebel News Limited, you've set up and registered under Elections Canada.
Anyone else?
You can go to Elections Canada right now.
Every third party is registered.
Search Rebel News for Canada and you will see Clear as Day, Eswell Evan, as the owner of both of those companies.
He has a third-party advertising truck driving around this venue right now.
It's owned by Rebel.
It's owned by you.
Plus, oh, sorry, sorry.
The truck is for Canada, which is owned by you, which is separate from Rebel News, which is also owned by you.
You want me to pull up from us one by one?
Control your emotions.
So, Ev, I'm not just saying that.
You're out of control.
Speaking quietly doesn't make your things any less.
You're completely out of control emotions.
And your facts are completely wrong.
What's your name?
What's your name?
You suddenly shy.
No, I'm Googling.
You're Googling your name?
No.
Tell us who you are, tough guy.
Stuart Benson Hill Times.
Stuart Benson?
Well, you're a disgrace to the New York Times.
And your facts are wrong.
You're a disgrace to journalism, buddy.
Actually, I can do the job of one of me to do the same job.
You literally need five reporters to do.
So am I just straight sourcing all of the people you needed to do the job I do by myself?
I'm controlling them.
Rebel News Network Limited, March 27th, registered with Elections Canada in Nevada.
Edward LeBan, mailing address, Edmonton, Alberta.
T5JLK4.
I wonder where that would fit.
Well, I guess I'll go up.
T5JOK4.
I wonder what that post-hook is like.
Well, you certainly got a tiger pressure.
So let's go check out Sport Canada.
I wonder who they are.
Am I talking too loud now?
Security Escort Questions00:07:37
No, you're just looking at it.
What work are you doing?
With nothing in front of you.
Yes, yes.
That's no work doing.
Is she telling you you're out of control emotionally?
Tantrum boy.
I'll apply a tan for more.
But the R story can find that one.
Yeah, just sort of crazy.
And I'm David Mancy.
It's great to see you as always.
Why don't you just tell me your, like, it's like we all saw a crazy thing happening.
What was your vantage point on the crazy?
Before I get to that, I just want to say I was momentarily distracted because as you were interviewing Sheila, there was a female CBC employee.
I think she must be a big kahuna.
And she was given an escort by two huge security guards to a waiting cab.
I think the presence of our truck and the presence of us here, I don't know, it's maybe a Canadian January 6th.
I mean, why did she feel the need to be, you know, guarded by two big security guards?
It's unbelievable.
You know, I mean, we joke about trigger warnings, but I think this, I mean, it's happening again right now.
I think they're giving these CBC employees an escort because, you know, they're triggered by this.
literally literally triggered by the sight of citizen journalists it's actually very it's it's actually had enough it's very sad actually they've grown I mean, I thought trigger warnings were for children, but for grown-ups.
We're getting assaulted.
We're getting assaulted.
Oh, it's crazy.
But Ezra, too, I'm already watching the mainstream media spin, and it's outrageous about what happened.
Lincoln Jay was assaulted by a cameraman.
I'm not certain.
Sorry, not only did Dre see it, I wasn't looking at it, but they hit, he hit Lincoln so hard I heard it.
Like I heard the impact.
It was atrocious.
I saw.
I saw it too.
Unfortunately, Dad didn't caught it on camera, but I'm pretty sure that someone caught it on camera.
Yeah, everybody saw.
And I want to set something straight.
There's this narrative going around that we were given special treatment.
The CBC reporters had their questions into.
We went by barrels.
Everything is out there.
We've posted it, the legal documents.
But here's the thing.
We showed up to work.
We were first.
The independent media were first to get there.
We were first to case, hey, where are the cameras going to be?
We sat close to the line.
We paid attention while they were eating free chips and we simply stepped into the line.
And then the misinformation about how that all happened is really what infuriated these people who became completely unhinged.
And I was at the beginning of that interaction with the Hill guy.
It started with Kean just talking to another Kian Bexty talking to another independent journalist.
And he just turned back and started raising his voice at Key.
And he was yelling for about, I don't know, close to, it felt like 10 minutes before.
And no one's saying anything.
No one is saying anything when they all saw this guy be completely unhinged.
And then when you were respectfully saying, hey, calm down after he went after you, all of a sudden it's rebel news.
I mean, I'll get into the misinformation.
There is a reason why the mainstream media is a dying breed.
Nobody trusts them anymore, but we saw it in real time unfold.
We saw it in real time.
And Ezra, just to finish the story, Lincoln went after the guy.
By that, I mean not to hit him, but to query him.
Why did you assault me, man?
And I followed Lincoln because, hey, two cameras better than one.
And the guy assaulted Lincoln again by knocking.
I mean, there's some perverse irony here, a cameraman objecting to being on camera, knocking Lincoln's cell phone out of his hand.
So I was following along, and then who should come by but Terry Guillain?
He's the, I guess, the press secretary, the media shepherd for the PMO.
And we know he has a history.
When Kian Becksey was with our company, I believe it was in Saskatchewan.
Terry gave him a body check at a venue.
It was outrageous.
But we have a clip of that, if you want to throw to it, of Guillaume, not once, but twice, knocking the camera right out of my hand.
It's absolutely insane.
Let's take a look.
Oh, Terry Guillan!
Oh!
What are you doing?
Terry Guillan?
What are you going to?
You touched me with that.
You're a liar.
You're a goddamn liar.
You're a liar.
You just hit me.
Look at this.
What are you doing?
Look at the police.
No, the police is bopped by police.
I have to tell you, it is as crazy as you think it is.
We were sitting in there and we're very careful of the rules because we fought so hard to be in here.
We spent so much money in lawyers to be in here.
And then we spent money to fly everyone.
We're not going to lose that over some shenanigans.
And I've just never seen such bad behavior from official people.
And it started yesterday when we had the questions.
It was based on editorial.
I mean, I say again, the CBC had four questions.
We had four questions.
It wasn't the four that made them mad.
It was what the four were.
If we had asked four questions about global warming and whatever, they would have loved us.
They wouldn't have objected to the fact we had four.
It's the fact that we had any at all, that we were allowed in there at all.
And I think these people had a mass psychological freak out.
It was insane.
And the way they're spinning it, Ezra, and if I may finish the story, I went right away to the Montreal police.
They were there en masse.
Terry said something in French to one of them, and suddenly we were being treated like the criminals.
They were using their bicycles to make a barricade so Terry could scurry away in the bus.
And then some random woman comes by and she knocks the phone out of my hand.
I think it's a dead duck now.
Sorry, boss.
I might be expensing another iPhone.
But right in front of the police.
And I said, officer, did you see that?
And it was Sergeant Schultz again.
No, I saw nothing.
I know nothing.
It was incredible.
Hey, Mr. Bacon?
That's Steve Pacin, the host of the evening.
Steve, you did a great job.
You know, we're talking a lot about our interactions.
But of course, let me just interject and say Steve Pacin ran an excellent debate tonight.
Phone Knocked Out During Debate00:16:14
And I think he actually is one of the best debate hosts in the country.
And we should be talking about that, but the misconduct of the journalist, for us, at least, is the story of the day.
Anyhow, forgive me for giving a holler to Steve.
I think he's a really good egg.
Back to you again.
Yeah, no, and it was incredible.
And then the final epilogue to this story is the police formed a human wall preventing us from getting back into the building.
I said, guys, my jacket, my coat, my equipment bag with my car keys are there.
I need it.
And they said, come back at midnight.
And that was like three hours of what.
And thankfully, you guys were in the building and could bring it out for me.
This is crazy.
You know, this is what happens when oil and water, when matter and anti-matter, yin and yang come together.
Rebel News is a real news company.
We have millions of subscribers, 1.7 million on YouTube alone.
We have millions of people.
We have had billions of views.
We have a full-time staff equivalent of over 30 people.
We are a real place.
We've been around for 10 years.
There's no measurement by which we are not as legitimate a news source as any other.
In fact, that's the trouble that the Debates Commission has.
How do they keep us out and the others in?
They can't find a principle or a rule that lets them do that.
And so when we make our way in, and we didn't force our way in, we basically argued our way in by saying we pass every test, but the people inside here, the dying last guard, the last hurrah of the regime media, the pampered media, the spoiled media, the subsidized media, the government media.
They just can't stand the fact that you and you and you and you and me have made it into their holy place.
This is their holy temple and we're not allowed in here and we're not as good as them and they're morally superior to us.
And oh my God, we're actually asking more questions than them and our questions aren't ones that they like.
And they couldn't stand it.
They couldn't stand it.
And like dogs protecting their territory, they barked and barked and barked and that didn't stop us.
So they just shut the whole place down.
It was the most atrocious thing.
And I've used the word demonic to describe some of the people inside because that is just how it was.
Drea, you felt the brunt of it yesterday.
I'm just sorry we didn't have a chance to ask more questions today.
I'm the one guy on our team who didn't get a question.
I had a lot of good questions written.
Actually, can I just say something really quickly?
All this shenanigans could have been avoided if the commission see, oh, we have a lot of media.
We'll do one question per person.
Everybody would have have a question in and avoided the fact that they were complaining that we had like, oh, so much time.
But the thing is, why did I actually say, maybe you should review the number of questions or maybe like, oh, you're doing all the process.
It's not us.
It's all they made the rule.
And the rule play in our favor because we were alert and we worked and we were there.
I mean, they could have said only one question, not a second follow-up.
They could have said, keep your question under 30 seconds and even had a clock.
I'm just brainstorming here.
I mean, and those, but those are content neutral and they're reporter neutral.
But that's not what they really wanted.
They wanted it to, they didn't care about that.
They just wanted the five people standing here not in there.
Now, I.
And Ezra, if I may add, you forgot one part of the story that pertains to you.
When it looked like that's it, curtains, no more scrums for the English debate.
There was that journalist from the Ricochet who was saying, oh, you're happy, Ezra?
Thanks, you're bad behavior.
was some crazy guy who thought he was screaming he said because I he was screaming at the top of his Actually, I'll give you a little behind the scenes.
As soon as we got word from a leaked source that the scrums would be canceled, I sent a message to everybody and said, have your phones ready.
This place is going to pop off and they're going to blame us.
And guess what happened?
A left-wing journalist who looks textbook, like if I looked up left-wing journalists in the dictionary, I'd be like, yeah, that's him.
He starts screaming at the top of his lungs.
Ezra, you're bad behavior.
And you know, and he said, I mean, you know, Kian Bexte, he was a reporter with us and he started.
Yeah, but he left us a few years ago.
But we keep in touch.
I like the guy.
I get a real kick out of him.
And so I love seeing him in events.
I mean, just, anyhow.
So I was chatting with him, because I know maybe 10 people here, and Kian's one of them.
And so because I was chatting with him, this guy concocted some conspiracy theory about how I was controlling all these different...
He's a puppeteer.
And he said, you have 13 people here.
I said, no, we only have six.
No, you have five.
No, you have.
Oh, my God.
I mean, it's a funny story, but it's also deeply embarrassing how crazy these people are.
Oh, and Ezra, I know our audience is saying, the ricochet, what in blue hell is that?
I came across it only last month because they had a hit piece on Pierre Polyev's campaign slogan of Canada First.
Evidently, that's racist and code for white supremacy.
Because of you, we can't ask questions like you have for you.
Everybody has, because we wanted to have a media circumstances.
Maybe your ally shouldn't be trying to get the commission to do something unlawful.
It isn't embarrassing.
It's embarrassing.
Look at all of you.
Look at all of you.
What journalistic rationale is there to have this many people in the room?
What journalistic rationale is there?
There's not 13 of us.
There absolutely are 13 of you.
There absolutely are.
I saw Kian Bexte coming over to Ezra throughout the debate.
Kian Beckstee, who supposedly has a different media outlet, was taking direction from Ezra.
You're wrong.
Kian Becky doesn't work for Rebel News.
So why did he come over to you three times for direction during the debate?
He showed you his phone.
And he took direction from you during this debate.
So I don't think Kian Bexti is independent of you.
You think Kian Kusper friends?
We're not allowed to talk to people.
Which is much less than the CBC has.
You've got to control your emotions.
I know you don't like me or Rebel News, and that's okay.
If I don't like Ezra, are you preventing us from being able to ask questions on behalf of the public?
How have I done that?
You created a circus here before this debate started.
You created a security incident.
You created a security incident before this debate started.
That guy from the Hill Times.
You got into a screaming match with people before this debate started, and that's the justification that has been used to cancel the Q&A.
So the circus that you created before this debate...
Where did you get this information?
You're not making anything out of it.
What are you talking about?
Where did you get these stuff?
We were all there.
What are we talking about?
In the front of this room, right before this debate.
You caused an incident that caused the security concern that got this Q ⁇ A shut down.
So Ezra Levan, I blame you 100% for the Q ⁇ A being canceled.
We have 13 rebels here.
Kian Bexti doesn't work for us.
You're angry because you didn't have to.
Well, it's a potential village, right?
You have as many outlets as you can start up with.
I don't know what Ricochet is.
I assume you take government subsidies, I assume, is that correct?
Yeah.
I mean, I understand.
Listen, I understand you don't actually take government subsidies.
You don't take any government subsidies at all.
We take LGI funding.
We have one LGI-funded position.
I don't even know.
Oh, there you go.
That's government funding.
You know, it's okay for you to hate rebel news or hate our ideas.
I don't know.
But once a year, Ezra, you caused an incident.
You're not listening.
You're spreading misinformation.
You can do all you want.
You can say I'm lying all you want.
You caused an incident.
There was a huge incident at the front of this room, which everyone here saw.
You got yelled at to get out of the way.
What are you talking about?
That's literally not what happened.
This is 100% your fault.
You caused this, Ezra.
And I hold you accountable.
And everybody in this room knows what happened.
Everybody saw the incident you caused earlier, Ezra.
You know what?
You know what the problem was?
We go in there thinking like journalists.
And many of the people in there are journalists, but others are just antifa with a press pass.
I want to talk a little bit more about the actual misinformation since yesterday I was accused of spreading misinformation by Jagmeet Singh.
And I was told from a lot of journalists who did reach out.
They were disgusted with Jagmeet Singh and they were disgusted to hear that journalists heckled me while I asked that question.
And they told me, you said it as well.
In the past, journalists would have stuck together and said, hey, answer her question.
Don't do that.
But that solidarity was gone.
And then you have Miss Rosie Bart.
She said this about my question.
Okay, so that was NDP leader Jugmeet Singh.
Up next will be conservative leader Pierre Polyev.
But I think we have to sort of address the elephant in the room.
How are these people chosen to answer these questions?
And I don't know if either one of you have an answer for that, but I think there will be people at home saying, some of these seem like odd questions.
Some of them aren't getting answered.
How come we've heard so often from this one particular outlet?
Any idea what's going on?
There's three right-wing, very right-wing media.
We can call them media websites that are present in there.
They get in line to ask a question like anybody else.
Their accreditation has been approved by the Commission of Debates.
And so they get the right to stand in line and ask a question that they choose to ask.
In this case, you saw Mr. Sing, and this has been his position for some time, to refuse to answer questions.
Rebel News in particular, traffics and misinformation, facts, lack of facts, and as you heard in that question, which was woven with some truth and some things that weren't true.
Yes, there have been burnings of Christian Catholic churches.
Yes, there have been remains of Indigenous children found in various places around the country, which she met.
That's not true.
There have not been any remains found.
So I nicely went up to her today.
I simply said, Hi, I'm Dre Humphrey with Rebel News.
I put my hand out.
She goes, I don't shake with that hand.
She shakes my hand with the left.
And then, so, I mean, that's not really the point of the story, but weird.
It's just a weird little thing.
It's weird.
And I'm telling you how nice I was.
And I said, yesterday you spoke about me without speaking to me first.
And you told people I spread misinformation.
She goes, No, I didn't say that.
I said that there's no way you would know that there was bodies.
I said, No, you said I told truth and misinformation.
And I said, So could you please tell me which site you're aware of where there's unmarked graves and they have discovered remains?
And she goes, I don't want to talk to you.
And I said, Why?
And she goes, I don't want to.
And as I'm walking back, her and this other CBC mean girl who was like this the whole time, one of them, I don't know, said, Back off.
And she went and complained.
You know what?
The same thing happened to me.
I waited until they were on a TV break and I said to David Cochrane, I said, Look, you've been talking trash about me, but I didn't say that.
Actually, I was much calmer.
I said, Listen, you've been talking about me.
I'd like every right to reply.
Who should I talk to?
No one.
Go away.
I said, Well, no, is there a producer or a lawyer?
Go away.
No one.
And I mean, just and just the fact that you spoke to Rosemary Barton and I spoke to David, whatever, for five, like not even five minutes.
So then they got dozens of private security and police to stand around them because you're so terrifying.
But that's what they claimed.
So they claimed that something happened with the far right, so there's no scrum and the security is watching us now.
But we asked the security that was behind them on the way out, you know, guys, like we're not a danger.
I just asked why, you know, she lied about me.
And they're like, we don't know what you're talking about.
We're here watching everybody.
So again, yeah, he said, we're not here for you.
Let me tell you one more story.
So this crazy guy from the Hill Times was like ranting and I said, calm down.
And he was causing a bit of a scene.
And just then, someone from the Debates Commission came in over to me and said, hey, can we talk somewhere quiet?
I said, okay, whatever.
So I went out with this lady, and everyone thought it had to do with this Hill Times going crazy.
The timing was like while this guy was ranting, there's a lady from the debates commission says, hey, can we just chat?
And I didn't know what that was about.
So I went with her.
I said, what's cooking?
And she said, well, the CBC wants to kick you out.
They said that you were, I forget exactly the accusations.
And I said, well, no, that's crazy.
That didn't happen.
And I said what I just said here.
They were talking about me.
I asked for a right to reply.
They said no.
And I left in like 60 seconds.
And that convinced them.
And that's after that is when the guy said on TV I'd been disaccredited.
So he made it up.
But here's my point.
I just want to tell you, I had left the room for a minute, is what I'm saying.
I left the room for like yeah, while this guy was crazy.
So I was out of the room for five minutes and it looked sort of official.
So I came back in and I was chatting with Michelle Cormier, the commissioner, and I was saying, when are you going to tell us the rules?
Like I was just chatting with them.
And I was sort of hamming it up because he was the guy who was hostile to us and he was so stressed out and everyone had been walking all over him and I actually felt a little bit bad for him.
And I was walking with him and I didn't put my arm around him or anything, but I was like chummy with him.
And I walked back in and I had just, it wasn't even 10 minutes.
And every journalist was there.
What happened?
And like I walked back in thinking, okay, I'm going to go get a sandwich now or something.
And there's like 20 journalists circling me.
Can I add so I want to tell the story, but you keep going?
Sorry, he walked out.
I just want to tell you, when he was walking, the journalists got up behind him and were tripping over each other.
I felt so invalidated.
Oh, in fact, the debate is just right here.
Actually, sorry, Ezra, I know you really want to tell the story.
But they had to tell the journalists who were scrumming Ezra as he's holding court there.
They had to tell them.
The actual debate is starting.
You guys have to go shout.
You know, I want to show you that little scrum.
I swear, I just, I just stepped out for five minutes.
Like, it could have been to go to the bathroom.
And I'm coming back in.
And I'm just with this Michelle Cormier, which is why I thought it was funny.
And I walk in and every, like, I do, what?
And yeah, I want to play it for you because it took me about 30 seconds to get my feet under me.
But then I thought, oh, an audience.
Well, unaccustomed as I am to public speaking, I might say a word.
Let me play for you my speech because I think it was actually okay.
Here's what I said to all the journalists there.
And I got in a sparring match with a few of them.
But here, take a look.
Mr. Cormier, are you able to comment about what he's asking?
I had a heart-to-heart with Mr. Cormier.
And I think we found common ground.
Well, I'm kidding around.
Government Journalist's Sparring Match00:05:19
We don't have to.
I don't know what his yesterday I think the independent journalists were a little bit too independent.
And the regime journalists are too friendly with the regime.
And I've seen a full work press by regime journalists over the last 24 hours to bring in limits to what independent journalists can do.
You mean third-party advertisers, Ezra?
I mean, you talk about the $180,000 we're spending to do advertising voter contact both through 4 Canada and into Rebel News Network Limited.
See, you're wrong on that.
And that's what concerns me, is that 4 Canada is a different group that was registered.
It's made $120,000 for Rebel News Network Limited.
Is that not true?
You're getting your facts strong, Justin.
I want to make sure you're careful.
We were actually talking about the CBC who want us out of it.
The CBC want us kicked out.
We're not leaving.
The CBC were outraged that Mr. Cormier let us in.
The CBC had four questions yesterday.
Rebel News had four questions yesterday.
The CBC thinks that's normal and it's abnormal leaving.
So he was talking to you about your accreditation asking questions or was it about the need here right now for you?
It was about neither.
It was actually about, what's his name, the bald guy on the CBC?
Maybe Prox Cochran.
Yeah, I mean, Cochrane wanted to be kicked out.
I ain't leaving.
Cochrane's really thin-skinned.
Dr. Rosie Martin, too.
I invited her to a challenge and she's client, but that had nothing to do with it.
Anyways, I want to get back to the journalism you, but it's a pleasure to be in the center of the attention.
I want to give a shout out to my fellow independent journalist, Kim Becksky, proud alumnus of Rebel News.
A. Lee, he's not associated with us, but I admire his independence.
And I would like to encourage everyone who's watching.
You can be a journalist.
If you've got a phone, you're a journalist.
If you've got a Facebook page, you're a journalist.
Yes, it is, Judy.
In fact, like two people.
Journalists hire you.
And on your piece.
I don't know.
You're a government journalist.
Every single one of you.
No, no, no, no.
Government journalists.
If you get the government subsidy, you're a government journalist.
I'm not a government journalist.
Who do you work for, sir?
I've got a given friend.
Canadian Press gets massive grants from the government.
You're literally wearing on the throne of the land here.
Because I follow the liberals and you know how to work.
Sir, what do you think about the third party advertisers that are supporting the CNN CNN?
All right.
Why don't you answer his question?
What was his question?
I actually didn't hear the question.
I'm flattered to be here.
Let me just say this.
I think that journalism needs to be democratized.
And I think it's sort of creepy that the enemies of Rebel News in the press gallery stop us from asking questions of politicians 99% of the time.
Once every four years, we're allowed to put a couple of questions to these high priests of politics.
And there's a total freak out from the press gallery.
Like, seriously, it's like we have 15 minutes every four-year season.
We're allowed to do that.
What did he tell you?
We want to watch the sky.
Thanks very much.
Thank you.
Make sure you mention the picture.
It's the reaction when you do that.
All of you guys, your jolaris, with your phone and the reaction of the mainstream media.
And that's true.
Everyone who's got a smartphone, guess what?
You've got a TV camera and the power of your smartphone today would be equivalent to like a quarter million dollar camera 15 years ago.
It's a fact.
And if you've got a Twitter account and a camera, you can do anything.
And I'm not saying that every single human with a cell phone is a journalist.
I'm saying every human with a cell phone could become a journalist because there's no more barriers to entry.
Your talent is the thing.
It's not a regulated profession like being a doctor.
I'm not saying every single person in the world is a journalist, but everyone could be.
And that's what terrifies the people in the inner sanctum is that, no, you have to be part of the special priesthood.
You have to think the way we think.
And And you have to be part of our order, no?
And I don't know.
To me, I thought that was a clarifying moment.
I just want to correct you, though.
It's not somebody with a cell phone could be a journalist.
It's a cell phone and a sense of hard work.
Right.
What I think set us apart and what caught the mainstream media flat-footed is that we showed up ready to work.
And they are so entitled and they're so used to having their stories served up to them and not having to work to get access to politicians that they were shocked that we showed up ready to give her and we did.
Show Up Ready To Work00:10:49
And we beat them to the story.
We beat them to the questions.
And so their heads were spinning.
But it's because they've never had to work for anything and we do.
And their failure is subsidized because they get $1.5 billion a year.
And then when Mark Carney says, guess what?
I'm going to slop another few hundred million on the fire.
They said, oh, we know who our man is.
We always did.
You know who win of all this shenanigan tonight?
Mark Carney to not face again independent journalist question because last night didn't really look great when we had the question from independent journalists, isn't it?
Well, listen, it was a very interesting time, and I think we kept our promise to our people.
What was the promise?
First of all, the fight like heck to get in there.
And we did that with the help of our lawyer, Chad Williamson, and the fact that we had fought and won twice before, so the precedent was on our side.
The second thing we promised is that we would ask questions that the regime media, the mainstream media wouldn't do.
And we achieved that.
In the case of Alexa Andrea, Jack Meet Singh did not answer the questions, but that is on him.
We asked the good questions.
And in fact, Drea's went super viral because the question was so interesting.
Finally, we conducted ourselves in a manner that I think set an example for other independent journalists.
And that's not just my vanity saying that.
We really worked collegially with the other citizen journalists.
And one of them thanked us for having fought these legal battles to clear the way like an icebreaker.
The first icebreaker that has to break through the ice has the tough job, but other boats come behind.
That's Rebel News.
We're the big 10-year-old boat, and these littler boats can come behind us.
And it's a real pleasure to be in that position.
But all of it, of course, comes down to our viewer.
You know, Donald Trump has a meme, my favorite Donald Trump meme.
It gives me a little bit of a chill every time.
She's looking very sober, and it's a black and white photo.
And the caption is, they're not coming for me.
They're coming for you.
I'm just in the way.
And I think about that sometimes because I think Rebel News is like that.
The contempt that they feel for us, sure, they don't like me.
I accept that.
But the people standing next to me are pretty likable.
David sometimes rates some people, but he's a pretty likable guy, let me tell you.
And of course, the ladies are completely lovable.
So why do they hate them?
If these are lovable people, why would they be hated?
Because they're effective.
No one shoots at a dead duck.
And the reason why they were so outraged with the people next to me is precisely because they were asking questions on behalf of the people who were normally shut out and ignored, the deplorables.
And that's who we were here for today.
People who are not part of the Mean Girls Club, people who have questions that were not answered.
I want to leave you with a clip.
Look at this, Adrian Arseno and a couple others.
Here's the problems they had with us.
We were asking questions that were not in the debate.
We were asking questions that you don't hear a lot in Canada.
They literally said those were reasons we should be kicked out.
Take a look at that.
It was sad that came out of that debate, which was a good debate, and it was a healthy dialogue, and it was a good discussion.
But what were a lot of the headlines about today?
It was about the aftermath.
It was about the fact that these illegitimate organizations that frame themselves as news organizations took up all of this time and energy and posing questions and lining up and really preventing media from having the opportunity to ask those questions.
And it's so important because people are still trying to make up their minds.
They're tuning into these debates because they're looking for information.
They want legitimate questions answered.
They want them answered by the leaders.
Instead, a number of the leaders had to say, Actually, I'm not going to take your question.
I refuse to answer your question.
That's what Jugmeet Singh said, for instance.
So I think it's a shame.
And I think that the Commission did a pretty terrible job of explaining itself and must do better.
Tim, what are your thoughts on how all went down and where things stand?
Oh, David, I'm all for free speech, but it has to be sensible and it has to have a purpose and not be about the people who are trying to elicit it.
I mean, that was a hustle last night by those organizations to have the four of us and everybody else who's critiqued it have them get that attention.
And the critique will get them money, no doubt.
I don't know what service it provided to the viewing public last night.
I was watching you and Rosie and Adrian, and the point you made I thought was a great one.
There were no questions asked by Rebel in particular about anything that happened during the debate.
It was about their own agenda and the things they drive.
In another place, another form, maybe that's fine, but not in a national debate.
And they could show some grace and decency.
I think Canadians want debates to be about what Mr. Cormier said.
Talk about the issues.
So let the reporters who are covering the debate ask follow-ups on those issues.
Yeah, they're coming for you, Tim.
I think I've written those here.
You're right here, Tim.
I think that's for you, actually.
But you know, Brad, on that, look, it is common for questions after debates to deal with issues that either weren't touched on or broaden it out, but they are broadly, you know, in the mainstream of what the election is actually about.
And I know what is a journalist, what is media.
I know that has all changed in the year of our Lord 2025.
But I just wonder the response we got from viewers and voters to sort of the spectacle was pretty strong.
I've never really seen anything like it.
Yeah, it was, there's no question this was a hijacking.
From the minute the first question was asked to Mr. Carney, this was a hijacking.
I'll weigh in: these are not journalists.
They hijacked the post-debate scrums in an effort for their fundraising.
These will be clips for fundraising.
And I don't think that the public airwaves and the consortium of media outlets that put on the event and the Canadians that tuned in, and I'm only going to imagine great numbers because it wasn't up against the Habs game entirely.
Same thing happened in 2011, same thing happened in 2015.
If the Habs would just make the playoffs earlier, the consortium.
I didn't even get into the scheduling conflict because it seems like it's difficult to pile on.
And this is, I think, putting at risk the viability of going forward.
But let me just, you mentioned the remedy tonight.
I fear, and I'm an optimistic person, but I fear that the remedy that you were just announcing here, first of all, it's asking these outlets, and I use that term very loosely.
They will not respond to an ask.
They must be compelled as to what to do.
Now, if you have one 20-second question to ask with no follow-up, this will mean, and I fear this, I'm hoping that this prediction does not come true, but these will be 20-second speeches live on all of our consortium outlets going into millions of households across this country.
And I fear that that will only embolden them for more fundraising.
And this has to end and it hopefully will end.
And then the last point I'll make, David, we have to ask ourselves, what is the point of the post-debate scrum?
All of the good content is there on the debate floor.
What is the value?
I've helped a number of leadership candidates in that the last thing we have time for is the leadership, is the post-leaders debate scrum.
It adds no value whatsoever, in my opinion, to the debate night.
And I think we should just look at scrapping the whole thing altogether.
Well, I mean, you wonder, just as a campaign tactic and strategy, if you're going to be asked conspiracy-laden questions, why would you expose yourself to it, right?
You know, in this sort of time in the campaign.
Shotu, what are your thoughts?
I don't know how much you watched last night.
Just what do you think of where things are today?
Well, I think we all watched last night, David.
I watched.
You watched this.
We all watched.
I was shivering.
I was shivering through most of it, so I tried to absorb as much as I could.
It was very cold here yesterday.
But anyway, what are your thoughts?
Well, first of all, I mean, I do really question at this stage what is the point and the purpose of the Debate Commission itself.
This is an organization that clearly, based on that interview that we just saw, is not used to a lot of frontline accountability, is not used to a lot of transparency in terms of the way it communicates.
It is rare that you see a real live living member of the debate commission actually coming out.
They had to do that today.
Props to Mr. Carmier for doing that.
But you know, you know what it's like to be on the front line of having to deal with accountability.
When people are ticked off at you, you got to take that.
When people are ticked off at me, I have to take that.
And so, you know, you've got this organization that calls itself independent and arm's length for government that is supported by the Privy Council office.
You know, you had a former governor general who was appointed to then look at foreign interference as the last debate commissioner.
And who, you know, who's making these decisions?
Who are the commissioners?
I know because I've gone on the website and looked at them.
You've got some academics, you've got some retired politicians, but not people who are experienced in television production, not people who are experienced in doing live television.
And I just find myself so utterly, utterly flummoxed.
I know we've spent a lot of time talking about rebel media and what happened after the fact.
Let's go back, and I know you would have talked about this yesterday, to what happened before the fact.
On the day, the morning of the debate, you kick the Green Party out.
So the Greens can't participate in the name of whatever independent, democratic, best practice, but that is allowed to happen.
You know, the whole genesis of the Debate Commission was a function of the Trudeau government.
It was born out of what happened in 2015 and in that election with some leaders tapping in and other leaders tapping out and saying, I will participate in this, I won't participate in that.
But that campaign actually brought forward some really interesting, creative debates that some leaders chose to show up to and others didn't.
And they either took the political benefit of that or paid the political price for it.
What are we doing as taxpayers, having this organization come in that claims it's arm's length and independent as some sort of eminence that knows everything better about debates than individual newsrooms, journalists, and experienced people who do this?
On Behalf of Us All00:01:12
Translation.
We aren't like them, and so they want to ban us.
Well, I think we achieved our goals, and Alexis just having a bit of a cough out there.
She's been hoarse.
She's been talking and elocuting and advocating so much, and she has shown us great hospitality in her home city.
On behalf of all of us, the whole team out here, our home base in Toronto, where they were working on the internet and the live stream and the studio, our special friends to Mary Ugolini and Lise, who were hosting the live stream while we were here.
Everyone on the team, you know, for every one of us on TV, you know, there's two people behind the scenes, whether it's Guillaume and Lincoln, our videographers out here, Betty in the truck.
There's a lot of people putting this together that you don't even see.
And of course, our donors.
Without you, it would simply be impossible.
So on behalf of all of us here, thank you.
And I promise we will keep fighting for freedom of the press, not just for us, but for everyone else in Canada.
And I don't care if the demonic media party shrieks at us.
I don't care because I know what motivates me and it's freedom.