Ezra Levant updates the Amish’s fight against ArriveCAN app fines, with $300K in penalties and liens on farmhouses despite their tech-free lifestyle. The Democracy Fund’s lawyers, Mark Joseph and Adam Blake Gallipo, met elders in person, but convictions in absentia persist. Meanwhile, Rebel News faces a third G7 accreditation ban under Mark Carney, who Levant accuses of hypocrisy after Davos press freedom claims, with an emergency lawsuit filed at letusreport.com. The episode reveals systemic censorship and government overreach, exposing how both Trudeau’s policies and Carney’s actions undermine free speech and civil liberties for marginalized communities and independent journalists alike. [Automatically generated summary]
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Tonight, an update on the Amish, the ones that the government punished for not downloading the Arrive Can app.
It's June 12th, and this is the Ezra Levant show.
shame on you you sensorious bug oh hi everybody Ezra Levant here.
I am back in Chatsworth, which is about two and a half hours northwest of Toronto.
I am in Amish country.
And the reason I'm here is because nine months ago, Rebel News and the Democracy Fund charity made a promise to the Amish that we would help them fight one of the most outrageous cases of government overreach I've ever seen in my life.
If you don't know what the Amish are, they're a very strict religious denomination.
They're Christian.
They came as a sort of refugee from Central Europe.
They're pacifists, and they have a belief to eschew anything modern.
They don't drive cars.
They don't have smartphones.
They don't use electricity.
They traveled even in 2025 in a horse and carriage.
And they keep to themselves.
They're very low-tech.
It's a lifestyle choice that wouldn't be there for many, but for the Amish, it's their religious faith expressed every day.
They get along with their neighbors.
They're quiet people.
They're not aggressive.
They live in the countryside.
They're not ostentatious.
In fact, because they use animal power for their farm implements, they're financially modest people.
But then the pandemic happened.
And when the Amish would cross the border to the States, because there's Amish communities in the northeastern United States, in Ohio and Pennsylvania, New York, they would be asked upon their return a question that would have sounded something like this.
Have you downloaded the ArriveCan app on your smartphone?
Okay, these folks don't have smartphones.
An app is not a word they use other than maybe it does it mean an appetizer.
ArriveCan is a meaningless phrase for 99% of regular Canadians.
I'd be surprised if a single Amish person had heard of it.
So these Amish who were crossing the border were asked this absurd question if they downloaded this government malware, this spyware that Trudeau's friends made.
And of course they didn't.
So unbeknownst to the Amish, every time they went through, they were fined $5,000 or $6,000.
And they didn't understand what these words meant.
And they would go about their life.
They were exempt from the masks.
And they told me that they thought this was a mask thing and they had a religious exemption.
Anyways, one day they discovered that their farmhouses had a lien against them.
You know what a lien is?
It's a government encumbrance that's, or anyone could put a lien on your property if you owe a debt.
It's a way of saying, you will not be able to sell this house unless you pay us first.
So if you sell this house or bequeath it or put a mortgage on it, you can't do any of those things until you pay this debt first.
So dozens of Amish people, unbeknownst to themselves, had liens on their farmhouses.
They didn't even know what they didn't know what that was.
They didn't know how it got there.
And they didn't know who to ask for help because one of the things about the Amish is they're very pacifist.
They're non-confrontational.
They do not go towards conflict.
They submit to authority.
But here was some punishing hand upon them.
They don't even know what for or where it came from.
Luckily, they had a friend who is not Amish, who follows Rebel News and the Democracy Fund.
And they opened up to him.
They told them the pickle they were in.
And he connected us.
His name was Grant.
And here's a little interview I had with Grant nine months ago.
Grant is your name, Grant.
Seeking Amish Justice00:05:14
Thanks very much for setting up today's meeting.
It's sort of difficult because we couldn't phone, we couldn't email.
Even when we were running late, we really had no way to tell the Amish that we were just 10 minutes away.
They really do live that old lifestyle, don't they?
They do.
They walk the walk.
And that's what I respect about.
No matter what it is, right, they bottle their beliefs and their faith.
And they don't stray from that at all.
So you yourself are not Amish, of course, and you have no problem using phones and cell phones.
In fact, you're somewhat familiar with the Democracy Fund.
Well, I am.
I am.
I found them on Telegram, right?
And I read up on it.
I became familiar with what they've done so far in helping those people on BC.
That's what really piqued my interest.
And I didn't know that the Amish had a problem.
I've had various conversations, but they found out that I dealt with customs issues commercially.
And that's how that topic came up.
It's a matter of trust with the Amish as well, because I've known them so well for so long that they felt comfortable asking me about that.
So you reassured them, you, because you've been dealing with them on a business level, you've gotten to know them personally.
So it was your telephone that was used to connect Adam Blake Gallipo, the Democracy Fund, with the head of what they call their steering committee.
So you were sort of the bridge between the old world and the new.
That's right.
That's right.
Well, you sat in the meeting, and it's sort of funny what I'm doing here now because normally I would show the leader of the community and I would have him done.
By the way, he looks wonderful.
He sounds wonderful.
It was such a heartwarming meeting, but he can't be seen on camera.
That's just not their way.
You heard my introduction here.
Is that an accurate representation of what's been happening to the families here?
Very accurate.
And of course, Adam Blake Gallipo is dealing with the families directly.
And again, I'm not exactly sure how that's being done because, you know, fax machines, phone calls, emails, I guess you're the interlocutor.
You're like the ambassador, the diplomat.
That's right.
I show up.
We set a date and a time and I go to a certain place and then we have a meeting on the phone with Adam.
Well, Grant kept his promise to help the Amish, and so did the Democracy Fund.
Over the last nine months, Democracy Fund lawyers, Mark Joseph and Adam Blake Gallipo, have come out here hours and hours to meet in person with dozens of Amish, and they come in their horse and buggy.
It's quite a logistical thing to set up a meeting.
I mean, think about it.
How would you set up a meeting in another city?
You would telephone.
You would use an email.
You might use a Google Map or Waze.
How do you do that with folks who don't use electronics?
So it's very logistically intensive just to get Amish people here and then to explain in layman's terms what's going on.
Well, over the course of time, dozens of Amish have made the journey to the house here.
And I can't show you the house, and I can't show you the leader of the Amish, who I've gotten to know a little bit over the last nine months, because again, not only do they not use video cameras and photographs, they really believe in not appearing in cameras or videos as well.
There are other Amish in the states who have less strict approaches.
And of course, if you want to see what the Amish look like, as I've mentioned before, there are some outstanding movies that actually sort of do look like the Amish in real life.
Harrison Ford had a great one about 25 years ago.
My point is, it's very hard to tell the story when you can't show the people involved.
If you think it's hard to tell the story, imagine fighting not just lawsuits, but lawsuits that have aged out.
Because what happened was these Amish would get the fine.
It wouldn't be brought to their attention.
They're not checking their email or faxes.
A lien would be put on their property.
They would not be in any court hearing.
They didn't even know this happened.
And then two, three, four years later, trying to undo this, trying to crack open a cold case to open up a conviction and have a re-hearing again.
It's astonishing to me that nine months into it, the province of Ontario, which is the real bully here, although the ArriveCan app and the rules were designed by Justin Trudeau, it was Doug Ford and his prosecutors who had a vengeance for some bizarre reason.
They really went hard against the Amish.
For nine months, the government has shown no mercy, insisting on defending their actions.
But the Democracy Fund lawyers have slowly but surely managed to open up case after case.
And in many times, the fines have been withdrawn.
I was talking to the head of the church, the head of their committee, as it's called, and he said that some people came to this farmhouse to sign up for help from the Democracy Fund because they had a ticket.
They knew they had a ticket and they came here to get help.
And when they arrived here, only then did they learn that the government had put a lien on their property.
Government Lien Revelation00:14:41
What a terrifying thing.
Imagine you just going to meet a lawyer to take care of some ticket and you find out that the government has put an encumbrance on your family farmhouse.
The shock of it, the terror.
And what do you do?
Well, thankfully, the Democracy Fund is there to help.
Stay with me in a moment.
We'll talk to Mark Joseph, one of the lawyers working for the Democracy Fund and the Amish.
All right, joining me now is Mark Joseph, one of the lawyers at the Democracy Fund.
He's made the journey out to Amish country many times.
Mark, great to see you again.
Thanks for having me.
You know, it's very decompressing to come out here.
I'm addicted to my cell phone.
It's insane.
I'm like a teenage girl.
I'm always checking it.
If I don't have it in my hand, I get nervous.
To come to a place where they don't use email at all.
They don't use faxes.
They don't use telephones other than if someone else brings a phone, they'll talk on it.
It's like taking a step back in time two centuries.
Yeah, I mean, we have to come up here, meet with the elders.
They don't use telephones.
Obviously, they have no smartphones.
It's all by lettermail.
It's arranged with an intermediary to set up a time.
Then we have to sit down with them.
We have to explain everything in laypersons' terms, which they understand.
But, you know, the process is much more onus than having a normal client in the city.
I sat in today for part of the meeting.
Two young men from this community who went to the States.
I think it was Ohio.
One of them got married down there.
And that's the thing.
These Amish travel around from community to community for dating.
I mean, if you're a young Amish guy, you're not using Amish Tinder or whatever the apps are these days.
You are going in person and you're going to other Amish communities.
And so whenever they would cross the border, which they would do all the time because their friends and families are just on the other side.
Anyway, so a couple of the guys here today, one of them in particular lives in Ohio, just got married down there, but he's got to come back up here to fight this because he can't do it by remote.
He can't do it on a Zoom call.
He can't do it on a phone call.
So the hassle, I'm just trying to imagine.
He leaves his farm in Ohio by horse and carriage.
I think he takes a bus across the border.
Then he somehow gets another horse and carriage and he's here because he's got to be here in person.
Just the logistical challenge of him coming here, which is something that any other victim of the justice system would just handle in a Zoom call.
Yeah, I mean, our court system isn't really designed to handle these folks.
So as you say, they have to make travel arrangements.
They can't go online to find out, you know, what train or bus they need to take.
So it really, the logistics are difficult for them, but, you know, we've managed to handle it so far.
All I was thinking about when I was in there, like I was listening, and I'm not going to give away any solicitor client privilege, but you were talking about if you get something in the mail, give a copy and we'll send some, like just things that are we take for granted in the 21st century in Canada.
That's not how they operate.
And we hear all this talk about reasonable accommodation and is the government being culturally sensitive and is the law being sensitive and sensitivity training for judges and it makes me want to gag all this DEI.
But here we have a real case of a community that they're not being intransigent.
This is just, they just don't use tech.
And instead of accommodating them, instead of, I mean, the very fact that they punish these people in the first place is insane.
I just can't get over.
I just would have loved to have been a fly on the wall watching some border guard say, did you download the ArriveCan up on your smartphone, sir?
Like I could just imagine the and the Amish folks saying, what's that?
Or say again?
Like, what kind of a bully knowing these folks don't use smartphones?
What is you?
Anyhow, and even just sitting there in the meeting, the amount of effort to, when you get an email, make a copy, send it in the mail.
This court system, which, you know, says it's so tolerant, all I could see in there was the effects of the intolerance on the Amish.
Yeah, look, it makes it difficult for these types of people to get their fair hearing.
I mean, your listeners know that they were convicted in absentia.
So they didn't even realize that they had a problem until they went to deal with their farm or get a loan and they've got a lien on.
And then we've heard that one gentleman actually did sell his farm to meet that lien obligation.
Oh my God, I didn't know that.
Yeah, that's he sold his farm.
That's what we understand.
We haven't confirmed that.
Is that here in Ontario?
That's in Ontario, yeah.
Of course it would be, I guess.
You know, when I first reported nine months ago about these liens, someone said, uh-huh, this is the government trying to take their land.
And I thought, you know, that's an exaggeration.
A lien is just a debt collection tool.
They're not really coming for the farms.
And you're saying one of these Amish farmers, from what you've heard, actually did sell this farm to get this government encumbrance off.
I am sick to my stomach hearing that.
Yeah, again, that doesn't sound too outrageous to us because these fines can be in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Oh my God.
Do we know who this farmer is?
We haven't made any inquiries, but we think that might have triggered the effort from the Amish to clear these liens.
Oh my God.
I did not know that.
It was some YouTube commenter who said, oh, this is a scam or a scheme to get their land.
I thought, no, it's just an abusive debt collector.
But what you're saying proves the conspiracy theory true.
And these Amish, I was talking, I don't want to. mention names, but I was talking to the org, and I even promised the head of the steering committee, I wouldn't say his name on camera.
But the head of the steering committee, who we both know and have met several times, he was telling me about how terrified a lady was when she came here to deal with the ticket and she found out she had a lien.
She actually fell ill from the stress of it because imagine these folks, they're doing their best to live old-fashioned style, to live in the world, but not of the world, they say.
And to be told that your property might be seized by the government because some damn fool arrived, cannab, she literally worried herself sick.
She worried herself sick.
That's what the head of the steering committee told me.
Yeah, I mean, it is terrifying.
I wouldn't know where to begin if I had a massive lien on my property.
So for them, they're still having problems now because they go to get, you know, their capital.
You know what this reminds me?
I'm sorry to interrupt.
It just don't, you know what this is like?
This is like when Christy Freeland froze hundreds of people's credit cards.
And so a lot of families, the husband and the wife share a bank account.
So you're a missus at a grocery store.
Your husband's at the truckers and you go to pay for groceries.
This card doesn't work.
This card doesn't work.
None of your cards work.
Your debit card doesn't work.
You declined.
What happened?
The panic, the panic you feel because the government turned off your money and you don't know what to do and you don't know where it came from and you don't understand what's going on.
How did this happen?
I didn't get any notice.
That was absolutely terrifying for 21st century Canadians.
Imagine you're living the Amish life and suddenly the government says, I'm taking your farm.
That is an existential terror.
And just thinking about, it's just so abusive.
I'm just so mad.
And I said to the steering committee guy how angry this was making.
I would not make a good Amish because I got too angry.
Well, we're trying to repair the damage.
My co-counsel, Adam Blake Gallipo, is getting what's called dispositions from the courts so that these documents can then be used with a bank or other people so they can clear their name.
So the damage has been done.
We're trying to repair what we can.
Well, this is the kind of work that the Democracy Fund was built for.
The Democracy Fund is, as you know, Mark's our senior litigator.
Democracy Fund really came about in response to these kind of civil liberties violations during the lockdowns.
Democracy Fund was there for various Christian churches that were shut down.
And I talked to the head of the steering committee about that.
Even the Amish had heard about the case of Arthur Pavlovsky in Alberta.
And here we are with one of the Amish gentlemen.
This is Amish country, that's for sure.
To fight for these people who are being bullied, that's the word I can't, if I had one word to sum up what's going on, it's bullying.
It's pick on someone you're outsize.
Of all the people to pick a fight with, there is, I don't know anyone in the world that doesn't like the Amish other than if you're trapped behind one of those horses and buggies, maybe for 30 seconds, you're frustrated because they're not moving very fast on the roads.
I can't even imagine a reason not to like the Amish.
They literally keep to themselves.
They're submissive in any way.
They're pacifist.
Imagine being a government that says, I'm going to ruin them.
I'm going to ruin the thing they love most.
I'm going to ruin their farm.
The bullying, the malevolence there.
This is what the Democracy Fund was born to do.
Well, I mean, look, I'm not going to comment on what went on behind the scenes at the, you know, the government bureaucracy, the Crown.
We deal with the court.
They've been very good when we do get in contact with them.
We've had some success in setting these aside.
We have a couple appeals we're still going to do, but TDF was set up to fight these fights to the very end as our donors are helping out, obviously.
So that's what we're going to do.
You know, the courts really slowed to a crawl during the lockdowns.
So there was a lot of backlogs.
I'm not just talking civil courts, criminal courts.
Like there were serious criminal trials that, you know, and if you wait too long in a criminal trial, they age out and the case is dropped.
I'm talking about serious violent crimes.
Imagine being a prosecutor and saying, no, I'm going to prioritize those Amish.
I'm going to take prosecutorial resources and go after the Amish.
And imagine a court saying, you know, I got a lot of things I could hear, a lot of cases really, really late, but I'm going to make time for.
I mean, I just, the prosecutorial priority here, it's infuriating.
Give me some good news, Mark.
How is the fight actually coming along?
Well, like I said, we've had some success with the Amish.
Is there any you can't reveal things and certain things are underway?
Is there anything you can tangibly report to us?
Is any case finally concluded?
Yeah, well, we've had about 33 clients, about $300,000 worth of fine.
So a lot of those have been resolved.
We still have some on the go.
And resolved, you mean the tickets thrown out and the lien is removed?
That's right.
Yeah.
We're in the process of getting these liens removed.
Like I said, my co-counsel is getting those dispositions.
So we're moving it along.
We have having success.
So you get the ruling from the court and then you have to take it to the land titles.
That's what you mean.
And then they remove the lien.
Is that how it works?
Well, the lien should come off, but you need what's called a disposition if you can't, if it doesn't automatically come off.
Now, I'm not a lien expert, but this is the hoops we have to jump through.
And we've committed to the Amish to do that.
And I felt the, I mean, if you're frustrated, imagine being an Amish.
Keep going.
I'm interrupting you because I'm so mad.
Keep going.
Right.
So that's what we've been doing.
And so they are starting to see loans on the farms that they need for, you know, for livestock or capital equipment or whatever it is.
So we have had some success.
We, you know, they express every time we speak to them, they're grateful to our donors for helping out because that's obviously who makes this all happen.
I'm still thinking about that case you have heard of.
We don't know the farmers.
And that's one of the challenges here.
We could have a video going viral about this.
In fact, my video nine months ago, more than half people, half a million people saw it on YouTube, but no Amish saw it.
So if there's an that's the thing, there's probably someone out there who was deeply wronged by this, but they don't know help's available.
In this case, it's only because there was a friend of the community named Grant who watched Rebel News videos.
He was sort of the go-between, but I don't know how you even ask for help.
It's in the pre-internet era.
How would you go about it?
These folks write snail mail letters.
All right.
You know, when I talked to, I was going to say his name, the head of the steering committee as well.
And it takes up a lot of his time, but they're pleased with it.
They're getting acculturated to this.
They understand the vocabulary now.
And I think, and he said the church is grateful to him, and so are individuals who are putting this behind them.
We're doing the right thing here.
Hopefully by 2026, these matters will be done.
The justice system moves more slowly than a horse and carriage.
Right.
You know, like I said, we'll pursue this to the bitter end.
We'll go as far as we can.
We'll go to the divisional court or wherever you have to go to appeal these if they don't overturn them, but that's what we're committed to do.
Yeah.
You know, I want to respect their rules.
I'm we're very careful to respect their rules.
I have not said the name of the steering committee boss or any of the clients.
We drove out here in our cars, but they came out here in their horses and carriages.
And it's sort of cool to see a parking lot of horses and carriages all tied up.
It's like you're living in a Western Cowboy Western movie.
And I wanted to film that horse and carriage parking lot.
I asked permission.
They said, please no.
So just take my word for it.
We are helping people that no one else has helped or would help or frankly could help.
Helping the Unhelped00:03:21
And I wish I could share with you their words to me directly of how much this help means.
You're just going to have to take my word for it and Mark's word for it because they will not go on TV.
And I think this is the work the Democracy Fund was built to do, helping people who cannot help themselves.
And in this case, who cannot even speak for themselves?
It's one of the most unusual cases the Democracy Fund has taken.
All right.
There's two ways you can help.
I am furious about this.
I'm going to put that aside for a minute.
If you want to do something about it, there's two ways to help.
One way is to help us do our reports.
We schlep out here.
We're devoting serious editorial resources to this battle, as you know.
You can go to AmishReports.com if you want to help our journalism.
And if you want to help the legal battle, which I put it to you is related, but even more important, what is the website for the Democracy Fund campaign to help the Amish?
I think it's helptheamish.com.
Yep, that'll do it.
If you want to help out TDF, you know, like I said, we're going to go to the bitter end.
If you donate to the Democracy Fund, care of helptheamish.com, you actually get a charitable tax receipt.
It's a bona fide civil liberties charity.
And this is so spot on for the mandate.
Mark, I'm grateful to you.
And like me, I think you enjoy coming out here just for a little bit of change of pace from the big city.
Maybe you pick up some pickles or some jam.
It is a flashback to a simpler time.
These people have been thrown into a very complex situation and you're helping them.
Yeah, I don't mind coming out.
I mean, it's definitely different communicating with people.
You have to explain what a trial is, et cetera, et cetera, but it sharpens my lawyering skills.
Well, you have to be good with client communications.
I mean, a doctor would call it a bedside manner for a lawyer.
I mean, these are smart people, but they're not savvy, if you understand the difference.
All right, there it is.
I'm in Chatsworth County.
A beautiful day.
I am going to slowly start making my way back to the city.
You probably saw that one horse and carriage go by.
That's how it is out here.
And then one day, the brutal fist of government came into their idyllic lives and changed everything.
But we're fighting back.
I want you to help.
You can help on the journalism side with AmishReports.com.
By the way, you should go there anyways to see all our reports.
We've got like 10 of them.
And if you want to actually, where the rubber hits the road, then go to helptheamish.com.
That's the Democracy Fund website.
You know what's so interesting to me?
This is a huge story.
Think about it.
I mean, it's got everything.
It's got government abuse.
It's got civil liberties.
It's got the pandemic.
And it's got this unique people, the Amish.
So why is it that this story has been put in the memory hole by the regime media?
I mean, our videos have gone viral about it.
It's not like the rest of the media doesn't know.
They just simply refuse to tell this story because they're opposed to the Amish.
Is that what it is?
Because they're old-fashioned Christians, perhaps?
Because they love the ArriveCan app and they love the lockdowns.
I don't know.
But there's something disgraceful about the way the regime media has ignored this story.
Amishreports.com for all your news on it.
For now, I'm Ezra Levant in Chatsworth.
Hopefully, we'll have a happy ending to this story in the year ahead.
Lawsuit Against Regime Media00:09:18
On behalf of all of us at Rebel, to you at home, good night.
and keep fighting for freedom.
Breaking news.
Mark Carney has banned rebel news journalists from reporting from the G seven summit this weekend in Alberta.
So we have just filed an emergency lawsuit against him with the Federal Court of Canada.
That's the same court that slapped down Trudeau's repeated attempts to censor rebel news.
You can see our new lawsuit for yourself by going to our special website, letusreport.com.
At that site, you'll find four short documents.
Number one, a letter to Mark Carney's Attorney General, Sean Fraser.
Number two, a letter to the federal court explaining our need for an emergency hearing tomorrow.
Part three, the emergency lawsuit itself called a notice of application.
And part four, the facts of the case as outlined in an affidavit by Sheila Gunreed, our chief reporter.
I really encourage you to look at those documents at letusreport.com for yourself.
They're actually really short.
The letter to the Attorney General is just one sentence long.
Basically, here's the lawsuit.
The letter to the court is a page and a half.
The key sentences from that are these.
We are writing to make an informal request for a special hearing to have the application for an injunction heard remotely if possible and in the alternative in Calgary and decided before the end of business on Friday, June 13th, 2025.
And this, there is significant urgency to having the injunction heard prior to the commencement of the summit.
The applicants will be significantly prejudiced and will suffer irreparable harm if the motion hearing is delayed.
We note that the applicant, Rebel News, has been granted urgent sitting dates in similar injunction applications, resulting in the granting of mandatory injunctions against the Leaders Debate Commission, as in we need to have an emergency hearing ASAP or we will miss the G7 and we'll never get that opportunity again.
And by the way, this delay is 100% part of Carney's scheme because we applied months ago.
He wanted to wait till the last minute.
Now, the meat of this lawsuit, as I mentioned, is called the notice of application, which is actually quite short, too.
These key sentences are the ones that I think of as the meat of it.
Paragraph 17, the accreditation refusal is unreasonable and unlawful, is contrary to natural justice and lacks procedural fairness.
The applicants will suffer irreparable harm as a result of the accreditation refusal.
18.
Additionally, failing or refusing to grant media accreditation to Ms. Gunn and Mr. Fazard by way of the accreditation refusal is contrary to the principles of Section 2B of the Charter, which guarantees freedom of the press.
That's the thing about Carney and his reheated leftovers from Justin Trudeau's government.
They just don't care about civil liberties.
I mean, these are the people who invoked a form of martial law because some truckers were honking their horns.
I mean, these people have no patience for opposition or criticism.
That's why they hate rebel news.
And finally, here's Sheila's affidavit, which is the fourth document on letusreport.com.
It outlines the facts, including how we complied with all accreditation requirements long ago.
Carney was simply waiting until the last minute to block us.
Sheila's affidavit is seven pages of text, plus a few dozen pages with copies of key documents she refers to.
So here's the highlight in my mind.
And by the way, Mr. Fizard refers to our videographer, Sid, who was also banned from attending the G7 summit.
So here's some of Sheila's sworn statement.
She said, I do not know of any reason why Mr. Fizard's request or my own would be delayed, except as an arbitrary exercise of authority.
Refusing or failing to grant accreditation with only one business day left until the summit is unfair to me, Mr. Fazard, and Rebel News, as it gives us very little time for recourse.
There is no reason to deny Mr. Fizard's accreditation or my own.
We meet the requirements set out in the information published by Global Affairs.
There is no basis to refuse or fail to provide accreditation.
Mr. Fizzard and I, on behalf of Rebel News, seek to promote, cover, and document the summit and seek to be accredited as media representatives and journalists for that purpose.
Mr. Fizard and I satisfy the accreditation requirements published by Global Affairs and completed the registration forms prior to June 1st.
If Global Affairs, that's the Foreign Affairs Department, fails or refuses to grant Mr. Fizard and I media accreditation, we will be unable to report on important international issues and events that occur at the summit.
I believe the Rebel News and its audience will suffer irreparable harm if Mr. Fazard's and my accreditation are not granted to attend the summit.
You know, this really is like deja vu all over again.
This is the third time the liberal government has tried to ban us from attending important events.
In 2019, Trudeau's Handpick Debates Commission banned us from covering the leaders' debates, but the federal court struck that down as illegal and unconstitutional, saying Trudeau had violated our charter rights.
In 2021, Trudeau's debate commission tried a second time and incurred the wrath of the federal court again.
Well, here we are for a third time, but this time it's Mark Carney's decision.
And incredibly, he hates freedom of the press and freedom of speech even more than Trudeau did.
I didn't think that was possible.
I don't know if you remember, but the last time I personally spoke with Mark Carney directly was on the streets of Davos in Switzerland at the World Economic Forum's annual get-together.
You know, Rebel News covers that every year.
So this was right after Christia Freeland's bodyguards had arrested and assaulted David Menzies for asking her a question.
Carney said he disagreed with that arrest.
He told me that being in public life meant answering tough questions.
He said that to us, Rebel News.
Take a look.
Base was Canada.
You could have him arrested.
Did you see that?
Your rival, Christy Freeland, had one of our reporters arrested.
I think she did.
I think.
She didn't say a word against it.
If the police tried to arrest you.
That was the wrong thing.
It was absolutely the wrong thing.
Well, thank you for saying that.
Look, Freedom of the Press.
Look, I've been.
I've been a public figure in Canada, been a public figure in the UK.
I know you got to answer tough questions, and you guys, you know, you ask tough questions, and that's fair.
Yeah, it looks like that was a lie because here we are barely a year later and he's banning our reporters from attending.
So we're going to go to court again.
I hope we'll win.
But Carney and the Liberals don't take chances.
I mean, last time, the Liberals sent literally seven government lawyers to fight us.
You know, money's no object for them.
They just borrow more, don't they?
I'll expect they'll need a bigger courtroom this time.
If you can help us crowdfund this emergency lawsuit, please do.
Go to letusreport.com.
That's the same website where all our documents are.
Look, this whole thing is so un-Canadian, banning journalists.
That's what dictatorships do, not democracies at a meeting of the great democracies.
That's what the G7 is.
It's supposed to be a place of democracies.
That's why they kicked Russia out.
Please click on letusreport.com to see our lawsuit documents and to help us crowdfund our emergency legal challenge.
I hope we get our day in court tomorrow.
That'll be super fast.
Because really the freedom of all independent media itself is on trial.
It's not just us.
Look, I appreciate your help very much.
You know, where's the Canadian Association of Journalists?
Where's Canadian Journalists for Free Expression?
Where's the Canadian Civil Liberties Association?
Nowhere.
They no longer believe in freedom of speech, but we do.
We applied to get accreditation for several journalists, and every single one of them was banned.
I'm starting to think maybe Carney's a bit worried about the questions we might ask him.
We won in court last time, and we won before that.
But I expect the Liberals to fight even more viciously now, especially since Carney has a minority government, so he really doesn't want any pesky questions from Rebel News.
If you can help us, please do.
Go to letusreport.com.
You can read the lawsuit right there and help chip in.
Sure, this is about rebel news reporters and my friends Sheila and Sid, but this is about something bigger too, like freedom of the press for all Canadians and telling a prime minister that he's our servant, not our master.
I predict that not a single bailout journalist will care that we're banned.
The CBC was probably thrilled about it.
They might have even asked for us to be banned.
A lot of journalists will like the fact that we're silenced, but how can journalists taking money from Carney, like the CBC, not be a sign of political bias in itself?