Tag Archives: Ezra Levant

Toronto Cops Investigate Ezra Levant for “Hate” for Criticizing Palestinian Supporters

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Toronto Cops Investigate Ezra Levant for “Hate” for Criticizing Palestinian Supporters

[Last fall, Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw, announced that the Toronto Police Service was upping it’s thought control unit,  oops, “hate squad” from 8 to 36 officers. What a woke waste of manpower. There are almost daily gang shootings, mostly of Blacks by Blacks, many unsolved, but hey, divert manpower to thought control. Well, the hate squad has laboured mightily and come up with a potential criminal — EZRA LEVANT. Last Thursday, Mr. Levant received the annual George Jonas Free Speech Award in Toronto from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom. Now, he’s under investigation for the use of a sound truck going around Toronto criticizing the many pro-Palestinian protests since October 7. The cops suspect “Islamophobia” If charged under Sec. 319, Canada’s notoriousd”hate law,” A conviction could see Ezra Levant jailed for two yea. Ironically, the “hate law” was introduced after three decades of lobbying and pressure by the Canadian Jewish Congress. Ezra Levant is Jewish. — Paul Fromm]

, I’ve got some breaking news — it’s another censorship battle, probably our biggest one ever. I need your help to save free speech in Canada. The Toronto police are officially investigating Rebel News for running ads by local community activists on our Rebel News billboard truck. The ads were created by a group called “Canadians Opposed to the Occupation of our Streets and Campuses.” It’s a bit of a mouthful, but it tells you everything: they’re against the pro-Hamas gangs that have been running wild across Canada. The advertisers are anonymous because they know they’d face retaliation for speaking out — that’s how bad things are these days

. I think I know why people feel so desperate that they’re taking out anonymous ads on our trucks. They feel completely abandoned and ignored by the institutions they rely on. They want to speak out — because no one is speaking for them. I know the feeling — the reason we bought the truck in the first place is because all the truck companies we used to work with tell us they’re too scared to criticize Hamas, because they’re worried their trucks will be attacked and their drivers could be injured.

The ads just show actual footage of what the pro-Hamas gangs are doing to Toronto — including committing real crimes ignored by the police and politicians. In the case of this particular ad, the images included pro-Hamas gangs shutting down the streets in downtown Toronto. Toronto Police declared that the ads are “Islamophobic” and suggested that a hate crime had been committed. A crime!

Toronto police don’t think the pro-Hamas street gangs themselves are committing hate crimes. They think the ad we ran on our truck is a hate crime. It’s actually pretty serious. If convicted for “hate speech” I could be jailed for up to two years just for running that ad. And don’t think they won’t try — our Rebel News reporters have been arrested by Toronto police several times just for asking Hamas supporters questions. The police hate us because we’re not silent and obedient, which is what they’ve told the Jewish community to be. I’ve hired a lawyer and we’re going to fight. Because this is Canada, not Gaza.

We still have free speech here, for now. We’ve set up a special website at www.SaveTheTruck.com. But it’s really about more than this truck. It’s about cancel culture. And the weaponization of hate speech laws. And two-tier policing. In the case today, we were running the ads for another group of loyal Canadian citizens who felt totally abandoned by the police and politicians. Real Canadians don’t shoot schools or take over campuses. They run ads on our truck. It’s called free speech — you can look it up in our Charter of Rights. I’ve been fighting against censorship my whole life. I’m not going to stop now.

There is a crime wave in Toronto, and it’s not ads from scared citizens worried about Hamas gangs. It’s the Hamas gangs themselves. I’m going fight this like hell — you know I will. We’re going to take the truck out again. Because I’m a free man in a free country — at least for now. I have broken no laws.

And if the Toronto police think they can bully us into silence, well, bring it on. I still believe enough in our country and even our courts to know that this trumped-up censorship will not stand. Police should be embarrassed they’re investigating the messenger, instead of understanding the message. I was born and raised in Canada, and so was my dad, and so was his dad, all the way back to 1903. This country is built on free speech, and I’ll be damned if some Hamas thugs, and their obedient shills in Trudeau’s police force, can scare me into silence. If you want to support me, go to www.SaveTheTruck.com. You won’t just be saving the truck or saving me — you’ll be saving freedom of speech in our great country. Thank you for helping us fight back. Yours truly, Ezra Levant

Justin Trudeau’s bodyguards beat up REBEL NEWS reporter David Menzies

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Justin Trudeau’s bodyguards beat up REBEL NEWS reporter David Menzies

I’m angry and sad at the same time.

Justin Trudeau’s bodyguards beat up our reporter David Menzies. It was completely unprovoked.

David was standing on a public sidewalk outside a public event where Trudeau was going to a Liberal Christmas party. David was doing what all media do — waiting patiently to call out a question to Trudeau as he walked in.

But Trudeau’s bodyguards know Rebel News. And they hate Rebel News. Because their boss hates Rebel News.

Trudeau says it again and again. He says we’re not real reporters. He says we don’t deserve any respect. He publicly blames us for the sorry state of Canada. He personally bans us from attending public press conferences. And if we manage to get in, he insults us, instead of answering our questions.

So after demonizing us and denormalizing us and defaming us for five years, his staff got the message.

And so they attacked us.

Watch this shocking video:

They smashed David’s face against the wall — you can clearly see that David was so stunned, he couldn’t speak straight. They beat him up, they bloodied him. They destroyed his property.

David had to go to the doctor later that night — his ears were still ringing and he was bloodied and cut.

There is no excuse for this.

David did nothing wrong. He was never arrested. He was never charged with anything. He committed no crime — he literally was just standing on the sidewalk, waiting to ask a question.

The crime was committed by Trudeau’s thuggish bodyguards — who knew they were doing something evil, and refused to tell David their names, despite the legal requirement to do so.

They beat him up just because he was with Rebel News, and Trudeau has let the world know Rebel News does not deserve respect.

Enough is enough.

Every day, Trudeau becomes more of an authoritarian bully. He rules by decree, not bothering to consult Parliament. He’s ordered the government to crack down on his opponents on the Internet — specifically against YouTube channels like ours. And of course he has banned Rebel News from attending any press conferences or even covering the Leaders’ Debates during the election campaign.

(That was quite a telling moment: mere hours after the Federal Court of Canada ruled that Rebel News must be accredited at the Leaders’ Debates, Trudeau refused to answer our reporters’ questions, saying we were not in fact journalists — even though the court just said that we were. He defied and disrespected the court order upholding our Charter rights. Is it any wonder that his personal bodyguards feel they don’t have to obey the law, either?)

This is the worst thing that has happened to a Rebel News reporter in our seven years. We’ve had street thugs and Antifa members attack our reporters. But never a government bodyguard.

The Toronto Police Service came quickly, but they refused to lay charges against Trudeau’s thugs, despite the assault being caught on video. They know it would be career suicide to cross Trudeau.

So we have to go to court ourselves.

Today we filed a lawsuit on behalf of David. It’s very simple — just 10 pages long. Click here to read it for yourself.

It details the vicious assault by Trudeau’s henchmen. And it also describes how this was entirely foreseeable: for five years Trudeau has demonized us as an enemy. It was only a matter of time before his personal staff took the hint and beat a Rebel News reporter up to please their master.

This isn’t how we live in Canada. This is the kind of thing that you might expect from an authoritarian regime like Turkey or Russia or Venezuela. Imagine if Stephen Harper’s bodyguards had beat up a CBC reporter! But I fear that because most of the media is on Trudeau’s payroll now too, they’ll be silent — or even say that David “deserved it”.

Please help us fight back for David. It’s not just David who got beat up by Trudeau; it’s the very idea of a free and independent press, and the right of non-government journalists to ask questions of our political class. 

If Trudeau and his thugs can get away with this, what’s next? Raiding our Rebel News offices? Jailing our reporters?

This cannot stand.

If you agree with me, please click here, or go to StandWithDavid.com. Help chip in to cover our lawsuit against Trudeau — we’re suing the RCMP, the three officers involved, and the government itself. (You can see our full lawsuit by clicking here.)

This isn’t about money — it’s about holding Trudeau’s goons to account. A lawsuit like this could easily cost us $75,000 in legal fees. It really is a David versus Goliath story — and I stand with David. And if you do too, please go to StandWithDavid.com — thanks.

And while you’re there, please sign our petition to Brenda Lucki, Trudeau’s hand-picked RCMP commissioner, who has done nothing but protect Trudeau and investigate his enemies. Tell her that she must suspend her three thugs who beat up David, and call in an outside investigator to review their misconduct. At that same website you can also click on an email that will be sent directly to Brenda Lucki.

I’ve watched that video of David being assaulted three times, and each time it makes me feel worse. Not just for how brutish the RCMP has become towards David himself but also for how brutish they have become towards our freedoms.

Please help me stand with David.

Yours truly,

Ezra Levant

P.S. David did nothing wrong. He was standing on a sidewalk, waiting to ask a question of Trudeau as he walked in to his lavish Christmas party (mask-free of course; but you’re supposed to cancel your family Christmas gathering). Trudeau’s thugs attacked him simply because he works for Rebel News.

P.P.S. Trudeau and the RCMP have unlimited resources. The last time we took them to court, they sent SEVEN government lawyers to fight against us. (That was when they banned us from the Leaders’ Debates). But we won that battle, and I believe we’ll win this one. We just need your help to pay for the lawsuit — please click here to help us. If you give us the tools, we’ll finish the job. (Thanks.)

P.P.P.S. If bodyguards for a conservative politician had beat up a liberal journalist, what would be the reaction from the Media Party? It would be the only thing they would talk about until the politician resigned and the bodyguards were prosecuted. I predict we won’t hear a peep from the Media Party — they’re all on Trudeau’s payroll, and they don’t want to be roughed up either. Please click here to help. 

Ontario Civil Liberties Association Annual Report

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Dear OCLA Supporter,

This email is to give you an update on the Ontario Civil Liberties Association (OCLA)’s work in the surreal year of 2020. We hope to stay connected with you and work together to resist and reverse the rapid degradation of civil rights currently occurring in Canada.
OCLA report “Criticism of Government Response to COVID-19 in Canada”
In April, we published a research report authored by OCLA researcher Dr. Denis Rancourt, criticizing the government’s actions during the spring lockdown. The Abstract of the report reads as follows:


We review the scientific literature about general-population lockdown and social-distancing measures, which is relevant to mitigation policy in Canada. Federal and provincial Canadian government responses to and communications about COVID-19 have been irresponsible. The latest research implies that the government interventions to “flatten the curve” risk causing significant additional cumulative COVID-19 deaths, due to seasonal driving of transmissibility and delayed societal immunity.


Denis has written several research and review articles on COVID-19, including:

OCLA’s opposition to mandatory face mask policies

OCLA continues to oppose the arbitrary and draconian imposition of face masks on the general population. Our interventions in 2020 are documented at the following links:

OCLA’s submission on new online hate speech law
In July 2020, civil liberties associations were invited by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada to participate in consultations to “inform the development of legal remedies for victims of online hate”.
OCLA has previously argued that the “hate speech” provisions of Canada’s Criminal Code are unconstitutional and in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and we reiterated this argument in our submission for the July 2020 consultations, as well as critiquing the Minister’s specific proposed additions to Canada’s hate speech laws.


Defending free speech of Ontario medical doctor Dr. Kulvinder Gill
In August, OCLA asked Dr. Brenda Copps, President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO), to dismiss the CPSO’s investigations of tweets made by Ontario medical doctor Dr. Kulvinder Gill that are critical of COVID-19 policy and practices. The letter can be read here: https://ocla.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2020-08-11-OCLA-letter-to-CPSO-President.pdf


Internet censorship
“Blocking YouTube channels and banning books on Amazon are akin to requiring government authorisation to operate a printing press or to buy a photocopier or pen and paper. Only the technology and the administrative covering structures have changed. Establishment censorship is establishment censorship.”


The above quote is from OCLA’s statement opposing Amazon’s deplatforming of Ezra Levant’s book China Virus: How Justin Trudeau’s Pro-Communist Ideology is Putting Canadians in danger.


We, like many other organizations and individuals, have also been affected by social media censorship. In July, our Facebook group was disappeared and then reappeared 24 hours later. Many posts in the group are now being arbitrarily removed by Facebook. As a backup in the event that Facebook deletes our group, OCLA maintains an alternative group at MeWe. However, our email list remains the best and most secure way to stay connected with us.
Media coverage

What you can do
Thank you for being a valued contact for OCLA. Here are some suggestions for what you can do to help:

  • Tell your friends and family about OCLA, and the importance of freedom, and suggest that they look at our website and join our free Newsletter list.
  • Let us know about civil rights violations in Ontario, via our Contact page, here.
  • Make a donation to OCLA, if you can this year.
  • If you are a lawyer or paralegal, consider adding your name to our list of legal contacts, and tell us about your relevant interests.
  • If you have academic research skills, consider offering some volunteer involvement.
  • If you have social activist skills, and would like to get more connected with OCLA, let us know.
  • Fight for freedom any way you can, and let us know about your battles.

How to stay connected and donate to OCLA
Website: https://ocla.ca
Twitter: @oncivlib
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/110883345731728/
MeWe: https://mewe.com/group/5f282c504c45c17d75d6ace4
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKqbht2j2BPu4Wb2epM4BKw

OCLA is an independent, volunteer-run organization. Donations help cover operating costs such as booking rooms for public events, printing promotional material for campaigns and events, and paying for court filing fees and court document production costs (copies and binding) for court and tribunal interventions on civil liberties issues.

As we are an entirely volunteer-run organization with a very small budget, we do depend on donations to continue our work, and appreciate any contribution you can make.
Donations can be made in three ways:
1) Through PayPal, by clicking the “Donate” button in the top-right corner of https://ocla.ca;
2) With cryptocurrency (Bitcoin and other options) at the link here; or

3) By sending a cheque to “Ontario Civil Liberties Association” to our mailing address:

Ontario Civil Liberties Association
170 Laurier Avenue West, Suite 603
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K1P 5V5OCLA is not affiliated with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) or the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA). All three associations are separate and distinct.
Thank you for your support!

Yours truly,

Joseph Hickey, PhD
Executive DirectorOntario Civil Liberties Association (OCLA) http://ocla.ca
613-252-6148 (c)
joseph.hickey@ocla.ca

Amazon’s Deplatforming of Ezra Levant’s China Virus Book is Wrong, Says Ontario Civil Liberties Association

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Amazon’s Deplatforming of Ezra Levant’s China Virus Book is Wrong

Posted on July 24, 2020 by admin

The Ontario Civil Liberties Association has received documentation from Ontario lawyer Aaron Rosenberg showing that Amazon interfered with and repeatedly deplatformed his client’s book.

The book is “China Virus: How Justin Trudeau’s Pro-Communist Ideology is Putting Canadians in danger”, by Ezra Levant of Rebel News.

Amazon is enabled by State corporate laws to in-effect operate as a book publishing monopoly.

Amazon benefits from corporate law by tax advantages and by shielding its executives and board members from personal liability.

Amazon occupies the internet, thus using internet facilities that have been largely created with public money. The internet is a publicly-funded shared resource, from landlines following rail and road networks, to university hubs, and so on. The very architecture of the internet is from publicly-funded intellectual efforts.

Corporations, such as Amazon, are free to be independent in their corporate strategy and functioning. However, non-specialized monopolistic online publishers and social media giants, because of their fundamental and government-enabled societal role in giving individuals a voice to participate in democracy and to express themselves freely, with equal access, should not violate the constitutional, Charter, democratic, political, and natural freedom-of-expression rights of authors and readers, arbitrarily or by contract.

Blocking YouTube channels and banning books on Amazon are akin to requiring government authorisation to operate a printing press or to buy a photocopier or pen and paper. Only the technology and the administrative covering structures have changed. Establishment censorship is establishment censorship.

Amazon is applying the correct principle of free expression in publishing the historically influential works of Mao, Hitler, Che Guevara, Karl Marx, Errico Malatesta, Adam Smith, and many others, but it is applying outright censorship against current works that it deems threatens the dominant establishment projects of the moment.

OCLA has noticed an aggressive censorship of influential works that potentially threaten the current global state of medical totalitarianism. “Public health risk” is being wielded as a ready-made pretext for deplatforming and censorship. This is obscene. There must be free expression, whether establishment structures have declared a pandemic or not. There must especially be free expression when the government is enacting draconian measures, such as a global lockdown and forcing individuals to wear masks, no less. Everyone must have a voice. Everyone is impacted by unprecedented (we argue reckless[1]) government actions.

It appears that Ezra Levant’s book may have been captured by the medical totalitarian net. Whatever the actual reasons for Amazon’s egregious violation of Mr. Levant’s free expression, and of the rights of his readers, the actions of Amazon are wrong and harmful to society.

[1] OCLA Report 2020-1, “Criticism of Government Response to COVID-19 in Canada”, by Denis G. Rancourt: https://ocla.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/OCLA-Report-2020-1-Criticism-of-Government-Response-to-COVID19.pdf

POWER GRAB: How did ‘two weeks to flatten the curve’ turn into a two-year lockdown?

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    Remember when we were told that it would take two weeks to “flatten the curve”?  Stay home, isolate from your friends and family, close your business, delay your doctor visits and surgeries, stop attending funerals. Save lives!  We were told that if we did that, we would slow down the rate of people getting sick, so the hospitals wouldn’t be overwhelmed.

It’s been more than four months now.

The curve has been flattened – in fact, most hospital wards have been empty the whole time.  So how did “flattening the curve” turn into unlimited rule by unelected health officials? The same health officials that jet-set around the country while telling you that you can’t leave your house.  Click here to watch what I have to say about that. 

This virus has been no worse than the annual flu season in terms of the death toll. It’s done now.   But that’s not enough. Now we’re being told to wear masks everywhere we go and to continue distancing ourselves until a rushed, made in China vaccine, is developed – and that this could take another 2-3 years.  This is politics, not medicine. 

They love their power over you, and they won’t let go. And other than Rebel News, who is telling the other side of the story? Yours truly,  Ezra Levant 

P.S. Every weekday I speak frankly like this, telling the other side of the story, saying things the Media Party would never say. This video is a sneak peek at one of my daily shows that’s normally behind a paywall. Why not subscribe to RebelNews+ to get this kind of video every day? For only $8 a month, you can get full access to my show, The Ezra Levant Show, and other TV-style shows, including Rebel Roundup with David Menzies and The Gunn Show with Sheila Gunn Reid. Please go to RebelNewsPlus.com and subscribe toda

GOOD NEWS: I’ve found a way to stop leftist bullies from cancelling conservative events!

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GOOD NEWS: I’ve found a way to stop leftist bullies from cancelling conservative events!

November 19, 2019 — Ezra Levant:

Last month, left-wing bullies — including a university professor and an NDP politician — pressured a theatre into cancelling my book-signing event.

I had a contract with the theatre, I paid them in advance, everything was set to go. But then an online mob harassed the theatre owner until he breached his contract with me, cancelled the event and literally locked the doors.

So last week I sued him for breach of contract. (He still hasn’t even given me the money back for the theatre rental.)

But I did something new: I sued all of the bullies, too. At least the ones I could identify — the ones who were leading the mob on social media.

We’re suing them for inducing the breach of contract.

They knew we had a contract with the theatre; they helped cause the breach of the contract, and we lost thousands of dollars because of it. So that’s what’s new here. We’re not letting the mob go. We’ve identified members of the mob. And we’re suing them. 

Read the lawsuit for yourself — it’s written in plain English. You can read it below. It was written by our great free speech law firm in Edmonton, as a way to preserve our freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of association. Those rights were trampled by the bullies — so we’re fighting back.

Right before he ripped up the contract with me, the theatre owner told me the threats against him were so bad, he was literally losing sleep over it. I still don’t think he should have cancelled it. But don’t you think someone has to tell those bullies they’re wrong?

If they don’t see it, maybe they need a judge to tell them. So we filed the lawsuit last week, and we’ve begun serving it on the bullies — who include a university professor and a former NDP politician.

I’ve just received our first bill from the law firm — it’s for $4,700. Obviously this trial will cost much more than that, probably more than $100,000 by the time it’s all done. We’re suing at least 12 people.

Obviously we’re not doing this to make money. We’re doing it to stop deplatforming in Canada — against us, against anyone, against you. 

If you think this is a good idea, and want to help, please give us a hand to pay our lawyers. You can chip in right here on this page — ten dollars, a hundred dollars, whatever you can. We need the help, and I’d be very grateful. 

If you’d prefer to contribute by cheque, please make cheques payable to Rebel News and send to:

Rebel News
PO Box 61056 Eglinton/Dufferin RO
Toronto, ON M6E 5B2

DONATE TO STOP DEPLATFORMING

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Reconsider Supporting Poppy Day — How the Legion Has Fallen: Ontario Command Labels Ezra Levant’s Rebel News a “Hate Group” & Investigates Renting It Space for a Book Launch

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Reconsider Supporting Poppy Day — How the Legion Has Fallen: Ontario Command Labels Ezra Levant’s Rebel News a “Hate  Group” & Investigates Renting It Space for a Book Launch
 
Ezra Levant is an energetic self-promoting writer and online television news director, heading up the online Rebel News. I have known of him since his university days in the early 1990s. He has been a dedicated supporter of free speech since that time. He even spoke out against efforts by the vile Alberta Human Rights Commission to shut down Ron Gostick’s annual  conference in Edmonton. He has exposed and tangled with the “human rights” tyrants and censors many times. He is Jewish and a Zionist, but his Rebel News has been fierce in its criticism of Justin Trudeau and superb in its exposes of immigration madness, including the massive influx of illegals across the Roxham Road border crossing in Quebec.
 
However, among Canada’s Cultural Marxist, strongly anti-free speech elite, Ezra’s Rebel news is a “hate group”. The incendiary phrase “hate group” or “hate  speech” is actually undefined and, therefore, most mischievous. The accusation of “hate” tells you more about the accuser than the person accused. A “hate group” is a group the accuser hates.
 
We switch now to October 16. That evening, Mr. Levant’s Rebel News rented space from Branch 66 of the Royal Canadian Legion in North York to launch his new book The Libranos. By the next day, the local branch was in trouble. The CBC reported that the booking should have been cancelled :“In a tweet Thursday afternoon, the legion said its provincial command is investigating why the events were allowed to go forward. ‘It never should have happened as it is contrary to our anti-hate policy and the purposes and objectives of the legion.’ Spokesperson Nujma Bond confirmed an investigation is ongoing but that at the moment there is no estimate when it will be complete. We take these matters very seriously and are going to reiterate the anti-hate policy to our branches through additional communications. Once the Command provides details of the investigation we will share,’ the legion said. Asked specifically how Rebel News violated its policy, the legion said simply: “It was a group or organization that promotes or is known to promote hatred or violence due to ethnicity, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.'”
 
So, according to Nujma Bond (what war did he fight in?) Rebel News “promotes or is known to promote hatred or violence”Really? Has it ever been charged under Canada’s notorious “hate law” (Sec. 319 of the Criminal Code)? Has it ever been convicted? The answer is no. The “hate group” label is a lie and a slander.
 

The CBC report continues: “Three months after instituting a policy barring its chapters from affiliating with groups known to promote hate, the Royal Canadian Legion says it is investigating why one of its Toronto chapters hosted a Rebel News book event, saying “it never should have happened.”t. “This goes against our anti-hate policy and the Provincial Commands have been notified,” the legion tweeted. The event went ahead anyway — despite a new policy instituted after one of its Alberta chapters was found to have counted members of the far-right group Soldiers of Odin among its ranks. …The national legion instituted the new policy, stating in part ‘no branch or command within the legion may affiliate itself in any manner whatsoever with a group or organization that promotes or is known to promote hatred or violence due to ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or any other social determinant. This also applies to legion support of groups affiliated with organizations that espouse hostility.'” The policy goes on to say that it is up to branch and provincial executives to ‘use their best judgment to ensure policy compliance.’ The national headquarters makes the final determination as to what constitutes a prohibited group, it says.”

This pathetic policy is so loose that it could be used to ban almost anyone. Of course, there’s no hearing or chance for the maligned group to defend itself. What, for instance, would promoting hatred … due to any other social determinant” be? Whatever became of freedom of speech and due process? Weren’t these the reasons men and women risked and even sacrificed their lives in two World Wars? The Legion seems to have become just a cozy watering hole for politically correct types. What a fall?

Both my parents fought in World War II, my mother, 1939-1945, as a nurse in the Canadian Army; my father, 1943-1945, in the Royal Canadian Navy. People enlisted for many reasons, some after 10 years of the Depression, just to be assured of shelter, clothes and three meals a day.  Many enlisted for idealistic reasons. Having spoken to many old vets, I learned that they felt they were fighting for a better world, a “free world”, summarized in the famous  WW II song by Vera Lynn “We’ll Meet Again” One line promises, “we’ll meet again, tomorrow, when the world is free.”

How could those bureaucrats who run the Legion so betray the ideals of freedom? This isn’t the first time. In May of 2018, “A political party with controversial views on immigration and multiculturalism have been left scrambling after the Royal Canadian Legion cancelled a town hall it planned to hold at a legion building in Halifax on Friday. The National Citizens Alliance (NCA) … was set to host its meeting at the legion branch at 6158 Almon St. at 5:30 p.m. … ‘ When RCL Branch 27 learned that the booking was intended as a town hall meeting for the National Citizens Alliance, the booking was cancelled,’ she wrote. (Global News, May 31, 2019)

So, criticizing immigration and multiculturalism gets you banned from the Legion. Just what were these men fighting for?

​

The current Legion leadership has betrayed the ideal of freedom of speech. People should reconsider support for the November 11 Poppy Campaign. Why support an institution that no longer supports free speech? You’ll see donation boxes with poppies in many stores. The box has the phone number of the local legion. Write it down, phone them and let them know you are reconsidering your donation this year because the Legion seems to have abandoned support for freedom of speech, a goal for which the veterans fought. — Paul Fromm

Press freedom applies to everyone – even The Rebel

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Press freedom applies to everyone – even The Rebel

EZRA LEVANT
CONTRIBUTED TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL
 777 COMMENTS

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Ezra Levant is the president of The Rebel News Network Ltd.

JEFF MCINTOSH/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Ezra Levant is the president of The Rebel News Network Ltd.

It’s become standard practice for the Liberal government to refuse to accredit me or other reporters from my company, Rebel News, at press conferences. Other right-leaning reporters are banned, too. But, at a recent press conference at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre, during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, there I was, smiling at Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland from the front row.

I had been smuggled into the room by the former director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

Okay – that sounds more dramatic than it really was. The former director of the CIA is Mr. Pompeo himself. And he didn’t really smuggle me in. But he did let me walk into the news conference as part of his own delegation, which included U.S. journalists. And I doubt he told Ms. Freeland about it.

That’s just as shocking as if it had really been a CIA operation: The only way I was able to attend a news conference by my own government was with the assistance of a foreign government.

It happened in the summer, too, when Ms. Freeland co-hosted a media freedom conference in London along with her then-British counterpart, Jeremy Hunt.

There, Ms. Freeland gave a speech and invited journalists to a question-and-answer session. But her staff singled out two of the seven reporters who showed up and told them they would not be welcome.

There just wasn’t enough room for all seven, they said. The Globe and Mail, CTV, CBC, Global TV and Al Jazeera could come. But the two conservative reporters could not – Andrew Lawton, the former Sun newspaper columnist who now writes for True North Canada; and Sheila Gunn Reid, a reporter for my company, Rebel News.

Mr. Lawton and Ms. Gunn Reid had been accredited by the British government, which organized the conference. Both had crowdfunded their travel from Canada. It was literally a conference about media freedom. But not for journalists with the wrong politics.

The other journalists waiting to talk with Ms. Freeland – including the Al Jazeera reporter – were stunned by her attempt to de-platform Mr. Lawton and Ms. Gunn Reid. And to their credit, they refused to attend the news conference without them.

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Faced with a boycott, Ms. Freeland blinked and grudgingly allowed some media freedom at the media freedom conference. Ms. Gunn Reid got to ask her questions. Why had Ms. Freeland asked the UN to ban Ms. Gunn Reid from their conferences? Why had the Liberals refused to respond to her Access to Information requests?

Ms. Freeland’s answer was shocking, especially in juxtaposition to what she had just said in her official speech: “We all need to defend our independent press – even, and perhaps especially, when it criticizes us.”

That’s the script she read when she was onstage with celebrities such as Amal Clooney. But when it was just Canadian reporters, Ms. Freeland let the mask slip.

“You are here asking me a question, and that’s my choice and my decision,” she said. In fact, her choice had been to exclude Ms. Gunn Reid. But do press freedoms really require her permission?

“I do also think that it is important for governments, for countries, for multilateral organizations to be thoughtful about media organizations that are truly independent and truly impartial,” she continued.

Ms. Freeland didn’t explain that accusation. She had no problem inviting Al Jazeera, the state broadcaster of Qatar. Later that day, she privately welcomed the Foreign Minister of Pakistan to the conference – one of the most brutal censors in the world.

Ms. Freeland did not reject censoring journalists. She justified it, if it was “thoughtful.” She ended by accusing Rebel News of being white supremacists.

It’s standard now.

Indeed, the Parliamentary Press Gallery – the reporters’ guild that controls access to many media conferences – has banned us without notice, explanation or any appeal. China’s state broadcaster, Xinhua, is a member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. But we’re banned.

Not everyone appreciates our point of view. But we clearly speak to many Canadians. Our reporters have been accredited by governments around the world, in places such as Sweden, the Netherlands and India, and even in partly free countries such as Iraq and Morocco. Only Canada has banned us.

I’m not surprised the Liberals don’t like us. We ask prickly questions. But that’s part of our democratic system. If you need help understanding the problem, imagine if former prime minister Stephen Harper had banned liberal journalists from his government events.

Ms. Freeland’s conduct is remarkable given her former career as a journalist.

Liberals need to know how freedom of the press works – it’s a gift you have to give to your opponents, if you want it for yourself.

Thank you, CBC. I can’t believe I’m writing those words, but I mean it. — Ezra Levant

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The Rebel

Thank you, CBC. I can’t believe I’m writing those words, but I mean it. — Ezra Levant

 

 
Did you know that Sheila Gunn Reid and I were at a media freedom conference in London, England?

It was a remarkable experience because it was co-sponsored by the Canadian and U.K. governments. Governments and freedoms don’t mix at the best of times. But the U.K. and Canada are particularly censorious these days.

But there were some amazing moments. Not only did Sheila find herself in an alliance with CBC and CTV against Canada’s foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, but I had a chance to confront Pakistan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

You can watch all our videos at MediaFreedomConference.com.

But here’s a quick selection of my favourite videos from the week:

Twitter has been warning users around the world that their tweets were violating Pakistani law. This has been going on since last year (at least), and it even happened to me!

That’s why I took my chance to challenge Pakistan’s Foreign Minister on this issue.

Click here to watch my video to see this censorious thug’s response.

Sheila Gunn Reid made strange friends and allies at the Defend Media Freedom Conference when a miracle happened after Chrystia Freeland’s staffer announced that only The Rebel and Andrew Lawton would not be allowed to attend a scrum.

Mainstream media journalists from outlets including the CBC, CTV and The Globe and Mail all refused to attend the event unless Sheila and Andrew were allowed, too.

Click here to watch that video.

To my surprise, I was invited to be part of a panel of young journalists!

I’m really not that young anymore, but I was happy to participate.

As you can see in my video, the younger reporters weren’t as dedicated to free speech as I am.

I hope you enjoyed these videos, you can watch all our reports from inside the Defend Media Freedom Conference, at MediaFreedomConference.com.

Your’s truly,

Ezra Levant

P.S. We were the only independent media organization at this conference — everybody else was demanding subsidies or censorship. So we need your help to hold our politicians accountable because if we don’t do it, no-one else will.