Article by Rebel News staff.

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Candice Malcolm, founder of Juno News, has been named this year's winner of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms' George Jonas Freedom Award.

Rebel News boss Ezra Levant delivered a brief speech introducing Malcom at the JCCF's Vancouver reception, where he described Malcom as a colleague, friend and a deserving recipient of the civil liberties organization's award. 

Ezra opened by reflecting on the loneliness of launching Rebel News 11 years ago, and how the arrival of outlets like True North and Juno News changed that.

"On paper, technically we're competitors," he said, "but I don't feel that way. I feel like we're allies on a cause for genuine journalism and freedom." He said Canada needs far more freedom-oriented institutions — in media, in public interest law, across the board — and that it was gratifying to see another champion succeeding.

Ezra framed his remarks around Warren Buffett's three criteria for talent: intelligence, energy, and honesty. Buffett's view, Ezra noted, was that the third quality was the most important of all.

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"If someone is dishonest, you don't want them being energetic and industrious," he said. He then extended that idea into something he called courage: "being true to your own self, not to cave in under pressure."

Ezra described the two specific tests of courage that face any conservative independent news outlet that refuses government funding. The first is deplatforming pressure, the demand that you renounce yourself, renounce your guests, and bend the knee to the opinion establishment.

"I've seen how they've come for you and some of your team," he said of the True North and Juno News founder. "And isn't that a test of courage? Can you hold the line when everyone around you is screaming madness?" Juno News, he said, passed that test with flying colours.

The second test is subtler and arrives only after the first has been survived: the temptation of government money.

"Just join the blob," he said. "It's a temptation." To see Juno News resist that siren song while continuing to grow, staying true to its values, and giving voices to people even when it doesn't agree with them — that, Ezra said, is what he deeply admires.

"What she has created is a reflection of herself," he said, also acknowledging Malcolm's husband, Kaz Nejatian, for his entrepreneurial support.

The George Jonas Freedom Award is presented by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms and will also host a sold-out reception in Calgary on September 24.