BAD NEWS: The Federal Court of Appeal ruled against my book, The Libranos

I’ve fought and fought and fought. And I’ve been alone in the court: not a single author, book publisher or civil liberties group had a word to say about it.

Bad news. The Federal Court of Appeal has rejected my appeal. In an 11-page ruling, they upheld the Federal Court’s judgment that my book, The Libranos — and more specifically, the picture on the cover of the book, that we used to promote the book — was an illegal election campaign activity.

You can read that court ruling by clicking hereThat’s the fourth hearing in a row we’ve had in this battle. We’re now entering its fifth year. I estimate that the Government of Canada has spent close to a million dollars prosecuting me for my book.

More than a dozen bureaucrats. Half a dozen lawyers. Not just government lawyers, but they hired expensive law firms, too. I’m not sure why they did that. You’d think I was the Chinese Communist Party trying to interfere in the election. (Just kidding, Elections Canada literally didn’t even bother to investigate that, let alone charge any foreign meddlers with interfering.)

They were all too busy hounding me for my book. There were 24 books published about Trudeau in the 2019 campaign. 23 of them were friendly to him. Mine was critical. Guess which one was prosecuted as an illegal election activity? 

Elections Canada says they weren’t going after my book — just the ads promoting my book. But literally the only thing on those ads was the front cover of my book, and the words “buy the book”.

They effectively criminalized the cover of the book, because they said the picture of Trudeau was negative. (They absolutely hated that photo. In all four of the hearings, the government’s lawyers were obsessed by it. I think they must have had some specific instructions from Trudeau to go after that picture. It was really quite strange.)

There is only one higher court left in the land — the Supreme Court of Canada. But it’s not automatic that they take cases like this. And I think my odds of overturning this latest decision are very low.

I’ve fought and fought and fought. And I’ve been alone in the court: not a single author, book publisher or civil liberties group had a word to say about it. Maybe if my book had been critical of Pierre Poilievre or Donald Trump groups like PEN Canada or Amnesty International would have spoken up for freedom of the press. Oh well.

I have to pay the original $3,000 Elections Canada fine now. And $5,000 in court costs for the Federal Court, and probably another $5,000 for the Federal Court of Appeal — that’s $13,000. It’s not enough to bankrupt Rebel News, but it stings.

And it stings more, knowing that the Liberals spent $1 million chasing me. I won’t ask you to pay those court costs — I’ll pay those myself. I’m the one who “broke the law”. But if you want to help me cover the cost of my own lawyers, I’d be grateful for that. We spent more than $150,000 over the course of the four hearings.

Of course it wasn’t about the money. It was about standing up to a government that thinks authors have to “register” their books with the state if it criticizes a politician. That’s the words Election Canada used. But I’m not daunted.

Last month I published my latest book, called “Trudeau’s Secret Plan: What he’ll do to us if he wins again”. It’s the sequel to The Libranos.

Obviously there’s a lot of reasons why Trudeau announced he’s quitting. But the fact that Rebel News has relentlessly reported on his corruption — and fought back when he tried to silence us — is one of the reasons why the country finally can see the truth about him. I’ll pay the $13,000 with a little bit of pride. 

I don’t like losing in court. Many of our fights are uphill battles. But as they say, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. For me, this was about freedom and standing up to Trudeau’s partisan bullies at Elections Canada. 

We have lots of ongoing battles against Trudeau — and whichever Liberal takes over from him in their new leadership contest. I promise you we won’t be afraid to fight them in the court of public opinion or the court of law. I’ll pay the $13,000 penalty myself — that feels like the right thing to do.

But if you could please help me with my own legal bills, I’d be grateful — please click here, or go to TheLibranos.com (thanks.) As a special thank-you, if you can chip in $250 I’ll send you a personally autographed copy of my new book, Trudeau’s Secret Plan!

Help fund our legal fight against the censorship of Canadian authors — and help save Ezra!

Rebel News is facing a massive legal bill after the Federal Court of Appeal upheld the ruling that Ezra Levant's book The Libranos and its cover photo of Trudeau were illegal election campaign activities. This case, which has dragged on for five years, has cost Rebel News over $150,000 defending Ezra's right to criticize Justin Trudeau. Rebel News has already paid $13,000 in fines and court costs, but the fight continues. If you can, please help cover the costs of our legal bills — every contribution makes a difference in our ongoing battle for free speech. Donate $250+ and I’ll send you a signed copy of my latest book, Trudeau’s Secret Plan. (That book will be a collector’s item — it could literally be banned in Canada!) Thank you for your support!

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Ezra Levant

Rebel Commander

Ezra Levant is the founder and owner of Rebel News and the host of The Ezra Levant ShowHe is the author of multiple best-selling books, including Ethical Oil, The Libranos, China Virus, and most recently, Trudeau's Secret Plan.

COMMENTS

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  • Bernhard Jatzeck
    commented 2025-01-13 17:52:51 -0500
    Taking extreme umbrage at slights is a Trudeau tradition. PET’s war against western Canada began after the 1972 election. Many of the Liberal MPs in that part of the country who were elected in 1968 had to find other work. I’m sure that PET never forgave Albertans for having minds of their own.
  • Bruce Atchison
    commented 2025-01-13 17:36:04 -0500
    I would have stood with Ezra had the court been within walking distance. But it’s thousands of miles away. And this shows how the deep state is so infected by Trudeau’s putrid presence. The bureaucracy needs a good purging of all Trudeau supporters.