Billboard Chris Elston was four minutes into filming in Madrid's Puerta del Sol when the police pulled up.

Elston — the Canadian activist known for standing in public squares wearing sandwich boards with simple statements like "no child is born in the wrong body" and "children cannot consent to puberty blockers" — had travelled to Spain at the invitation of a pro-life freedom organization called Hazteoir and its international offshoot Citizen Go.

He'd had Spanish signs made, consulted a lawyer the night before, and confirmed he was within his legal rights. None of it mattered.

"I was there for probably four minutes," he told Ezra Levant on Thursday's episode of The Ezra Levant Show. "I had just recorded a one-minute intro after setting up my tripod, which I set up beside a big pillar so I'd be out of the way."

The police declared his activity prohibido. After 10 to 15 minutes, a second police car arrived. They seized his phone, his tripod, his signs, and a second phone.

He was taken to the police station and held for nearly two hours with no communication — until he managed to get a message out through his Apple Watch to contacts in Spain who dispatched lawyers.

"Magically, I was released with a fine but there's no number on the fine," he said, noting his intention to appeal. "I don't think police should be able to abuse their authority like that."

After his release, Elston had tapas with his lawyers and then went straight back to the same spot in the town square.

This isn't Elston's first run-in with the law.

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In Brussels, after speaking at the European Parliament, he went out on the street and was administratively arrested, put in handcuffs, transferred to a second police station, and strip searched. 

"You don't know what these guys are going to do," he said, noting his Apple Watch kept alerting him that his heart rate was running at 110 to 120.

Ezra and Elston discussed how the incident was emblematic of a broader pattern.

Elston said before Elon Musk acquired Twitter, every one of his posts was flagged as adult content for 13 months straight — making it impossible to grow his platform. That changed immediately after the acquisition, and Musk now subscribes to his account.

"He pays me $5 a month," Elston said. "I do the same for him, though. So it's a wash."

On the state of free speech more broadly, Elston was blunt.

"I really think that the powers that be are hostile to freedom of speech because they want to control all the debates, especially controversial subjects like transgenderism and children," Ezra said.

"If Democrats win the next election in a few years, it's all just going to be repeated again," warned Elston.