Rebel News fights back in court against Trudeau’s media censorship law
Tonight on The Ezra Levant Show, Ezra reports from outside court in downtown Toronto after a four-hour judicial review in Rebel News' fight against Trudeau’s journalism censorship law.
This hearing was crucial as the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) twice rejected Rebel News’ application for a Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization (QCJO) license.
We turned to the courts to challenge this decision. Essentially, the court must determine if the decision, even if potentially wrong, was reasonable. Our lawyers, Robert Hawkes and Sarah Miller, argued that the CRA’s handling of our application was far from reasonable.
BREAKING: Rebel News is in Federal Court this morning, challenging Justin Trudeau's unconstitutional journalism licence. Here is some background on the case: https://t.co/tuVd2TaE5o
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) June 17, 2024
I'll be live-tweeting throughout the day, and will have three video reports.
The CRA claimed that only 1 or 2% of our work constituted actual journalism, which is absurd. For example, they dismissed all our interviews, a significant part of our content, as not original news.
Ezra highlighted a glaring example, his interview with Dutch politician Geert Wilders. Ezra was the first foreign journalist to do so after his election victory, which undeniably qualifies as news. Yet, Trudeau’s hand-picked journalism advisory panel bizarrely excluded this as journalism.
Here’s my exclusive interview with Geert Wilders, who won a landslide election in the Netherlands last week by calling for an end to non-European immigration.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) December 2, 2023
You can see all my videos about him at https://t.co/obS5X0f3W1. pic.twitter.com/GWnYfSpRAm
Such decisions skewed their evaluation, leading to the outrageous claim that a mere fraction of our content is journalistic.
The court discussion also touched on freedom of the press. Our lawyer, Robert Hawkes, highlighted Trudeau’s vendetta against Rebel News, citing past instances where we were barred from leaders’ debates.
The government’s argument was that we engage in advocacy and opinion journalism and crowdfund for causes. However, these practices are common across many media organizations.
Advocacy is present in every editorial section, and even outlets like CBC engage in crowdfunding for causes.
Despite the CRA’s animosity towards us, Ezra hopes impartial judges will see through this charade. It’s bizarre the extent to which Trudeau’s administration is willing to go to label us as non-journalists.
They’re essentially weaponizing the bureaucracy against us. We don’t want another round of internal reviews by the CRA, we need the court to recognize Rebel News as a legitimate journalistic entity.
Rebel News operates with a team of 41 staff members, producing substantial news content daily. Denying our status as a news organization is irrational.
It's also noteworthy that other media organizations did not show up in court to support us. In the past, media companies would band together to defend freedom of the press, recognizing that a threat to one is a threat to all. This unity seems to be lacking today. If Rebel News is silenced, it sets a dangerous precedent that could affect any media outlet.
GUEST: Sarah Stock's interesting interviews from this past weekends People's Convention in Detroit, Michigan including Alex Jones, Jack Posobiec, and more.
