Regular Rebel News viewers are surely familiar with the numerous arrests of David Menzies in 2024. As our resident "Mission Specialist", Menzies is often out on the street asking politicians and other newsmakers the tough questions legacy media outlets are either unwilling or unable to ask.

Reporters being arrested for asking questions is something we think happens in distant dictatorships, where citizens have few, if any, rights. But on four occasions this year alone, Menzies has been put in handcuffs right here in Canada for seemingly asking impolite questions.

Menzies recently sat down with C2C Journal's Brock Eldon at the Rebel News headquarters, where the veteran reporter detailed his arrests, what it's like fighting for free speech and even shared some snippets from his personal life that even the most diehard Menzies fan surely hasn't heard as part of their "Courageous Canadians" series.

Below is the introduction to the story:

The ruthless treatment of David Menzies by local police and the RCMP has cast a shadow over the future of journalism in Canada. Street journalism – the gritty practice of a reporter walking around with a microphone or notepad relentlessly asking questions – has long been the rawest and least-filtered form of reporting, essential for the pursuit of the truth, whether that be the messy details of an ordinary traffic accident or the unfolding revelations of a major political scandal. Rebel News’ “Mission Specialist” David Menzies is one of the last Canadian practitioners of this indispensable craft. And just since January of this year, he has been arrested four times for his trouble.

Menzies doesn’t immediately come off as a crusader. At 62, the father of two sons and a proud, lifelong Torontonian, he began his career as a reporter nearly 40 years ago at the St. Paul Journal in the small town of the same name northeast of Edmonton, Alberta, before coming home to work at various trade magazines. He then worked as a freelance writer for the likes of Maclean’s magazine, the National Post and the Financial Post. But it was in his next gig, as a reporter and broadcaster for the Sun News Network, that he really hit his stride. In the most recent phase of his long career, Menzies joined the wildly controversial Rebel News shortly after it was launched by Ezra Levant and Brian Lilley in 2015.