Rebel News is being raided — we need your help!

Well, it's finally happened— police have raided Rebel News.

Now, they haven't stormed in the front door with jackboots. What they've done instead is go to court secretly. This secret hearing is called an ex-parte hearing, and it's illegal. The Calgary police said something to a judge, but we haven't been able to see it. And the judge issued an order demanding that we hand over footage that we haven't published to the police.

A couple of weeks ago, a court order arrived in our email box from the Calgary Police Service, saying if we didn't give them a whole bunch of photographs, audio recordings, and video recordings and if we didn't do it quickly, we could be fined, and I could even be imprisoned for it.

That's quite an email to wake up to now. Obviously, we're against crimes, especially the crimes listed there, but we don't have any secret recordings. We recorded the events in question and we published them. In fact, we published almost half an hour of footage here.

No, the police can't have our work because we are not agents of the state. It's not like we're a closed-circuit TV security camera. We're journalists. We do not work for anyone other than our own viewers and our own consciences. And we've already published 25 minutes of the crime scene.

It makes me think that perhaps this cop actually isn't interested in the crime, but rather in finding evidence on the Christian pastors and the other Christian activists here so that they can be charged, too. What I've learned over the last few years is that politicians lie, health officials lie, and yes, even the police lie. The police told the judge they wanted the footage for a certain reason.

But do you trust that they're not going to actually use our footage for other reasons like to lay charges against the conservative students or other conservatives there? I don't. But more to the point, I don't work for the Calgary police. And yet they're demanding that we fork over our footage or go to jail.

Well, no thanks. We've got a better idea.

Here's the letter that our lawyer, Sarah Miller, sent back to the Calgary police:

I think that's pretty plain language, but let me translate it into English from legalese. This court went to the wrong court. He went to a junior court, as opposed to the Superior Court, Well, the junior court doesn't have the power to give such a production order. It's a serious matter reserved for the court in Alberta called the Court of Kings Bench.

We wrote to the cops and said you're doing it wrong. We're gonna go to court, and we're gonna sue you because you're harassing us because you don't know the law. You don't have the right to take our news footage.

In fact, there's a particular section of the Criminal Code that deals with cops who want to grab footage from journalists. They have to go to a senior court, and they have to have a high burden of proof. We don't live in a banana republic where governments seize things from journalists.

We are going to court on September 19 at 10 a.m. in Calgary to the real court called the Court of King's Bench, asking them to quash and revoke this illegal order:

Look, either we're independent or we're not. We haven't committed any crime. We haven't stolen anything. We've already published this footage. Some bully wants us to unlock ourselves and show them everything, but I'm sorry — that's not how it works in a free country.

None of this surprises me. Calgary's police are highly partisan. Remember this shocking druglord-style takedown of Pastor Artur Pawlowski right in the middle of a busy highway?

That was completely unnecessary. But it was for show, to humiliate Artur Pawlowski. They like humiliating people.

Here's another of the Calgary police's worst moments: when they humiliated Pastor Tim Stephens in front of his own children.

Calgary police are a disgrace. Remember when a young hockey player was outside on a city-owned outdoor hockey rink and some Calgary police thugs started screaming at him, threatening to tase him?

Not a single one of those officers has been demoted. 

My point is that the Calgary police don't actually go after real criminals. They go after political criminals. They do whatever the Calgary mayor says.
No police forces have dared to try to raid us except the crooked cops at Calgary police.

So, I'll see them in court on September 19 at 10 a.m. in Calgary. And if you think that I'm in the right here and these bullies are in the wrong, please help chip into our legal war chest.

I've already spent $9,000, and we haven't even had our day in court.

There's no way we're getting out of this for less than $20,000. And then we have to appeal and fight the fight onwards. The Calgary Police Service and the City of Calgary have unlimited resources, but we don't.

If you think this is an important fight, you can donate on this very page. Help me fight back, and please chip in to help pay our legal fees. Thank you!