Rebel News just crushed Steven Guilbeault in the Federal Court of Canada. And in doing so, we struck a blow for freedom of speech and freedom of the press for everyone.
BANNED FROM A GOVERNMENT SERVICE
Like his boss Justin Trudeau, Steven Guilbeault hates Rebel News because he can’t control us.
We’re one of the few media companies that doesn’t take government money, so we don’t toe the government line. So the Liberals always look for ways to punish us. Like Trudeau, Guilbeault doesn’t care about freedom of the press or other constitutional rights. They both admire China’s dictatorship and they think they can act like little dictators themselves, by censoring us.
And they’re both thin-skinned and petty. So here’s what Guilbeault did.
He ordered his government department to “block” us on X, formerly Twitter. So we couldn’t receive any government news updates from his department’s Twitter account. We couldn’t read anything, we couldn’t reply, and of course we couldn’t ask him journalistic questions on Twitter. We were effectively kicked out of the public square, which is what Twitter has become.
We were banned from a government service just because we disagreed with a politician.
THE LEGAL FIGHT
So we sued. We went to the Federal Court of Canada and argued that we had a right to see those tweets — that it was a government service like any other. Remember, this isn’t Guilbeault’s personal account, it’s his government account — he has more than 20 government staff who run his Twitter.
It might sound like a small thing, but if Guilbeault can cut us off from receiving news and other information from the government, what else can he cut off? We’ve already seen Trudeau ban companies who disagree with him from receiving summer jobs grants. What’s next?
Guilbeault fought us for more than two years. We had a court hearing in Toronto this summer, and the government had seven lawyers in the court, all just to stop us from seeing their tweets. What a shocking waste of money.
THE VERDICT
Guilbeault finally caved — he agreed to a “consent order” against him. His lawyers must have told him that he had no case and the choice was either to settle now, or be humiliated at trial.
I should tell you, Guilbeault’s government lawyers tried to get me to sign a confidentiality clause, banning me from disclosing the details of his settlement. Even as he was admitting he had violated our rights, he wanted to keep it a secret.
What a crooked, corrupt government this is.
Click here to see the court order signed today by Justice Russel Zinn. Guilbeault has been ordered by the court to un-block me and to never ban me again, as long as he’s an MP.
It’s glorious to see.
And Guilbeault has been ordered to pay Rebel News $20,000 for making us waste two years and enormous legal fees to assert our constitutional rights. Of course, he’ll probably make taxpayers pay that for him, even though it was he who broke the law.
$20,000 sounds like a lot of money, and it is — but unfortunately, it’s just a fraction of what we had to spend to finally get this little thug to back down.
(I can only imagine how much it cost taxpayers for Guilbeault to have SEVEN government lawyers defending him — he’ll probably try to keep that amount secret, too.)
WAS IT WORTH IT?
In some ways, today’s victory is a small thing. But having the Federal Court smack down government censorship is never a small thing. And it sets a precedent for all other bullies in Trudeau’s government, reminding them that they cannot use public resources to carry out a vendetta against their political critics.
This is a win for all journalists. Because the precedent will apply to politicians of every political party. We have made Canada freer for everyone.
That’s something that the “official” civil liberties groups used to do. But we were in court alone — not a peep from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, or Canadian Journalists for Free Expression or the Canadian Association of Journalists or PEN Canada or Amnesty International. Not a single so-called civil liberties group intervened on our behalf, because they have all been colonized by Trudeau. They all support censorship.
Well, Rebel News won. Steven Guilbeault lost. And every Canadian is just a little bit freer.
It’s a great day.
I’m glad that the court ordered Guilbeault to pay us $20,000 in legal fees. But in reality, we spent over $90,000.
If you believe this is an important victory, please help us pay our legal bill using the form on this page (thanks). Or, visit TwitterLawsuit.ca — there you can also see our lawsuit and learn more about this legal battle.
I’m savouring this victory over that sanctimonious creep Guilbeault. But unfortunately, Rebel News is under attack by other government censors, too. That’s the thing about the left: they’re relentless, and they hate the idea of an independent news organization that doesn’t obey them. If you can help us stay strong, please make a donation. I promise I’ll keep fighting for freedom. (Thanks.)
