Taxpayers billed $130,000 in Trudeau's failed attempt to blacklist Rebel News, TNC from federal debates
Federal lawyers billed more than $130,000 to taxpayers as part of the failed attempt to keep Rebel News and our friends at True North Centre from attending the national televised federal leaders' election debates.
The news was first reported by Blacklock's Reporter after the costs associated with preventing us from embarrassing Trudeau over his blackface scandal were requested by Conservative MP Michael Chong:
“On principle, media outlets such as True North Centre for Public Policy and Rebel News Network should have been accredited to cover these debates,” said Chong. “I don’t think we want to get into the business of the government or its Leaders’ Debates Commission deciding which media should be accredited or not.”
“This entire Commission was the last and only part of the Prime Minister’s ambitious 2015 electoral reform agenda that survived, and they botched it,” said Chong. “This spending on fighting two media outlets is one of a litany of mistakes.”
While the Department of Justice hid behind the Privacy Act instead of naming the federal employees who were involved in banning Keean Bexte, David Menzies and Andrew Lawton from the debates. But, they did reveal the costs:
$51,291 on legal fees in the case itself presided by Justice Zinn, and for some reason $80,000 plus tax was claimed by the Leaders' Debate Commission.
Justice Zinn granted an emergency injunction granting debate access to this collection of accountability journalists, noting in his decision that the independent Debates Commission's jumbled rule set was influenced by the Press Gallery:
“The wording of these decisions indicates they were made by the Press Gallery,” wrote Justice Zinn: “At no time prior to the decision being made were these applicants told of the case against them as an advocacy group and afforded a fair opportunity of answering it.”
Visit LetUsReport.com to see more from the saga of how we sued and won against the feds.
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