Rebel Media was founded by Levant and Lilley after Sun News Network closed. Levant wrote, “We tried to keep him, but he was attracted to a major competitor that we just couldn`t beat” in an email to independent news site Canadaland. [53] [52] In February 2019, after suing the Southern Poverty Law Center for allegedly damaging his reputation and career prospects by labeling the Proud Boys a hate group, McInnes announced that he had been rehired by the media group. After the 2017 Conservative Party leadership race, it was revealed that Scheer`s campaign manager Hamish Marshall`s computer company, Torch, was providing IT services to The Rebel Media. In 2015, Marshall told the National Observer that he was only involved in the commercial side of the rebels. [61] Marshall testified that he left the rebel after the end of the lead race to avoid a conflict of interest. [62] In September 2017, Marshall`s name was removed from The Rebel Media`s list of directors in the federal government`s online corporate information registry. [61] On October 16, 2017, The Globe and Mail asked Scheer if he was aware that Hamish Marshall had shared an office with the rebel during the leadership campaign. Mr. Scheer replied that he had not asked Mr. Marshall about the many customers of his company. A spokesman later clarified that Scheer did not know the details of the deal. Levant explained that Marshall`s IT company, Torch, provided customer services to the rebels.
[63] A 2017 National Post article argued that Marshall introduced the rebel donation system. [28] Scheer told Maclean`s in 2018 that Marshall`s past relationship with the rebels should not be tied to his election as campaign chairman. [64] After the Quebec City mosque shooting on January 29, 2017, Rebel spread a conspiracy theory that the shooting was carried out by Muslims. [37] In 2017, Rebel Media hired far-right activist Tommy Robinson, founder of the openly anti-Islamic English Defence League, as its British correspondent. Robinson was convicted of mortgage fraud and using a friend`s passport to enter the United States. [38] [39] [40] [41] In two lawsuits, both filed on the morning of October 7, Menzies and another Rebel News reporter and Andrew James Lawton of the True North Centre for Public Policy sought legal remedies related to “identical decisions of the Leaders` Debates Commission. The Commission has refused to grant journalists accreditation for the debates of the Heads of State or Government. In a strong rebuke to the Commission that afternoon, Justice Russell Zinn stated that “the applicants have proved, after weighing the probabilities, that they would suffer irreparable harm if the requested order were not granted”, and therefore ordered that the applicant journalists be granted the same rights as the former media outlets.
[75] Journalists were given equal access to the media crowd on the evening of October 7 after the debate. [76] On September 30, 2019, two police officers escorted Rebel Media correspondent David Menzies for a Scheer campaign ad. [67] In response to a question from Rebel News after the French debate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attacked the organization for spreading misinformation, particularly regarding COVID-19 vaccines, and refused to “call it a media organization.” The clip of the interaction went viral. [24] [22] NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-François Blanchet refused to speak to Rebel News. [24] [80] Rebel News (also known as The Rebel Media and The Rebel) is a Canadian right-wing political and social commentary website[2] to far-right[3] operated by Rebel News Network Ltd. It has been described as a “global platform” for the anti-Muslim ideology known as counter-jihad. [4] [5] [6] It was founded in February 2015 by former Sun News Network personalities Ezra Levant and Brian Lilley. In late 2016, after Rebel Media was denied press accreditation for the COP22 Climate Change Conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Rebel Media was allowed to send two focal points to COP22. Levant wrote: “We are not excluded because we have an opinion.
We are excluded because we have a bad opinion. [34] [35] Rebel Media received support from Environment Minister Catherine McKenna and three journalists` organizations to get the UNFCCC to grant this access[34] after Levant appealed to Justin Trudeau on October 17. [36] Levant used Rebel Media to promote climate change denial and represent the interests of Alberta`s oil sands industry. [25] In an article for Canada`s National Observer, Max Fawcett cited Rebel Media as one of the groups undermining “the scientific consensus on climate change and vaccines.” [22] In the 2021 Canadian general election, the Leaders` Debates Commission, then chaired by former Governor General David Johnston,[77] again prohibited Rebel News members from being accredited for both English and French debates. Prior to the French-language debate, an expedited decision by Justice Elizabeth Heneghan allowed 11 members of Rebel News to participate in both debates to ask questions. [78] [77] Levant, whose organization had accused the Commission of being “capricious, unjust, illegal and arbitrary in denying its journalists the right to cover the debate in its entirety,” said: “Today we got one for freedom. [77] Heneghan J. published her ratio decidendi in Case T-1364-21 on 7. March 2022 and wrote: “In my view, the plaintiff has found irreparable harm by being prevented from participating in the political process on behalf of voters.