Friday, September 22, 2023

No, Ezra is not being "censored" by the big, bad Liberals.

To no one's surprise, Rebel News Obergruppenfuhrer Ezra Levant is shrieking hysterically about "censorship", and asking for $3.64 million to fight a (*checks notes*) $3,000 fine, which, as I explain back here, was entirely justified.

That is, no one is trying to censor Ezra's utter swill of political illiteracy; the fine in question is because Ezra so clearly violated Section 352 of the Canada Elections Act:



That's it -- Ezra simply failed to properly register as a third party for the purposes of election advertising. This has nothing to do with Ezra's piece of crap book, it's about nothing more than Ezra refusing to play by the rules.

No matter, though -- he'll still rake in tens of millions from the gullible dwonks of Rebel Nation. Let the bucketing begin!



AFTERSNARK: Hilariously, back in late 2021 (Internet Wayback Machine link), Ezra accidentally told the truth about the reason behind the fine that he now describes as "censorship" (that is, the use of lawn signs, not the content of the book itself):


Quite so -- even Rebel News occasionally reports accurately, and the above is exactly the reason for the $3,000 fine, related to Canada Elections Act advertising violations.

And now you know.

We're probably not done here.

WHEREIN TNC THROWS EZRA UNDER A BUS: Amusingly, right-wing media outlet and understaffed sewage treatment plant "True North Centre" (TNC) embarrasses Ezra by (unintentionally, I'm sure) undercutting his entire argument. In a January 2021 article, TNC reports that books (and the promotion thereof) are exempt from the Canada Elections Act:



So books are exempt? Unconditionally? Fully and completely? Well, no, as that very same article, only two paragraphs later, points out the obvious exceptions:



As even someone as intellectually crippled as Lorrie Goldstein can appreciate, the Act offers no protection for "books" that were obviously designed and scheduled to coincide with an election to allow said books to skirt the Act, a fact that even Ezra Levant openly admitted in a November 2021 piece:



Understand what you are reading above -- that would be Ezra Levant, clearly disclosing that the $3,000 fine had nothing to do with "censorship," and everything to do with faking up a book release to coincide with an election, in obvious violation of the Canada Elections Act.

In short, none of this has anything to do with book itself, and everything to do with its sleazy and illegal promotion that was so obviously designed to work as election advertising.

Are we done here? Yeah, I think we're done here.

YEAH, THERE'S MORE: Here's Ezra, just yesterday, lying shamelessly:



I'm not sure how many times one must explain that Ezra was never, ever, ever, ever charged for writing a book; he was charged for violating Canada Elections Act advertising regulations for the way he illegally promoted the book.

Oh, and there's this:


$100,000 (and climbing) to contest a $3,000 fine. At what point are the gullible yahoos and hillbillies of "Rebel Nation" going to realize that they are the marks?

Prediction: Ezra will lose this, as the original ruling was perfectly reasonable, and there are absolutely no grounds to overturn it.

Let's watch.

ANYONE HAVE A LINK TO THE FULL RULING? The link I once had to the original ruling against Rebel News is now dead, but I have two screenshots that show, beyond any doubt, how Der Rebel openly timed the release and promotion of Ezra's piece of swill to coincide with the upcoming federal election:




In short, this case isn't even debatable, but Ezra is likely going to crowdfund another million off of arguing about a $3,000 fine.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ezra’s dishonesty goes even deeper than that. He knew exactly what was going to happen, because the Rebel had already run a dress rehearsal of this farce.

Just prior to the preceding Alberta election, Sheila Gunn Reed had excreted a “book” entitled “Stop Notley”. I say “book” hesitantly: it was an 84 page, badly edited series of her familiar Rebel slurs strung together, which I actually bought out of curiosity after the “global bestseller” was discounted at Amazon to a couple of bucks, shortly after release.
The Elections Commissioner challenged the Rebel because of its failure to register as a third party advertiser . It had nothing to do with Sheila’s execrable “book”; the charge was laid because the Commissioner quite reasonably held that election style lawn signs reading “STOP NOTLEY”, deployed in mid-campaign, constituted political advertising.

Ezra immediately cranked up the shriek machine (and a new fundraising campaign), and the Commission announced that Reid and the Rebel would not be charged this time, but merely cautioned.

So when Ezra pulled the same stunt shortly afterwards with “The Libranos”, he knew exactly what he was doing. And why not? It’s a strategy he’s been using since the Mohammad Cartoon ploy at the Western Standard - sell a piece of shit by claiming censorship, and declaring its purchase an act of heroic rebellion.

Anonymous said...

One more note on Ezra’s alternate reality. He notes, correctly, that multiple books about Trudeau were published around the same time, and that none were subject to legal action.

And he’s quite right. And neither was “The Libranos’. He doesn’t seem to realize that with that argument he’s hoisting himself on his own petard. The charge he’s appealing has nothing to do with his book: many in print at the time, and published since, have been serious, adult critiques of Trudeau’s term MUCH more damaging than Ezra’s cobbled-together string of insults (Jodie Wilson-Raybould’s, for example). Just like “The Libranos”, none has ever been censored or banned by anyone.

Anonymous said...

Ezra just tweeted:

"Ezra Levant 🍁🚛
@ezralevant
Well, all that fuss has put the book back up to no. 1 on the national bestseller charts. Thanks everybody."

Not many people would actually have to balls to sell you a pound of shit, then gloatingly rub your face in it.

Anonymous said...

Here's the Alberta sign, which is pretty crappy:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/rebel-stop-notley-lawn-signs-1.5091046

Levant had already been rebuked by the Elections Commissioner for a billboard:

"Election commissioner Lorne Gibson said in a letter sent to Rebel founder Ezra Levant that the company spent thousands on a billboard calling for NDP MLA David Eggen to be fired from his position as education minister."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-election-commissioner-fine-rebel-media-1.4985572


In 2020 Albertans used lawn signs successfully against a plan by the Kenney UCP gov't to close a bunch of parks. I think I saw some up during the last election. https://defendabparks.ca/

ValJ

Anonymous said...

Ezra tried to censor Lauren Southern when he fired her for not getting on board with the so called Israel fact finding trip.