Court hands Trudeau’s hand-picked panel the power to decide who’s a journalist

Tonight on The Ezra Levant Show: the Federal Court of Appeal has ruled that a Trudeau-appointed panel can decide Rebel News isn't journalism. Three judges, unanimous. Appeal dismissed, with costs.

The case was never about money. In 2019, the Trudeau government created the Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization, a government licence for the media. Get approved and you get the goodies, including a labour tax credit covering 35 per cent of a reporter's salary, up to $29,750 per reporter, per year. Postmedia gets it. Torstar gets it. The Globe gets it. Rebel News never wanted the cheque. It applied in 2021 to find out one thing: would a government panel actually claim the power to decide who is and isn't a journalist in Canada?

Now there's an answer.

The CRA's so-called independent advisory board looked at three weeks of Rebel's reporting, 423 stories in all, and approved 10. Two per cent. Which three weeks? January and February 2022, the Freedom Convoy, when Rebel was the only camera on Wellington Street at two in the morning as police moved in with batons and horses. The government's journalism experts looked at that coverage and said: not news.

Their reasons? Rebel had "taken on an activist role." It crowdfunded on the stories it covered, asking viewers to pay for the reporting instead of the government. And the court took Rebel's own mission statement, telling the other side of the story, as evidence that its content "focuses on a single perspective."

The judges didn't say Rebel isn't journalism. They said it isn't the court's job to decide, and deferred to Ottawa's hand-picked panel. But to win, the government had to concede that an outlet's perspective is irrelevant, and the judgment says so three times. After seven years, it's in a binding ruling: being conservative should not be disqualifying. And the bigger question, whether the whole scheme offends freedom of the press, was left undecided.

This isn't Rebel's first time in that building. Two wins against the Leaders' Debates Commission, in 2019 and 2021. Court orders forcing Steven Guilbeault, Ya'ara Saks, Marci Ien and Karina Gould to unblock Rebel on social media. And now one loss, on a tax credit Rebel never wanted to cash.

So turn the ruling around. If Rebel News fails the government's test, think about who passes it. Ottawa spends more than $1.7 billion a year on the media. Every outlet with the QCJO stamp has been reviewed by a government panel and found acceptable. That's not a press gallery. That's a government payroll.

The fight has already moved on: Bill C-9 deleted the religious-text defence from the hate-speech law, Bill C-22's lawful access powers are in the Senate, and Bill C-34 brings back the online harms bill under a friendlier name.

Five years. Two courts. More than $105,000 in legal fees on this one case, plus a share of the government's costs, and every dollar from voluntary donations. To help cover the costs and prepare for the next round, go to LetUsReport.com.

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