A Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer is under investigation for allegedly conducting an aggressive and unlawful arrest of a reporter. A video of the encounter went viral online and showed Rebel News journalist David Menzies pushed against a wall by the police officer when he attempted to question Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.
RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Kim Chamberland said, “RCMP protective policing resources were involved in an incident while deployed on a protective operation. The RCMP is looking into the incident and the actions of all parties involved.”
The video shows Mr. Menzies approaching Ms. Freeland and asking her why the Canadian government would not list Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist group. Freeland ignored the reporter and continued to walk, followed by Menzies, whose path was blocked by the RCMP officer, who then rapidly accused Menzies of assault and arrested him.
The Rebel News reporter was released hours later without charge.
The controversial alternative outlet has clashed with the Canadian government before, and tensions rose during the coronavirus pandemic. Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, accused the organization of spreading “misinformation” about vaccines at the height of the crisis. At a press event in 2021, Trudeau told a Rebel News reporter that the organization needs “to take accountability for some of the polarization that we’re seeing in this country.”
Ezra Levant, the founder of Rebel, and his reporters were barred from attending election debates that year but sued the government for access and won. The outlet has promised to likewise take legal action against the RCMP in the wake of Mr. Menzies’s arrest. In a statement on their website, Rebel says, “We need to sue Freeland’s out-of-control RCMP bodyguards. They claim they’re police but act more like a police state. We’re retaining a lawyer to help David fight back.”
Reaction to the incident on Twitter was firmly on Rebel’s side, with many people accusing Trudeau’s government of operating a fascist state.
