RCMP arrest David Menzies of Rebel News for ‘assault’ after he questions Chrystia Freeland

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David Menzies was grabbed by an RCMP officer and told he was under arrest — with video of the incident sparking outrage before he was released without charge

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Published Jan 09, 2024  •  Last updated 37 minutes ago  •  6 minute read

Video recorded by a Rebel News videographer shows a man in a suit, tie, and dark coat seeming to create a collision with Menzies that sparked the arrest. Photo by Rebel News

A member of the RCMP security detail who grabbed and arrested a Rebel News commentator while questioning Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland Monday is under review by the federal force after video of the incident sparked outrage for a seemingly dubious arrest.

David Menzies was grabbed and pushed by an RCMP officer and told he was under arrest for assault as he was asking the minister questions about the government’s terrorism response, outside of a vigil in Richmond Hill, just north of Toronto, to mark four years since Iran’s military shot down Flight PS752, killing 176 people, many of them Canadian.

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“RCMP protective policing resources were involved in an incident while deployed on a protective operation,” said Sgt. Kim Chamberland, an RCMP spokesperson. “The RCMP is looking into the incident and the actions of all parties involved. No further comment is available at this time.”

When asked by National Post to clarify that the review applies to both Menzies as well as the unnamed RCMP officer, Chamberland replied: “It refers to all parties involved.”

The incident has received global attention.

“The arrest of the Rebel News reporter was made by the Prime Minister’s RCMP security detail. York Regional Police officers assisted as the interaction took place in our region,” said Constable Lisa Moskaluk, a media relations officer with York police.

No credible security threat existed

“It was determined that no credible security threat existed and the subject was released unconditionally shortly thereafter.”

Menzies’ release without charge hasn’t muted expressions of outrage over the incident, recorded by a Rebel News videographer in a video which shows a man in a suit, tie and dark coat seeming to create a collision with Menzies that facilitated the arrest.

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Menzies is seen on the video approaching Freeland outside as she walks towards the event’s entrance. She doesn’t stop to talk. Menzies asks two questions as he matches her pace.

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Tilting his microphone back and forth between them as they walk to capture his questions and her responses that don’t come, Menzies almost walks into a column, behind which a man in a long dark coat stands, with his right shoulder seeming to poke out into the walkway.

Menzies collides with the man’s right shoulder and the man immediately reaches out to corral Menzies as Freeland then dekes around in the other direction.

The man grabs Menzies by his coat lapels and shoves him up against a wall as other men swarm in and Freeland, and a woman walking with her, keep walking.

“You’re under arrest,” the man says, according to the video. He then grabs Menzies’ arm that holds his microphone and twists it down. “You’re under arrest for assault,” the officer adds.

“Why am I under arrest, you bumped into me,” Menzies asks.

“You pushed into me,” the officer replies. Menzies asks him his name and badge number but he is not heard answering.

“You’ve been told you’re under arrest,” another unidentified man in a suit says as he reaches out for Menzies.

“Why am I under arrest? He blocked my way,” Menzies tells the second man. The first officer then tells Menzies he is a peace officer and Menzies is under arrest for assaulting a peace officer.

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Uniformed members of York police first stand and watch but later are seen handcuffing Menzies and leading him away.

The incident sparked instant alarm and outrage, particularly from conservative commentators and organizations online. It is cast by the right-wing Rebel News as an attack on freedom of expression by the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Rebel News widely shared the unsettling event: “SHOCK FOOTAGE: Chrystia Freeland’s bodyguards assault and arrest David Menzies when he asks her a question,” said the main headline on the site.

Rebel News described the incident as a “brutal arrest.”

Ezra Levant, founder and owner of Rebel News, said in the article he was “outraged” by the arrest and asked for financial help.

“The only way to get justice is in court. We’ve got the evidence of the false arrest — and of the police assaulting David. If we don’t stand up for David, this will just keep happening,” Levant said in his story.

“We need to sue Freeland’s out-of-control RCMP bodyguards. They claim they’re police, but they’re acting more like a police state.”

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Freeland’s office had not yet provided comment on the incident in response to questions from National Post prior to deadline.

The Rebel News video directed viewers to a designated Stand With David website that was registered in 2021 and redirected to the Rebel News main site with donation requests.

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre shared video of Menzies’ arrest on X, adding the comment: “This is the state of freedom of the press. In Canada. In 2024. After 8 years of Trudeau.”

In another thread on the arrest, X’s owner, tech billionaire Elon Musk, responded to the video with: “They won’t make it past the next election,” presumably referring to the Liberal government.

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Levant told National Post that Menzies being released by police off site without charge does not end Rebel News’ interest in the matter.

“Why did they handcuff him? Why did they smash his face against a wall?” he said. “We have retained legal counsel and expect to sue the RCMP, YRP and Freeland as soon as this week, for false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, and assault.”

Menzies is a commentator and media personality perhaps most widely known for his on-the-ground confrontation of the verbal and visual kind, which sometimes veers into the outlandish. He is often accused of being a provocateur.

He dressed in a costume imitating the look of a controversial teacher — including large fake breasts and wig — to attend a school board meeting where parents were complaining to trustees over the board’s response to the outfit, with cameras rolling from multiple angles.

In 2021 he was also grabbed and restrained on a sidewalk in Toronto by the security detail for Trudeau, who slammed him into a wall as the prime minister arrived at an event before being released without charge.

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That same year Menzies was arrested after a confrontation with Melissa Lantsman, then a Conservative candidate and currently an MP and the Conservative’s deputy leader. She told reporters at the time she “felt unsafe” after Menzies’ questions “became homophobic and related to my sexual orientation.”

Menzies and Rebel News are part of a growing wave of activist-journalists chasing stories that might boost their positions, whether ideologically left or right, or push specific causes.

Three times in the video, after his arrest, a fuming Menzies refers to Trudeau simply as “Blackface,” a reminder of Trudeau’s past scandals of donning blackface and brownface makeup for costumes of his own. Menzies calls him Blackface three times.

Michelle Rempel Garner, a Conservative MP, said Menzies’ style and views shouldn’t matter.

“I find theatrical gotcha journalism tiresome but he’s entitled to his approach,” she said on X. “The intervention here by police is unwarranted / egregious.”

Well-known leftist activist Desmond Cole also decried the arrest of Menzies.

“David Menzies is gross, but for those saying he isn’t a real journalist: should the police be able to block the path of, and then arrest, anyone who wants to question a politician in public?” Cole said on X.

“The cop blocked his path and then played victim, which is standard for them…. The cops’ ability to grab someone for using their voice is a problem.”

• Email: ahumphreys@postmedia.com | X: AD_Humphreys

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