Three Liberal MPs have been ordered by the Federal Court to unblock Rebel News on X and pay $1,750.
The ruling came after Rebel News was victorious in a lawsuit against Guilbeault, who blocked Rebel founder and owner Ezra Levant on the social media platform.
“What’s so crazy is that they’re doing to us exactly what Steven Guilbeault, Trudeau’s extremist environment minister, did to us — and he was smashed in Federal Court,” said Rebel News.
Guilbeault allegedly ordered his government department to block Rebel on X. The news organization could not receive any government news updates from the environment minister’s department.
“We couldn’t read anything, we couldn’t reply, and of course we couldn’t ask him journalistic questions on Twitter. We were effectively kicked out of the public square, which is what Twitter has become,” said Levant. “We were banned from a government service just because we disagreed with a politician.”
After a court battle that lasted more than two years, Guilbeault agreed to a “consent order” against him. He was ordered by the court to unblock Levant and never block the Rebel News founder again as long as he served as an MP. He was also ordered to pay $20,000.
Rebel News argued that Guilbeault blocking them from his official government account that makes government announcements and is run by an army of non-partisan civil servants is illegal.
“It would be like the passport office not giving us passports just because we criticize Trudeau,” said the news organization.
According to Rebel News, ministers Ya’ara Saks, Marci Ien, and Karina Gould felt they were above the verdict.
The three ministers allegedly blocked three different Rebel News journalists, which led to the news organization filing a 21-page lawsuit claiming that the ministers violated Rebel News’, Ezra Levant, Yaakov Pollak, and Sheila Gunn Reid’s constitutional rights.
The lawsuit was filed on October 10, 2023. Levant confirmed that the money arrived on Sunday.
Levant shared a screenshot of the cheque he received in the mail.
“The Federal Court ordered three more Liberal ministers to unblock Rebel News on Twitter. Ya’ara Saks, Marci Ien, and Karina Gould are forbidden to block us for the rest of their careers. They were also ordered to pay us $1,750. The money arrived. They made taxpayers pay!”
Rebel News’ owner said that the Liberal government argued these accounts were personal, not government accounts. He called this laughable, given the accounts have the grey government checkmarks on X.
“But if they really are personal, why are taxpayers footing the bill here?”
Rebel News is asking people to fill out a form if they have been blocked by a government official.
