Exclusive — Rebel News’ Ezra Levant: Canada Is a Warning to America; ‘It Can Happen to You’

Ezra Levant, founder and head of Rebel News, said on Breitbart News Sunday with host Joel Pollak that Canada’s ongoing erosion of human freedom and undermining of constitutional rights are a warning to Americans, given the United States’ current political trajectory.

Levant reflected on Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s invocation of the Emergencies Act to end the Freedom Convoy demonstrations in Ottawa, Ontario, while describing Canada’s political descent as a “cautionary tale” to Americans.

“Could that happen in America?” Levant asked. “The answer is of course it could.” He added, “I’m not saying it’s all lost, but we’re going in the wrong direction, and if it can happen to Canada — which used to be just as free as you — it can happen to you.”

Levant noted that promises in constitutional documents are meaningless without genuine support and understanding of them by individuals in authority. If government officials do not “breathe freedom into those words all the time, relentlessly,” the constitutional commitments are not manifested, he said.

Pollak asked if the Freedom Convoy accomplished anything valuable for Canadians.

“It was the only thing that achieved anything,” Levant replied. “Every single other so-called check and balance in our society failed … but when the truckers came, truly — it was, as Orwell would say, the proles would save us — immediately things started to happen.”

Supporters of the Freedom Convoy protest Covid-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions in front of Parliament on January 29, 2022, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. (Dave Chan/AFP via Getty Images)

Levant recalled Trudeau’s derision of the truckers participating in the Freedom Convoy protest and their supporters. He said, “Trudeau denounced them as ‘racists’ and ‘misogynists,’ and he threw his typical lines at them, but they laughed, because they were certainly more diverse than him.”

He continued, “So Trudeau did something that has never been done in Canada before — the Emergencies Act — a form of martial law that was not even deployed during 9/11. He rolled it out because of these truckers. He deployed a form of martial law. He deployed riot police that stomped on these peaceful protesters. They beat people up.”

Levant described Canada’s period of government mandates, lockdowns, shutdowns, and related abuses — ostensibly decreed in the interest of health — as the worst time he experienced in the country.

“It was the worst time in Canada in my life,” he stated.

Levant praised Andrew Breitbart, founder of Breitbart News. He remarked, “We do look to Breitbart.com and the memory of Andrew Breitbart for inspiration.”