Independent Canadian media outlet Rebel News and its co-founder Ezra Levant have been served with a lawsuit threat from an associate professor who previously suggested the outlet should be shut down for “spreading false information.”
The lawsuit threat was issued by solicitors representing Dr. Jean-Christophe Boucher, an associate professor at the University of Calgary, and claims that some of the statements Rebel News and Levant made about Boucher in a June 2022 article and its associated audio and video segments are “false and defamatory.” It also includes notice of intention to bring a defamation lawsuit.
The Rebel News article and its associated segments criticized Boucher’s past tweets about Rebel News and a June 2022 “Disinformation and Russia-Ukrainian war on Canadian Social Media” briefing paper from the University of Calgary that Boucher co-authored.
Part of Rebel News’ criticism of Boucher focused on the briefing paper’s accusation that Levant and others were spreading “pro-Russian narratives” and the briefing paper’s suggestion that “promoting a general mistrust in institutions and elites” and “promoting a specific mistrust of Canada’s Liberal government, and especially of Prime Minister Trudeau” are examples of “pro-Russian narratives.”
A section from the briefing paper that describes Levant and others as “accounts promoting pro-Russian narratives.”
Rebel News alleged that this was part of a move to “end the debate altogether” and called the briefing paper “McCarthyism, with an ink-jet printer.”
Rebel News also pointed to Boucher’s biography in the briefing paper and alleged that Boucher was “on Trudeau’s payroll — and Big Pharma’s payroll too.”
