'This is Canada, not Gaza': Cops drag away conservative reporter for supposedly 'trespassing' in Toronto's public square

A Canadian reporter for one of the northern nation's only conservative media outfits was arrested Sunday and carted away for doing his job faithfully on public property.

Rebel News reporter David Menzies, who local and federal officials appear keen to shut up and lock away, confirmed to Blaze News that he was charged for alleged breach of the peace and trespassing for daring to pose questions to anti-Israel protesters outside Toronto City Hall.

Menzies indicated that he will be suing the Toronto Police Service over this incident just as he is suing the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for a similarly rough arrest earlier this year.

Background

Thousands of people gathered outside Toronto City Hall on Sunday for "6 Months in Hell," an event centered around demands for the release of those remaining Israeli captives who have suffered at the hands of Islamic terrorists since Hamas waged its unprovoked Oct. 7 attacks on the Jewish nation.

Footage of the event outside Toronto City Hall shows a peaceful crowd waving Canadian and Israeli flags at Nathan Phillips Square while various speakers take the stage, including Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre.

Poilievre, the parliamentarian poised to steamroll Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the 2025 federal election, called on "friends of humanity — Jews, gentiles, people of all backgrounds, Canadians, all people of decency — to stand against the homicidal, genocidal death cult that is Hamas, a death cult that must be destroyed so that we can free the hostages and restore peace for all."

Anti-Israel demonstrators flocked to the scene in an apparent effort to counter the anti-terrorist sentiment expressed by Poilievre and others.

Menzies told Blaze News he ventured over "as a journalist in the public square doing public service journalism ... to find out why these people were there trying to crash this event."

"Incredibly, there was a protest of a few dozen people — the pro-Hamas types — which was particularly gross because to me this was like crashing a funeral," Menzies told Blaze News. "They're spouting their rhetoric, which by the way includes calls for genocide like, 'from the river to the sea,' and 'intifada.'"

Footage shows a number of the anti-Israel protesters crowding Menzies outside Toronto City Hall as he attempts to conduct impromptu interviews with his phone and microphone in hand. The mob presses the reporter up against a wall, shoving him with flag poles and sneaking in jabs. Other protesters can be seen attempting to block the view of Menzies' cameraman with flags and placards.

Menzies indicated that police looked on as protesters not only assaulted him but illegally used amplifying devices to push their vitriol and drown out calls for the hostages' releases.

A masked Toronto Police Service officer can finally be seen swooping in, grabbing Menzies, and separating him from the crowd.

Menzies tells the officer, "They can chant genocide in the street, and I can't cover that? Obey your oath. Officer, obey your oath."

The TPS officer can be seen grabbing Menzies' wrist and tossing his camera onto the ground. Additional cops crew around as the officer handcuffs the reporter, then carts him away.

The arresting officer announces Menzies was "under arrest for refusing to leave [the] premises."

"It's a public place!" responds Menzies in an apparent state of disbelief. "This is literally the public square."

The officer begins to explain his actions, but Menzies interrupts, noting, "They assaulted me and you did nothing."

The police drag him over to a van, ostensibly banging Menzies' head against the rear door before tossing him inside.

Rebel News subsequently indicated that Menzies suffered a cut on his head from when the officers "roughly threw David into the back of a police truck, knocking his head against the roof. They also tightly forced his shoulders back, deeply aggravating a previous injury."

Menzies told Blaze News that "in the department of perverse irony," he was ultimately held at TPS 52 Division, one block away from the Art Gallery of Ontario where "pro-Hamas" protesters shut down a reception between Trudeau and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

The reporter found some dark humor in the notion that whereas he sat in holding for asking questions on public property, the radicals "got away with shutting that down."

When speaking to Menzies hours after his release, Ezra Levant, the publisher of Rebel News, surmised the police had gone after the reporter because it would have alternatively required more effort to deal with the actual aggressors.

"They took the coward's way out, which is, 'If we try and arrest this mob of Hamas hate marchers, they're going to get handsy with us. But we know Menzies won't, so let's take him out,'" said Levant.

Menzies told Blaze News, "Bottom line, right now in Toronto — and I would argue in other cities around the world, Western democracies — law enforcement is now about, not enforcing the law, but keeping the peace. Keeping the peace means bending the knee to the violent mob. 'If keeping the peace means arresting an independent journalist for potentially asking insensitive questions to the mob, then so be it.'"

The Canadian reporter suggested that this style of policing is prompting the mob to become "more and more emboldened," noting that among the anti-Israel radicals proudly demonstrating Sunday was a woman who allegedly speared a police horse last month but was evidently spared jail time.

Levant suggested that the TPS has a "personal vendetta" against Menzies.

After all, Menzies has repeatedly been targeted for abuse while working for Rebel News, one of the few media outfits in Canada that does not receive funding from the Trudeau government.

He was allegedly assaulted by Trudeau's bodyguards in 2021; roughed up by an RCMP officer, then carted away by York Regional Police after asking Trudeau's deputy minister questions in January; and arrested by Toronto Police officers last month for asking questions of pro-Palestinian protesters nearby an event featuring Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Blaze News previously reported that the apparent antipathy for the conservative outlet is shared by more than just city officials. Trudeau and his Liberal Party have denied Rebel News accreditation to cover political debates; accused its reporters of spreading vaccine misinformation; and suggested it was increasing polarization in the country amid draconian COVID lockdowns.

"That's Toronto police showing total cowardice towards actual criminal gangs but abusing and punishing a peaceful journalist," wrote the publisher. "I'm sick of it. We're going to defend against the bogus charges today. But when those charges are thrown out, we're not done."

When vowing to sue the Toronto Police, Levant indicated his aim would be "to teach them that they just aren't allowed to beat up Canadian journalists. This is Canada, not Gaza."

Menzies indicated they also filed a lawsuit last month over the Freeland incident, which they will use as the "template" for two suits against the TPS, one for the incident last month and another for the arrest Sunday.

Blaze News reached out to the Toronto Police Service and Pierre Poilievre for comment but did not receive replies by deadline.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

BREAKING: David Menzies Released From Jail | Police Smashed His Headyoutu.be