A Carleton criminologist says the arrest of Rebel News reporter David Menzies as he trailed Chrystia Freeland to ask questions reflects badly on the Liberal government and the RCMP and all Canadian journalists should denounce the event.Menzies bumped into a plain-clothed police officer January 9 and was arrested for assaulting him. Charges were later dropped.In an interview with the Western Standard, Darryl Davies said Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and the rest of the Trudeau government should be prepared to answer questions.“They have to be accessible and available to reporters. This was a case of them shutting down an interview that they didn't want to happen. That speaks volumes about the way this government deals with media outlets that are not sympathetic to the government's cause, not on the government's payroll,” Menzies said.“It demonstrates that the government of the day is shadowing ministers, and if ministers can't handle the heat they should resign. Get out of public office. You're there to represent the people, you're there to answer questions. You're accountable to the public, not just during federal elections.”Davies, who grew up in rural Saskatchewan, said the Trudeau government was “paranoid” of being "called out" or criticized. The idea Menzies could be arrested for assaulting a police officer seemed “absurd” to him as it was a charge destined to never “see the light of day.”“Another RCMP officer who had his act together would have talked to Mr. Menzies and basically tried to not charge him,” Davies said.“Nobody should be taken into custody. There's no basis for this, none whatsoever. There's no reasonable prospect of conviction or that a crown prosecutor that's actually doing their job would proceed.”Davies said journalists across the country should raise a united outcry against what happened.“Journalism in Canada is taking a huge hit. Every media outlet in the country should be denouncing this. It's not in the interest of journalists across this country to sit back and do nothing. I think they need to speak out about this type of approach. It is not acceptable.”Andrew Brooke, a retired Mountie who served 28 years, told Western Standard it seemed clear Menzies was doing his job."What I saw was somebody being a journalist, asking a question. You can tell he's being cognizant of how he's set his body relative to the minister. And as he's walking, he's paying attention, he's keeping one eye sort of peeled. Then there's this sort of support beam. All of a sudden he has to quickly adjust his step, probably lost a bit of balance for a momentary time," Brooke said."He kind of tripped. And I'm not even sure what contact even occurred. It's certainly not an assault on a police officer."Brooke said assault on a police officer is not possible when the officer has not identified himself as such. He wondered if this officer had made similar missteps before."Does he have a personal history for this kind of behaviour? Is this is kind of a one off? Is this otherwise a good officer who has made a bad mistake, had a bad day and now he's soon to have consequences?" Brooke asked.Brooke said footage of the incident reflected better on the York Police who were present.“I didn't see anything that was unprofessional with the way York handled it. And I was particularly impressed with the coated officer. He's actually talking to David Menzies and he's reminding him don't say anything further and he's helping him with his stuff. He's trying to calm him down,” Brooke explained.“I bet you behind the scenes, the York officers weren't particularly impressed with what the RCMP did there.” In a special 'emergency' broadcast on the Menzies arrest, posted to Rumble, Rebel News founder Ezra Levant said video of the incident had already hit 10 million views. He announced intentions to sue, but also expected the federal government would not “roll over.” Based on recent experience, he expected Ottawa to use seven lawyers and spend a million dollars. “I have been suing the federal government for years. I think we have seven lawsuits right now against Justin Trudeau in various capacities. And in every single case, the government lawyers up hugely,” Levant said.“Last time I was in court, I think there were seven lawyers on the other side. Money is no object for them. Of course, it's our money. They have a Justice Department lawyer, plus they use tax dollars to hire an outside expert firm.”Rebel set up the website StandWithDavid.com to fundraise for what Levant called a “David and Goliath battle.”
