Just because you’re asked a question doesn’t mean you always have to answer it.
That was the case for Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet when faced with a question from far-right Rebel Media following Monday night’s federal leaders’ debate.
When Rebel’s Keean Bexte took the mic to introduce himself, Blanchet immediately shut him down.
“I won’t answer Rebel News,” Blanchet said.
“I’ll keep asking the question because a judge said we could be here and ask questions,” Bexte said before asking Blanchet about Albertan separatism.
“My answer is that I won’t answer you,” Blanchet responded, before asking for another question from anyone else in French.
Far-right media in Canada
Ahead of the debate, a federal judge ruled that members of two controversial far-right outlets would be accredited to cover the debate as journalists. The judge decided that Rebel Media and the True North Centre for Public Policy had established that they would suffer “irreparable harm” if denied access to Monday’s debate and the French-language debate later this week.
WATCH: Federal leaders arrive to protests ahead of English-language debate. Story continues below.
Bexte, fellow Rebel commentator David Menzies and the True North Centre’s Andrew Lawton were all given credentials to cover the debate. Bexte and Lawton got in a total of eight questions during the scrums.
Bexte is a controversial figure in Canada. Last year, Ricochet reported on his involvement in a Calgary-based online store selling white-supremacist paraphernalia, including Rhodesian flags. The former Conservative party staffer also resigned from his campus conservative club at the University of Calgary in 2017 after the group — of which he was communications director at the time — promoted an alt-right film with an email declaring that “feminism is cancer.”
Meanwhile, the True North Centre bills itself as a “not-for-profit advocacy organization that raises awareness around immigration and integration issues and advances Western democratic values.”
Lawton, a former Rebel commentator, ran for Doug Ford’s provincial Conservatives in Ontario in 2018 but was embroiled in controversy around sexist, homophobic and racist comments he made as recently as 2016. Lawton apologized, and ultimately lost the election to the NDP‘s Peggy Sattler.
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Menzies, meanwhile, made headlines last week after being kicked out of an Andrew Scheer event in Ontario.
Other leaders do take questions
Later during his scrum, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau did take several questions from Bexte, although he didn’t answer them directly.
“We are a party and country that respects the freedom of the press and we will continue to,” Trudeau repeated when asked by Bexte about the court order to allow him and Lawton in.
Both the Rebel and True North have come out strongly in favour of People’s Party Leader Maxime Bernier. Bernier returned that support following Monday’s court ruling.
During questions, Bernier appeared happy to hear from the two right-wing reporters, referring to their inclusion in the press corps as similar to his own inclusion in the debate.
Leading up to Monday’s debate, there were questions of whether or not Bernier would be included. The PPC leader is locked in a tight race for his own seat, with the far-right party polling below five per cent nationally and many — including NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh — saying that giving him a spot in the debate would be “platforming hate.” However, the debate commission ultimately decided Bernier met the bar to be included.
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