Truck with anti-Muslim messaging registered to Rebel News Network
CBC
An advertising truck that is being investigated by Toronto police, after it was spotted this week driving through the city while displaying anti-Muslim images and messages, is registered under Rebel News Network, a provincial database shows.
A licence plate search through Ontario's Ministry of Transportation database shows the commercial plate attached to the truck is registered under the name Rebel News Network Ltd. — though the head of that organization says while the truck does belong to the agency, the ad itself was created by a third party.
In a phone interview with CBC News, Rebel News owner Ezra Levant said the ad was created by a group called Canadians Opposed to the Occupation of our Streets and Campuses. Levant would not divulge the identity of anyone behind the group, nor confirm if it is based in Toronto.
"They're worried about violence and they have every right to be," he said.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Wednesday, Toronto police said the force's hate crime unit is investigating the truck.
"We recognize the community's concern about a truck displaying Islamophobic messaging in Toronto," the post reads.
Investigators are asking anyone with information about the truck, or people who have seen it or have video footage or pictures of it, to contact police or Crime Stoppers.
In a post on Rebel News's website, Levant confirmed police are investigating and also pointed readers to a fundraising page set up for the truck and "to help me pay for our lawyer to fight this police investigation."
In videos posted to social media, video screens on the truck appear to display a series of questions that say: "Is this Lebanon? Is this Yemen? Is this Syria? Is this Iraq?"
The truck then displays images of what appears to be Muslims praying and protesting in Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto. Palestinian flags and the square's concrete arches are visible in the images.
The messages on the truck then say: "No. This is Canada. Wake up Canada. You are under siege."
Speaking with CBC News, Levant pointed to regular protests organized by pro-Palestinian groups in Toronto over the last several months, alongside shots being fired at a Jewish school last month — which he said happened under the "sleepy gaze" of Toronto police.
"But the moment a community group that's concerned about this has a peaceful, critical ad on a billboard truck, the Toronto police jumps to attention and calls their peaceful political viewpoint a hate crime," he said.
"It's obviously not, this is cancel culture being enforced by the Toronto police. They'll obviously lose in court, but it shows the kind of two-tier policing we have."
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