Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shot down a Ukrainian commercial airliner on Jan. 8, 2020, killing 176 people, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents. On the anniversary of the fatal attack Monday, a Canadian reporter dared to ask Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's second-in-command why the Liberal government has so far failed to designate the IRGC a terrorist organization.

Instead of an answer, the reporter received handcuffs.

David Menzies is a reporter with Rebel News, one of the few media outfits in Canada that does not receive funding from the Trudeau government. Trudeau and his Liberal Party have long been antagonistic toward Rebel News, denying the outfit accreditation to cover political debates; accusing its reporters of spreading vaccine misinformation; and suggesting it was increasing polarization in the country amidst draconian COVID lockdowns.

Unfazed by his alleged assault by Trudeau's bodyguards in 2021, Menzies peacefully approached Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland in a Toronto suburb Monday and asked the former journalist, "Ms. Freeland, how come the IRGC is not a terrorist group?"

Freeland, unaccustomed to a confrontational media, refused to respond and kept walking. However, Menzies kept pace with the Liberal parliamentarian, asking, "Why is your government supporting Islamo-nationalism?"

Menzies found himself having to circumnavigate a metal post but was confronted on the other side by another obstacle: a federal RCMP officer. Without identifying himself as a law enforcement official, the plainclothes officer prevented Menzies' progress down the public sidewalk.

Menzies responded to his brutal treatment off-camera, saying, "Excuse me, what are you doing?"

The RCMP officer can be seen in footage of the incident gripping the reporter, then slamming him against a bus-stop billboard.

"You're under arrest for assault," says the officer, as he roughs up the reporter and puts Menzies' hands behind his back.

Freeland, smiling, walks away

"How am I under arrest?" asks a bewildered Menzies. "You bumped into me. You bumped — I was just scrumming. I've got my credentials here and you just bumped into me."

The reporter asked for the officer's name and badge number, but the RCMP officer refused to answer. Instead, the officer told him, "You're under arrest for assaulting a police officer."

As multiple York Regional Police officers were later carting away the nonviolent reporter, Menzies told his cameraman, "Welcome to blackface's Canada," alluding to Trudeau's apparent affinity for dressing up in blackface on numerous occasions. "This is what they do to journalists. I was merely scrumming minister Freeland and a RCMP officer blocked me. And, evidently, this is now a trumped-up charge of assault, folks."

Days earlier, Toronto police took a different approach to anti-Israeli extremists who were blockading a Jewish facility. Rather than roughing them up, police officers ferried over coffees for the blockaders.

"I didn't come here to cause any trouble. I came here to do my job. And now I'm handcuffed," Menzies said on his way to the back of a police cruiser. "Meanwhile, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is not a terrorist organization? Is not a terrorist organization?! And these Liberals have the audacity to show up at a vigil for a plane in which almost 200 people were killed. 57 Canadians, one unborn child, by the way."

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Andrew Lawton, president of the not-for-profit Independent Press Gallery of Canada, said in a statement, "Police are there to uphold the law and public safety, not to prevent politicians from being asked questions by journalists who the government will not permit to ask questions in official settings."

"The Independent Press Gallery calls on police, particularly those tasked with protecting elected officials, to cease the practice of arresting working journalists who are not posing a threat to public safety or breaking the law," added Lawton.

Lawton later confirmed that Menzies was ultimately released without charges.

Ezra Levant, the publisher of Rebel New, vowed to sue the RCMP, Freeland, and the York Regional Police on Menzies' behalf for false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, and assault.

Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservative Party now poised to unseat Trudeau in the next federal election, wrote, "This is the state of freedom of the press. In Canada. In 2024. After 8 years of Trudeau."

Jay Bhattacharya, professor at the Stanford School of Medicine and co-author of the "Great Barrington Declaration," noted on X, "Freeland and Trudeau froze the bank accounts of protestors, threw pastors in jail for holding church, and violated the basic civil rights of unvaccinated Canadians. Now, her police gin up excuses to arrest journalists they don't like. This Canadian government is a disgrace."

Bhattacharya failed to mention how the Trudeau government also discussed possibly using German-made Leopard 2 tanks, designed to engage Russian heavy armor in battle, against the peaceful trucker protesters.

While unwilling to recognize those responsible for the downing of Flight PS752 as terrorists — as the U.S. has since April 15, 2019 — Trudeau nevertheless turned up Monday at the vigil for their victims, reported the National Post.

Trudeau floated the idea of a terrorist designation, but did not commit, saying, "We know there is more to do to hold the regime to account and we will continue our work, including continuing to look for ways to responsibly list the IRGC as a terrorist organization."

According to the U.S. State Department, the IRGC "has been directly involved in terrorist plotting; its support for terrorism is foundational and institutional, and it has killed U.S. citizens. It is also responsible for taking hostages and wrongfully detaining numerous U.S. persons, several of whom remain in captivity in Iran today."

In addition to plotting a foiled terrorist attack on American soil in 2011, the IRGC was found liable for the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, which killed 19 Americans.

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