Rebel News personality arrested after an encounter with Chrystia Freeland

Rebel News personality David Menzies was arrested Monday for allegedly assaulting a police officer while trying to ask Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland questions about the government's decision to leave the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) off the designated terrorist entity list.

The website posted a video of Menzies briefly colliding with a police officer in Richmond Hill, Ont., while trying to question Freeland about the IRGC at an event to mark the destruction of Flight PS752, a Ukrainian International Airlines jetliner that was destroyed by the Iranian military in January 2020 — an attack that killed dozens of Canadians.

The video of Monday's encounter appears to show an officer stepping into Menzies' path while the media personality was carrying his microphone in the parking lot of a suburban strip mall.

That officer subsequently grabbed Menzies by his lapels, pushed him against a wall and accused him of assault while putting him under arrest.

«Police — you're under arrest for assault. You pushed into me, sir,» the unidentified officer said.

«I didn't touch a single person,» Menzies said in response.

«This is a trumped-up charge of assault, folks. I didn't come here to cause any trouble. I came here to do my job and now I'm handcuffed. This is your Canada now, folks. This is the gestapo taking blackface's orders,» Menzies continued — an apparent reference to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who also attended the event.

Menzies asked the officer for his name and badge number but answers to those questions — if they were provided — aren't audible on the tape.

The officer in the video was later identified by a York Regional Police spokesperson as a member of the RCMP protective detail.

«The arrest of the Rebel News