A reporter for the media outlet Rebel News was arrested and charged on July 25 at a Conservative party event featuring Thornhill candidate Melissa Lantsman.
David Menzies is charged with causing a disturbance and obstructing a peace officer, according to York Regional Police.
Rebel Media said Menzies was released from custody the same day.
Video posted to the Rebel News website showed Menzies being handcuffed and in the back of a police cruiser. That was after he was shown pursuing Lantsman with a microphone and trying to duck under a barricade of yellow tape. The video also shows a Conservative party volunteer or worker in a blue golf shirt throwing water on Menzies, who had pushed past others in Lantsman’s camp. Menzies and a red-shirted man are shown in a brief bit of pushing.
It all took place in the parking lot of the Promenade Mall in Thornhill at retiring Conservative MP Peter Kent’s annual summer celebration.
“No one gets to push or shove a Rebel journalist and no police gets to censor us for peacefully asking questions,” Rebel Media founder Ezra Levant said in a video from the scene.
Levant tweeted that Lantsman “had police arrest” Menzies “for “asking questions she didn’t like.”
According to the right-wing news outlet, Menzies was asking Lantsman questions about her lobbying to allow Walmart stores to stay open during Ontario’s COVID lockdown.
But according to Lantsman, who is openly gay, Menzies’ questions “became homophobic and related to my sexual orientation.” That’s when she “ended” the interview.
“Afterward, I spoke to some constituents but ultimately left the event because I felt unsafe,” Lantsman said in a statement issued July 25. “Thankfully,” she added, “no one was hurt.”
She said she’s “confident that any investigation will demonstrate that I acted appropriately and with the utmost respect.” She said she did not “engage” with police and neither did she call them.
Lantsman is also currently a co-host of one of The CJN’s podcasts, Bonjour Chai.
Neither Lantsman nor Menzies were available for comment Monday morning.
