Original Article By Didi Rankovic At ReclaimTheNet.org
The Royal Bank of Canada is being accused of discriminating against a mortgage applicant based on their political beliefs.
Specifically, Ezra Levant, journalist and publisher of Rebel News, says it was this media outlet that was turned down while trying to obtain a commercial mortgage to buy itself offices in Calgary.
Levant says that there shouldn’t have been any problems with the application: the company behind Rebel News has no debt, the bank was shown financial statements going back years, and he personally has been the bank’s client for years – and willing to guarantee the mortgage.
It seemed like a strong application that would not face much if any problems, but then the loans officer he was dealing with at the Calgary branch reportedly didn’t even try to hide that a politics-based “review” would have to be done at the bank’s HQ in Toronto. Having “strong” – and “wrong” – opinions on Canada’s current prime minister, Justin Trudeau, was apparently reason enough to decline the mortgage application.
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“I recorded that phone call, because it’s too incredible to believe without proof,” Levant writes of the conversation during which he learned the application got canceled on political grounds; “It’s an absolute scandal: the Royal Bank has a blacklist of Canadians it considers political enemies,” he continues.
The irony is not lost on Levant: the main reason why Rebel News wanted to purchase its own office building was to avoid canceling and deplatforming – but the way the system is set up, the media outlet got canceled and deplatformed during the very process.
The office building was meant as a co-working space not just for Rebel News but for other conservative-minded outlets represented in Calgary, as well as activists who would have a space to speak and work freely, and hence its importance in Levant’s eyes – and the determination not to give up on the idea.
Listen to the conversation HERE:
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