AUDIO: Canadian Bank Rejects Rebel News Mortgage over Politics

Royal Bank of Canada (John Raoux / Associated Press)
John Raoux / Associated Press
Joel B. Pollak

Audio released on Wednesday by Canadian conservative outlet Rebel News suggests that a Canadian bank rejected the company’s application for a commercial mortgage and a line of credit earlier this month for political reasons alone.

Rebel News editor-in-chief published a recording that he says portrays a conversation between himself and a Calgary-based executive from the Royal Bank of Canada, a “chartered” national bank, in which the executive admits the bank’s political bias.

At one point, the bank executive is heard saying: “It’s just about the nature of the business altogether. ‘Cause the bank has been — I’ll be blunt with you: the bank has been, you know, trying to pry away from certain, you know, clients where they’re kind of ‘out there’ in the media, and very strong, opinionated, you know, which is your business, in a way. So we’re just clearing some internal hurdles.”

He admitted that Rebel News qualified financially for the loans, but that it was “politically exposed.”

The banker also suggested the bank’s head office in Toronto dictated that the loan be denied for political reasons.

A “chartered” bank in Canada is one authorized by the federal government to extend credit and accept deposits. Smaller credit unions, by contrast, are regulated by provinces. The Royal Bank of Canada is one of the country’s “big five” banks.

Levant called the bank’s discrimination against a conservative media outlet an example of “cancel culture” in banking. He also noted that the Royal Bank of Canada has a history of supporting left-wing causes, such as the World Wildlife Fund. “The Royal Bank is fine with strong opinions, just not conservative ones,” he argued in a video (above) posted to YouTube.

He explained that Rebel News had hoped to purchase a building in Calgary in which to locate its offices, and that he had not even asked for the line of credit that the bank had originally offered, based solely on Rebel News’ strong financial position.

Rebel News is one of Canada’s few conservative outlets, and is frequently critical of the Liberal government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. As Breitbart News reported earlier this month, Rebel News is suing the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for an incident in which a security detail assigned to Trudeau apparently assaulted a Rebel News reporter.

In his video, Levant announced that he will attempt to crowdfund the outright purchase of the building, raising money from supporters and from other conservative groups in Canada to create a space that could be used as a joint headquarters.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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