“Oh my god, look at this. Look at this invasion. It reminds me of that movie World War Z, the zombie apocalypse, but these are not zombies. These are migrants walking from North Africa right into the Spanish town of Ceuta.”

That’s how Rebel News commander Ezra Levant kicked off his avowedly right-leaning network’s ongoing coverage of the now mostly-resolved border crisis as “almost 50,000 of these men — not women, not children, men — just walked right in” to the coastal city from neighbouring Morocco last week. (It’s worth noting that, although the headline identifies the migrants as “Muslim” men, neither Levant’s coverage or the recap mentions religious affiliation.)

“Police didn’t stop them,” Levant noted. “The military didn’t stop them.”

Rebel News, however, “is sending our crack reporting team there right now,” he announced before introducing Montreal-based Rebel correspondent Alexa Lavoie, who, along with her fellow Rebel Efron Monsanto, would be embarking on the ”very long journey” to the coastal city later that night “to speak with residents, business owners, migrants, police and local officials to answer the questions many news organizations aren’t asking,” according to the newly launched Migrant Reports hub.

In a video shot outside the Montreal airport before boarding her flight to Madrid in pursuit of her “important mission,” Lavoie warned her audience that they “can’t rely on the mainstream media, which has largely downplayed what’s happening,” she claimed.

“Obviously, they love mass immigration, and I have a source on the ground telling me that many of the reports coming out of Ceuta do not reflect the reality,” which is why she and Monsanto “are going there ourselves,” although it “won’t be cheap,” she conceded.

“Between the last-minute booking and the exotic location, it’s going to cost Efrain and me $3,000 each to get over there. That’s nothing for government-run media outlets, but it’s a lot for us. If you can please help us crowdfund that cost, I’d be grateful.”

Since arriving in Ceuta, Lavoie has filed several dispatches as “the fallout from last week’s shocking migrant invasion is unfolding in front of our eyes,” she explained.

“Spanish authorities say most of the migrants have gone home and that the crisis is over. We’re just metres from the Moroccan border, and I can tell you it is not. They’re still here. Hiding in the hills and bushes along the beachfront, watching people walk by. We even filmed convoys of military trucks hauling young migrants back toward Morocco — and then watched several of them jump out and run for the mountains right in front of us.”

The Rebel duo also stopped by “one of the local migrant centres, where hundreds of migrants are being held,” and where “authorities are separating the women from the men,” which, according to a “local taxi driver,” is “a common safety protocol here to prevent sexual assault,” Lavoie noted.

For its part, the Rebel News team highlighted the team’s “exclusive” reporting, which “came with risks, however,” the post pointed out.

“While interviewing Moroccan migrants near the border, a rock was thrown directly at Alexa from individuals watching from above. These attempts at intimidation, she said, would not stop her reports.”

Back in Canada, Rebel’s Alberta-based chief reporter Sheila Gunn Reid provided a lightning-round rebuttal to Alberta New Democrat leader Naheed Nanshi’s initial framing of the reply he received from Canadian Security Intelligence Service director Dan Rogers in response to an earlier letter expressing concern over the risk of foreign interference in the upcoming provincial referendum.

“(Nenshi) suggested Premier Danielle Smith’s government is failing to protect the integrity of Alberta’s independence referendum and cited a letter from CSIS as evidence of a serious foreign interference risk,” Gunn Reid notes.

“In a post on X, Nenshi wrote: There is a very real risk of foreign interference in Danielle Smith’s referendum this fall… We need to know how this government is protecting the integrity of this referendum if they are at all.’  He attached what appeared to be a partially redacted response from CSIS. However, the section that had been obscured contained language stating that CSIS is already working with governments and election officials to safeguard democratic processes.”

What’s more, “after criticism online, Nenshi posted the complete, unredacted letter, saying the missing text had been hidden unintentionally while attempting to highlight another section,” she observers.

“Sure.”

Meanwhile, her fellow Alberta Fact Check-er, Cory Morgan, challenged a recent Canadian Press story that “portrayed the Alberta and Canadian flags as active agents of division in the run-up to Alberta’s October 19 referendum,” in his view.

“It cites a music teacher who gets a  ‘weird vibe’ upon seeing her neighbours displaying an Alberta flag. The article also mentions how a grocery worker’s union has filed a grievance over the presence of flags in stores, and how a float was kicked out of a small-town Alberta parade because it was festooned with flags. It also noted that some shouting demonstrators at an Alberta event where the prime minister was in attendance had waved Alberta flags.”

And yet,  “all the issues laid out in the article were caused by people,” he points out.

“Flags are inert, innocent bystanders in this. Division only comes when people try to turn the display of neighbours’ flags into something more sinister and then have their ‘weird vibes’ amplified by lazy news outlets. Only when people insist on reading them as loyalty tests do they become weapons.”

Over at Juno News, Alex Dhaliwal reports that Liberal MP Mark Gerretsen “is drawing fire for mocking an inquiry that will hear testimony from Canadians who say they suffered life-altering COVID-19 vaccine injuries” in a Facebook reel in which he pointed out that the inquiry is named after its co-organizer, Conservative MP Dean Allison, which “just reeks of attention seeking before anything else,” he argued.

“Although Gerretsen acknowledged that Canadians who suffered vaccine injuries deserve compassion and the opportunity to be heard, he argued the hearings are really about promoting Conservative grievances over vaccine mandates and the Freedom Convoy rather than uncovering facts,” Dhaliwal notes.

In a separate post, Dhaliwal tallies up the “major trade concessions” that Prime Minister Mark Carney has already made alongside the ongoing negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump. “Over the past year, Ottawa scrapped its Digital Services Tax, abandoned key financial requirements under the Online Streaming Act and agreed to share Gordie Howe International Bridge revenues with the United States,” he points out.

“It also rolled back most retaliatory tariffs on American goods after evidence suggested the measures increased costs for Canadian consumers,” but when asked what Canada has “gotten in return” at a recent press conference, Carney “did not identify a single reciprocal American concession.”

Rounding out the right-of-centre roster, Counter Signal contributor Clayton DeMaine scored an “exclusive interview” with Alberta’s Technology Minister, Nate Glubish, who “(made) the case why Alberta should lead the way on developing AI data centres, addressing several common concerns community members have about the sites including noise pollution, water consumption and other environmental concerns.”

Trending on the progressive-left side of the Canadian activist mediaverse:

• Ricochet contributor Juan Suarez explains how Canada’s “social safety net, designed to prevent a crisis, has not kept pace with modern-day realities — precarious work, low and stagnant wages, unaffordable housing and the rising cost of living,” and why the “growing crisis is fuelling calls for permanent Employment Insurance reform.”
  Rabble contributor Lois Ross critiques the Carney government’s newly unveiled food security strategy, which “ fails to address issues like support for small farmers, the concentration of farmland, access to seeds and more,” she contends.
• The Maple’s Adam D.K. King makes the case that the Bank of Canada is “addicted to illegally using scabs,” as demonstrated by its refusal to heed two separate rulings handed down by the Canadian Industrial Relations Board as striking workers “have spent weeks watching their employer repeatedly test the limits of legislation specifically enacted to protect the integrity of legal strikes.”
• In the wake of the departure of several staffers, including two full-time positions eliminated via layoffs and the resignation of now former editor Luke LeBrun, Press Progress announced that Rumneek Johal “is now taking the helm as the new executive editor,” which it describes as a “silver lining for a publication that, despite these challenges, continues to do journalism that holds power to account.”