Tension between The Rebel and conservatives erupts anew
OTTAWA — The uneasy relationship between Canadian conservatives and controversial news outlet The Rebel garnered renewed attention Tuesday after one of the site’s co-founders and two of its contributors quit over its coverage of the Charlottesville protests.
Co-founder Brian Lilley said he was no longer comfortable working with an organization increasingly linked with the alt-right, the name most commonly used to represent the white nationalist movement in the U.S. involved in the incidents in Virginia over the weekend.
Among its leaders is Richard Spencer, whose manifesto written specifically for the Charlottesville event includes a call for states to be organized on racial and ethnic lines and speaks to the superiority of “White America.”
The Rebel’s coverage suggested Spencer and his followers ought to be afforded the same rights as left-wing protesters who massed in opposition, Lilley said, and that was a tipping point for him.