Police have laid assault charges against a man caught on video punching the camera of a Rebel media staff member at a women’s rights rally in Edmonton Saturday.
Jason Dion Bews, 34, has been charged with assault and uttering threats.
Police said they received a complaint of an assault at the Alberta legislature grounds on Saturday.
On Sunday, The Rebel, a right-wing online media and activist organization, posted video showing its Alberta bureau chief, Sheila Gunn Reid, trying to interview a man at the rally, which about 2,000 people attended in solidarity with the Women’s March on Washington.
Get daily news
Watch below: Rebel Media video taken at an Edmonton rally in support of the Women’s March on Washington shows a man striking a camera lens. (CREDIT: Rebel Media/YouTube)
The man raises his middle finger and is heard saying, “Ezra Levant, f*** you.” Levant is a former TV host of the now-defunct Sun News Network and founder of The Rebel.
READ MORE: Rebel staff member alleges she was assaulted at women’s march in Edmonton
Reid can be heard trying to interview the man as he turns away from the camera before turning back and saying, “Go away. Get out of my f***ing face.”
The video appears to show the man punch the camera lens and say, “You don’t have the right to film me.”
Then, someone appears to get between the man and the camera and Reid is heard saying, “He just hit me in the face.”
The Rebel posted videos and photos of the man who appeared to strike the camera and offered a $1,000 reward to find the “violent NDP pig.” They suggested circulating his photo online but called on readers not to engage in vigilantism, “however tempting.”