David Freiheit (born May 23, 1979), is a Canadian lawyer, former political candidate for the

People's Party of Canada The People's Party of Canada (french: Parti populaire du Canada, PPC) is a right-wing populist federal political party in Canada. The party was formed by Maxime Bernier in September 2018, shortly after his resignation from the Conservative P ...

and

YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influe ...

under the pseudonym Viva Frei.

Biography

Freiheit grew up in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, as the youngest of five siblings born in a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family. He enjoyed creating videos. He studied Creative Arts at

Dawson College Dawson College (French: ''Collège Dawson)'' is an English-language public general and vocational college in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The college is situated near the heart of Downtown Montreal in a former nunnery on approximately 12 acr ...

and received his Bachelor of Arts at

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...

. He then received his civil law degree from

Université Laval Université Laval is a public research university in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The university was founded by royal charter issued by Queen Victoria in 1852, with roots in the founding of the Séminaire de Québec in 1663 by François de Montm ...

where he was the editor-in-chief of the university's law journal. In 2007, Freiheit began practising law, following in the footsteps of his father and older siblings. He worked professionally for the prominent commercial litigation firm

Borden Ladner Gervais Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (abbreviated as BLG) is a leading, full-service law firm in Canada. With almost two hundred years of history going back to the 1823 founding of McMaster Gervais, it now has offices in Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Ottaw ...

for six years, but left to be a freelance litigator after his first child to have a more favourable work-life balance, starting a firm called Freiheit Legal. For the first few years of his YouTube career, Freiheit was a practising commercial litigator, and he struggled to find time to create his videos. In January 2018, he discontinued his litigation practice and turned full-time to YouTube. On July 22, 2021, Freiheit announced the launch of his campaign to run for

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

as a member of the

. On June 16, 2022 Rumble announced it's proposal for an 'open-source content moderation policy and process', attributing Freiheit as being a key legal contributor.

YouTube career

Early content and awards (2014–2019)

Freiheit started his

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

career in early 2014 by posting videos of him

lip syncing Lip sync or lip synch (pronounced , the same as the word ''sink'', short for lip synchronization) is a technical term for matching a speaking or singing person's lip movements with sung or spoken vocals. Audio for lip syncing is generated th ...

to various pop songs while running obstacle courses dressed in a full suit. These videos were not receiving many views, so Freiheit decided to try another style; in late 2014, Freiheit started posting nature-related stunts. He gained popularity when he posted a video of a squirrel picking up his GoPro

action camera An action camera or action cam is a digital camera designed for recording action while being immersed in it. Action cameras are therefore typically compact and rugged, and waterproof at surface-level. They typically use CMOS image sensors, and ...

and carrying it up a tree. Freiheit then started posting videos of stunts involving the use of a

drone Drone most commonly refers to: * Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg * Unmanned aerial vehicle * Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft * Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to: ...

. In 2016, Freiheit won a GoPro Award for his use of their cameras in his videos. He won a Shorty Social Good Award for Best Overall Youtube Presence in 2017. In January 2019, Freiheit was invited by GoPro to be a featured panellist at the Consumer Electronics Show at the

Las Vegas Convention Center The Las Vegas Convention Center (commonly referred to as LVCC) is a convention center in Winchester, Nevada. It is owned and operated by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. As one of the largest convention centers in the world, it h ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

Style change (2019–present)

From 2014 to 2019, Freiheit had accumulated around 60,000 subscribers. In April 2019, he decided that since law-related content was by far his channel's most popular genre, he would change the style of his channel and only post vlogs analysing different current issues from a legal standpoint. He started a second channel, "Viva Family", as a place to maintain his former content style. Before running for the PPC, Freiheit had classified the political stance he takes on his channel as

non-partisan Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias towards, a political party. While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers s ...

, claiming that the internet, through the use of the terms right-wing or

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

, only succeeds in "pigeonholing, categorizing, dichotomizing, just reducing a complex individual to either right or left in all of their... beliefs". In an interview, he described his channel's content as including a "pretty decent balance of left and right". In 2019 attorney Robert Barnes began making live weekly Sunday evening appearances on Freiheit's channel. The series continued on a weekly basis, often featuring a notable guest, where the two discuss recent legal and political event. In September 2022, Freiheit signed an exclusive video deal with the video platform Rumble.

Political career

Freiheit ran in the 2021 Canadian federal election to become a Member of Parliament for the

in the riding of

Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount is a federal electoral district in Quebec. It encompasses areas formerly included in the electoral districts of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine (40%), Westmount—Ville-Marie (59%) and Outremont (1%). Notre-Dame ...

. In July 2021, Freiheit created a third channel, "Viva PPC", as a place to feature his political content. He lost his electoral bid, coming in sixth place in the riding with 3.3% of votes.

Electoral record

References

External links

* https://VivaFrei.com
Viva Frei
channel on

Viva PPC
channel on

* https://VivaBarnesLaw.Locals.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Freiheit, David 1979 births Canadian lawyers Canadian libertarians YouTube channels launched in 2012 Canadian YouTubers Living people People's Party of Canada YouTube vloggers Canadian Jews Canadian people of Jewish descent