True North’s newest contributor： Sue-Ann Levy
Episode Stats
Harmful content
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Summary
Sue Ann Levy has left the Toronto Sun after 31 years of writing for that newspaper and is joining True North as a contributor. In this episode, we learn about her journey over the years, how she got her nickname "Scoop Levy," and what it means to be part of the media pack.
Transcript
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Hi, I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is The Candice Malcolm Show, and this is a very special
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episode today because I am being joined by my friend, Sue Ann Levy, longtime colleague
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over at the Toronto Sun, and she's joining me today because we have a very special announcement.
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Sue Ann Levy left the Toronto Sun after 31 years of writing for that newspaper, and she's joining
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True North as a contributor, and we are absolutely elated and so excited to have you as joining
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our team, part of our team, Sue Ann. You're such a good reporter. You've got such a sense
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and such an instinct for your investigative reports and following the story, following
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scoops. So first and foremost, just welcome to the team and welcome to our organization.
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We're so thrilled to have you. Thank you very much, Candice.
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So first, before we get into sort of learning a little bit more about you and what you're
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going to be working on True North, you have the nickname Scoop Levy. Maybe you can tell
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us a little bit about how you got that nickname. Well, I had to get an email address many, many
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moons ago. This is about 25 years old, this Scoop Levy address, and I guess I always prided
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myself on being a head of the pack or not a part of the media pack and setting the agenda.
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So the name has kind of stuck with me all these years because, you know, love me or
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hate me. I do find the I have a nose for sniffing out the the stories that nobody wants to tell.
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Well, you made a really good point there. You talked about the pack of the media, and
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it's just such a pack mentality. It's really incredible to see. I think part of the reason
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is because, well, especially the national news is because there's so many CBC reporters,
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and they basically all have the same worldview. They're kind of given the same ideas of what
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stories to cover, and everyone just kind of follows. There's not a lot of divergence. There's
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not a lot of original thinking in these media packs. So how did you come to form your own
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path? And how did you resist kind of joining that pack over the years?
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It was hard. And I actually write about it in my book from 2016, Underdog, which we shamelessly,
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we plugged our books together. And I remember at a federal convention years ago. And I write about
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the fact that I was actually mocked over the years by City Hall journalists, because I didn't run with
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the pack. And they would sort of isolate me when I was actually located at City Hall. It was quite
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uncanny what happened. And then they'd secretly follow me, you know, a week or two later, because
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the story wasn't really theirs until they got it. But yeah, it was hard. You had to be really, really
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tough. And I observed a really lot of a lot of bad behavior. The difference in the last couple of years
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is that they would make fun of me or whisper or whatever. But now it's become quite brutal with
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the bullying on social media and the attempts to silence you on social media to dig out, you know,
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dirt they think is dirt from 12, 14 years ago. It's, it's really, I mean, if these people spent as much
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time actually chasing a story as they do trying to denigrate people who do real journalism, it would
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be interesting, the world would be quite different, I think. Yeah, if only they could channel their
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energy for good instead of what they choose to do. And we obviously get that a lot at True North,
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Sue Ann. And it's sort of funny, sometimes, you know, True North will break a story. And then,
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oh, all of a sudden, it'll show up in the mainstream media a week later. And, you know,
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what, well, at the same time, you see journalists speaking off on Twitter, you know, they know,
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they know a scoop when they see one. And a lot of times they do end up following us,
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I think you've had a bit of a contrarian view on COVID. And I know that's something that here at
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True North, you know, we're really critical of the lockdowns. And we've seen a lot of abuse of power
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and a lot of, you know, the country going in really dark ways in some regards, just with regards to,
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you know, giving up our liberties and saying that we would rather have safety than freedom.
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Why don't you talk a little bit about some of your reporting on COVID?
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Yeah, I did a lot. And particularly the closure of our border, which we're going on, what,
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15 months, 16 months, where we can't cross over into the United States. And I did a lot of stories
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about having been down in Florida, I own a home down there. I did a lot of stories of people just
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really fully vaccinated, trying to come back to Canada and cross the border and the hoops they had
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to jump through, myself included, after being fully vaccinated. And the ridiculous use of resources
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by the government, the federal government and using Switch Health and the absolute madness and chaos with
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respect to tests, quarantine tests on day one and on day eight. I did a lot of that, the fines that
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people were presented at the airport, really, by, I guess, most times, border guards or cops,
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who decided selectively who would get a fine. And the fines went from $3750, if you refuse to go to
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a COVID hotel, to $5,000. It was outrageous. And I know a lot of people are fighting those fines.
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So that was one thing I really focused on. And, you know, finally, they've lifted the hotel quarantine,
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which was absolutely a waste of time and ridiculous. And but we still can't cross the border,
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which is another insane, absolutely insane part of this whole discussion. The other thing is that
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we have leaders who set goalposts, like Rob, Rob Ford, may he rest in peace, Doug Ford, his brother,
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our premier, who set goalposts, say you have certain number have to be vaccinated with one vaccine,
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and a certain number have to be fully vaccinated. And we'll go to what they call stage three,
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where you can engage in indoor dining, gyms can open, that kind of thing. Well, we've reached those
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goalposts, but he's saying for two more weeks, July 23, the earliest, can we go into restaurants,
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we can actually sit inside restaurants. Now, Candace, I was down in Florida in April, and I was
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dining inside. Most provinces in Canada, not only have indoor dining at this point, but they've
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relieved their mask laws. Here in Toronto, our medical officer of health, who was really slow off the
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mark to actually clamp down and get measures put in place and didn't recognize community spread is
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now telling us we have to wear masks till October 1st in Toronto, if we want to go inside any location.
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It's wild. And I read that, well, I read on True North, actually, that Ontario is the only jurisdiction
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in all of North America right now that still requires masks inside. And I think one thing that
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maybe some viewers across the country don't really realize that Toronto has had the strictest
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lockdowns, the most intense measures. It's also the densest, most urban place in the whole country.
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So, you know, while other Canadians might be able to, you know, go to a park or go enjoy,
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you know, some time outside, so many people in Toronto are stuck in these tiny little
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condos or townhouses where they don't really have backyards. It's been incredibly tough on people
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in Toronto, you would think that the mainstream media would be onto that story because so many
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of them live in Toronto. And yet, that's not really the narrative that you see at all.
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The narrative is, these lockdowns are good for you. And the mainstream media perpetuates this
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narrative. And I was appalled to see that, you know, when I've tweeted or gone on social media to
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say enough with the masks, enough with the lockdowns. I don't understand why people are
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jogging outside and biking with masks on. I got such pushback from people who've been totally
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indoctrinated by our political, I use quotations, leaders. They've been totally indoctrinated.
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And they think that this is good for them, that they're protecting other people, even though doctors
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and medical experts have said that you can't spread anything outside. And besides, I'm vaccinated.
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So I'm not going to be jogging with a mask on. And I'm not going to be biking with a mask on.
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I'm sorry. And I look at people who are and I think, my God, is this like a comfort blanket or
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something? You know, like when you were little and you had a little teddy and a blanket,
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they can't let it go or have our leaders instilled incredible fear, incredible fear in these people.
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Well, it's so it's so funny, Sue, because I think for years, people on the right,
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conservatives who are afraid or at least, you know, ringing the alarm bell, showing some concern
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for policies surrounding immigration, mass migration, specifically immigration from war zones
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where people have the ISIS ideology and they might be coming to Canada. You know, we were spreading
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or, you know, we were sending a message that this should be a policy that should be thought
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through. And, you know, we should we should spend some time thinking about it before we just open
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our borders. And the sort of mainstream media and left wing activists accuse people like you and I
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of fear mongering and scare mongering and creating a moral panic around these issues. And it was so
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rich and so ironic for me to see how they've all reacted with COVID, because the things that they
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accused us of doing, which we weren't really doing, is exactly what they're doing when it comes to
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COVID. They're fear mongering, they're insisting that, you know, this is the end of, you know,
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end of civilization. This is, this is a collapse. And if we don't follow all of their very strict
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edicts, you know, we'll all die or something like that. It's, it's so rich and so hypocritical.
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But you mentioned, you mentioned Rob Ford, and I know you've been critical of his brother, Doug,
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but you've, you've covered four mayors in Toronto over the years. And I wonder, you know, maybe you
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can you can tell us what some of your favourite moments covering those mayors and, and maybe who
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is your favourite mayor out of all the all the Toronto mayors that you've covered?
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Well, I had the most empathy for Rob Ford, because I thought that the pack mentality, the bullies,
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you know, just descended on him, and, you know, criticised him for his addictions. I think he
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actually did a tremendous amount of good for the first year and a half, until he got derailed.
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These are the same people who propose, who purport to support or support safe injection sites. In other
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words, enabling drug addicts to continue to take their drugs, but with safe and clean needles. And we've
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got nine of those in Toronto. It's ridiculous. But, but it was, it wasn't okay. This horrible,
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this man was horrible for having, being human and having addictions. And, you know, so the, the,
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the mob mentality just made me sick. So that was one time when I was completely bullied for
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supporting him and understanding. I think my favourite mayor, though, was Mel Lastman. He was a
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character. He was a showman. He really did love Toronto. And he had a massive job to do to bring
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together six cities and a metro regional jurisdiction into one. And there was a lot of chaos. I was at
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City Hall from 1998, when amalgamation was first announced. And I think he did a tremendous job,
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all things considered. Unfortunately, when you brought the seven jurisdictions together, the city
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of Toronto mentality Toronto proper has dominated for the last well since 1998. The free spending,
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the leftist mentality, the safe protection sites, enabling the vulnerable, not giving them a hand up,
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giving them a hand out, giving and not giving them a hand up. So I mean, I think Mel's instincts were
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terrific. He, you know, he tried to promote Toronto as best he could. He was very aware of tourism and
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the need to bring people to Toronto. He had a little trouble during SARS. And when he got up, I mean,
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one of my favourite moments is when he got on CNN and said, who's the who? I remember all those things,
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or the boiling pot. When he talked about, you know, in Mombasa, when they were bidding for the Olympics,
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and they were he had to go to Mombasa, and he didn't want to go because people were boiled in
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pots. I mean, he was indicative of his era. Let's put it that way. And he also accused me of not loving
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Toronto one time when I asked him a hard question. I mean, quite the opposite. David Miller probably was
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my best time because he was a leftist. He didn't pretend to be anything else.
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Union backed. And I got, as they say in the business, brown envelopes, you know what brown
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are. I got a lot of stories slipped to me because I became the official opposition. I had a great
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number of years with him. And the the the bullying we talked about really occurred during those years,
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because I didn't run with the pack. And, and Rob Ford, we talked about indeed. And John Tory
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has been a huge disappointment to me. I on my son departure video, I said no comment,
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but I can be a little more open with you. I think he proposed he promoted himself as a conservative.
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This term, he swung totally to the left. He's terrible at making decisions. He puts his finger
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to the wind. But he's been totally dominated by the leftist mentality downtown. And I think
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the city has not been better for his mayoralty. I think the city has really gone downhill. And
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I grieve that every day when I see the city around me.
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Well, especially under COVID. I mean, it's just been tremendous to sort of is becoming a ghost town
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because no one wants to be there. And it just makes no sense and the stuff they're doing.
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Right. I was just downtown yesterday on Queen Street. And the shops are sort of open or a lineup
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to get into some of them. Some are closed. Every third one has a release sign every third storefront.
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And there are people lying on the sidewalk. The first, my first thing, when I parked my car,
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and I do mostly bike downtown, I have to tell you, my new e-bike, but I took the car because it was a
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rainy day. And I got out of the car and there was a drugged out young man, it was so sad, talking to a
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hydro box. And this is what we see more often than not in downtown Toronto now. And it's,
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it's, it's very sad. It's really sad. And I can't believe that tourists won't notice this. And it's
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been escalating over the last couple of years. That's so sad. Well, let's, let's talk a little
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bit about True North and what our audience can expect from you or what kind of stories you're going
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to be working on for us. Well, I'm starting off the mark with, you know, just what we've talked about,
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how COVID has affected business in Toronto and how our politicians and our mayor is totally tone
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deaf when it comes to the fact that their every third storefront is, has a for lease sign and has
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spent more time cheerleading to tell people to get vaccines than really being concerned about the
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Toronto around him. So that's one of them. The other thing is statue, statue, statue. So we talk about
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taking down statues. All we've heard lately, Candace, is Sir John A. McDonnell is terrible.
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Uh, you know, uh, Ryerson, uh, Egerton Ryerson, excuse me, Egerton Ryerson, the terrible thing they did,
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uh, the activists did here in Toronto where they took off his head and totally defaced the statue.
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Really a vandalism, an act of vandalism, no one was charged, trotted the head off to Lake Ontario, dipped it
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in Lake Ontario. I mean, it was just such a puerile act. So they're taking statues down, all the
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activists, but the left have decided to put a statue up of one of their own. A councillor in downtown
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Toronto, Pam McConnell, who was a councillor for many, many years, 30 years plus, um, is having a statue
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erected in her honour. She passed away in 2017 and they're going to be spending money on erecting a
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statue of her during this time when we really need the money for so many other things. By the way,
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no statues proposed for Rob Ford. Well, that's no surprise given who, uh, you know, who controls
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the purse strings over at, uh, City Hall. Well, Sue Ann, you're such a huge asset and you're so
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important to the world of journalism. Uh, I know you're retiring and you're retired now, so we promise
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not to work you too hard, but I think that, you know, you still have so much to offer and True North is
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just so pleased to have you as part of our team. Oh, thank you very much. And I, I think I will
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really enjoy, um, you know, doing the real journalism, as they say, not that I haven't practiced it over
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the years, but you know, I, I'm really looking forward to it. Great. Well, I think we're all
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looking forward to, uh, what you do for us for True North. Thank you so much for joining the Candace