00:00:00.000It's the Kinsella Cast, starring Warren Kinsella.
00:00:30.000Lots of changes this week. I am switching my attention and my affections to a big writing project I've got, as well as a documentary that I am going to be part of, and so I'm going to be in post-media, but not as much. I just don't have time.
00:00:53.080So, I am going to be putting stuff up on Substack, however. I kind of like the platform. You can subscribe to me there for free. There's going to be stuff that I'm going to ask people to pay for. You know, keep the lights on, pay the mortgage.
00:01:09.520So, kind of my media profile is moving around. And this week I've got Robert Walker and myself in Israel talking to his excellent group, his excellent podcast, For Honest Reporting.
00:01:27.700I've got another observation for you about the attack on Israel, verbal, by Israel and Norway and, by Ireland, Norway and Spain, and some good music, Gateway District, Guerriers, Warriors, Guerriers and Warriors.
00:01:49.140Warriors I wanted to see with Laura Jane Grace, but they didn't show up. Not quite sure why, but a great band.
00:01:55.180What does a bullet do to the body of a four-year-old child? If it's fired from a handgun, as many bullets were this weekend at Bice Shia Mushka Elementary School in North York, it can often be fatal.
00:02:13.020A bullet can kill a child with much more efficiency. Medical studies show that when a child under the age of six has a gunshot wound, they are much more likely to be killed.
00:02:23.620Or experience long-term damage. Their bodies are so tiny and so frail, bullets can do more damage than in an adult.
00:02:33.880That's what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012.
00:02:39.020Twenty children between the ages of six and seven were killed in a massacre using a gun.
00:02:47.360After that bloodbath, an American physician told the National Library of Medicine that what a bullet will do, quote,
00:02:53.460is the bullet penetrates the human body. The energy of the bullet tears and shreds through tissue and bone, resulting in fractures, ruptured livers, swollen brains, leading to hemorrhage, shock, and death.
00:03:04.800The Toronto Police Service hasn't said what caliber bullets were fired at the Jewish school, attended by children as young as the age of four.
00:03:15.480But as they sit around their kitchen table Sunday morning debating whether to send their child back to that Jewish elementary school on Monday,
00:03:24.040parents won't be weighing that so much, I think, that they're going to be wondering what a bullet could have done to their little girl.
00:03:30.240They will be wondering if it's time to move away.
00:03:34.460They will be wondering what happened to Canada.
00:10:02.360In far too many corners of the news media, attention spans are short.
00:10:07.360The more clarity that existed in the immediate aftermath of Hamas' October 7th massacres have dissipated in many places,
00:10:15.360replaced by a desire to draw moral equivalents between Israel and Hamas.
00:10:20.360But the October 7th terrorist attacks aren't just a singular event.
00:10:23.360They make clear Hamas' motivations, tactics, inhumanity, and perhaps above all, the fruitlessness of negotiating with the group that will commit such acts.
00:10:33.360In this week's podcast, we speak with Warren Kinsella, a lawyer, political strategist, and columnist at the Toronto Sun newspaper,
00:10:41.360who was recently in Israel with a group of journalists, as well as Honest Reporting Canada's assistant director, Robert Walker,
00:10:48.360to get a first-hand look at Israel and to understand what the news media should be reporting but often fails to do.
00:11:59.360And firstly, I should say, in case anybody's wondering, I'm standing outside.
00:12:04.360Literally, it's a beautiful night here in Jerusalem that I've got Israeli flags fluttering behind me and the flowers are out.
00:12:12.360So everybody back in Canada, if you're looking for warmth, think about Israel.
00:12:17.360Well, what stands out for me, less happily, as you pointed out, I have been here before.
00:12:25.360And the difference between what I was here before and now is October 7th.
00:12:30.360And the terrible, terrible events of that day when 1,200 men, women, children, and babies were slaughtered, when women and girls were subjected to extreme sexual violence,
00:12:43.360more than 200 citizens, people, not just Israelis, not just Jews, but others were kidnapped and taken back to Gaza and subjected to horror.
00:12:58.360And what you and I have seen and our colleagues have seen over the past few days is the enormity of the atrocities of October the 7th.
00:13:11.360You know, all of us learned about it through the news media back in North America.
00:13:16.360Maybe we saw some YouTube videos, maybe we saw things on X or Facebook, whatever.
00:13:24.360It doesn't even begin to describe the enormity of it when you see it with your own eyes.
00:13:32.360And you and I and others have endeavored to tell that story, to try and explain to people back home how this is one of the most horrible events in our lifetimes,
00:13:46.360and certainly one of the most horrible events in human history, I would say.
00:13:52.360Now, obviously, even before you came over the last few days to Israel, you knew all about the events of October 7th, details of October 7th.
00:14:01.360But what is it about what you saw and what you learned that gives an entirely new dimension?
00:14:08.360Or what did you learn, having seen it, that you didn't already know, having read and heard and seen testimonials of it over the last seven months?
00:14:18.360Well, I had seen, there's 42 minutes of footage that exists, the Israeli consulate in Toronto invited me and some other writers to come and see it.
00:14:35.360Hamas shot it themselves in high definition on GoPro cameras that they brought along for that purpose because they were proud of what they did.
00:14:44.360And you see them gloating, see them posing for selfies, and you see people murdered over and over.
00:14:53.360So, you know, I saw it on the screen and it was horrible.
00:14:59.360And I was not in good shape for several days afterwards.
00:15:04.360But coming here and seeing the aftermath, and I don't mean just the charred homes and the broken residences and the kibbutz and the scarred, you know, roadways and, you know, the memorials to all those kids who were killed at the Nova Music Festival.
00:15:26.360That's something that you don't get from a news report or footage.
00:15:33.360Now, over the last few days, you know, whether it's in the south or whether it's in the north or whether it's in Jerusalem, there's one word really that keeps coming back again and again and again and again, and that's Iran.
00:15:46.700What is it about, first of all, you know, tell us about what it is, this message that we've been seeing about Iran's influence, whether it's, you know, however it manifests.
00:16:01.460But tell us a little bit about perhaps what you learned over the last few days about the role that the Islamic Republic of Iran is playing in the region.
00:16:09.200Well, what I've likened to in the past and will again is The Wizard of Oz, you know, in the movie The Wizard of Oz that we've all seen when we were kids.
00:16:20.840There's all these frightening and horrible things happening, and they pull back the curtain, and you see who is really behind it.
00:16:32.000All of the carnage at the kibbutzim, all devastated and broken lives, all the lives lost, and then the ongoing terror that's been committed by Hamas.
00:16:44.260Like, while you and I were up north, we were talking to people while we were at the kibbutzim, talking to people, and, you know, soldiers were being killed by Hezbollah rockets, guns were being fired.
00:16:59.180We could hear artillery shells, like, it continues, it keeps going, and it's all because, principally, because of Iran supplying Hamas with arms and resources and money, supplying Hezbollah with the same, and providing kind of a blueprint, a guidebook for all of the extremists in this region.
00:17:23.400Israel is this tiny sliver of a nation that is surrounded by hostile interests, and none is more hostile than Iran.
00:17:32.880So, you, of course, as I mentioned, you know, on this program with Canadian journalists, but not everybody has access to some of these things that you've seen, particularly these kibbutzim, these villages, which were hard-hit in the massacres seven months ago.
00:17:49.940So, what responsibility do news media outlets in Canada have to delve into those details, even if they're not necessarily able to physically see it for themselves?
00:18:05.040Inform themselves. I mean, you know, you and I both know the economic reality of the media in Canada and elsewhere these days.
00:18:12.500There's fewer and fewer reporters doing more and more stories, and it's hard.
00:18:18.020It's challenging if you're in the media anywhere in Western democracy now for economic reasons.
00:18:26.740So, it's easy for me to say, and I know it's harder for people to do, to inform themselves.
00:18:32.760But, for example, I don't think now, you can correct me if I'm wrong, there's a single Canadian media organization that maintains a bureau in Israel anymore.
00:18:50.100And it's critically important that we have, you know, Canadian eyes on what is happening here.
00:18:56.940I think if we did, we would have far less of the nonsense that's taking place on our university campuses and, you know, far less of the hatred and the expressions of hatred that we're seeing in our streets and on our TV screens and computer screens.
00:19:13.920I really think that, you know, media organizations in Canada need to do what has been done on this mission, which is get reporters over here to see what you and I saw.
00:19:26.420Because when you do, it dramatically changes your perspective on events and just how important it is to know what the truth is, which is that Israel was the victim, not the perpetrator.
00:19:39.520I think that one of the most powerful and salient points about seeing these places in the South was the level of brutality.
00:19:52.740And even though we, of course, knew about it, but when you see the level of brutality, I think that it highlights that the nature of Hamas not as an organization fighting over real estate because it doesn't create that kind of a reaction.
00:20:07.040It creates, it displays a movement that is driven by hatred and consequently a movement that you can't really negotiate in good terms with, in good faith with, rather, because any movement that does this to people, to human beings who live five minutes away from you,
00:20:28.520you know, you know, it really makes you doubt the sincerity of such a movement when they talk about negotiating for peace.
00:20:40.400And, you know, there's so many examples that you speak of.
00:20:46.080Yeah, I think a really good one, well, I can give two.
00:20:48.880You know, back in November, every newspaper in the world, in Canada, New York Times, supposedly the finest newspaper in the world, reported three things, that the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City had been destroyed, that it had been destroyed by Israel, and that 500 people were dead.
00:21:08.860All three of those things have been destroyed by Israel, and all three of those things have been shown to be false.
00:21:31.980Another example is the casualty figures you hear bandied about all the time.
00:21:37.720You know, I saw Catherine McKenna, a former Canadian cabinet minister, while we've been here together, were, you know, accepting without question the Gaza Health Authority, the so-called health authorities, figure of 35,000 dead in Gaza.
00:21:56.500Well, the Gaza Health Authority is Hamas.
00:21:58.940You know, after Hamas took over in the mid-2000s, they created that health authority.
00:22:05.680They got rid of the previous one run by the Palestinian Authority.
00:22:08.880They put their own people in, and they lie.
00:22:14.080And, you know, those are two examples of how, you know, people are accepting without question the lies that are being told by the Hamas and their allies,
00:22:24.540and how dangerous it is, not just for Israel, but for all of us, because we're not getting the truth.
00:22:31.700One of the most, I think, impactful elements for me was when we were in Haifa, a city in northern Israel, and deep underground is a 2200 bed, basically emergency hospital ward that in peacetime is a parking lot.
00:22:53.260And the October 9th was converted to this massive hospital complex, which remains empty right now.
00:22:59.320But as the doctor took us around and said, he doesn't expect it to remain empty for very long.
00:23:08.380What did you take from seeing that site?
00:23:12.440Well, as I think you know, my dad was a doc.
00:23:18.500So I've grown up around hospitals, like right across Canada and the United States.
00:23:26.540You know, when I was a kid, my dad used to bring us to his lap, my brothers and I, and we'd sit around a wafer and play on the floor.
00:23:33.080Like, I've seen hospitals my entire life, and I've never seen anything like this.
00:23:39.740It was a 2200 bed facility that had to be built because Hezbollah was shelling a hospital against every rule of international law, against every description of decency.
00:23:56.700They were shelling a hospital, which, by the way, is a hospital that would heal and save the lives of Palestinians.
00:24:06.080Like, they just accept Palestinians there and take care of them and then send them home.
00:25:37.900They were just covered for these madmen to hide behind and, you know, carry out atrocities, not just on the Jewish people, but on their own people.
00:25:48.120Warren, thank you so much for joining us for the time and for sharing with us some of the perspectives on very impacts the last few days.
00:25:59.480And that's today's edition of the Honest Report Podcast.
00:26:02.700If you haven't done so yet, please subscribe to our mailing list, our podcast channel, and follow us on social media for the most up-to-date news.
00:26:09.980If you like what you've heard, please consider a donation to support our continued efforts at www.honestreporting.ca slash donate.
00:26:18.900Until next time, thank you so much for listening.
00:26:29.480You used to meet me in the park at Two for Coffee
00:26:34.520With your pockets full of stale bread for the birds
00:26:40.200We would go out on the Staten Island Ferry
00:26:46.200To see the city as an undiscovered world
00:31:23.540Things calmed down for a while, but in about 1798, a Republican group called the Society of United Irishmen rose up against their British rulers.
00:31:32.160They were poorly trained, poorly armed, poorly led.
00:31:35.600Their rebellion ended in complete and total defeat, like every single rebellion before it.
00:31:41.340Between 1799 and 1803, there were a bunch more rebellions and insurrections, and they all flopped like wet bog dirt.
00:32:07.720Okay, this is getting boring, because there's lots.
00:32:11.880In this century, the 1800s, there were lots of Fenian raids, and Fenians is a word referring to mythical Gaelic warriors, which is a good name, I think, because any victories over the British were mythical too.
00:32:24.280They were active in Canada, doing things like assassinating a Canadian father of confederation, Thomas Darcy McGee, in Ottawa.
00:32:48.480Anyway, that's a long list of failures, but the list doesn't contain the biggest Irish failure of all, and it's a revealing one, given this week's events.
00:32:59.240Ireland's failure to oppose the Nazis in the Second World War.
00:33:03.840When the rest of the civilized world was fighting Adolf Hitler's regime, which was widely known at that time to be exterminating millions of Jews,
00:33:12.280the Irish stood on the sidelines with their arms crossed.
00:33:14.700They were neutral, they said, but the reality is that Ireland was completely fucking indifferent to the Holocaust taking place.
00:33:23.000In fact, there was a robust pro-Nazi movement in Ireland at the time in the Irish Republican Army.