EZRA LEVANT ｜ Racist censor from Toronto Star receives free speech award
Episode Stats
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Summary
A leading censor and cancel culture advocate wins a free speech prize? George Orwell wouldn t believe in himself. Well, hang on. She s one of the most brutal censors around. I ll take you through it.
Transcript
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Hello, my friends. You know, I love those free speech awards. I love the free speech
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organizations. But most of the time, I think they've been corrupted and perverted from the
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inside. They've been taken over by their enemies. Case in point, Shri Paradkar, the censorious,
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hateful, crazy lady at the Toronto Star, she just won the free speech award from Penn Canada.
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Well, hang on. She's one of the most brutal censors around. I'll take you through it.
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I'll show you the prize she won and the things she said that the Penn Canada people either missed
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or didn't care about. It's really gross. But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber
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and get some great TV. That's rebelnewsplus.com. All right, here's today's podcast.
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Tonight, a leading censor and cancel culture advocate wins a free speech prize? George Orwell wouldn't
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believe in himself. It's October 10th, and this is the Ezra LeVance Show.
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I saw this news in the Toronto Star, naturally, the Red Star, as I sometimes call it. The headline
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reads, Star Columnist Sri Paradkar Wins Penn Canada Prize for Advancing Freedom of Expression.
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Now, I know a little bit about Penn Canada. I've actually been a member of it, I think,
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for more than a dozen years. Sometimes I might have forgotten to renew, but I try whenever I can.
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They were one of the very few free speech groups that, at least 15 years ago, was in favor of the
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freedom to publish the Danish cartoons of Mohammed. That's what I did back then, and I was pleased to
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see them at least make a tepid show of support for me, so I joined. I've been a member ever since,
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but I was puzzled by this, because I know Sri Paradkar a little bit. I'm not a close follower
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of hers. I don't know if anyone is. She just talks about racism all the time, and she talks about
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racism from a reverse racism point of view. That is, she calls any white person racist. I think she
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truly hates Canada, or at least everything that Canada is. She wants to transform it into something
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else, which I find very odd for a new immigrant to this country. If you hate Canada so much,
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why did you come here? So I've never really seen her write anything interesting, and I'm certain I
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haven't seen her do anything to promote freedom of speech. Sort of the contrary. Let me read from
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the story, though. Here's what her company says. I'm so proud of her. Paradkar won the prize after
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being nominated by other journalists at the Star. Okay. For her work advocating for and mentoring
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reporters from minority communities. Okay, I'm all for mentoring reporters from different communities,
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black, white, red, whatever. What's that got to do with free speech? Freedom of speech is to stop
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censorship of people, usually government censorship, but sometimes corporate censorship.
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What's that got to do with the fact that she is an affirmative action hire herself, and wants
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affirmative action for others? What's that got to do with it? I'll keep reading.
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Toronto Star columnist Sri Paradkar has won Penn Canada's 2024 Ken Filko Prize for advancing freedom
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of expression in Canada. Paradkar won the prize after being nominated by other journalists at the Star
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and elsewhere for her work advocating for and mentoring reporters from marginalized and
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underrepresented communities. Penn Canada told the Star on Wednesday, quote, her active and committed
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support of young journalists of color is fundamental to expanding free expression for those who are often
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excluded from the means to articulate marginalized experience of an unequal society. Penn Canada said in a
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statement, quoting from the Ken Filko Prizes jury citation. Okay, can you do me a favor and just not call
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it a free speech prize? You can call it anything else. You can call it a DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion
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prize. You can call it an affirmative action prize. You can call it, you can phrase it positively. A prize for
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bringing along minority reporters. Of course, they're not a minority anymore in Toronto. Toronto is now a
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minority majority city. The minority in Toronto and Vancouver and soon other cities are white people.
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So it's a little bit of chutzpah for someone in the year 2024 who just moved here from India to talk
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about civil rights. There were some civil rights battles. I mean, Canada was always a hospitable place,
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but it's a bit rich to call yourself a civil rights battler in 2024 for racial equality. We've had that here
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for quite a while. It's a little bit of stolen valor by Sri Pradkar. Let me read just a little bit more.
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According to Penn Canada, the prize is awarded to people or organizations who have advanced freedom
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of expression at the expense of their own safety or reputation. The organization noted that Pradkar
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has received death threats and harassment due to her work. Is that true? I mean, is it really true?
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Has Sheree Pradkar been beaten up by Antifa or by Hamas thugs? Has she been arrested or jailed by
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authorities? Or is it just mean tweets? Has she really faced death threats? I'm open to learning
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the facts about it, but I've never heard that before. Were they serious enough that she reported
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them to police and police investigated? Or are these just mean tweets? What a laugh.
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So who exactly is Sheree Pradkar? I mean, she's the official racism reporter at the Toronto Star,
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but that actually means it's not like she's calling out racism. It means that she's in charge
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of racism, or at least the acceptable racism in 2024, which is basically defacing and defiling
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anything from Canadian history. She would be the kind of person who would cheer the tearing down
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of a statue. If you read her own columns and tweets, and I find them too tedious to read other
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than the headline, it's just a hurricane of anti-white and anti-Canadian rants. Even though,
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like I say, she came here as a new immigrant herself, but apparently she's an expert on the
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way this country should be. And over the past year especially, it's basically like reading the
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news feed of Al Jazeera or some other anti-Semitic state broadcaster. I mean, it's just nuts. I don't
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know if she actually has a readership. But I thought I would sort of look into the kind of free speech
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credentials that she has, starting with, for example, this story, quote, giving Maxime Bernier a platform
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legitimizes his dangerous ideas. So this is her, a couple years ago, writing about how that her own
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newspaper should never have allowed Maxime Bernier, who is a newsmaker, to meet with their editorial
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board. Let me say that again. I mean, there are some people in the news who are good people, and
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some people in the news who are bad people. Of course, opinions vary on who is in which category,
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but all of them are newsworthy. And we don't just report on good news, and we don't just report on
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people we like. I don't think that Maxime Bernier is evil or a bad person. He just has
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firm reviews. I don't agree with him on all of them. But he's a newsmaker, and he was more of a
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newsmaker several years ago. And apparently the editorial board of the Toronto Star thought he was
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a newsmaker enough that they wanted to call him in, not to give him some award, but to ask him
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questions. And that's what you do in journalism. But Sri Paragkar was outraged by it. Let me excerpt
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from what she wrote. She said, platforming does not defeat ideas. If there is anything U.S. President
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Donald Trump is shining example of, it is the danger of free speech arguments that validate hate speech
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and the failure of the concept of sunlight as a great disinfectant of bad ideas. All platforming does
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has legitimize the speaker. And when that speaker is polished or perceived by the audience as
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authentic, the platform elevates their stature. Yeah, let's give this woman a free speech award.
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Can you believe it? Penn Canada is such an embarrassment. Here she is. I'm just going to go
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through some of these. This took me maybe five minutes on the Google machine to find these.
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Here's Sri Paragkar, the new free speech award winner, trivializing that mass murder of the
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journalists at that French magazine called Charlie Hebdo. I don't know if you remember, but several
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years ago, their office was literally attacked by Islamic assassins, terrorists who murdered people
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because they drew little cartoons of Mohammed. And here she is about that. She says, when I think of
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the wall-to-wall coverage, the Charlie Hebdo shooting, the outrage in our newsrooms about the attack on
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press freedom, wall-to-wall coverage of the tragedy, editorials, cartoons, and now radio, now radio
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silence. Way to show what this is all really about. So she's talking now about the Gaza war. So she
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thinks it was a bit excessive that people were so concerned about the murder of cartoonists. And where
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are they now furious, drawing the equivalence with the Israeli defense forces response to the terrorist
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attack? She's implying that we weren't really concerned or shouldn't have been concerned about
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the murder of cartoonists because those same people who were concerned are not being noisy enough about
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condemning Israel. So she's not really for free speech, but she is really anti-Semitic, isn't she? Here
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she is promoting a SLAP lawsuit against politicians who say mean things. SLAP stands for strategic
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litigation against political public participation. She says, new. Why, Sarah Jammah's libel notice to
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Doug Ford is an act of courage that serves to break the silence around criticizing Israel and stands as a
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de facto defense of dissent. Got it. So suing someone into silence is a defense of dissent. Got it, got it,
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got it. Here she is objecting to a debater being allowed to go to a debate. I say again, this is a
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debate, the monk debates. They're classic debates, two people versus two people. So guess what?
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They're going to disagree. And if you care about the issue at hand, you might sympathize with the pro
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and oppose the con or vice versa. No, no, no. The winner of Penn Canada's free speech award
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doesn't like the fact that spicy and prickly people get to debate. Here's what she wrote.
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Never forget that monk debates platformed Steve Bannon and Canadian media defended it because
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apparently you can just debate people out of hate. What? What does that mean? Why don't you go and
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crush Steve Bannon in a debate if he is so odious? I mean, aren't you happy that he's going to be
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crushed? Or do you just want to have the conviction and sentence first and not even bother with the
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trial? Can you believe this kooky woman won Penn Canada's prize? Here she is, Canada's worst
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journalist, calling out Canada's best journalist, the late Rex Murphy. She said,
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Rex Murphy getting a platform to air opinions on racism, a subject on which he has neither studied
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nor experienced. While completely qualified, racialized people don't get jobs in newsrooms
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is peak white privilege. Canadian media is so white. Hey, you know what? Canada is a largely white
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country. If you hate that about us, why did you come here? But did you not know what Canada was like
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that you would encounter the odd white person, including the owner of the Toronto Star? What a
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racist bigot. And how bizarre to say that free speech only should be apportioned to those who
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are the right color. What a racist bigot. What a censor. Even Dr. Seuss needs to be reined in,
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she says. Look at this laughable tweet. If it's a given that to be an essential pillar of democracy,
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free speech needs reasonable restraints. All debate occurs within the macro possibilities that reside in
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that one word. Reasonable. What is reasonable? So she's even for censoring Dr. Seuss. What a loser.
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I can't even believe Penn Canada gave her an award. I care about censorship. I care about free speech.
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I do study it. I read it. I look at the laws. Sometimes I engage the laws with lawyers. And I look
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at the civil liberties bonfire in this country over the last few years, especially ramping up. Now,
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C-11, the law by which Trudeau took jurisdiction over the internet just with the wave of a wand,
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including the right to order internet companies to boost or throttle things he likes or doesn't like.
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C-18, which shakes out $100 million a year from Google and apportions it, but only to journalists
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that Trudeau approves of through the QCJO, Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization.
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And then C-63, which is in Parliament right now, which would include a life-in-prison jail sentence
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for hate crimes and has $20,000 bounties payable to complainants if you take someone to the Human
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Rights Commission for hurdy words. I haven't seen Shri Paradkar, and I did some searching today. I
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didn't see her say a word about any of these. She didn't say a word when reporters were banned from
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the leaders' debate, not a peep. Shri Paradkar is not a particularly compelling journalist.
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She only talks about herself and racism she's found in the most pluralistic country in the world.
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She's an anti-Semitic foreigner ranting in Canada's most subsidized newspaper. The Star gets more money
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than any other paper. Oh, here she is. Collective punishment, ethnic cleansing, genocide. While
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world sits and wrings its hands over labels, Israel's barbarity in Gaza continues. May all those
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silent in the face of it and those cheering it on never know a day of peace. Got it. You little Jew
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hater. Go back to whatever Jew-hating place you came from. You're not welcome in Canada, and you're
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certainly not welcome to tell us we're not allowed to have free speech. She got the prize not because
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she's ever stood up for free speech. As I've just shown you, on half a dozen occasions, she's failed
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the test of free speech. She's called for the de-platforming of her enemies. What a deep embarrassment
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to Penn Canada. You know, I don't think I'm going to bother renewing my membership to those frauds anymore.
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Ezra Levant here in sunny Venice Beach, California. I'm asking folks, who do you support?
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Donald Trump or Kamala Harris? And why? Here's what they said. Who are you thinking of voting for
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in this election? Trump or Harris? I'm not thinking of voting for Harris. I am voting for Harris.
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She believes in everything I believe in. Like what? Like, obviously, like, women's rights,
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concern for poor people, higher taxes on the rich. I mean, you name it, and whatever it is,
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platform, and I favor it. Today, I'd probably go Trump. What's that?
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The VP debate. You watched that, eh? Yeah, I watched most of it. Concrete answers versus
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kind of wishy-washy stuff, it sounded like. Who are you thinking of voting for, Harris or Trump?
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Uh, Harris. Why's that? Because I don't like Trump. What do you don't like about him?
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His policies. Like, can you give me an example?
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Uh, building a wall. I don't like, there's no point for it.
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You're not worried about, about mass immigration? Some people are. They say the border's out of
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control. What do you think of that? Uh, I think they could do a better job at
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keeping care of the border, for sure. But just not with a wall? No.
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Like, with maybe a fence instead? I mean, not necessarily. Maybe more,
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more guards on the border. So it's the physical wall you're against. It's not...
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Yeah, I don't think we need to spend billions of dollars on a wall.
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So it's a money thing? Yeah. Yeah. All right. That's... I haven't heard that one.
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Do you guys, uh, plan to vote for Donald Trump or Kamala Harris?
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Neither. I don't know. Neither? I think I'll choose the day of.
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Really? Yeah. And what would you... I'm from a Trump family, so...
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You do? And why is your family pro-Trump? Um, I don't know. My dad's a business owner.
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Um, I don't know. I guess that's why. And are there any issues you care about?
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Um, the way that he makes the country look, I guess. You know?
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You know, that's sort of a neutral statement. That could be taken either way, right?
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Who you like better, Donald Trump or Kamala Harris?
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Can I ask you who you're voting for in the election?
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Can I ask you why? That's a decision in itself, right?
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It's, it's a shit show anyways. It doesn't matter who you vote for. It's all smokescreen.
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Um, well, it doesn't matter what. It's because it's already, everything's already, uh, it's already dictated for, so...
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You don't think Trump and Harris are pretty different?
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Well, I think they're probably different, but they both don't give a shit, so...
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Are you worried about anything? Like, what are the issues? Are you just sort of in your own zone and you don't pay attention, or do you follow it?
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No, I think, I think the world's gonna go, just, basically, it's already controlled by the same people that run it.
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Either way, they just try to make everyone think that each side fight each other, so, that's, uh, so that way they can do all the things they want to and have everyone fight each other when really, it's all, uh, they're already, they're already getting what they want anyways.
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Um, because I don't like Trump, mainly. Um, I think he's a real, a menace to society, um, for a number of reasons.
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So it's not so much that you're pro-Harris, you're more anti-Trump.
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Yeah, I would say so. I like her, though. I'm really, uh, supporting her, but, um...
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Mainly, mainly, I don't like Trump, uh, but, um, no, I like, I like Harris, and I, I shouldn't say I don't like Harris, so, um, I'm gonna be a proud voter for her.
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I think, uh, the only good case that you have for Kamala Harris is for, uh, making the, uh, Supreme Court even.
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So I think right now, with Trump getting in there, it does set up the Supreme Court to be, uh, centered around, you know, the right, which I think that there should be balance.
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I don't like the two-party system in general, but if I had to choose one person, I would pick strength over, uh, lack of clarity.
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And I think she's been a legislator, I mean, a, uh, litigator for her entire career.
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So she says whatever she needs to say to win. That's her whole memorandum, right?
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Now, does that make you an anomaly here in California?
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To be honest, I'm not really a political person.
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I don't really, uh, I don't know too much about politics, honestly, to give, like, a valid answer to you guys.
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Fair enough. Do you have, would you call yourself liberal or conservative, or you're not that focused?
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Definitely not a liberal. I'm more, like, in between, kind of.
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I agree with some of the viewpoints of the liberals, but, and then I agree with some of the Democrats.
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I'm just not, like, a hard left and a hard right.
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It's not that serious. Um, but yeah, that's pretty much it.
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I, I don't, I don't think, I mean, I, I think he's very dangerous.
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I think back to the four years of Trump, and there were no wars.
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Trump didn't start any, and he did the peace deal in the Middle East.
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And what Trump wants to do in Ukraine is give in to Putin.
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And if, and, and, and, and, and you ask me a question, I'm going to give you the answer.
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And if he gives, after, if he gives in to Putin, Putin is going to feel unbound by any fears of the United States.
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If he's going to go into Poland, and he's going to go into other NATO countries.
00:21:55.980
And can I ask you who you're voting for in this election?
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Can I ask you why? Is there a policy or personality or what do you like about him?
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I think he's a far more authentic person than Kamala.
00:22:10.040
I think we need somebody to clean that up on both ends, the north and the south.
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That's true. I'm actually Canadian, but I still have an opinion.
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And I really think Trump needs to save this country.
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How about you? Do you have any views on Trump or Harris?
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And why do you disagree with your friend on that?
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I think it was a better America when he was elected.
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I think he's for the people, even though most people don't agree with that.
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I think that's just the news telling people that.
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He gets put on the spotlight a lot more than other presidents have.
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But you're not worried about saying that. How come?
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I used to care, but I realize there's plenty of people out there like me.
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Now, you're here in California, which is a Democrat place.
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You don't seem to be shy about saying you're for Trump.
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I would have thought it was socially difficult.
00:23:24.960
Well, to be honest, you're the first person I've talked to about it.
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Everyone just kind of keeps to themselves because, once again, it's just going to make you start butting heads.
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I don't want to say I don't care who wins, but I'm just living my life.
00:23:53.040
Who would be better for the Brits, Trump or Harris?
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Because she's weak and so the UK would be strong?
00:24:02.860
Can I ask you who you're voting for in the election?
00:24:12.100
Who are you thinking of voting for, Trump or Harris?
00:24:15.720
Well, if you had a preference, where are you from?
00:24:18.380
Who would be better for Germany to be the president of the United States?
00:24:46.700
Who are you thinking of voting for, Trump or Harris?
00:24:51.880
If you had to choose which candidate you preferred, Trump or Harris, who do you like better?
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I think when Trump was president, there is no war.
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So I think it's better for the world and the peace in the world.
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From a UK point of view, who would be better for the Brits, Trump or Harris?
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He's just a businessman, which I think is a better thing.
00:25:18.900
Guys, who are you thinking of voting for, Donald Trump or Kamala Harris?
00:25:37.900
Because I think he's like modern entrepreneurs than politicians.
00:26:07.300
Just as a French person, who would you prefer to have as president?
00:26:16.460
No, because Trump is, don't worry about Europe.
00:26:31.500
Do you have an opinion on who would be better for the UK?
00:26:33.740
I think, I have a feeling that Kamala Harris would probably be better.
00:26:44.340
Because she stands for a stronger Europe, because she's a supporter of NATO.
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Although I kind of agree with Donald Trump that NATO countries should pay for their defense.
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Because at least Kamala Harris is, in the bow, a defender of NATO.
00:27:01.280
You know, like him or hate him, Russia didn't start any wars when Trump was president.
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North Korea, China, they all sort of watched their P's and Q's.
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When Trump was president, the war started after he left.
00:27:14.880
Yeah, I think having a very reactionary president who makes decisions on the fly can be very off-putting for America.
00:27:33.600
Maybe he actually makes the enemies think twice.
00:27:36.340
Well, you know, I'm a great believer in using alternative methods to bring peace.
00:27:45.220
I think that's what Kamala Harris said to Iran, right?
00:27:48.220
No, I'm more into things like we should be using, I tell you what, we should be using comedy.
00:27:55.700
You think the Ayatollahs care about comedy or Xi Jinping?
00:27:58.520
I think we should definitely ban men from having any power anywhere near the Middle East.
00:28:04.660
That is the beginning of the only solution, because between religion and men...
00:28:11.420
Golden Bayeer and Benazir Bhutto running the place.
00:28:17.000
If you put women in charge of everywhere, there would be a lot less war, a lot less carnage.
00:28:28.820
You sort of, contrary to the stereotype, I would have guessed, just based on appearances, you'd be a man of the left.
00:28:39.020
What was the left 20 years ago is not the left.
00:28:41.160
Now, I was considered very far to the left back then, but now I'm thought of as a right winger, and it's pretty crazy.
00:28:51.020
I'm just a person of common sense, and I call it like I see it.
00:29:07.160
Well, as you can see, I'm back in our world headquarters in Toronto.
00:29:10.680
Yesterday, I was in San Francisco with Avi Amini launching his Avi Across America tour.
00:29:21.440
We've got a videographer, Lincoln Jay, and Avi, the three of them, are going to take that RV across America going town to town.
00:29:32.800
So it's a fairly affordable way to spend a month on the road.
00:29:36.740
Their mission is to basically do a conservative reality show, going town by town to report on the state of America.
00:29:43.140
And I think it's going to be fun because Avi, of course, is Australian.
00:29:47.340
So I was with him yesterday in San Francisco to welcome him to this side of the ocean and get the lads all set up.
00:30:01.440
It's tough to do that, to take away that much time from your family and your home.
00:30:05.320
But I think they're going to give us great journalism.
00:30:08.040
Before that, as you know, we were in Los Angeles.
00:30:13.340
Let me close with Avi's launch video for his reality show.
00:30:20.260
You will not believe where I am and who I'm with.
00:30:35.440
This was the closest place for you to fly from Melbourne, Australia, to the United States.
00:30:44.520
But for all the details, aviacrossamerica.com is the website designed to this exciting project.
00:30:55.360
I've kept tight-lipped about it because you know how the detractors love to get things like these cancelled.
00:31:03.140
Well, we've rented an RV, a recreational vehicle.
00:31:07.960
And you and videographer Lincoln Jay and master of the RV, Lyndon Dunkley, are going to go on a one-month tour across America, town by town, city by city.
00:31:20.520
It's sort of a reality show where you'll talk about America.
00:31:24.740
You'll discover it as an Australian fan of America.
00:31:28.680
And, of course, the backdrop behind it all is the U.S. election, perhaps the most momentous election in over a century.
00:31:35.120
You're going to get to know Americans in real life.
00:31:56.220
We've got Lyndon driving, Lincoln on the camera, and, of course, myself.
00:32:02.640
We've got the office workspace here where it also converts into a bed.
00:32:10.140
And, because Lyndon is about triple my size, he gets the big bed.
00:32:16.420
We've got a little tiny, perfect for someone half a human size like me.
00:32:27.720
This is how we're traveling the entire country to talk to everybody.
00:32:31.060
Middle America, anybody that has an opinion about politics or just about day-to-day life
00:32:38.620
But remember, we cannot do this as budget as we're doing it without your help.
00:32:46.480
Please give what you can to help us fund this mission that I promise you will be unbelievable.
00:32:55.440
Now, we're starting here in San Francisco in what I'd argue is probably what America broadly
00:33:04.400
can expect if Kamala Harris wins across the country.
00:33:09.000
And we're going to land, at the end, in Miami, in Trumpville.
00:33:16.000
San Francisco was actually where Kamala Harris rose to power, in part with her affair with
00:33:22.480
She then moved to the Senate, now the vice presidency.
00:33:26.800
San Francisco has not had a Republican governor in 60 years.
00:33:30.100
And it shows the drug culture, the crime, the urban decay.
00:33:35.060
It's almost the personification of Kamala Harris.
00:33:51.020
You and Lincoln and Lyndon will be in this thing.
00:33:57.700
There's so many amazing things you can discover about America when you go mile by mile, as
00:34:05.680
And I think, I guess the most exciting part for me in this mission is that we see so much
00:34:11.540
filtered media, like in Australia and around the world, I imagine, about this election
00:34:19.280
I really want to get a feel for what the average person thinks.
00:34:21.960
What the average person's actual, as they say, lived experience is.
00:34:26.420
And where it's kind of guiding to get a feel for where are we really being, where are we
00:34:32.420
I think one of the tools is what we call streeters or man on the street interviews.
00:34:38.100
You're great at it because you've got a sense of humor and you're friendly.
00:34:41.340
If this is a one month tour approximately, I don't doubt that you will personally say
00:34:46.720
hello to and give a mini interview to 1,000 real Americans.
00:34:52.760
And I think by talking to 1,000 real people you find randomly, big cities, small towns,
00:34:57.520
at a gas station, at a restaurant, at a sports event, whatever.
00:35:00.580
I think you'll probably get a better feel for real America than the regime media journalists
00:35:11.740
But I think everyone's going to learn a little bit about America.
00:35:16.460
Well, I want to thank you firstly for trusting me with this month mission.
00:35:21.020
And I want to thank the viewers in advance because obviously, yes, we're doing it as budget
00:35:29.020
We're not saying any fancy hotels or anything like that, but none of it is possible without
00:35:36.580
We've got minor sponsors that are helping us along the way, but we need your help.
00:35:43.280
If you can chip in a couple of dollars, if you believe in the mission, if you like the
00:35:47.560
content you're seeing here from the ground and there will be heaps of it, please consider
00:35:59.140
I don't know if you can tell, but I'm super excited about this mission.
00:36:08.000
And if you believe in what we're doing, please consider chipping in now to help make it possible.
00:36:21.700
Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters to you at home,