EZRA LEVANT ｜ The CFL should focus on sports, not DEI nonsense
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
141.24925
Summary
A CFL game morphs into a "diversity training sermon" featuring the themes of Black History Month, International Women's Day and Asian Heritage Month, and Pride in Truth and Reconciliation. Who decides which minority groups are honored, and which ones are summarily ignored?
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Tonight! A not-so-funny thing happened the other day. I tuned into a football game and it morphed
00:00:21.000
into a diversity training sermon. It's Friday, October 3rd, 2025. I'm David Menzies and this
00:00:32.940
You're fighting for freedom! Shame on you, you sensorious boobug!
00:00:39.400
Say sports fans, last week I tuned into a few Canadian Football League games. Even though
00:00:54.660
I love football, both CFL and NFL, I was left utterly confounded and confused. Now by way
00:01:02.720
of explanation, I wasn't identifying as an American watching his first CFL game, thereby
00:01:09.380
constantly screaming at the TV set, hey, why the hell are these teams always punting
00:01:15.600
on third down? No, rather, what left me somewhat mystified was that something appeared to be
00:01:23.080
a wee bit off regarding the team's uniforms and helmet logos, which is to say there was
00:01:30.060
a smattering of orange coloring on those helmets and uniforms, even though the only team in
00:01:36.640
the league that actually makes use of that color on a regular basis is the British Columbia
00:01:42.720
Lions. The team logos on the helmets were also modified. For example, here's the de rigueur
00:01:49.980
helmet of the Toronto Argonauts. And now here's a photo of the helmet the Argos donned last
00:01:57.560
Friday. Hmm. So I did a little research and came across an article in sportslogos.net. Yes,
00:02:05.680
folks, there's actually a website committed to covering the world of sports logos. Go figure.
00:02:12.580
Anyway, the article clarified the reimagining of those helmets and jerseys. Quote,
00:02:19.140
League White, tonight's looks tie into the CFL's diversity is strength platform, which amplifies
00:02:27.960
year round programming across Black History Month, International Women's Day, Asian Heritage Month,
00:02:36.160
Pride and Truth and Reconciliation. Last year, all nine CFL clubs introduced indigenous design team
00:02:45.200
logos by local artists to honor the game's ties with indigenous communities, end quote. And to think
00:02:54.360
I thought I was trying to get away from the Looney Tunes environment that is our real world simply by
00:03:02.400
trying to watch a football game. I mean, good golly, Miss Molly, where do I even start? Well, how about
00:03:09.500
this diversity is strength platform? Two things come to mind. I'm of the opinion that strength is
00:03:17.940
strength. If diversity happens to be an added feature of that aforementioned strength, well,
00:03:25.200
so be it. But simply being diverse, whatever that means, doesn't necessarily mean that one is strong.
00:03:34.380
Like, who the heck is the CFL commissioner these days, Justin Trudeau? And is this the start of
00:03:42.580
things to come for the CFL? Will gridiron fans see modified helmets and uniforms in the near future
00:03:49.940
that portray the themes of Black History Month, International Women's Day, Asian Heritage Month,
00:03:56.300
and pride? Please know if I see one more stylized rainbow this year, I think I'm going to vomit.
00:04:03.960
Then again, if Justin Trudeau is indeed CFL commissioner, perhaps commemorating Black History Month will
00:04:11.380
give our XPM yet another excuse to don blackface. Another thing, when you think about it, the CFL's
00:04:20.500
diversity platform isn't all that diverse, is it? Oh, sure, natives and Asians and women and blacks and
00:04:28.980
LGBT-ers are being singled out for recognition. But what about the Latinos? What about the Punjabis?
00:04:37.740
Closer to home, what about the Scots? You know, I think a football helmet decked out in the Menzies
00:04:44.800
Tartan would look super cool. The modern hunting tartan, to be precise. Seriously, when it comes
00:04:53.080
to the diversity sweepstakes, who decides which minority groups are honored and which ones are
00:05:00.460
summarily ignored? What are the rules? I really, really want to know. Speaking of the rules, here's
00:05:08.320
another thing. How is it that the use of indigenous symbolism in sports suddenly has gone from verboten
00:05:17.640
to vogue, at least in the terms of the CFL. I mean, post-George Floyd, cancel culture slammed down a
00:05:24.780
tomahawk big time on many teams using native logos and nicknames. I don't get the connection either,
00:05:33.480
folks, but never mind. First to go was the Washington Redskins. DC's football team is now known as the
00:05:41.920
Washington Commanders. Commanders? What are you commanding? Surrender? Next to go was the Cleveland
00:05:51.120
Indians. Cleveland's baseball team is now known as the Guardians. What are they guarding exactly?
00:05:59.080
Perhaps Cleveland's Cuyahoga River, a waterway that is so polluted, it sometimes catches on fire.
00:06:07.940
Only in Cleveland. North of the border, the CFL's Edmonton Eskimos were also deemed to be offside.
00:06:15.860
Poor Edmonton football fans. They're now stuck with a team that has the nickname Elks. And as an aside,
00:06:22.820
isn't the plural for elk the same as the singular? Elk. I mean, who calls a herd of elk? Elks.
00:06:31.680
Congratulations, Edmonton. You now have the most grammatically incorrect nickname this side of the
00:06:37.620
Toronto Maple Leafs. But here's the thing. Edmonton wanted to keep its iconic EE logo,
00:06:44.820
so it needed a nickname to begin with the letter E. Wouldn't the obvious choice be the Edmonton
00:06:52.160
Energy? You know, with the club being situated in oil and gas-rich Alberta, after all. Oh, wait a
00:06:59.240
minute. What am I saying? That nickname might be offensive to the climate change cooks.
00:07:06.680
Oh, and by the way, folks, the left-wing loonies aren't quite done yet. They're now targeting the
00:07:13.080
remaining native-themed teams in sports. That includes the Kansas City Chiefs, the Atlanta
00:07:19.080
Braves, and the Chicago Blackhawks. By the way, the CBC isn't even waiting around for the Blackhawks
00:07:26.220
to get officially cancelled. So it is that the woeful wokesters at the CBC will only refer to the
00:07:34.460
Chicago Blackhawks on air as Chicago's NHL team. I'm serious. And guess what? You're paying for this
00:07:44.480
fake news, folks. And another thing, these modified CFL logos and uniforms, they're not so much
00:07:51.960
indigenous designed, rather they're indigenous modified. You know, piggybacking additional design
00:07:59.440
elements on an existing logo is a big mistake when it comes to basic graphic design, in which
00:08:07.260
less is always more. It's kind of like unnecessarily tinkering with a Porsche 911. You know, when you put
00:08:17.380
one of those ludicrous whale tail spoilers on the back, that's not innovation, that's regression.
00:08:24.080
Indeed, in the world of sports, minimalism wins the day when it comes to logos. I speak of the iconic
00:08:31.120
NY of the New York Yankees, the SF of the San Francisco 49ers, the CH of the Montreal Canadiens,
00:08:38.780
and of course, the majestic winged wheel of the Detroit Red Wings. Those logos are all instantly
00:08:46.560
recognizable and are design masterpieces. As for the indigenous themed CFL logos, sorry, they all add up
00:08:57.060
to a dog's breakfast. Case in point, check out the modified logo of the Montreal Alouettes. Now to me,
00:09:04.760
it looks like a bird shedding its feathers somehow got caught in a spider web. As for the Hamilton Tiger
00:09:12.840
Cats, well, is Tony the Tiger actually sporting blackface these days? Meanwhile, the CFL team that
00:09:21.240
takes the cake and all of the candles with it when it comes to logo virtue signaling is surely the
00:09:28.520
Saskatchewan Rough Riders. Yes, the Riders modified logo is not just indigenous themed, but also pays
00:09:35.640
tribute to the L-G-G-B-D-T-T-T-I-I, et cetera, et cetera, community, you know, so that the millions
00:09:44.680
of people in the Rough Riders fan base aren't left out, the ones who, you know, identify as
00:09:51.960
two-spirit. So for example, what's two-spirit? Well, two-spirit sounds like there's someone they
00:09:58.260
don't know whether they're, you know, fish or fowl. They don't know whether they're frick or frack.
00:10:02.280
So they're clearly confused. By the way, that was former Liberal Party of Canada
00:10:07.240
President Stephen LaDrew being interviewed by Tucker Carlson back in 2017. LaDrew was fired
00:10:14.700
by Bell Media after that segment aired. You see, folks, in Canada, it is now strictly forbidden
00:10:20.800
to call confused people, confused people. Hey, how are you digging your liberalism these days,
00:10:27.860
LaDrew? Finally, look what the artist did to the Calgary Stampeders logo. Yikes, it looks like the
00:10:37.200
poor horse is getting electrocuted. And, you know, if any CFL logo lent itself to a little native theme
00:10:45.580
modification, surely it was Calgary's charging horse, which is to say, why not place an indigenous
00:10:53.000
chief atop that stallion? I think that logo would actually look cool. But then again, did I just
00:11:00.360
cross some imaginary line here regarding what is allowed and what is not allowed when it comes to
00:11:07.000
native icons? It's also confusing, isn't it? And again, I beg of you, please tell me, what are the
00:11:15.560
rules? Now, I did seek out guidance from the media relations department of the CFL. I sent along a
00:11:22.800
series of queries regarding the diversity and strength platform. Alas, no response to my emails.
00:11:30.520
Perhaps the CFL is only responding to smoke signals these days. If so, that's something that is beyond my
00:11:37.660
pay grade. So, in the final analysis, I have two thoughts. First, as you may have noticed, I've
00:11:45.480
dropped my de rigueur fedora in favor of my gorgeous Washington Redskins ball cap. This now defunct NFL
00:11:54.280
logo and nickname was canceled because it is allegedly offensive. Yet the question arises, offensive to whom?
00:12:03.500
Exhibit A. In 2016, none other than the Washington Post or the Washington Compost, as the great one Mark
00:12:12.300
Levin likes to call this newspaper, exclusively polled Native Americans regarding the name and logo of the
00:12:20.800
Washington Redskins. And get this, folks, more than 90% of these respondents were not, I repeat, not offended by the
00:12:31.600
logo and nickname of this franchise. By the way, it's a modern day miracle that the Post actually
00:12:38.160
published the results of its poll in the first place, given its woke editorial stance on such
00:12:44.580
issues. And hey, sports fans, here's a fun fact for you. The modern day Redskins logo was rendered in 1971.
00:12:52.740
It was based upon a composite of Native American photographs, including one of the early 20th century
00:13:00.740
Blackfeet chief, Two Guns White Calf. He was born near Cut Bank Creek on the Blackfeet Reservation.
00:13:10.720
As for the man who actually created the Redskins logo, that would be none other than the late Walter
00:13:17.260
Blackie Wetzel. And get this, Wetzel was a Native American himself. He was a member of the Blackfeet
00:13:24.560
tribe in Montana, serving as a tribal chairman. He also served as president of the National Congress
00:13:32.600
of American Indians. Oh, poor Mr. Wetzel. Didn't he get the memo that his artwork is racist, even though
00:13:41.700
Wetzel himself is Native American? But clearly replacing Redskins with commanders was a fix for
00:13:50.660
a problem that did not exist. You see, everyday natives subscribe to a different agenda than those
00:13:58.100
woke natives running official native organizations these days, as well as those pearl-clutching,
00:14:05.260
pale-faced liberals that are forever hell-bent on virtue signaling. And really, isn't this NFL
00:14:13.600
indigenous agenda all about virtue signaling as opposed to, you know, actually doing something
00:14:20.620
tangible for indigenous people? Which is to say, maybe the executives at the CFL feel good about
00:14:29.140
themselves ordering the teams to splash some orange on their football uniforms come late September.
00:14:36.140
But how does that rectify the real problems that too many indigenous people face on a daily basis in
00:14:43.140
this country? Such as the drinking water crisis. Do you know currently more than 30 reserves in Canada
00:14:50.640
are under a boil water advisory? That's scandalous. Here's my advice for the CFL. Your bailiwick is to
00:15:00.500
operate a professional football league, a football league that faces challenges right now in so many
00:15:07.940
marketplaces. And these challenges are serious to the very survival of certain CFL teams. And no, those
00:15:16.800
ludicrous rule changes going into effect next season that are meant to Americanize the Canadian game
00:15:22.980
is no cure-all. And golly, the Canadian Football League embracing U.S. football rules? Is elbows up
00:15:31.700
already extinct? But if the CFL insists on getting involved with social justice issues, how about, I don't know,
00:15:40.640
kick-starting a fundraiser to address the boil-watery advisory that remains on way too many reserves?
00:15:49.500
That would actually be doing something good. That would be less of a fumble and more of a touchdown.
00:15:57.060
One last thing to all the sports commissioners, people tuning into sports are doing so for escapism
00:16:06.080
from the real, wacky, woke world. Which is to say, when I watch the Argonauts, I'm hoping to see,
00:16:14.440
you know, a football game, not some gridiron-themed lecture on how diversity is strength.
00:16:23.100
Well, folks, it's hard to believe we're just mere days away from the second anniversary of that
00:16:38.480
grotesque massacre that happened in Israel on October 7th, 2023. And what have we seen these
00:16:45.980
past couple of years? Well, inexplicably, an increase in anti-Semitism. And not only that,
00:16:54.540
anti-Semitism manifesting itself in the most unlikely places. And I speak of the Law Society
00:17:03.360
of Ontario, the Toronto Public Library, and even a certain immigration consultant. But blowing the
00:17:12.460
whistle on that trio is my guest. His name is Bryant Greenbaum. He is self-described as a Zionist
00:17:20.360
human rights lawyer based here in Toronto. So, Bryant, let's get right to business. Starting with
00:17:28.400
the Law Society of Ontario, you wrote a piece for Honest Reporting, in which you're saying you are
00:17:36.020
taking the governing body of lawyers in this province to the Human Rights Tribunal. Why is that?
00:17:43.920
I am taking the Law Society of Ontario to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, because they accredited a
00:17:52.140
speaker who has espoused what I consider to be anti-Semitic language at a protest, and more
00:18:01.320
specifically praising the October 7th paraglider attack. So, who was the speaker, Bryant?
00:18:07.620
The speaker's name was Harsha Walla. And she was invited by the Law Union of Ontario. And they're
00:18:16.240
not a union. They're a civil society, a loose group of individuals who do work on some good stuff,
00:18:24.780
like homelessness and racial profiling. So, they do work on some good stuff. But they've got on board
00:18:31.740
with anti-Israel rhetoric. And more specifically, this organization invited this Harsha Walla to speak,
00:18:40.960
well knowing that Jews would not want to attend such an event. And the Jewish bar was basically going
00:18:46.760
to be excluded, because it would be distasteful for the Jewish bar to attend this accredited CPD, EDI.
00:18:56.060
But Brian, I would argue, Jewish or not, why in the world would the Law Society or the Law Union
00:19:05.480
invite a speaker praising the greatest slaughter of Jews post-Holocaust? This was a horrific terrorist act.
00:19:15.300
And, I mean, I am baffled by that. Would they invite a neo-Nazi to address the membership,
00:19:24.160
the rank and file, you know, being an apologist for Adolf Hitler? What's the unspoken story of all
00:19:31.380
the people they could invite in, that they would invite this person to glorify that day of atrocity?
00:19:38.520
Well, the interesting part of this whole thing, really, is that the Law Society is content with
00:19:44.440
their decision to accredit it and to not revoke that accreditation. And I've learned that through
00:19:49.480
their pleadings, through their arguments in the Human Rights Tribunal complaint. So basically,
00:19:56.140
what they're saying is exactly what you have just poffered. They are basically saying the gates are
00:20:01.880
open. This law union invites someone who some would say is unsavory for continuing professional
00:20:15.540
development. The Law Society accredits that. And basically, what the Law Society is saying is
00:20:20.500
any group can invite whoever you want. You want to invite KKK members for CPD? You can.
00:20:25.840
Well, I'll believe it when I see it. Well, wait one second. I'll make you a deal. If you know a KKK
00:20:33.160
member, and you arrange for me to meet him, I'm willing to apply to the Law Society for accreditation
00:20:41.240
on that. Interesting. For the record, folks, I don't know any KKK members.
00:20:48.820
Okay. So, needless to say, what was the outcome of that presentation? I mean,
00:20:58.100
did people get up and walk out? Was there heckling? Or was she preaching to the converted?
00:21:06.980
She was probably preaching to the converted, but I didn't go. I'm Jewish. I was not going to attend
00:21:11.860
an accredited Law Society of Ontario continuing professional development lecture. I was not going
00:21:18.280
to attend that when the speaker praised the paragliders on October 7th. I, as a Jew, and
00:21:24.660
from my understanding, all of my Jewish colleagues in the Jewish bar weren't interested in attending
00:21:29.980
either. Sure, there could have been a few sprinklings of anti-Zionist Jews who thought it was cool,
00:21:35.580
but the majority of the Jewish bar felt it was repugnant and would not want to step foot in that venue.
00:21:40.900
Yeah. You know, we're pretty much free speech absolutists here at Rebel News, Brian, but I've
00:21:46.780
always said there is a line in the sand. And that line is when you advocate harm, violence,
00:21:53.700
even death to an individual or an identifiable group of individuals. And that's the line being
00:21:59.700
crossed here. I'm sorry if you were praising terrorists for massacring mostly innocent Israelis
00:22:06.960
because there were people from other countries there that were caught up in the carnage. That is
00:22:12.840
But I must interrupt and say one thing, though. According, as a lawyer, that is offensive. And I
00:22:19.660
believe in free speech, too. I even believe that the encampments at the University of Toronto,
00:22:25.520
to a certain extent, were legitimate forms of nonviolent disobedience. And Martin Luther King
00:22:32.380
was an expert in that. So what I am saying from a lawyer's point of view is, and from a member of
00:22:40.720
the bar, is once you cross the rubric into asking for accreditation, you're basically telling the law
00:22:48.420
society, please endorse this speaker. Please endorse this lecture. And knowing that a lot of the
00:22:54.780
Jewish bar in Ontario would find that offensive and would not attend the event. So is the law society
00:23:01.640
basically saying, members, invite who you want. Do some KKK CPD. And that sounds pretty good. KKK CPD.
00:23:11.980
And do as you wish. Apply for accreditation. We don't care. We trust you. Well, I don't trust who
00:23:18.720
undertook this conference, the Law Union of Ontario. And I don't trust the law society
00:23:23.420
anymore as a lawyer. And that's sad. I'm a lawyer, a human rights lawyer, if I could backtrack for a
00:23:29.700
moment. I'm a human rights lawyer. As you introduced me, a Zionist human rights lawyer. I have taught
00:23:37.380
international human rights law at Osgoode Hall Law School for many years. I love the law. I love
00:23:43.560
international human rights law. I've taught it at Osgoode Hall for many years. I worked in Congo. I
00:23:49.100
worked in South Africa on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. I have worked with
00:23:55.320
Indigenous issues, child welfare issues at the Ontario Human Rights Commission. I can go on with
00:24:01.020
my accolades. I'm a true human rights advocate. But I'll tell you one thing. If the law society
00:24:07.900
feels that this is appropriate, I've lost faith in them. And I can't even, whenever I have to pay my
00:24:14.640
dues or file a report, it stings. Well, you know, I can tell you, Brian, from a lot of lawyers have
00:24:20.160
reached out to me over the last several months with complaints about the, I guess, the wokeness of
00:24:26.900
the Law Society of Ontario, which, by the way, didn't it used to be called the Law Society of Upper
00:24:31.420
Canada? And maybe because of wokeism that, you know, that was too colonialist. They just replaced
00:24:38.020
Upper Canada with Ontario. But here's the thing, to the heart of your matter, where does it stand
00:24:43.840
right now in terms of the Human Rights Tribunal hearing this? So right now, I'm waiting for an
00:24:50.400
interim order. And this is going to be the thing that knocks you off your stool. And you're going
00:24:54.300
to not believe this. I asked the Human Rights Tribunal for an interim order to have a confidentiality
00:25:02.560
order for my home address. And the Human Rights Tribunal refused to redact my home address
00:25:12.780
based on personal safety, personal safety, personal safety of me.
00:25:19.340
At a protest, prior to it becoming a terrorist organization, the speech where she was giving,
00:25:29.900
Samadun was the organizer of the speech, she gave a speech, and that later became a terrorist
00:25:34.940
organization. I asked the Human Rights Tribunal, redact my home address, please.
00:25:39.580
Based on personal safety, personal safety of me. There's synagogues near my home. There's,
00:25:44.780
I said to the Human Rights Tribunal, there's synagogues. I have a young family. You know,
00:25:51.420
I don't want a terrorist organization getting my home address. And the law society, at least I give
00:25:56.780
them credit, said we take no position. But the law union, the law union said, this guy's a fake.
00:26:03.900
He's got nothing to worry about, terrorists or otherwise, the law union said. So that's going
00:26:09.500
through the process, this interim order. I've appealed that confidentiality
00:26:15.580
ruling that says I can't have my address redacted. That's being appealed. But the next step will likely
00:26:21.260
be is the law union and the law society will file motions to summarily dismiss this matter
00:26:29.180
based upon no reasonable prospect of success. So any big organization, any David versus Goliath,
00:26:36.220
I'm fighting the law society. I'm fighting the law union of Ontario, which has 400 lawyers,
00:26:42.300
and little old me. They're going to bring motions. They're going to try to mess me up. And they're
00:26:47.100
going to do one thing for sure, is they're going to claim that this has no reasonable prospect of
00:26:54.140
Interesting. Well, so many millennia ago, the kid with the slingshot, the prohibitive underdog,
00:27:01.180
emerged Victoria. So there's that bit of history on your side, Brian. But I guess it's going to be
00:27:07.820
months before it's heard. Assuming it is heard, do you think you're going to get a sympathetic
00:27:15.660
audience at the Human Rights Tribunal? Personally speaking, Brian, I consider that tribunal to be a
00:27:21.980
kangaroo court that doesn't adhere to the proper rules of the law or of the court system. And
00:27:29.980
ideologically speaking, I think you might have a lot cut out for you in terms of making the case for
00:27:38.860
them to rule in favor, or do I have this wrong? Well, you have it partly right, partly wrong.
00:27:44.140
And how do you have it wrong? Winning is not always the ultimate goal. Sometimes all you want to do is,
00:27:51.100
if I can get past this motion to summarily dismiss this for no lack of success or possibility of no
00:27:59.260
lack of success, if I can go over that hurdle and get to the discovery stage, I want the emails from
00:28:06.620
the law society to see what they said. Holy ****, what is Greenbaum saying that this person was praising
00:28:13.900
the paragliders and he's complaining and saying, why are we accrediting this crap? And I want the emails
00:28:21.740
between the law society. I want the emails at the law union that says, hey, at the law union, we know this
00:28:27.660
person is offensive to Jews, but who gives a **** about Jews? So that's the type of stuff that I want to get,
00:28:33.980
even if I don't win. Yeah. And keep us appraised of that. Number two on the list. This is an amazing
00:28:41.500
story. You discovered that the Toronto Public Library in its curriculum, it has a book that is
00:28:50.700
entitled Hamas, A Beginner's Guide by Khalid Harub. I mean, at first I thought, is this a parody title? But
00:29:03.020
it isn't. And you reached out to the library and you said, what's going on? A beginner's guide for
00:29:09.580
a recognized terrorist group. And how did those conversations go, Brian? Okay. Well, to be fair,
00:29:18.700
I have no problem with academics studying the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas and their inception.
00:29:27.900
And those books are at the library. Exactly. And I have no problem with people recording the history
00:29:34.300
of Hamas and looking at it objectively or critically, recognizing that they're a terrorist organization
00:29:40.700
under Canadian law and policy. But my objection with this book was that it resembled Holocaust denialism
00:29:51.900
in the sense that they said that the October 7th massacre at Nova music festival and the kibbutzes
00:29:59.420
were all done by the IDF due to this Hannibal strategy. And that grotesque Holocaust denialism,
00:30:07.980
October 7th denialism is beyond an academic discussion. It's misinformation and dangerous
00:30:15.180
misinformation that leads to anti-Semitism. And things like the terrible thing that happened
00:30:21.580
at Yom Kippur today. To my Jewish friends, I say, let us pray, let us repent, let us pray for renewal.
00:30:29.820
That's a bit over the line of an academic discussion. And the book clearly crosses that line.
00:30:38.380
And it would be the same thing if the Air India bombing, if somebody wrote a book saying the Air India
00:30:47.020
bombing was really done by Hindus. It was done by the Hindus, right? For Hindu nationalism, or similar to
00:30:55.580
the... As opposed to the Kalistani separatists. Correct. Yeah. Correct. And on that matter,
00:31:00.620
we've had two public inquiries saying that's not true. And of course, the Kalistanis want a third
00:31:06.620
public inquiry, but I know where you're going. But, and that, and that's, that's the key to the issue,
00:31:10.860
isn't it? It isn't the author saying there are some people who say this. Correct. You know, it's,
00:31:18.140
this is the way it is. Correct. Correct. And the, why are they, uh, so I wrote to the library,
00:31:23.660
the Toronto library and said, I said, get that the fuck out of circulation. Yeah. ASAP. And they wrote
00:31:30.620
me back and said, well, we got your request. Um, it's going to go to a board of librarians.
00:31:36.220
I've got a letter. What date is that letter? Yeah. This letter, it's, uh, September 23rd of this year.
00:31:42.380
And, um, it goes on and on. Uh, but I think the key paragraph, uh, Bryant is this quote,
00:31:49.020
the third edition, the third edition of Hamas, a beginner's guide aims to provide an introduction
00:31:56.220
to Hamas covering its history, ideology, and its political and military strategy. The author Khalid
00:32:03.740
Harub is a Palestinian academic and professor of Middle Eastern studies at Northwestern University
00:32:11.260
and Qatar. Pluto press has been an independent publisher since 1969 and has worked with authors
00:32:20.460
such as Karl Marx and bell hooks and quote. Um, yeah, even if all that is accurate, Bryant, I would say,
00:32:30.700
but that's how is that germane to the issue that you have a book, uh, um, glorifying the massacre
00:32:38.300
and blaming the massacre on the wrong entity and namely the IDF. Right. Uh, similar to blaming
00:32:45.740
Hindus for the air India bombing. Yeah. But irrespective of that, my main concern is that
00:32:50.620
this Toronto library, uh, response in this letter, uh, to getting this book again, sorry for the
00:32:57.660
profanity. You can beep it out the out of circulation, uh, is the problem that they have is
00:33:04.140
they're concerned that Pluto publishing a very well-respected, uh, left-wing publisher,
00:33:10.060
uh, that would question their screening and their, uh, publishing efforts and their catalog.
00:33:17.020
What type of crap do they let in the gate? And so the library is, I think worried a bit about
00:33:23.020
offending a publisher worry. And that's why, and should this proceed? And I will appeal this
00:33:29.340
decision for them because they refuse to take it off the shelves. I'm going to appeal it. It could
00:33:35.180
go to judicial review. It could go to the courts, but, uh, I'll hold their hands to the fire fire.
00:33:41.660
And you know, who's going to suffer in the end, Pluto press, that's, who's going to suffer because
00:33:46.700
it's showing that they'll print any rubbish. And, and, you know, I, it's almost cosmically
00:33:53.900
perversely amusing that they, um, wave the name of Karl Marx around as a, uh, a badge of honor.
00:34:01.660
Um, unbelievable. Let's get to the third and final issue. It's an immigration consultant,
00:34:07.340
um, who is acting, I believe, uh, you told me, uh, off air Bryant in an anti-Semitic fashion,
00:34:15.420
and yet, uh, seems to be getting away with it. What's the story there?
00:34:18.620
Yeah. So basically there's a situation where, um, there is an immigration consultant who was an,
00:34:26.220
who was what part of the Indigo 11. And this guy's name is McDonald Scott.
00:34:31.740
And by the way, just for those who don't know, uh, Bryant, this was the Indigo bookstore at the
00:34:37.420
corner of Bloor Bay in downtown Toronto. Um, it was vandalized and paint bombed. And, uh, really,
00:34:45.900
that's cut to the chase. The reason is the CEO of Indigo is Heather Reisman, who is Jewish. Um,
00:34:53.100
and therefore they think that's what gives them carte blanche to attack a bookstore. Correct?
00:35:00.540
Correct. Um, uh, and I always use the analogy that if you vandalized an abortion clinic,
00:35:08.780
surely you would know that that's going to cause fear in women, uh, terrible fear in women, uh,
00:35:16.940
longstanding fear in women. And, uh, irrespective, if your goal is not misogyny is not to hurt women,
00:35:24.220
but to protect unborn children, you know, ahead of time that by vandalizing, uh, an abortion clinic,
00:35:30.060
you're going to cause fear to, uh, women as a, an unintended or intended consequence.
00:35:37.980
This McDonald Scott vandalized this Jewish store, knowing the harm it would cause to the Jewish
00:35:44.540
community. This guy's a sicko, a real sicko in my books, knowing if, imagine if he did that to a
00:35:50.700
Hindu store or an abortion clinic or to a, uh, um, uh, uh, uh, LGBT, uh, storefront. Oh,
00:35:59.420
the left would cancel culture in a heartbeat. But this guy says, so if a few Jews are upset
00:36:05.500
and it's not a few Jews, the majority of Jewish people are Zionists. And if I could do for one
00:36:12.700
second, I have a short break that I want to introduce. This is my alarm. Cause I did,
00:36:17.820
did I say Zionist? Most Jews are Zionists. So I just want to press my alarm for a second.
00:36:24.060
Oh, it's a, is that literally a trigger warning? Well, it's a trigger warning because I said the
00:36:28.140
word Zionist, but very quickly, uh, Brian, uh, this immigration consultant, he was found guilty.
00:36:33.740
Is that correct? He pled guilty to a criminal charge. Okay. And the, the, the judge, uh, was
00:36:40.220
clear that this was on the upper level. Again, the upper level of blameworthiness. Okay.
00:36:46.140
That, that there was letters from Jewish organizations like the Simon Wiesenthal, uh,
00:36:52.380
center. Uh, and they said, this caused a huge amount of harm to the Jewish community.
00:36:57.420
So these were victim impact statements? There was a community that didn't impact
00:37:01.500
statement. The college, when they make, when I applied, complained against him,
00:37:06.060
I wanted him disciplined, suspended, terminated. Uh, they said, no, we'll just give him a warning.
00:37:12.460
Yeah. So I said, I said to the college, I said, that's not appropriate. Yeah. And so I'm taking
00:37:19.260
them to federal court right now saying that the decision of the college never looked at the harm
00:37:25.660
that this caused to the Jewish community, even though there was community impact statements from
00:37:31.020
the Jewish community. The decision is void of any discussion about the harm to the Jewish community,
00:37:36.300
but makes a finding that there was no antisemitism. And again, the abortion clinic example, you know,
00:37:43.180
I, I would say Bryant, what we're dealing with here is a double standard. I don't have proof,
00:37:49.020
but I can tell you if that Indigo was an Islamic bookstore, correct. If it was an LGBT,
00:37:55.900
et cetera, et cetera. If it was a Hindu bookstore. Yeah. I think this guy, um, I think his, um,
00:38:02.460
governing body takes this way more serious. They likely sanction them. They likely forbid him for,
00:38:08.780
uh, for acting as a consultant, but you told me he's back at work already. Well, no one's done
00:38:13.900
anything. This is the sick part of it is this guy is a sick criminal. He'll always be a criminal. He,
00:38:19.980
he got a conditional discharge, but he pled guilty. The guilt, the guilty pleading is registered with
00:38:25.820
the court. He's a sick criminal. And what was his sentence? By the way, his sentence was community
00:38:30.220
service and of course, and other things and other conditions, but works at a law firm called
00:38:36.300
car Carzana, LLP, C-A-R-R-A-N-Z-A. And I think, and they, the Carzana law firm, they sent in lots of
00:38:45.260
recommendation letters to the criminal court saying, this guy's a great guy. Listen, this law
00:38:50.300
firm is a personal injury law firm. I think that not only is this sicko McDonald's got sick, but I
00:38:58.940
think this law firm is sick. I'm a lawyer and I'm calling another, uh, group of lawyers at a law firm
00:39:05.900
sick. Yeah. I think they're sick because, because they're, they've let this guy who has shown animus
00:39:12.700
to a certain group in their offices, in their personal injury office. And there's files that
00:39:17.740
contain very sensitive information. What happens if there's a Jewish client or a Zionist client?
00:39:22.860
Now tell me what's going to happen. Is the law society of Ontario going to do it?
00:39:26.380
Hey, I wrote to the law society. I wrote to the college. I said, there's a sicko in a law firm
00:39:31.100
in Ontario. Okay. What did the law society do? They wrote back to me and said, law firms can hire
00:39:36.300
sickos. No problem. Law firms can hire sickos. No problem. And, uh, then I said, well,
00:39:42.220
do they have to give a warning to prospective clients? If I'm a Jew, I don't, I want to know
00:39:46.620
that there's a sicko that has animus towards me before I go to that law firm. Do they have to give
00:39:51.100
a warning? Guess what the law society said? You don't have to give a warning. If Jews get caught
00:39:57.100
up in this sickos, uh, law firm buyer beware. I don't know. Incredible. Brian, we're running out of a
00:40:05.100
race track. I want to give you one last question going back to October 7th of 2023. Uh, as I said,
00:40:13.660
in the preamble, uh, there has been antisemitism exploding so much. So you would think if you're
00:40:21.980
a visitor from another planet and you heard about the massacre of October 7th, it's almost as though
00:40:28.060
it was the Israelis massacring Palestinians, not the other way around. I want to get your theory
00:40:35.260
as to why the greatest massacre of Jews post Holocaust has ignited this wave of antisemitism,
00:40:47.020
Jew hate, Israel hate. Why do you think that is happening when you'd think, you know, right-minded
00:40:54.140
people the world over would be condemning the terrorists, not, you know, seeing their point
00:40:59.580
of view, so to speak? Yeah. Well, I think it's a complicated situation after October 7th,
00:41:05.020
but everyone would do well to read this book. Um, it's, uh, aftershock anti-Zionism and antisemitism
00:41:13.020
by David Mattis, uh, well-respected academic, human rights advocates, uh, respected left, right,
00:41:20.700
center. And this guy, uh, in explains how anti-Zionism turns into antisemitism. But what has really
00:41:27.820
happened is the same way with the Nazis in Germany is it's the intelligentsia, it's the university
00:41:34.780
professors, it's the law societies that, uh, that condone or look away or encourage, uh, this, this dog
00:41:44.620
whispers that if you love Israel, which I love Israel, I love Israel despite, despite the difficulties
00:41:52.540
and I pray for every Gazan child. Uh, but I also see that Israel is being singled out in ways that no
00:42:03.020
other nation would be singled out. And there it's, it all ties back to Holocaust denialism. It all ties back
00:42:10.460
to, uh, anti-Semitism and the fact that, uh, people who are so quick to judge Israel are basically
00:42:21.020
saying in not so many words, the Jews never deserved a place of refuge. The Jews should
00:42:27.420
have just packed up their bags when they took their, their, the boats to Canada and Canada said,
00:42:33.580
when they took their boats to America and America said, they should have gone back to Germany,
00:42:38.700
back to where the concentration camps were and settled there. Well, I'll tell you one thing,
00:42:43.420
the Jewish nation is not going to settle in Germany after the Holocaust, the Jewish nation
00:42:49.660
settled in their birthright in their place, uh, where my son was bar mitzvahed in their place where I pray,
00:42:57.580
to Jerusalem daily, you know, as we wouldn't put, expect Muslims to, uh, expect Mecca to be moved to
00:43:07.500
Uganda. We wouldn't expect Mecca to be moved to, uh, uh, Madagascar. We would, we have to respect that
00:43:16.300
the Jews have a place in Jerusalem. No, I, I, I, you're absolutely right. I, I, I, when you look at
00:43:22.860
what is the narrative on, uh, the academic world right now, what the kids on campus are being told
00:43:29.420
they're putting Israel through the, uh, colonizer lens, much like Europeans coming to North America.
00:43:36.620
You know, the Jews were colonists when in fact, uh, I'm sorry, uh, Jews and Israel,
00:43:43.340
those are the indigenous, if you will. So, uh, the world is upside down, right? I want to thank you so
00:43:48.780
much. I'm going to look into this book, um, after shock. I have a feeling I'm going to have to buy this
00:43:54.700
online, folks. I have a feeling if I go to the Toronto Public Library, um, well, knock me down