The Honest Report HonestReporting Canada

One of the many lessons of the post October 7 world is how vicious anti-Israel propaganda is being pushed, not just in the same places as always, but in venues, platforms and areas which are often least expected.

And in the Canadian context, that means small towns and provinces, where anti-Israel activists have attempted to harass, intimidate and bully in order to get their way.

But in New Brunswick, they have faced stiff resistance from one vocal provincial politician.

Dominic Cardy is a Member of the Legislative Assembly, or MLA, for the riding of Fredericton West - Hanwell, and has made a name for himself by being a strident advocate for Israel, for the province's  small but growing Jewish population, and indeed, for the Canadian values under assault by anti-Israel extremists.

Dominic joins us as our guest this week.

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For months, anti-Israel activists have been cynically using
the term "anti-Palestinian racism" as an effort to stifle
legitimate criticism of pro-Palestinian propaganda, effectively labeling anyone who refuses to adhere to their radical ideology as a racist.

The latest front for this battle is inside school boards,
where anti-Israel radicals are trying to force their ideology into the classrooms, or more accurately, to strengthen the anti-Israel propaganda that is often already quite present in the classroom.

To help us understand this insidious attempt, and how it can be combated, we are joined by Dr. Casey Babb. He is a Senior Fellow with the Macdonald Laurier Institute, an International Fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, and an Associate Fellow with the Royal
United Services Institute in London.

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If you're reading the headlines, or the chatter on social media, it would be easy to conclude that for Jews in the Diaspora, it's little different than 1930s Germany: Brownshirts are on the move, and antisemites under every rock.

But fortunately, that's not the truth at all, at least in Canada, according to a new study which examined recent data around antisemitism, and found - perhaps surprisingly - very positive results.

While there has been a marked increase in antisemitic incidents, primarily graffiti and the like, the attitudes of Canadians towards Jews remains almost unchanged since October 7, with only a miniscule percentage of Canadians expressing anti-Jewish views.

In this week's podcast, we sit down with Professor Robert Brym, one of Canada's leading sociologists and demographers studying the Canadian Jewish community, to discuss his new study which evaluated Canadian attitudes towards Jews and Israel, finding that anti-Jewish incidents emanate from a tiny proportion of society, and that overwhelmingly, Canadians do not embrace such hatred.

Brym's study does not preclude the need to combat anti-Jewish hatred in society, but as he explains in the podcast, it should help to focus the Jewish community's energies.

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It is hardly an exaggeration to say that over the last eight months, there has been a marked increase in the amount of anti-Israel activism in the news media, on university campuses, and in many other fronts, much of it organized by pro-Hamas gangs.

What about the efforts to combat those insidious hate campaigns, particularly on a grassroots level?

In this week's podcast, we sit down with someone who didn't just see a problem and complain about it, he took charge and created what is possibly the largest ongoing pro-Israel rally outside of Israel since October 7.

Guidy Mamann is an immigration lawyer in Toronto by day and an active Israel advocate, serving as the president of the Toronto Zionist Council. Days after the October Hamas attacks, when the terrorist group declared a day of rage across the world, Mamann and a group of others launched a weekly pro-Israel rally in uptown Toronto, which has continued now for nearly 40 weekends in a row without interruption.

Guidy joins us as a guest to explain not just his initiative, but how it can serve as an inspiration for others to take responsibility, too.

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While it rarely makes headlines in the Canadian news media, Israel is facing an onslaught from multiple terrorist groups at once. Not just Hamas, Yemen's Houthi movement, and Islamist groups in Iraq.

But without question, the most capable of the terrorist groups is Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which, like the others, receives extensive training, weapons and funds from the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Hezbollah, like Hamas, is a genocidal Islamic terrorist group. But it is far more powerful, and is deeply embedded within the Lebanese government. Since October 7, it has fired thousands of rockets into Israel, and has forced upwards of 60,000 Israelis from their homes for more than eight months, with no end in sight.

To help us understand the Hezbollah threat, and Israel's options, we are joined by Sarit Zehavi. Sarit is the President and Founder of the Alma Research Center, a nonprofit and an independent research and education center specialized in Israel’s security challenges on its northern border.

The Islamic Republic may be a theocratic totalitarian regime which executes homosexuals, persecutes women, and attempts to destroy Israel, but those fanatical ideologies are not shared by a large majority of Iranians, either in Iran, or in Canada, home to one of the world's largest Iranian diaspora communities.

Contrary to the fanaticism of the Islamic Republic's leaders, most Iranians oppose the regime's existence, as well as its dangerous murderous support for terrorist organizations.

In this week's podcast, we sit down with Negar Mojtahedi, a Vancouver-based journalist with Iran International, to offer her insights into the mood on the street among Iranians in Iran, and here in Canada.