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founding

"The Left" , "The Progressives" , "Social Justice" - Call them what you will, but you need to understand THEY ARE NOT THE GOOD GUYS! They are truly the worst of people.

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Some people say it’s the Far Left’s new religion. You wonder how far they would go if not constrained by our laws.

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True, but the law doesn't seem to apply to the "left." Remember the BLM protests, participated in by Trudeau and other leftist politicians, during the pandemic lockdowns when anti-lockdown protests were being ruthlessly suppressed? Remember the Idle No More blockades of critical infrastructure - even legislatures! - that went on for weeks or months? Leftist activists already know they can get away with (almost) murder.

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And Terry wrote about churches being burned down after the ‘mass graves story’ debacle. Didn’t Trudeau say he understood?

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Not Trudeau. It was Trudeau's deep thinker, Gerry Butts who said that.

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Oct 18, 2023Liked by Terry Glavin

I believe Trudeau found it “understandable” as well.

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Agreed, who are the good guys these days, how best do we reclaim objective truth? Relativism is a killer.

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Relativism is the idea I've been thinking about most since the attack. It's infected people. I don't know how we get it out.

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I guess Terry' s Substack is a great start. So is Rupa Subramanya.

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I follow people on all sides of the political spectrum as long as I feel they’re speaking honestly. I find that each has a point of view that’s worth considering.

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I follow quite a few as well, the radicals from either side tend to make themselves obvious early on.

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Our government and left-leaning media have sanctioned if not facilitated the growing anti-semitism and bigotry that has infected society in general and our academic institutions in particular.

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I am completely disheartened, dare say depressed. The targeted, genocidal attack of my people 10 days ago has unleashed such an outcry AGAINST Israel, particularly in Western nations, I did not expect: and I am very, very well educated in the underpinnings of “leftists”. That western legacy media would run with a claim by a terrorist group, ie, hospital bombed, and NOT question its veracity, to watch it explode in the most vile displays of anti-semitism since the WW2 era is surreal. I am usually pragmatic and realistic, but I don’t see how this ends well: especially for Jews. Hate to use the vulgarity, but fucking unbelievable.

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I find the anti-semitism appalling, and I wish I could comfort you or provide reassurance. I am sorry for your pain.

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You know even Al Jazeera, FFS, said that Israel did NOT bomb the hospital. CBC was still not clear on the issue last time I checked.

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Nor is Trudeau. After jumping in immediately with a poorly veiled accusation launched against Israel, now he’s waiting for the final result. What a maroon.

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Not jus a maroon, Trudeau is an EVIL person, very evil.

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I have maintained for quite some time that the CBC is the propaganda arm of the Liberal Party of Canada and has upped its anti-C(c)onservative and anti-Israel game exponentially since 2012. I used to listen to CBC radio often; however, even Imelda Marcos wouldn’t have enough shoes for me in the past two decades of CBC radio or TV. It is a disgustingly biased waste of taxpayer dollars. Trudeaus (plural) Pierre, Justin, Alexandre, Maggie, Sophie, and any offspring must not be allowed power or platform if Canada is to continue to function as a democracy. And the same applies to CBC.

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founding

Agreed. The entire clan should be banned, if not from Canada, at least from holding public office ever again. I jest, of course, but I think it would be a good thing if this poisonous family tree would stop serving Canada its wretched fruit.

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The last line informing us that the documentary was produced by Trudeau’s brother made me laugh out loud. Of course it was! Sheesh!

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I remember his remark after filming in Iran. “It’s exciting to witness the downfall of the West”.

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Seriously?

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Just a few minor quibbles:

1. "...Canada's most prestigious universities..." Hahahahahahaha! LOL. Good one. As a denizen of Canadian universities from 1978 to 1999, and a member of the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship from 1993 to present, I can assure you that Canada has no prestigious universities anymore. At best, there are still a few functional departments or faculties, and a good number of decent professors. But Canadian universities - the administrators - abandoned the sacred mandate to search for and disseminate knowledge a long time ago. I left academia in disgust in 1999, and universities have gone steadily and steeply downhill ever since. They are closer to insane asylums now.

2. Michele Landsberg is described as "colourful." I have a different view of virulent misandrists who are every bit is despicable as anti-Semites.

3. One name that does not appear here in the pantheon of left-wing activists is the former President of the National Action Committee for the Status of Women, and current UBC professor, Sunera Thobani. Who can forget her justifying and whitewashing speech after the 9/11 attack?

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Oct 18, 2023Liked by Terry Glavin

Wow! Well worth the read, I see a lot of names here that had faded from memory. Thanks for the lesson.

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I no longer watch, nor listen to, CBC news or current affairs programming. For Canadian tv news I turn to CTV and Global, neither of which is really that much better nowadays but at least they’re not sustained by taxpayer dollars to the same extent as the CBC/Radio-Canada

It is overly simplistic to say “Defund the CBC” but it is certainly well past time for a massive overhaul of how the corporation is operated and subsidized.

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No, it is long past time to defund the CBC. We do not need a state broadcaster in Canada. If people are interested, they can contribute to subscriber-supported radio, TV, and print journalism. It isn't 1930 anymore.

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Oct 18, 2023Liked by Terry Glavin

I’m conservative in the sense that I prefer to, well, conserve the institutions that exist and are necessary as opposed to throwing them out entirely and replacing them with nothing. The latter seems to stem from a more radical impulse that usually doesn’t go well.

I think a national broadcaster is a necessary, public good - especially for such a massive, thinly populated, diverse country with two official languages & many indigenous languages with remote rural enclaves, eclipsed by the behemoth that is the American media industry.

For the sake of democracy and national identity, Canadians need a public broadcaster as a forum to learn about their country and speak to one another. There are still excellent journalists who haven’t forgotten this and perform their jobs with duty and integrity at the CBC (Natasha Fatah comes to mind.)

But a major overhaul - at least with the English division - is desperately needed.

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author

I'm that kind of a "conservative" too, although whenever anyone accuses me of being just another conservative National Post journalist I challenge them to find a single "conservative" sentence I've ever written in my entire career. Always come up empty.

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founding

The first step in overhauling the CBC would be to move its head office to almost anywhere else in Canada except Toronto. That would separate the wheat from the chaff as they say. Unfortunately it’s unlikely that anything can “save” it at this point.

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I would challenge the notion that the CBC is a necessary public good. The public broadcaster has been deeply complicit for decades in fomenting the type of far left, anti-Semitic attitudes we are seeing now. I have been shocked and repulsed by the degree of pro-Hamas, anti-Jew demonstrations I never thought I would see in this country. Any 'institution' that advocates for that hatred and division requires far more than overhaul.

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I said a national broadcaster is a public good, not the CBC in its current form.

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Fair enough. Theoretically, I can support that statement but, as always, the devil is in the details. The funding, oversight, management, objectivity and editorial independence clearly can be difficult challenges.

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Your points for a national broadcaster are noted. The kind of “overhaul” required to make the current iteration of the CBC (English portion) a true national “broadcaster” at whose breast we learn about our country, national identity, democracy, etc. is a gargantuan task that I would suggest is so very near impossible so as to make it not worth the effort. It (the English portion) is a huge money pit that is not fit for purpose. It has become largely the propaganda arm for the Trudeau Liberals and their identity political ideology. I would prefer to end what exists, and start again. Whom, you may ask, would I charge with that task? I’m kind of partial to the folks who prefer honesty to propaganda. Suggestions?

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I don’t know who the best people are to completely start a national broadcaster over from scratch. I haven’t considered it because I don’t think that’s the best way to go about things.

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Did you have any one(s) in mind to do the overhaul? I’m not trying to be difficult.

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Oh I see. I really don’t know! I’m one of the people who can identify it needs an “overhaul” of one type or another, but I haven’t the faintest idea how. I’m hoping there are smarter people than me to figure it out!

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Oct 18, 2023·edited Oct 18, 2023Liked by Terry Glavin

An observation:

It’s interesting that Freeland keeps getting smeared as a Nazi of some kind because she, along with members of her family, have been willing to devote their energies to scholarly research on difficult topics involving her family and Ukrainian history. (Otherwise nobody would even know about these bits of her family history. And I note none of these people appear interested in the actual research on these topics, just an opportunity to smear Freeland.)

But this is the very first time I, along with many others I believe, are learning about Justin’s brother, which seems more relevant.

It’s quite odd.

In any case, a reckoning is far past due.

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author
Oct 18, 2023·edited Oct 18, 2023Author

I'm with you 100 percent viz Freeland. She has a terribly annoying manner, she's a lousy politician, she's grown too accustomed to power (hell, she practically runs the government singlehandedly already) and any criticism of her political standpoints are fair game. But there is a weird Freeland Derangement thing out there, and it was Freland herself and her uncle who did the heavy lifting in uncovering the family's history in Ukraine that everybody went on to accuse her of hiding. I have confessed my biases: I always got along with Freeland on the files I was working on. Lavrov fanboy Dion: Either he goes or I go. Jinping fanboy McCallum: Either he goes or I go. She's a partisan in the global cause of liberal democracy, despite her foolish accomodation of the WEF (the "plutocrats" she once wrote a book escoriating), she decapitated the dirty-money Wealth One Bank (major contributors to Trudeau), she got rid of Marc Miller's pal, the Assadist Waseem Ramli, and she mobilized Global Affairs to work with the IDF on a massive under-the-radar operation to get the White Helmets out of Southern Syria via the Galillee. The guy she promoted to the post of ambassador in Jordan was key to the operation. A proper lad. Young guy, used to be a logger in the Fraser Canyon, not the Heinbecker-Bohem type at all.

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I think it is the Kindergarten teacher way she has when speaking in parliament. Meeeeeester Speeeeeekker. Drives many people nuts. Including me.

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That and her sniffing, her deportment and her incompetence.

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I understand her degree is in "Slavic Studies". Not sure how that qualifies her to handle anything financial, but it does explain how the Liberals managed to bankrupt Canada. The most competent bankers I have dealt with always had a very strong mathematics background. Maybe there should be a test to see if MPs understand basic mathematics before they get to spend our taxpayer dollars.

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Alexandre's, shall we say, "communist tendancies" have been well known for some time.

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All I can say is "Thank God for Terry Glavin". The outright dishonesty, malevolence and obfuscation of the CBC is an outrage, and a national disgrace. For all of their bloviating, their viewing ratings are abysmal. It should come as no surprise the Liberals and NDP are playing footsie with the disreputable types they do, as they covet their support at election time. I will always be proud of Canada, but so much of our leadership and so many of our cultural elites are a disgrace. Deep down, I think they actually despise "real" Canadians, and wish they could rule over a country as authoritarians and punish those with whom they disagree.

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Meantime. How many Gazans are we going to have to accept cause you know it’s coming. Looks like Scotland wants to take Gazan refugees and encouraging others to take them as well.

https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1714370925519347712/pu/vid/avc1/720x720/0hnjYMi__tUa7eyr.mp4?tag=12

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founding

Yes, of course. Because as recent events across the West have shown, we just don’t have enough murderous anti-Semites in this country.

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Saw an interview with a Danish politician. He said that in 1992, Denmark took in 301 Palestinian "refugees". As of last year, 64% have criminal records. 34% of their 999 children have criminal records. Many returned to Gaza after getting Danish citizenship to celebrate, totally negating their "refugee" claims. Enough is enough, this madness needs to stop. His advice to Great Britain, don't take in any Palestinian "refugees".

"

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This is a brilliant overview of what I always knew, but couldn't document. Terry, your film sounds like it MUST be widely seen. How to promote it? HotDocs, of course, wouldn't touch it. This column must go to Poilievre, but there has to be a way to get your film more widely distributed and viewed. Any thoughts, anyone?

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author

I'll ask Fred. He's the author of the guest post, which starts about half way down.

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founding

I will probably upload the documentary to YouTube.

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Thank you! That would be much appreciated. I look forward to purchasing your book and giving it a read, too.

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Marjorie, if you're referring to the doc exposing CBC's biases (This Hour Could Have 10,000 Minutes), it was made by Fred Litwin and the Free Thinking Film Society, and from what I've been able to find online so far, it appeared more than 10 years ago. I'd like to see it myself, but I'm not having luck finding where to purchase or download it. Maybe Terry Glavin or Fred Litwin will let us know if it's still available?

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author

I'll ask Fred.

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I used DuckDuckGo search engine, and came up with a Facebook page entitled: "This Hour Could Have 10,000 Minutes: The Biases of the CBC", among other tidbits. But so far, no real film links. I'm not giving up.

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founding

I might upload the documentary on YouTube.

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Do it quick, before Trudeau blocks Canadians from watching YouTube.

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Thank you! That would be super and much appreciated.

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I’d like to watch that documentary, Terry. Where’s the link?

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Sorry, I see the answer in the comments. I’ll wait for the upload.

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Thanks Terry and Fred. Both of you have prodded a lot of less than pleasant memories of the left and media coverage in the last few decades. The CBC's purge of all things Ghomeshi included a segment at the time of a TIFF when the special event was City to City Tel Aviv. Naomi Klein was madly campaigning to shut the event down, despite the fact that this special event included the screening of films made by Palestinians when she appeared as a guest opposite film maker Simcha Jocobovici, who completely rubbished Klein's claim that Tel Aviv was built on "stolen ground", her justification for her boycott campaign. And Eric Margoles - last memory of him was on a Friday night panel on Steve Paikin's The Agenda, where he made some batty claims that set Paikin and Janet Stein's eyes to rolling.

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