The Honest Report

Before October 7, 2023, and the Palestinian terrorist invasion of Israel that day, Jon Fraser was a technology executive, executive coach and keynote speaker in Toronto. He still is, but since then, living and working in downtown Toronto, he has become a vocal opponent of the regular hate rallies which have plagued the area over the last 20 months. Since then, under the permissive eye of law enforcement, politicians and with the silent approval of most news media outlets, these pro-Hamas rallies have been scenes of utter lawlessness. But Fraser, who has been a witness to it firsthand, has since become a prominent voice on social media, where he castigates authorities who have done nothing in the face of these hate rallies.

Masha Kleiner is a Vancouver-based software engineer, writer, blogger and rock climber. She had her hands full. But after Hamas' October 7, 2023 invasion of Israel, she found more time to do more, because more needed to be done. Since then, she has become a one-woman activist organization, spearheading pro-Israel rallies, direct action, educational and advocacy campaigns, petitions, counter-protests, stickers, and more. Masha's efforts, ranging from showing up to the University of British Columbia with a sign that says "I am a Zionist, ask me a question," to showing Canadian support for Israel in downtown Vancouver, have redefined pro-Israel efforts in the city, making them more vocal, more present, and more powerful. The lessons from her activism have also uncovered a truth unreported in the media: that small anti-Israel protests do not reflect the will of Canadians, as she has learned first-hand. Masha's story isn't just about one person, but about what others can do when they see a need not being addressed, and they step up to address it. Masha joins us as our guest this week.

After brief but intense skirmishes between India and Pakistan, a tense quiet has taken hold over South Asia as the two powers agreed to a US-backed ceasefire. Those battles came in the aftermath of a bloody terrorist attack in northwestern India on April 22 which killed dozens of people at the hands of Islamic terrorists. That attack was not an isolated massacre, but just the latest salvo from Islamic fundamentalists in the region. While thousands of kilometres may separate Israel and India, both countries face similar threats from similar fanatical extremists hell-bent on murdering as many people as possible. To help us make sense out of this story and what is not being reported by the news media, we are joined by Guneet Singh. He is the founder of the CanAm Network, an independent news media outlet based in Vancouver.

While they may seem like two separate issues, anti-Israel disinformation in the news media and anti-Jewish hate crimes are actually very much intertwined. Thanks to the incessant anti-Israel propaganda frequently disseminated by news media outlets, a message continues to be made to Canadians: that Israel, the Jewish State, is a genocidal regime, and by extension, its supporters are culpable too. But not only is this factually wrong, it's a hateful defamation, and joining us to help us understand this linkage is Richard Robertson, the Manager of Research for B'nai Brith Canada, which recently released its annual audit of anti-Jewish hate crimes.

A recent explosive exposé in Blacklock's Reporter, an Ottawa-based news outlet, unmasked that the federal government in early 2024 spent nearly $130,000 on monitoring pro-Israel social media accounts, ostensibly under the guise of monitoring right-wing extremism. Tom Korski, the news outlet's managing editor, was our guest this week to discuss how they uncovered this story, what it means for Canadians, and the lessons for news media outlets across the country.