sabrina maddeaux: the odious campaign to take down canadaland's jesse brown
he pushed back against antisemitism, the union representing his staff could not abide that
4 minute read
canadaland founder jesse brown. handout / debra friedman.
the 10 weeks since the oct. 7 terrorist attacks on israel have been a crash course in the hypocrisy and latent-turned-blatant antisemitism of supposed progressives. much of the left, which spent the last several years lecturing and cancelling others on matters of diversity, equity and inclusion, is unwilling to condemn hamas, a genocidal hate organization, or the atrocities they committed against jews.
rather, they’ll condemn jews within their ranks for speaking out against anti-jewish bias and full blown antisemitism before re-evaluating their worldview that wrongly categorizes israelis as inherent oppressors and hamas terrorists as perpetual victims based on little more than skin colour and a warped moral compass where any evil, including rape and murder, is righteous if committed by an “underdog.”
one of the most public examples of this is the rush to condemn and censure jesse brown, founder and publisher of canadaland, an independent news network with a historically leftist bent. brown himself is jewish and has apparently committed the unthinkable and unforgivable sin of standing with israel and publicly calling out anti-jewish bias and hate, particularly within canada’s media landscape.
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this includes a ctv news report that conflates jewishness, including hanukkah celebrations, with war and death in gaza, as well as the toronto star’s now-former internal ombud on editorial-related discrimination and bias’ tweet that “none of us armchair experts are eyewitnesses to who did what” on oct. 7. note: hamas terrorists literally live streamed and filmed their crimes so that the entire world could be eyewitnesses to exactly what they did that day.
brown also called out another ctv segment that saw anchor omar sachedina refer to a peaceful protest against antisemitism as being pro-war, and another prominent left-wing journalist who suggested the world might be better off had hitler won.
first, many of brown’s large “progressive” fan base turned on him. his twitter replies were bombarded with absurd accusations that brown is somehow pro-war, anti-palestinian, promoting disinformation or being performative. there’s been much name calling, and many threats to unsubscribe from canadaland.
on nov. 16, brown pinned a tweet at the top of his feed: “some of my colleagues are being confronted with demands that they answer for my words. what i post here comes just from me, and employees of canadaland and members of its independent newsroom do not necessarily share my views.”
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however, it wouldn’t be enough for brown’s employees, who were next to fully turn on him. this week, the canadaland union released an unsigned letter condemning brown for an unspecified “series of misleading and targeted statements, through both personal and official channels, culminating in a december 13th piece about shree paradkar of the toronto star.”
“although his stated intentions have been to bring attention to the recent rise in antisemitism, we believe that the manner in which he’s done this has been irresponsible and has made it more challenging to do the kind of journalism that we believe is called for at this moment,” it continued. “we are frustrated by brown’s conduct and its impact on our work.”
brown’s story about paradkar’s removal from her part-time management role at the star after internal complaints from coworkers about her tweets was inexplicably too much for the canadaland union, even though it’s the exact kind of piece brown has built canadaland upon.
the letter went on to “make three things clear” in bold font: “the staff at canadland are committed to pursuing serious, rigorous journalism,” “the opinions of jesse brown do not limit or determine the extent of our own coverage” and “we are committed to re-establishing the trust of our listeners and supporters.”
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it was a patently absurd public statement steeped in exactly the sort of anti-jewish bias brown has spent weeks railing against. each allegation is more preposterous than the last. brown has not issued misleading statements, rather he’s critiqued the misinformation and false moral equivalencies spread by others. and while “targeted statements” is a phrase made to sound like brown has been bullying others, he’s done little more than hold media peers accountable for spreading hate and supporting a terrorist organization.
in reality, brown’s reporting on his personal social media and on canadaland has been entirely fact-based and responsible — the type of journalism we need more of if we don’t want to turn the world over to ruthless authoritarian regimes and the terrorists they fund. it’s also been no different from the work he’s published for the last decade; journalism and advocacy that was praised when it stood up for other minority groups.
“brown’s conduct and its impact on our work” is a line more suited to a boss who’s been accused of sexual assault than one who’s put himself on the line to ensure those who seek to equivocate and deny the rape of israeli women on october 7 are rightly denounced.
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while canadaland’s union claims they and their supporters have reason to lose trust in brown, it’s him that would be justified in losing trust in them and everything they claim to stand for. they’ve shown themselves not to be progressives, but ideologues willing to throw jews under the bus.
it turns out the calls were coming from inside brown’s own house, from his own employees, all along. if i were him, i’d change the locks.
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