I Went To Jesse Brown’s Talk On ‘Antisemitism In Canadian Media’

 

Highlights included Brown comparing protests against Indigo’s CEO to someone hanging a noose outside places Black people work.

On May 27, the world was reeling in horror at the videos from Gaza following Israeli airstrikes on the supposed safe zone in Rafah that killed at least 45 Palestinians, including beheading a child. In downtown Toronto, people protested outside the Israeli consulate. Further north in the city at a synagogue, however, outrage was mostly directed elsewhere, including Toronto Star columnist Shree Paradkar’s tweets.

That night, the synagogue hosted a “keynote address” by Canadaland founder Jesse Brown titled, “The Slow Pogrom: Antisemitism in Canadian Media.” Given my consistent critiques of Canadaland over the past few months, I decided to register for and attend the event.

Brown’s talk took an hour, followed by 30 minutes of crowd questions. If you’ve spent any time on Twitter you will have come across Brown’s complaints about Canadian media coverage of alleged antisemitism. This event was more of a greatest hits from his collection than the groundbreaking piece of journalism it was advertised as, with no apparent “considerable original research” on display. 

Still, Brown did provide an answer to a question many have asked that I haven’t come across elsewhere, and made some comparisons and suggestions so bizarre that they’re worth documenting.  (more...)

I Went To Jesse Brown’s Talk On ‘Antisemitism In Canadian Media’