OH CANADA OH EZRA LEVANT

FROM RABBLE.COM

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/djclimenhaga/2012/09/whos-censoring-ezra-levant-now-has-sun-news-network-seen-light

Where is Ezra Levant's Sun News Network rant on Roma immigration to Canada, which has been depicted as ethnic stereotyping to foment hate?

For that matter, where is the uncharacteristically silent Levant?

Just a week ago, on Sept. 5, the Sun News Network commentator -- who as Rabble.ca's Karl Nerenberg astutely observed yesterday, has carved himself a niche as the "nasty buffoon of the Canadian Right" -- delivered one of his trademark on-air screeds, this time against what he termed "the Gypsy problem."

In his characteristically abusive style, Levant denied the Roma are a distinct people or culture, and indeed suggested that the term "Roma" should be used for nothing but a tomato. He called this ethnic group "not a race, not a religion, not a linguistic group," and stated that they have come to Canada "to rob us blind as they have done in Europe for centuries."

I'm not going to continue quoting Levant, because I believe that if his on-air remarks did not go over the line, his commentary came very close to the legal definition of hate speech as defined by Section 319 for the Canadian Criminal Code.

Regardless, as Nerenberg pointed out, this opinion -- if that’s the word for it -- is simply false. "The facts are that Roma are a recognized 'people'; they have a language, Romani; very few present-day Roma lead nomadic lifestyles; many own property; and many work at all kind of occupations, from musician to lawyer," Nerenberg wrote.

Moreover, I'm not really directly quoting Levant anyway, as I've been forced to rely Nerenberg and other Internet sources because Levant's commentary -- so proudly posted to Sun News Network's website last Wednesday -- has mysteriously and almost completely disappeared into the cybervoid.

Whether or not Levant's commentary about the Roma amounted to inciting hatred against an identifiable group, to paraphrase the language of the Criminal Code, it seems to have prompted responses from some of Levant's online supporters that suggest it indeed had that effect. But along with the show, these comments have disappeared down the Sun News Memory Hole as well.

Back in June, when Levant was annoyed with me for complaining to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council about his on-air use of a highly offensive Spanish obscenity in a commentary on tar sands and bananas (don't ask!), he and his supporters repeatedly accused me of attempting to "censor" him for calling for the enforcement of the national broadcast regulator's rules on profanity.

"I think I'm going to do my TV show tomorrow about you and your censorship activities," he told me in one email calling on me to appear on his program.

My "censorship activities" regarding Levant's commentary this time, however, must be severely curtailed by the simple fact that someone at Sun News Network has censored him first! Those who heard Levant’s rant with their own ears will have to be the ones who complain.

A hole for the piece remains on his personal website, but the video of his commentary is long gone.
In the spirit of fair play, I emailed Levant yesterday and again today to ask him if he had been told why Sun News Network removed this link, and how he felt about this decision by his employer. Astonishingly, although about more than 20 hours have passed, there has been no response from this commentator normally known for his prolixity.

Nor has Levant, often a prolific Tweeter, had anything to say about this presumed act of censorship on his Twitter account, which only had a few unenlightening comments yesterday about the 911 tragedy. Perhaps for this reason, too, his merry little band of supporters has been atypically silent.

I hope Levant responds to my questions and provides his point of view. I would like to ensure he has a fair chance to respond to Sun TV's action -- something that, by the sound of it, he may not get on Sun News Network!

I am also convinced that readers would be interested in what Levant has to say about Sun News Network's apparent decision to pull the plug on his commentary, if not his show.

In the mean time, without Levant's assistance on this matter, I am left with the conclusion that he has really stepped in it. Perhaps even Sun News Network is growing concerned about the potential for damage to their none-too-sterling reputation by this loose cannon on their lower decks.

If so, Levant will finally have succeeded in doing to himself what he fatuously accuses others of trying to do to him!

This post also appears on David Climenhaga's blog, Alberta Diary.
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Ezra Levant openly promotes hatred against Roma people in Canada

FROM RABBLE.COM

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/rabble-staff/2012/09/ezra-levant-openly-promotes-hatred-against-roma

 

By

Karl Nerenberg

 

The Harper government has ended diplomatic relations with the Ahmadinejad regime in Iran. Whatever the motives for or merits of that decision, it is true that the Ahmadinejad regime is a well-known abuser of human rights. It resorts to the death penalty with an alacrity that rivals that of Texas. A Canadian photojournalist was killed in Iranian custody in 2003, and the government is currently holding two Canadians on death row.

Meanwhile, Sun TV's Ezra Levant has adopted the hateful anti-"Gypsy" rhetoric of the Hungarian extreme right party Jobbik.

About a week ago, Levant went on the air to say that "Gypsies constitute a culture synonymous with swindlers" and that "the phrase Gypsy and cheater have become so interchangeable the word entered the English language as a verb: to gyp."

The quicksilver-tongued Levant added that these "Gypsies" have come to Canada "to rob us blind as they have done in Europe for centuries." (The Sun TV "personality" -- calling him a journalist would be a stretch -- eschews the "politically correct" word Roma, which he says is the name for a kind of tomato).

A shared culture of hate

Pretty much all of this hate talk could have been lifted almost word for word from the propaganda of Hungary's neo-Nazi Jobbik Party -- but what has it all to do with Iran and Ahmedinejad?

Well, Jobbik, as it happens, is the Iranian leader's best pal in all of Europe. The Hungarian far right party actively promotes Iranian-Hungarian friendship and sponsors frequent get-togethers with Iranian government folks.

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Tue Sep 11, 2012 6:48 am (PDT) . Posted by:

"Gina Csanyi-Robah"

tatement from the Roma Community Centre
September 10, 2012

*INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM AND BLATANT HATE SPEECH IN THE CANADIAN MEDIA
TARGETING ROMA *

Dear friends of Canada's Roma community,

Last week was a very sad time for us in the Canadian Roma community. Durham
regional police held a press conference one week ago today (Tuesday Sept.
5) declaring that they have dismantled a "Roma organized crime ring"
involving individuals from both Canada and Romania. Countless names and
pictures of Roma suspects originally from Romania filled our television
screens. After such clear and blatant racial profiling
,
the prevalent stereotypes of "Gypsies" being inherently criminal was
certainly reinforced into the minds of the viewers. Latter the same day,
media personality, Ezra Levant, delivered by far the most racist, abusive,
hateful, misinformed commentary on live television that the Roma community
has ever received in our Canadian history. The Sun Media News allowed this
same type of hate speech targeting our community, as takes place in Hungary
by the far-right media arm of the Jobbik "neo-Nazi" political party. Shame.
To the best of our knowledge, this is absolutely unacceptable and not
allowed in Canada - apparently, not.
http://www.sunnewsn etwork.ca/ sunnews/canada/ archives/ 2012/09/20120905 -203437.html
Please, see direct, shocking quotes from this racist diatribe, below.

No one can imagine how disappointing the news from the Durham police was to
all of us Canadian Roma. We strongly condemn this type of behaviour in our
community. However, the way that it was handled by the police and the media
was extremely painful ad disappointing to our community.

We have worked very hard in trying to deconstruct "Gypsy stereotypes and
raise awareness about Roma reality. This past year, we have made huge leaps
and accomplishments in engaging Roma families in our HATE CAN KILL project,
which has now been submitted to the Canadian Race Relations Foundation for
its 2012 Awards of Excellence. Throughout the 8 months duration of this
hate crime prevention project, we worked closely with our police partners,
York Regional Police and Toronto Police Services. In total, through the
Hate Can Kill Project we educated over 1100 Canadians, 800 Roma youth and
their families, and 300 police officers. For the first time in our
Canadian history, we had an incredible family event co-hosted by Toronto
Police Services at the Toronto Police Headquarters, which approximately 30
Roma families attended on March 31, 2012, and now a member of the Roma
community is a part of the Community Police Liason Committee for police
division 11 where the Roma Community Centre is located.

Moreover, two weeks ago, two Roma youth went to Montreal to participate in
the Canadian Council for Refugees Youth Conference - another first in our
Canadian Roma history. With a task from their working group, these boys
have returned to Toronto with the goal of researching and raising awareness
about how the removal of healthcare for refugee claimants has affected
their respective communities.

Lastly, this past few months, despite many deportations, a small number of
Roma families have been granted refugee status in Canada. In 2011, 167
Hungarian Roma families were accepted as genuine refugees. I am positive,
that 2012 will be an even better year for our community will much more
support available, hence less withdrawls - and hopefully, more recognition
at the Immigration Refugee Board as Hungary continues to reveal itself as a
country full of racially motivated violence endemic discrimination and
marginalization, and prevalent hatred all targeting the Roma minority.
http://www.economis t.com/blogs/ easternapproache s/2012/08/ hungarian- anti-roma- marches

I share this with you all because I want to exemplify how hard we are
working - this community is working - at healing and educating our members,
helping people understand and navigate our Canadian refugee system, and
provide language support - all with the objective of helping people in
successfully integrating and settling into Toronto, and being a part of and
contributing to the broader Canadian family.

Unfortunately, our efforts are being undermined by the reaction by Ezra
Levant in the Sun Media News (see below), to the Durham Regional Police
Press Release and a document by the Canadian Border Services Agency
(riddled with racist stereotypes, misinformation, and assumptions) is
a blatantly racist document that only focuses exploiting stereotypes of
criminality and parasitism of Canada's social security system. On August
18, there was an article in the Globe “Federal government considers
detaining Roma refugee claimants, report suggests”. The article indicated
that an internal CBSA report dated January 2012 recommended the use of
detention, including mass detention, of Hungarian Roma refugee claimants in
order to deter them from applying for refugee status in Canada, should
other measures not succeed in reducing their numbers.
http://www.theglobe andmail.com/ news/politics/ federal-governme nt-considers- detaining- roma-refugee- claimants- report-suggests/ article4487855/
Sadly, nowhere in any of these government reports or in any media coverage
is there mention of the endemic discrimination, overt hatred, or racially
motivated violence that continues to plague Hungary's Roma minority.

Durham Regional Police's Press Release
http://www.drps. ca/internet_ explorer/ whatsnew/ whatsnew_ view.asp? ID=23391 was
littered with racial profiling and stereotyping, and misinformation
(Romanians require a visa to travel to Canada and are not likely to be
refugees. They are one of the oldest segments of the Canadian Roma
community, many of which were the first Roma to arrive in Canada (late
1800's) after their emancipation from slavery in Romania (1300's - 1862)
http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Slavery_in_ Romania . Few Romanian Roma are
newcomers. the Roma community condemn this criminality - but, hopes that it
can be reported about without drawing upon racist stereotyping.

Below you will find the most blatantly racist media coverage that many have
ever witnessed in Canada. This past week, many Canadians, with no prior
connection to the Roma Community Centre or our community in Canada, have
been writing to express their shock and outrage this this type of hate
speech is taking place in our mainstream in Canada. Certainly, there has
been ongoing exploitation of ("Gyspy") stereotypes in the media in most
articles that discuss the Roma situation in Canada, however this one is
absolutely horrendous and hateful. It typifies the hate speech that has
been ongoing in the public and media discourse in Hungary which has led to
a situation of endemic hatred in that country and continues to fuel it.
Levant is overly inciting the same hatred toward Gypsies in Canada, as he
insists on calling us...a name that the Canadian media has desisted in
using for the past decade since the RCC campaign to stop its usage.

As a result of Levant's hate speech targeting our community, the RCC has
been in contact with the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and is
currently writing formal complaints to
the Canadian Broadcasting Standards Council, the Canadian Media
Association, the Canadian Ethnic media Association, and the Ontario Human
Rights Commission.

The Canadian Roma community would be immensely grateful to anyone who will
take the time to also write formal complaints about
this unacceptable racist language targeting a specific group in our media.
This is something that needs to be eliminated now. Surely, any other
ethnic, religious, or racial group in Canada with adequate resources would
respond in a swift and severe manner had they been the subject of such a
publicly hateful, demeaning, and racist diatribe.

*The Source with Ezra Levant (Sun News Network)*
*Segment: "The Jew vs. The Gypsies"*
*Wednesday, September 5 @ 5pm*
URL with embedded video:
http://www.sunnewsn etwork.ca/ sunnews/canada/ archives/ 2012/09/20120905 -203437.html

*Quotes from Ezra Levant:*

"These are Gypsies, a culture synonymous with swindlers. The phrase Gypsy
and cheater have been so interchangeable historically that the word has
entered the English language as a verb. He gypped me! Well the gypsies have
gypped us too."

"And they [gypsies] come here to gyp us again, to rob us blind, as they
have done in Europe for centuries."

"Let me stop before you start blowing your hate crime whistle at me for
saying Gypsy or gypped. See, political correctness and euphemisms like
calling them 'Roma' instead of Gypsy or as the BBC calls them 'Travelers,'
well the point of that is to obscure the truth. They're Gypsies and one of
the central characteristics of that culture is that their chief economy is
theft and begging. Sorry, it's true!"

* "Gypsies aren't a race, they're not a religion, they're not a linguistic
group. They're the medieval prototype of the Occupy Wall Street movement. A
shiftless group of hoboes that doesn't believe in property rights for
themselves - they're nomads - or for others. They rob people blind. Now the
scourge has come to Canada through fake refugee claims."*

* "Look at this list of suspects released by Durham police. Gypsy after
gypsy after gypsy. They gypped their way into Canada and now they're
gypping the rest of us. Look at this, Dinarca Caldaras, wanted for steeling
two cars, money laundering, theft, fraud. Gypsy. Look at that, not on her
own, as part of a criminal organization. We're used to biker gangs, we're
used to the Hells Angels, the Mafia. They're not races or religions,
they're cultural groups, subcultures, deviant groups that chose to steel
for a living. Look at this! Ovidio Calderas, criminal organization, fraud.
It's not all non-violent, no way, as I told you on Friday, in Italy,
Gypsies are charged with murder at least 6 times more frequently than their
population would suggest." *

* "For Gypsies it [crime] is a family affair, in fact, women and children
are the best at it because we liberal Canadians or Europeans would never
expect a child or a mom or both working together."
*"Every last one of them [suspects] is a Gypsy. Just some of the 5000
who've gamed our system and our causing a Made in Europe crime wave on our
streets."*
*
*
* "Street gypsies have four part*icular [theft] strategies."

* "Just in case you're not clear about this [Durham regional police clip],
they're talking about Gypsies. [Another clip from Durham regional police].
'Roma' you know cops can be politically correct. 'Roma' is the name of a
kind of tomato as you know, but that's what some people call Gypsies. You
can call them whatever you like if you're arresting them, that's fine by
me."*
*
*
* "239 charges, 29 people that we know about so far. There are 5000 of
these Gypsies here!"*
*
*
*"They're gypping us. Sorry, that's a word for a reason, they're thieves!
And women and children, their own wives and kids, are the main tools of it!"
*
*
*
* "Steeling is part of their family-crime organization. Being a Gypsy isn't
like being Black, or being Gay, or being a woman or even Romanian, where
many Gypsies come from. Just like being from Sicily doesn't make you part
of the Mafia. Being a Gypsy is a positive choice, like being a Blood or a
Crip, like joining the Cosa Nostra. For centuries, these roving highway
gangs have mocked the law and robbed their way across Europe. Now, because
of our broken refugee system, they're here in Canada in the thousands. And
they've brought the Gypsy Crime Wave with them. Yeah, no thanks, I'm not
interested in calling them 'Roma' or 'Travelers' or having a Human Rights
Commission investigate where we as a society have done them wrong, maybe
dispatching social workers (laughs) the social workers will just have their
wallets stolen. I want to dispatch cops and send the bad Gypsies to Hungary
on the next plane. Just warn the flight attendants (chuckles) not to wear
any jewelry on the flight!"*

Unsurprisingly, Levant has publically declared that Immigration Minister
Jason Kenney is his "favourite" member of parliament.
http://ezralevant. com/2009/ 01/jason- kenney-is- my-favourite- m.html

*WE CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT *

* *

1. We can contact the *Canadian Broadcast Standards Council*

“HOW TO MAKE A COMPLAINT:

http://www.cbsc. ca/english/ complaint/ index.php
Your Concerns Are Important

If you see or hear something that concerns you, this is what you should do:

*1. Write down the following information. *

1. the name, date and time of the program

2. the name or call letters of the broadcaster

3. a short summary of what concerned you
*2. Let us know.*

Send us the details within 28 days of the date of broadcast. We will
investigate your complaint further.

The Complaint Form<http://www.cbsc. ca/english/ complaint/ complaint- form.php?>
found
on our website makes it easy for you to submit your complaint.

The CBSC's offices are in Ottawa. You can write to us at our
address<http://www.cbsc. ca/english/ about/contact. php>.
You can alsosend in your complaint via fax or
email<http://www.cbsc. ca/english/ about/contact. php>
.

For more information concerning the Complaints Process, see the related Making
a complaint FAQs <http://www.cbsc. ca/english/ faqs/complaints. php> section.”

*3. EXAMPLES OF BROADCAST STANDARDS DECISIONS*
Here is a press release: ‘Derogatory Ethnic Term Unacceptable, Says
Canadian Broadcast Standards Council’

http://www.cbsc. ca/english/ documents/ prs/2012/ 120718.php

Another press release: ‘Abusive Comments on the Basis of Sexual Orientation
Unacceptable, Says Canadian Broadcast Standards Council’
http://www.cbsc. ca/english/ documents/ prs/2012/ 120829.php

--
Gina Csanyi-Robah
Executive Director
Roma Community Centre

[image: romacommunitycentre _logo-100. png]

Roma Community Centre

2340 Dundas St. W., Suite G20
Toronto, ON

M6P 4A9

Office: (416) 546-2524

Cell: (416) 561-0770

website: www.romatoronto. org

facebook group: Toronto Roma Community Centre

The Roma Community Centre is committed to Celebrating Romani Culture,
Successful Settlement, Promoting Human Rights, Community Developing
Initiatives, and Cultivating Community Partnerships.

--
Gina Csanyi-Robah
Executive Director
Roma Community Centre

[image: romacommunitycentre _logo-100. png]

Roma Community Centre

2340 Dundas St. W., Suite G20
Toronto, ON

M6P 4A9

Office: (416) 546-2524

Cell: (416) 561-0770

website: www.romatoronto. org

facebook group: Toronto Roma Community Centre

The Roma Community Centre is committed to Celebrating Romani Culture,
Successful Settlement, Promoting Human Rights, Community Developing
Initiatives, and Cultivating Community Partnerships.

--
Gina Csanyi-Robah
Executive Director
Roma Community Centre

[image: romacommunitycentre _logo-100. png]

Roma Community Centre

2340 Dundas St. W., Suite G20
Toronto, ON

M6P 4A9

Office: (416) 546-2524

Cell: (416) 561-0770

website: www.romatoronto. org

facebook group: Toronto Roma Community Centre

The Roma Community Centre is committed to Celebrating Romani Culture,
Successful Settlement, Promoting Human Rights, Community Developing
Initiatives, and Cultivating Community Partnerships.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I did get to hear the original broadcast and was going to post it but it has mysteriously disappeared.
Oh well, such should be the fate of all racist hatemongers.
Morgan