Monday, April 20, 2009

A Faint Hope

Should the book go into a second edition, I am hopeful that Levant will address the concerns raised by Citizen writer Andrew Potter in his generally positive review. Potter states that 'Of more concern is that clarity, fairness and perhaps even accuracy are often sacrificed in the greater service of the author's polemical objectives.'

Mr. Potter cites Levant's claim, based on an article printed in Maclean's magazine at that time, that in 1966 the Canadian Jewish Congress helped fund the fledgling Canadian Nazi Party. Potter correctly points out that the only 'bankrolling' expended by a private detective hired by the Congress to expose the Nazi group was money put out to purchase a bottle of rum. Between 'rum' and 'bankrolling' is more than a nuanced difference. It is the difference between accuracy and fiction.

Hopefully Mr. Levant will see fit to correct this for future editions.

From Rabbi Reuven Bulka, of the CJC.

Unfortunately, if Ezra excised all the unclear, unfair, and inaccurate bits from Shakedown there wouldn't be enough left for 1/2 dozen limericks. And were I to pick the single worst omission in the book, it would probably be the fact that Ezra doesn't bother to tell his readers how the RCMP and Privacy Commission investigation of the CHRC turned out.

6 comments:

Jim Parrett said...

I suppose one should always be thankful that Canwest at least pretends to objectivity when showering praise on one of its own subjects.

Anonymous said...

BCL thank you so much for this. I remember Ezra posting this bizarre story on his blog last year. I was so intrigued I went to the Metro library to find the actual 1966 article that is mentioned by the Rabbi and Andrew Potter in his review.

I am looking at it now as I write this comment; its called, "I spied on the Nazis-John Garrity Undercover Agent for the Canadian Jewish Congress".

Its a very good read but the Rabbi is right; the only expense claimed by John Garrity was a bottle of rum!

This alone told me how far a person like Mr. Levant is prepared to go in order to force his point. Its shameful.

Mitka said...

Its bloody well about time that someone exposed this guy for what he is. This was an unconscionable fairy tale that Levant wrote claiming that the Jewish Congress bankrolled Nazis!!

We owe a big thanks to Rabbi Bulka and to you BCL for finding the letter in the Ottawa newspaper and exposing it here as well

Ti-Guy said...

All this verbiage to avoid calling Ezra a liar...word verification: "louse"...and a louse! (thank you, Blogger).

gus williams said...

Well thank you Ti-Guy. You see libel chill sets in because Ezra threatens to sue those that cross him. However in this is proof positive that Ezra lied.

I recall there was a blogger a while back that wrote on Ezra's tall tales exposing them but I think it just became too much for him/her.

So here's the real question, if you lie about this which was so obvious what other tall tales are in his book? And more importantly how did the MSM get so sucked in?

Yariv said...

Quelle surprise Ezra misleads us!!

What gets me is why? Ezra isn't that dumb. He posted the 1966 Mcleans article on his website. Anyone who reads it will know right away that in the immortal words of Professor Richard Moon, he "made it up". I just don't get it!!