Most of the people involved in the whole affair are dead. But not Beattie. He was just 23 in 1965, so he's just 67 today. He lives in Ontario and works as a paralegal. I've read hundreds of pages about his antics, both from the Toronto Star's archives and other sources, including Bialystok's book on the subject. That gave me the media's side of the story and the CJC's side of the story. But it didn't fill in all the blanks.
So I phoned up Beattie the other day and, to my surprise, he spoke with me. I'll write a more substantial piece about that conversation later, probably in a newspaper.
I am not going to bother to "refute" Beattie's story. That would be like engaging with a Nigerian email scammer in the hopes that this one really IS the wife of a rich dictator. If you really want, Mitka applies some of the old disinfectant here. But, really, can Ezra troll any lower? This whole Speechy War has degenerated into a freak-show.
10 comments:
Big City Liberal thank you for this. It seems Ezra has thrown caution to the wind and has played his cards. He has chosen to believe Nazis over real historians.
Believing Canadian Nazi Party Leader John Beattie is like believing Ernst Zundel.
One could almost feel sorry for Ezra. Stooping so low suggests that his attempt to insinuate that the CJC supported the Canadian Nazi Party in the early 1960s must be meeting with utter disdain.
However truth be told had Ezra presented some of his past arguments with sensitivity rather than attacking the reputations of decent people his cause may have had more resonance. In fact his book "Shakedown" was less acerbic and more argumentative (I imagine he must have had it well lawyered). But today as he embraces Nazis it becomes more and more clear that his agenda is not to illuminate but to accuse using the flimsiest of facts and the most disreputable of people.
It's an interesting paradox. In short, Beattie now says that he was lying in the 60s about his movement in order to get attention. But if he was lying in the 60s, why believe that his current statements?
Let's face it folks, Sue has pretty well hit the nail on the proverbial head. Ezra is now way beyond his depth and is drowning in his man-made lake of obfuscation and fairy tales.
The article written by Ontario's Jewish Archive in the Ottawa Citizen a few weeks back sounded the death knell. It was downhill for Ezra from then. I mean when you suggest that you know more than a professional historian whose life's work is dedicated to ensuring authenticity you begin to slowly lose your audience.
So what is Ezra left with? Just his belly-aching, knuckle dragging cult-like followers. No one will ever accept the rantings of a neo-Nazi and more importantly given Ezra's penchant for "making things up" are we even to believe that he spoke to Beattie or that Beattie stated what Ezra claims?
What I continue to find a bit strange is Ezra Levant's continual assertions that the CJC does not represent the mainstream of Canadian Jewry.
Could this be the same CJC that is having their major policy convention this Sunday in Toronto where Prime Minister Harper, Michael Ignatieff, Jack Layton, and Elizabeth May are all speaking? Is this the same CJC where the Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom is also presenting his first address to a North American audience as Vice PM at this same gathering.
And just in case Mr. Levant and his crowd claim few will show, I went onto the CJC site yesterday to register and to my great sadness it is completely sold out!! Im calling today to see if I can beg my way in.
Been a while since I have been here but want to pass on my "respect" to BCL for this blog. Since I have tried to stay away from Ezra's "9th circle of hell" blog I surely would have missed his latest outrage.
My Uncle lived in Toronto in the early 60s and tells me that Ezra is just plain full of it. No one in the Jeiwsh community had any idea about how strong Beattie's group was. Beattie apparantly use to drop anti-Semitic leaflets from rooftops in Toronto and Jewish homes were being daubed with Swastikas. What should people have thought.
And now Levant pretending to be a journalist "interviews" Beattie and we are suppose to believe either Levant or Beattie? Why? Neither have been exactly factual in the past.
I admire people like Mitka who have the stomach to forage through the dreck of these extreme rightwing blogs.
I despair, not when Ezra posts his various fantasies, fabrications and his attempts at artisanal journalism/research, but when he writes posts like this.
What the hell has happened to the Canadian elite that it could bear to be photographed in the presence of these self-aggrandising cretins? 24 Sussex hosting Levant, Steyn and crazy ol' Deborah Gyapong? Bloody hell...
Keeps 'em off the street, TiGuy.
Also, I'd rather they get fed little pasties than get their legislation passed.
LOL, actually I'm loving this...Ezra playing with Nazis, accepting the word of neo-Nazi John Beattie over academics, Holocaust survivors, archivists. He is a piece of work!
Also, I'd rather they get fed little pasties than get their legislation passed.
But what about the stench? That'll never come out of carpets at 24 Sussex.
I have followed this issue for a while and can only reach one real conclusion, Mr. Levant finding himself unwelcome in the Jewish mainstream has become jealous of the warmth and affection that people like Frank Dimant and Bernie Farber are held in the community. So like a child he tries to bully and swagger, making up stories to boost himself in the eyes of his rather limited followers.
Can anyone really seriously believe Mr. Levant anymore on anything he says? Is it not prescious that he has teamed up with John Beattie, a known chronic liar who was one of Canada's first Holocaust deniers?
Mr. Levant continues to seriously harm himself and in my view can do little further damage now that he has attached himself to Mr. Beattie.
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