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.

All Shook Down

A quicky review of Ezra's Magnum Opus, because he doesn't mention me one single time and therefore I wasn't going to buy the damn thing, so wound up reading it quickly in a book store while I waited for my wife to teach her skating class.

Well, his fact checking skills haven't improved. The wind up to the RCMP and Privacy Commission investigations of the CHRC in the "hacked wifi" case, which essentially exonerated the federal agency, isn't touched upon at all.

Now, you might say that's because the book was written in 2008 before this came to pass, but there is no excuse for Ezra's misinterpretation Guy Earle's BCHRC complaint (he's the comedian that went off at a couple of lesbians). Ez is still calling this a section 7 case. Section 7 covers "discriminatory publication" and is the B.C. equivalent of Section 13 of the CHRA. However, it isn't a section 7: it's a section 8 case, which concerns "discrimination in accommodation, service and facility". So, nothing to do with "free speech".

Which Ezra knows or should know by now.

And, oh yeah, I looked three of four times and couldn't locate an index. In a non-fiction book about Canadian Law. That tells you something.