Ezra Levant's recent op-ed in the Citizen ("Neo-Nazis are best simply ignored," April 27) did little to explain the incidents surrounding Garrity's hiring, and provides even less perspective regarding the state of the Jewish community in Toronto during that time.
Indeed, facts appear to be secondary to Mr. Levant as he hunts and pecks his way through the historical record, extracting only those quotations which support his theories.
[...]
As an historian, I recognize that facts can sometimes support more than one interpretation. That said, there are certain points in which Levant's presentation of Garrity's work rests on no facts at all.
Levant claims that the CJC "helped organize the fledgling Canadian Nazi Party" but offers no proof for this.
He had previously stated that the CJC provided financial support to the party -- "bankroll" was the term he used -- although he seems to have backed off that claim.
Backed off the claim, but never admitted that it was in error in the 1st place, I should note. In any case, lets skip to the conclusion:
In the end, does Levant's contention that Canadian Jewish Congress "bank-rolled," "propped-up," "built up" or "organized" the Canadian Nazi Party of the 1960s have any merit? None whatsoever.
But of course this does not stop Terry O'Neill of the National Post from wheeling out the (by now) standard set of complaints against HRCs lifted from Ezra's faux research. Fortunately, Canada's political class has long-ceased to pay any attention to these guys.
h/t Mordechai.
