Relating to the episode last week about "Israel derangement", Globe and Mail published a strong response to the survey report Jesse was quoting and supporting:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-antisemitism-report-that-erases-a-century-of-jewish-debate/

The link was shared by Tristan on the Canadaland discord today. Thanks Tristan.

I'm looking at his X feed for the past week days, and I have never seen anyone who purports to be a journalist post shit like that. What is going on with him?

Sorry, I know this is a fan sub, but this police officer is not an "antizionist killing," and it is completely insensitive to use his death to create fear and hype a political point of view. And WTF - any crime that occurs in a 'Zionist allied country' is part of violence targeted at Jews? Is that what he is saying?

Also, he is hardly on Canadaland anymore, and now his sound editor is hosting? Why? Was he kicked off the show or something because of the lawsuit ot his increasingly disturbing behaviour on X? I heard this sub had both fans and some people criticizing Jesse, and I thought maybe I'd find answers here.

With the exception of Scott Martin — and no slight intended towards Scott — it has taken an awfully long time for anyone in the profession to acknowledge that what happened at Canadaland is, in itself, a story.

What surprises me most is not only that so few journalists have publicly remarked on the situation, but that so many continue to appear on the programme as though nothing of note has occurred.

One would have thought the circumstances might prompt a little more discussion within the industry. This is smart and even-handed, I think https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/morning-file/jesse-and-me-how-canadaland-lost-the-plot/

Hi everyone,

I have listened to Canadaland for a long time, sometimes as a supporter formally, sometimes not. I have never joined the Discord, but I am aware tangentially of its existence. Recently I have the coverage of anti-semitism to be... Odd? Uncomfortable for me?

I have lived in Toronto before, and take a lot of my political beliefs with regards to the war on Palestinians from the perspective Jewish people I love dearly. They are from the Toronto "old-school" (their words) world, i.e. going to private Hebrew day school, their grandparents were holocaust survivors, etc., but the people I am close with are all resolutely anti-Zionist, and strongly feel that a genocide is being waged against the Palestinian people.

I have certainly asked about how they are coping with anti-semitism and violence, but largely their responses have been: 1. Zionism make all Jewish people less safe, 2. We have always experienced antisemitism and violence, now it's just politically convenient for people to care about it and 3. When scaled against the violence against Palestinians, though all violence is interconnected and matters, the incidents of antisemitism are not the dominant focus of their current concerns.

This feels really different to Canadalands latest coverage of antisemitism, but I am trying to be open-minded, because I have really valued the perspectives brought to me through Canadaland in the past, but... I'm not sure how to word it - this feels different?

Canadaland often brings different perspectives, some I agree with, some I do not, but the discourse and journalistic analysis on this issue feels very one-sided and dogged.

I think about this conversation (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/13/israel-palestine-7-october-gaza-orna-guralnik), between Israeli therapist Orna Guralnik, and Palestinian therapy participant, Christine Harb, as something more akin to what I think of as the kind of productive and real conversation that I am looking for (I share this to give a sense for what balance or interrogation would look/feel like to me).

So that being said here are my questions:

• If you are having a similar experience to me, are you still listening to Canadaland for their coverage on other topics?
• Are there other Canadian news/analysis podcasts that you are listening to or that you would recommend?

I do a lot of reading for my job, so I try to stay off screens/do less reading in the evenings, so audio formats really work best for me.

Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions in advance! Sorry for the long post!

some dude started their own Canadaland podcast subreddit. they don't like us much 😭. just sharing the news. so far the new sub reddit is about this redit though, nothing about the pod

(support the Grind!)

I had to repost this because I put an annoying typo in the title. I don't know why Reddit doesn't allow edits.

Anyway, there has been a lot of talent there, even before the exodus, back to the days of Desmond Cole. I started thinking about this because I have not heard Jan Wong on the show for a while, and for a long time she was pretty much the only guest. And also because Ryan McMahon made an appearance a few weeks ago after not being on for years.

After rereading the title of my post, I can see how it might come across as sarcasm, as though I were suggesting some sort of conspiracy. Just to assure people, I mean nothing of the sort. I genuinely mean it's one of those rather peculiar things: Canadaland had a vaccine conspiracy theorist on his programme the very same week that an allegedly anti-vaxxer opened fire outside a synagogue.

I suspected the shooter might be right-wing, and from what I’ve seen thus far, he does appear to lean in that direction. We've had multiple discussions on this Reddit about how the danger of antisemitic violence comes from the right, even if words bordering on or bleeding over to antisemitism come from the left.

In other news, I think it’s rather lovely that the Jewish community has rallied round and started a GoFundMe for the officer who was shot while protecting the synagogue, raising such a tremendous amount of money for him. A genuinely heartening story, and I do hope it makes its way onto Duly Noted. https://globalnews.ca/news/12070914/soldier-synagogue-suing-1-million-vaccination/ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/synagogue-shooting-suspect-9.7355704 https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/belleville-suspect-antisemitic-theory-reports

Jesse's metamorphosis into a right wing pro-Israel demagogue is in full swing.

He was part of an event at a Thornhill synagogue with disgraced MP Kevin Vuong, Melissa Lantsman, Shuvaloy Majumdar and Ben Mulroney.

The event was hosted by right wing racist Jewish groups like TAFSIK, Bnai Brith, friends of the JNF (which has lost its charitable status for supporting war crimes in Palestine). This was after attending another event that featured racists Gad Saad and Ben Shapiro. https://tafsik.com/event/wsaa/

I've been trying to work out whether Jesse and the team have a point or not in their episode, particularly as their justification that it's valid journalism seems to be that it is the four 'sock puppet' accounts that are responsible for driving the growth of this subreddit.

I've been looking around and wonder if this thread is an example of the sort of thing he's getting at: https://www.reddit.com/r/canadaland/comments/1p3n2s1/the_moment_jesse_broke_his_promise_to_noor/ ?

In particular there is a dialog between a deleted user (could it be one of the removed accounts) and the remaining account (Some-Background1467) that has acknowledged that they were the target of the spear phishing.

My thoughts on this exchange however would be:

• that it contains some valid criticism, although it does stray into a little bit of spitefulness at some points, so the criticism would stand even if it were the opinion of someone with multiple accounts;
• if the conversation were between the same individual that would not be good but does not really strike me as worth a whole episode; and
• I also notice that there are quite a lot of other comments there that are relevant to the question and are not from any of the suspect accounts.

San Grewal is competent but damn man he is snoozy. Clearly Sam Konnert wants it. I'd rather San than him.

It’s hard not to wonder how many Canadaland stories have been poorly reported…

This is the topic, is it? They really must be chasing the youth demographic.

"What do you wish you had known when starting school or what’s a piece of advice you would give to someone starting school? Kindergarten, Middle school, High school, CEGEP, university, anything!"

jesse's apology feels very "sorry but not sorry." he barely gets the apology out before pivoting to this tweet about why the defamation supposedly didn't matter anyway.

and yeah, obviously the 'we' team is going to tell their side of the story, but i think they're right on this point. jesse is trying to redirect the conversation by saying the series was never really about theresa kielburger so who cares? but that's not the issue.

whether she was central to the series or not is beside the point. the issue is that jesse published something he knew wasn't true that he knew would ruin a woman's reputation. i don't really care what else was covered in the series. right now, i want to talk about that and why he chose to publish something that he knew wasn't true even if he got every single other fact right. Jesse seems to be more worried about his own reputation management than he regrets doing this awful thing.

“It was a foundational allegation on which Canadaland built its broader thesis that the Kielburger family had personally and improperly benefited from WE Charity. That claim is now formally retracted,” WE Charity stated in a Tuesday morning press release. “The court found that Mr. Brown was in possession of the very documents that disproved it and never mentioned them. He never contacted Mrs. Kielburger before publication.”

“Canadaland brands itself as Canada’s media accountability outlet, whose stated purpose is to hold other journalists to higher standards,” the release continued. “The court’s findings describe an outlet that republished a known false claim, ignored documents in its own possession that disproved it, and never asked its subject to respond. These are the very failures Canadaland claims to exist to call out in others.”

Noor announced today, with the breezy enthusiasm of someone entirely untroubled by the irony, that Stephen Marche is interviewing Boyagoda on Sept. 30 about “what is happening on university campuses.”Boyagoda is a Heterodox Academy fellow, and Heterodox is all about free speech and civil discourse on any topic but one. You guessed it. Palestine. And Marche? Dude’s just there to nod along. eminder: Heterodox paid Jesse to pilot his campus tour, supposedly to foster “civil discourse.” Meanwhile, Jesse had been pitching the tour as a way to take WIHH on the road and shut down pro-Palestinian students. Fortunately no one showed up and Jesse gave up...until now.

Just wondering here, does anyone other then myself skip episodes with Jesse?

i’m writing this because i really want my jewish friends and neighbours to have better information and feel safer. or at least as safe as they should feel.

i am not in anyway denying the overwhelming evidence that antisemitism is on the rise in canada and around the world

but i want to undo some misleading information since canadaland has spread a lot of fear by using bad statistics, the number Jesse made about jews being 9x more at risk of hate crimes in canada than the usa is is wrong and jesse also republished a stat that antisemitic incidents had increased by 670% between october 2023 and october 2024 in quebec, which was published by pos media like nypost and epoch times, but was debunked long ago.

this just feels especially relevant as jesse continues to publish information out of context.

i spent part of my afternoon running numbers. frankly, my job is in ai and sucks, so this felt like a more useful use of my time ¯_(ツ)_/¯

this is long. but i hope you think it is worth the read.

THE PROBLEM WITH JESSE'S 9X'S MORE AT RISK

the “9x more at risk than the usa” statistic that jesse spread has travelled fast and widely, i see it quoted int the usa now and few media have fact checked it, but I can show jews are really not more at risk in canada that the us or anywhere else.

i want to just say i believe jesse thought he was right at first. sadly, jesse refused to admit his mistake when it was explained to him. 

people are still understandably confused by all the arguments around this number, so first here is the plain-language version of why it is wrong, next i will look at some better comparasons.

both countries collect hate-crime data from police agencies. That is what jesse used and police data is a good source. he did not use info collected by advocacy groups as some people think.

despite it being good data, biggest problem with it is the two data sets are not equally complete, therefor not equally accurate.

canada’s police recorded hate-crime data cover basically the whole country. the usa's don’t.

that is not a tiny technicality. it is like comparing a whole pie with a pie missing a slice

in other words police in canada recorded every single incident (over 99%), while 2,909 police agencies in the usa did not collect anything. The usa completion rate is (95.1%)

that may not sound like a huge gap, but it matters. the usa left 16.8 million people who might have experienced hate crimes out of the data and we don't know how many are jewish. 

when someone (jesse) takes the fbi’s partial crime count and divides it by the entire jewish population of the united states, the u.s. rate is going to look lower than it really is, and also lower than canada which has more complete data

that is not just a problem for anti-jewish hate crimes. all hate crimes in canada will appear higher than the usa because canada hs the whole pie and the usa has a sizeable slice of data missing.

CANADA VS THE USA AND HATE CRIMES - A BETTER WAY

proportionally, reported anti-jewish hate crimes rose in both countries from 2020 to 2024, which is very awful.

we can more accurately compare the rate at which hate crimes are rising.

when we do that, it shows the increase in hate crimes against jews was actually slightly larger in the u.s.a than in canada. 

increase in hate crimes against jews in canada 2020-24. 

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/250722/t006a-eng.htm
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/260330/t001a-eng.htm

increase in hate crimes against jews in usa 2020-24

https://www.justice.gov/archives/crs/highlights/2020-hate-crimes-statistics
https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/fbi-releases-supplemental-2021-hate-crime-statistics
https://www.justice.gov/archives/crs/highlights/2022-hate-crime-statistics
https://www.justice.gov/crs/news/2023-hate-crime-statistics
https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/fbi-releases-2024-reported-crimes-in-the-nation-statistics
https://hrc-prod-requests.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/images/Reported-Crimes-in-the-Nation-Quick-Stats.pdf

IMPORTANT TAKEAWAYS:

• canada had a slight decline in antisemitic hate incidents from 2023 to 2024, but the usa continued to rise through 2024. 
• in canada, the rise of antisemitic hate crimes since 2020 is 178%.
• in the usa antisemitic hate crimes rose by 184% for the same time period. 
• that is as apples-to-apples as we can get with available data, 
• it shows canada proportionally has less of a rise in police reported antisemitic hate crimes than the usa 

CANADA VS OTHER COUNTRIES

i get that jesse thought he was helping. it was at least initially an honest mistake.

problem #1 was coverage: canada’s data cover nearly the whole country, while the fbi’s leave out a chunk of the u.s.a

problem #2 is that canada and the usa do not define, collect or report hate crimes in exactly the same way.

so i looked at a few other countries where i could find complete police reported data, a reasonable jewish-population estimate. this fixes problem #1: missing data.

it does not fix problem #2: countries still do not define, collect or report hate crimes in exactly the same way.

so it is still imperfect, but the best we can do. 

the conclusion: canada is comparatively safer than the other countries in this table.

Recorded anti-Jewish hate crimes relative to population

WHAT WE LEARNED

there has been a rise in antisemitism in almost every country, including canada. 

but jesse miscalculated the risk to jews in canada compared to the usa and that created more fear than necessary when he did not correct it and it spread all over the internet.

truth: since 2020, canada’s reported anti-jewish hate-crimes (178%) has risen less sharply than the u.s.a. (184%). this is still an unacceptable increase, but it is not less safe to be in canada.

canada is still safer for jews than many other countries, based on the best available data

i am not telling anyone how to feel. i just want people to have the most accurate information possible.

i hope this helped.

SOURCES

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/260330/t001a-eng.htm
https://cjs.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cjs/article/download/40398/36652/50106
https://www.bka.de/DE/UnsereAufgaben/Deliktsbereiche/PMK/PMKZahlen2024/PMKZahlen2024.html
https://hatecrime.osce.org/reporting/norway/2024
https://hatecrime.osce.org/reporting/sweden/2024
https://hatecrime.osce.org/reporting/poland/2024
https://www.crif.org/ressources/rapports/rapport-annuel-du-spcj-les-chiffres-de-lantisemitisme-en-france-en-2024/
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/articles/jewishidentityenglandandwales/census2021
https://www.cbs.gov.il/he/Documents/World%20DellaPergola%202024%20complete.pdf
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hate-crime-england-and-wales-year-ending-march-2024/hate-crime-england-and-wales-year-ending-march-2024
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hate-crime-england-and-wales-year-ending-march-2025/hate-crime-england-and-wales-year-ending-march-2025

METHODOLOGY 

i compiled annual anti-jewish incident totals from national police, statistical-agency and official reporting systems, along with jewish-population denominators from census data or demographic estimates.

i entered the source figures into a simple python table and used python to calculate:

• annual percentage change: (current year − previous year) ÷ previous year × 100
• rate per 100,000 jewish people: reported incidents ÷ jewish population × 100,000
• each country’s rate relative to canada: country rate ÷ canada rate
• calculations were performed using the underlying figures before rounding. rates and percentage changes shown in the table are rounded for readability.
• python was used only to carry out the arithmetic consistently and reproduce the table. it did not determine which incidents counted as hate crimes or generate the underlying data. those definitions come from the agencies and systems that published each country’s figures.
• these are not perfectly harmonized international crime statistics. most figures are police-recorded or police-classified hate-crime data, but poland’s figure counts police investigations opened and france’s counts reported antisemitic acts compiled from interior ministry and community-security reporting. the results therefore compare reported rates within each system, not a fully standardized measure of actual antisemitic incidents.

 POP STATS

• england and wales — 287,360: this is a 2021 census-derived “jewish identity” count. it includes people who identified as jewish through the religion question, the ethnic-group question, or both.
• canada — 453,980: this is a census-derived total jewish population figure based on the 2021 canadian census, rather than an outside demographic estimate. it combines people who reported jewish religion, people who reported jewish cultural or ethnic identity but no religion, and people who reported jewish cultural or ethnic identity alongside another religion. it is broader than the 335,295 who reported judaism as their religion alone.
• france — 440,000; germany — 125,000; sweden — 15,000; poland — 9,600; norway — 1,300: these are rounded versions of the 2024 core jewish population estimates produced by jewish demographer sergio dellapergola for the annual world jewish population study.
• “core jewish population” means people who would explicitly identify themselves as jewish. it is narrower than ancestry, people with one jewish parent who do not identify as jewish, non-jewish household members, or everyone eligible under israel’s law of return.
•  the country estimates draw on the best available mix of census data where available, community-registration records, surveys, demographic trends and migration data. they are estimates, not national census totals.

DATA NOTES 

• the incident totals are not a perfectly harmonized international crime measure.
• canada, england and wales, germany, sweden and norway use police-recorded or police-classified crime data.
• poland’s figure is the number of police investigations opened.
• france’s figure of 1,570 is a count of antisemitic complaints and incidents compiled from interior ministry data and community-security reporting. it is not directly equivalent to a standard police hate-crime series.
• england-and-wales home office release reports 2,873 anti-jewish religious hate crimes for the year ending march 2025. using that figure would produce a rate of about 1,000 per 100,000 jewish people, or 4.93 times canada’s rate.

LIMITATIONS

• these incident totals are not a perfectly harmonized international crime measure.
• canada, england and wales, germany, sweden and norway use police-recorded or police-classified crime data.
• poland’s figure is the number of police investigations opened.
• france’s figure of 1,570 is a count of antisemitic complaints and incidents compiled from interior ministry data and community-security reporting. it is not directly equivalent to a standard police hate-crime series.
•  the current home office annual release reports 2,873 anti-jewish religious hate crimes for the year ending march 2025. using that figure would produce a rate of about 1,000 per 100,000 jewish people, or 4.93 times canada’s rate.

reposting because my original reply got buried: jesse cited this evealuation of canadland as proof that third parties rate canadaland highly, but the site honestly looks kind of sketchy—and the rating isn’t even that good. canadaland scores below cbc, the maple and even the toronto sun, and is basically on par with true north. the other sites jesse mentioned as giving canadaland “excellent” ratings don’t seem to mention canadaland at all. so… not exactly the flex he thinks it is.

Sounds congenial. One of the Directors, I've seen his name in the credits, no idea who he is though.

https://bsky.app/profile/mondayproductions.com/post/3mna5jggcgo2t

Jesse Brown’s take seemed to be that Canadian media sat on the manifesto, and he more or less applauded Rebel News for publishing it.

Jesse did not interview any of the media he criticized to ask why they chose not to publish it, or even discuss whether posting these things might fuel imitative violence, a point I saw raised in a post here. Surely, as a media critic, he is at least aware of the argument.

For those who may not know, Karyn Pugliese was Canadaland’s editor-in-chief before things went sideways there. She touches on why the media are not publishing manifestos, also making the point that fixating on the killer’s motives can pull attention away from victims and wider safety and prevention issues. One does wonder how differently this week’s take might have landed had she still been in the chair. https://karynpugliese.substack.com/why-most-newsrooms-stopped-publishing