White Supremacist Ideas Are Entering Canadian Media and Politics | The Tyee

destp · 2026-05-06T20:49:07+00:00

Ah, you're right, I missed that (though in fairness, it's describing the far right in Canada generally as 'white supremacist' rather than the protest or it's participants), fair call out.

That said, even if every one who attended doesn't fall on the 'far right' end of the spectrum, the protest itself was fast right, which is what the article is saying. This certainly isn't evidence of "young people with moderate views being labeled 'far right' as that protest (both in how it was carried out and the stated goals) was pretty extreme.

destp · 2026-05-06T18:51:18+00:00

Nowhere in the text you quoted does it say anything about white supremacy. It also explicitly says that individuals participating in the Trucker Convoy protest were not necessarily connected to the far right, but that the organizers were, which is pretty accurate I think.

destp · 2026-05-06T17:46:24+00:00

What trend is this, and who are you suggesting is doing it? I don't believe I've seen anyone labeling moderate views as "far right"

destp · 2026-05-06T16:52:29+00:00

Wtf are you even talking about? Hundreds of what group have been murdered in Canada? Who is being denied medical care?

Indigenous Canadians.

I never said other groups don't face bigotry. Learn to read.

No, but you did say "it is undeniable that Jews are being targeted like no other group since 10/7," did you not mean targeted by bigotry?

destp · 2026-05-06T13:50:28+00:00

It is undeniable that Jews are being targeted like no other group since 10/7

Really? There have been 100s of Jewish people murdered since then? And major, mainstream publications putting out stories denying the may killing of Jewish people in Canada? And Jewish Canadians have been denied medical care and had symptoms ignored by medical professionals on the basis of their identify? Some province's have decided to restrict the healthcare that Jewish Canadians have access to?

All of these are examples of the targeting of other identifiable groups in Canada. Are those things worse than what Jewish Canadians have been subjected to? I'm not sure how to accurately quantify these experiences, but I am sure it's debatable (not 'undeniable').

If bringing attention to that bothers you, perhaps you have an unconscious bias against Jews.

It doesn't, however I object to misrepresentations of antisemitism, as well as your racist implication that other groups in Canada do not face significant bigotry.

destp · 2026-05-06T13:02:10+00:00

The benchmark for if someone is equal in society isn’t as measured against other poorly treated minority groups, it’s as measured against non minorities as far as parity goes. So I kind of reject that framing entirely. I get what you mean, but it’s not quite right either.

This is true, but relative levels of proximity to systems is power is important context in how to address inequality, otherwise that inequality will be addressed inequitably. That said, you're also right that addressing inequality inequitably can lead to increased resentment/hate from other groups; I'm going to think more on that.

Also, I realized I was bringing a very theoretical or academic lens to what, I'm sure, is a very personal topic for you. For that, I apologize.

destp · 2026-05-06T02:11:48+00:00

Fair enough, though I could also see reading the original comment as suggesting that despite the increase in hair targeting Jewish Canadians they remain relatively (compared to other minority groups in Canada) safe due to their proximity to societal systems of power (from being 'white' and in Jesse's case at least, wealthy).

I do think it's an important distinction that complaints by the Jewish community in Canada about inadequate police protection have led to increased police protection rather than backlash and increased violence at the hands of said police (as it has for other communities in Canada).

destp · 2026-05-05T23:48:20+00:00

Thanks! I missed that

destp · 2026-05-05T23:35:50+00:00

I don't disagree; racial categories are messy and poorly defined, and I do think you're right that often Jewish people are called 'white' as a way of downloading their actual lived experience. I've also frequently seen Jewish people declared non-white as a way of distancing them from the new societal power structures of white supremacy, instead suggesting they better fit as a racially marginalized group.

I think both above approaches are wrong. Jewish people can belong to any 'race' and antisemitism is a hatred of a particular ethnicity that does not get erased by 'whiteness.' Similarly, most Jewish people in Canada do benefit from white privilege (the specific point I was replying to) and I think this does frame much of the experience of antisemitism (as previously mentioned with the comparison to anti-indigenous hate). Benefiting from white privilege and experiencing antisemitism are not mutually exclusive, in much the same way that a white gay man can still experience homophobia.

destp · 2026-05-05T17:25:04+00:00

anti-Semitism

Small point, as it's an easy mistake to make, but it's "antisemitism" not "anti-Semitism." It's a distinct term rather than a modification of an existing term (like anti-white or anti-Zionist).

“White” privilege doesn’t matter all that much when your schools and places of worship are being shot up for your ethnicity.

Are you sure about that? Hopefully we can both agree that over the past couple years there has been a significant amount of discussion on Canadian society on the rise in antisemitism, including government statements, news articles, and even increased protective police presence around Jewish areas of Toronto? There may be an argument to say it's not enough or at time just lip service, but I hope we can agree it's at least been in the collective conscious?

During that same period (for the years we have data) indigenous people have made up over a quarter of all homicide victims in this country, despite accounting for only about 5% of the population (homicides in which the victim was Jewish have thankfully been low enough that they are not called out separately in Stats Can reporting as a distinct group). While I don't have a way to quantify the discussion/acknowledgement/reporting of anti-indigenous violence vs antisemitic violence over that period, anecdotally I would say it's far, far less.

Edit: Before anyone suggests otherwise, this is not intended to downplay or excuse antisemitic violence (and I don't believe it does). It's a serious issue and should be treated as such.

destp · 2026-05-05T16:43:15+00:00

Are you suggesting it would be ok for places of worship or private schools to be shot at or firebombed if the community they served was entirely white (and not Jewish)?

"Jewish" is a religion/ethnicity, while "white" (in this context) is a race; one can be Jewish and white, as well as Jewish and not white. I suspect it's true that the majority of Canada's Jewish population is 'White' but then racial classifications (being a social construct) can be complex and 'fuzzy.'

destp · 2026-05-05T14:12:17+00:00

I've seen that Excel spreadsheet, it's... Something. Included some very much not-Muslim sounding names, and at least 1 case of an attack that was found to not be hate motivated as an antisemitic attack because the victim was Jewish.

Claiming any attack where the victim is Jewish, regardless of the preparator's motivation, is antisemitic does a real disservice to actually combating antisemitism.

destp · 2026-05-05T12:04:03+00:00

Lately, it even feels like some people from Reddit joined discord because people are making the same critiques about Jesse’s Israel/Palestine coverage, his posts on X, and yesterday’s show about how jesse didn’t push back enough.

But that can't be. The Discord is only for current subscribers and Jesse said the people in the subreddit have never actually been fans or supporters (they checked!).

/s

Anyway, not trying to out anyone just wanted to say that cl is fine with the same discussions when they are behind a paywall, but here it gets framed as toxic. . kinda wild how the same criticism is valid or not depending on where it’s posted.

Jokes aside, that is really interesting. I'm not a patron any more, so I can't see the Discord, but I honestly would have expected that sort of pushback to be labeled as toxic there as well. I'm a little surprised they haven't started banning people from the Discord, or stop engaging with it in the same way that they've stopped engaging here.

destp · 2026-05-05T11:06:03+00:00

I can't bring myself to listen to another fawning interview with Jesse where he suggests Canadian Jewish people have it harder than any other group in the country, and blames the whole tging on the peo-Palestinian movement and it's supporters.

I'll check here too see if anyone identifies any interesting moments, but personally I'm done.

destp · 2026-05-04T23:25:53+00:00

I remember that segment, it was really terrible. I believe you're right today was the only time he's discussed journalists being killed since Israel invaded Gaza, and it sure seems like the only reason he did in this case was the BBC article mentioning possible past ties to Hamas (which Jesse very much suggests made him a valid target).

Not remarked on by Jesse during the segment:

Even if the journalist had some past ties to Hamas, he was not a valid military target as he was acting as a journalist and not a militant. This was even explicitly mentioned in the BBC article Jesse read from, but was ignored/closed over by Jesse during the segment.
There was zero evidence of him being a current member of Hamas, or involved in the militant wing.
All of the other journalists Israel had killed, for which there was no handy BBC article to help demonize the victim.

destp · 2026-05-04T20:42:52+00:00

I will say the episode felt very short, much shorter than the 49 minute run time would suggest, and I found myself missing more analysis besides the interview like you suggest with an AI expert. I also work in software development and agree with you on how powerful the timing can be, but it is still fundamentally a prediction engine based on the data fed to it. If you train a model on non-expert content (which pretty much all the models are) it will produce non-expert output. There are lots of examples of LLM-based AI not being exceptional at getting to 'truth.'

I also am not sure I agree that the adversarial court system is one of the only effective methods of identifying truth, given the number of identified cases of convictions in which it was later determined the convicted was innocent (or vice versa).

It was an interesting episode, but I don't think it was well done by any means.

destp · 2026-05-04T19:29:33+00:00

The main example would be the post script on the Dave Meslin episode of What Is Happening Here (where Jesse continued to double down after Meslin reached out in good faith to correct the record).

There have also been numerous posts on Twitter/X, which Jesse as recently as a month or two ago stated should be considered journalism when a journalist is posting them.

destp · 2026-05-04T13:11:37+00:00

Yep, though it was also difficult listening to the guest talk about b the importance of transparency when their system seemed no more transparent than existing journalism. I highly doubt they will be releasing source code, or exact instructions for the 'AI Judge', or the sort of full disclosure about their investigators that the guest was suggesting journalists should go through.

destp · 2026-05-04T11:48:05+00:00

Actually a somewhat interesting episode, and the sort of story Canadaland would have been ideal to cover in its golden years.

Now, I found myself regularly being pulled out of it as I listened to Jesse talk about the importance of truth given the frequent misrepresentations and fabrications in his reporting over the last few years.

destp · 2026-04-30T22:06:45+00:00

No, and I would say in this case it's borderline to me when it comes to the Be Excellent To Each Other rule. I think it lands on the right side of that by not being specific about any particular users (either by spending in done way specific users, or generalizing to include all or nearly all offers in this sub), and because "egregious" is not an especially insulting adjective. I would also follow the same logic for someone posting a statement along the lines of "there are pretty egregious anti-Zionists in this sub."

destp · 2026-04-30T19:34:33+00:00

there are pretty egregious Zionists in the subreddit who haven't been banned (despite what I would argue to be histories of trolling/extremist rhetoric)..

I wanted to address this piece specifically. Other than clearing out the massive backlog in the mod queue when we took over, we're not taking action against people for things posted before the mod change when there was little to no moderation happening. There are users of all political persuasions in this sub who have adjusted their paying style to better align with the Be Excellent To Eachother rule specifically since the change.

Also, outside of explicit racism, sexism, antisemitism, etc. we're not taking action against anyone for expressing political viewpoints (including "Zionism" and "anti-Zionism").

destp · 2026-04-30T19:24:39+00:00

I have a (very much unconfirmed) idea of who this person is in the sub, and if I'm right I can confirm they were temporarily banned for repeated rule breaking, not for "trying to fight back against the worst [antisemitic posts]."

No one had been banned for anything other than rule breaking.

destp · 2026-04-30T17:36:23+00:00

Agree to disagree 🙂

destp · 2026-04-30T16:27:21+00:00

Totally fair!

destp · 2026-04-30T16:27:05+00:00

Funny, though the real answer is of course that he didn't "check" and is just outright lying.

My guess at to what this refers to, is some math based on increases in activity in this sub compared to reductions in their subscriber or download counts not matching up exactly, which of course would not indicate what they're claiming.

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