(Sun TV host Ezra Levant has agreed to debate Ryerson professor and former AFN candidate Pam Palmater to a debate. Above is a video of Levant debating Gitz Crazyboy from Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in Alberta.)
By Jorge Barrera
APTN National News
Ryerson University professor Pam Palmater said she felt her security threatened when television personality Ezra Levant flashed a Google-map image of her Ajax, Ont., neighbourhood during a recent episode of his talk-show.
Levant, who hosts the Sun News Network show, The Source, showed the image of Palmater’s suburban neighbourhood as part of an attack aimed at her opposition to the Conservative government’s planned tabling of legislation to introduce private property, or fee simple, ownership on reserve lands.
The federal government is expected to introduce opt-in legislation sometime next year.
Palmater said she doesn’t shy away from debates around issues, but it worried her Levant brought in her personal life as part of his attack on her position.
“For me as a single parent, a single woman with two kids at home, I think the most dangerous, offensive thing he could have done is put a Google map of my neighbourhood on TV because we all know the kind of people that watch Ezra Levant…they are all the disturbed, fringe people,” said Palmater, who came in second during this summer’s race for national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.
“In his tirade he is showing hatred and in showing where I live there is an implication for those who aren’t stable…At the end of the day we are all individual beings, we are entitled to some modicum of safety and he jeopardized that,” she said.
Levant responded saying Palmater’s concern was “laughable” and that her address is publicly available information.
“We didn’t publish it, just a generic shot of her neighbourhood without identifying her address,” said Levant. “Sorry, she’s not a CIA agent whose cover I’ve blown. She’s just embarrassed that I’ve exposed that she owns property in Whiteville.”
Palmater said she’s not ashamed of her success.
“Yes, I make a good salary, I have four degrees I paid for myself with student loans and yes I spend my time working for First Nations,” she said. “I am not a chief or a band councillor, I work at Ryerson University…I do not make money off First Nations, I am paid by Ryerson….He had no facts by which to counter my arguments….The best he can do is call me a nut-bar, whatever nut-bar means.”
Levant emulates the shock-style of U.S. television and radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. His network is steered, in part, by Kory Teneycke, a former communications director for Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Levant calls opponents of private land ownership legislation the “Indian industry one percenters,” in a riff off one of the Occupy movement’s slogans about how the rich one per cent holds most of the wealth in the U.S.
“I have this daydream of a whole community of Indian millionaires. I think the first Indian billionaire is going to be in northern Alberta,” said Levant. “Do I want to take land away from Indians? I want to give more land to Indians, but not to official Indians, Indian industry Indians, professional Indians, Indian industry one percenters. Give it to the regular people. Unlike (AFN national chief) Shawn Atleo, I want to give land to Indians not him.”
He says he’s uses the word “Indian” instead of First Nations and Indigenous because the word is in the Indian Act, it’s used by bands themselves and he doesn’t want to give in to political correctness.
“Every Indian I know calls themselves an Indian,” he said.
Levant’s show on the issue triggered a fierce reaction on Twitter which spawned the creation of a “hash tag” called #EzraLevantLogic which was still going strong Friday.
“You don’t need to visit an Indian community or meet any actual Indians to be an Indian expert…#EzraLevantLogic,” tweeted @Hayden_King, a professor at McMaster University.
“#EzraLevantLogic…The mortgage I took out to buy my on-rez house…my car loan…my credit card…all figments of my “liberal” imagination!,” tweeted @Mimiges, from Quebec.
“#EzraLevantLogic Natives can’t hunt/fish for commercial use because they never traded pre contact. They just ate raw saying ‘GOONY GOO BOO,'” tweeted @chicosez, also known as filmmaker Christian Tyzia.
“#EzraLevantLogic I’m not a racist, but I play one on TV,” tweeted @Urban_Su, from Vancouver Island.
Levant dismisses his Twitter critics as “fancy pants Indian industry” types sitting at an office with nothing to do, far removed from the “real Indians” who are too poor to get on Twitter.
“If you are on Twitter you are probably going to be a fancy pants Indian industry insider, a chief, a councillor, someone sitting at a desk playing solitaire,” said Levant. “I grew up in Calgary…There were Indian kids in my school until Grade Eight….There is an enormous gulf between normal Indians and the Indian industry. Normal Indians are pretty great. There is no…political correctness, they don’t freak out when you say Indian instead of First Nation.”
Levant says most of his Indigenous critics are “Indian industry Indians” who he says want to maintain the status-quo.
“The porch slaves are your Indian industry Indians and your field slaves are your regular Indian members on a reserve and so of course the port slaves love the system,” said Levant.
Chelsea Vowel, who blogs and uses the twitter handle @apihtawikosisan, started the #EzraLevantLogic hash tag. A Metis from Alberta, Vowel, who now lives in Montreal and obtained law and education degrees, scoffed at Levant’s contention “normal Indians” can’t afford to use social media.
“It has gotten to the point where you hear about things happening through Twitter or Facebook before you get the call from your aunty,” said Vowel. “Everyone has taken to it. It’s not an elitist thing, everyone up north has an iPhone or BlackBerries.”
Vowel said she’s not part of any elite. She said she works part-time and rents a three bedroom apartment she shares with her partner and four children.
“I’m the only one with two degrees in my entire family, but it hasn’t meant that I am suddenly on the side of the Indian Act,” said Vowel. “The accusation is very interesting. It recognizes that the education system is about colonizing people, that you are part of the one per cent if you are working in that world. That would only be true if Canada was a colonial nation and we are helpless to resist that. I agree, Canada is a colonial nation and we can resist it.”
For her part, Palmater said she’s willing to take Levant on in a debate.
“If he wants to talk about chiefs or if he wants to talk about my background, I’m happy to do it,” she said.
Levant said he would debate Palmater.
“I’d love to, absolutely,” he said.
Levant admits, however, that he’s still learning about Indigenous issues.
“I haven’t scratched the surface, I am learning as I am going, I am an amateur here, I am a tourist,” said Levant.
He’ll also continue doing shows on the issue because the online hit count makes it worthwhile.
“The shows I’ve done Indian affairs are the absolute top-rated shows I do in terms of Internet traffic,” said Levant. “I can’t believe it. I always wonder if anyone is paying attention; does anyone care? When I compared the Indian Act to apartheid…it was one of the most popular shows I’ve done.”
I’d pay to see that debate.
Ezra gets about 30,000 of the freakiest people in Canada to watch his show. And yes, if he talks about you, you WILL get hate mail. Ms. Palmater has a right to be a bit concerned.
PS. I am the real Mike Murphy. The previous Mike Murphy is a wanker.
“we all know the kind of people that watch Ezra Levant…they are all the disturbed, fringe people,””
If this is the depth of Palmater’s knowledge she is 1) Living in a bubble 2) Not an overly persuasive Prof 3) will get a taste of humility while losing in a debate with Levant.