When student journalists gather Jan. 8-12, 2014 for the Canadian University Press’ (CUP) national conference in Edmonton, one of the keynote speakers they’ll hear from is Sun News broadcaster Ezra Levant.
CUP received some backlash for inviting Levant to speak to the hundreds of student newspaper delegates expected to attend the conference—and rightly so.
In response to the criticism, Alex Migdal, a co-ordinator of the conference, defended CUP’s decision in a blog post, writing that he understood where critics are coming from but his policy is to invite speakers that delegates request, and Levant was the second most requested speaker.
“Some find him entertaining,” Migdal wrote. “Others are genuinely interested in his right-wing views. Whatever the motive, Levant draws a considerable audience, and that much is clear.”
To base an invitation off one’s ability to draw an audience is wrong, and in this case legitimizes Levant’s brand of journalism—one where balanced perspectives are often neglected, and even worse, some are bullied on air.
He has used his platform as a journalist to refer to Roma people as “a culture synonymous with swindlers . . . one of the central characteristics of that culture is that their chief economy is theft and begging.”
In Levant’s bio on the official conference website, CUP describes him as a “general trouble-maker,” referencing the “hate speech” charges he faced before the Alberta government’s human rights commission for publishing Islamophobic cartoons.
CUP should only be inviting journalists who can serve as positive role models to those students attending the conference, and Levant is a poor one.
