Another Ezra explosion

Well, what else is new?

This time, the ol' foamer is leading the charge against Marci McDonald's new book about the influence of Canadian theocrats on the Conservative government. It hadn't even appeared when his pot boiled over (today's the day), but an excerpt did find its way into the Toronto Star, and the Usual Suspects suffered massive head trauma as a result.

Well, first, to be fair: the Star's editor messed up, incorrectly identifying Karen Sellick's Canadian Constitution Foundation as a "Christian advocacy group," when McDonald herself had actually stated that the CCF (wicked acronym, by the way) had advocated for Christianists. Not the same thing, and not Ezra's fault for reading what was there.

But his main beef seems to be with McDonald's mention of the far-right B'nai Brith activist Joseph Ben-Ami. He incorrectly claims that McDonald identifies him as Christian, which she does not. (And she wouldn't, because she knows better. As far back as 2006 she was writing about Ben-Ami and his provenance.) There is, however, a Christian connection, which Levant conveniently ignores--because he simply can't be unaware of it.

Ben-Ami, in fact, played a central role in forging an alliance between B'nai Brith and the Christianists (part of a general rapprochement whose theological underpinnings are sketched out here). A disillusioned former member of BB, Stephen Scheinberg, notes:

A key person in furthering the alliance was Joseph Ben-Ami, a bearded, pleasant individual and an Orthodox Jew who took on the role of BBC’s government affairs representative in Ottawa. He had worked previously for Stephen Harper and then for Stockwell Day as a policy aide, and played a leading role in Day’s leadership campaign. I believe that Ben-Ami was central to the effort to build this alliance. He would go on to work for two of the numerous front organizations established by Rev. [Charles] McVety—the Canadian Centre for Policy Studies and the Institute for Canadian Values. McVety seems to believe that his multiple groups will further the belief in the power and influence of the Christian right here in Canada. According to a 2006 article in Walrus, McVety’s Institute was established as “a direct riposte to bill C-38” which legalized same-sex marriage.

Scheinberg's article is worth reading in full. I would bet a fistful of loonies that McDonald did so in the course of researching her book.

I look forward to perusing it.

UPDATE: More on McDonald's timely exposé, by Antonia Zerbisias.

UPPERDATE: And speaking of Harper's Christianist base...

UPPESTDATE: The Mooning of Ezra Levant. [H/t reader Armand]