The Honest Report

Since the U.S. and Israeli strikes on the Iranian regime began on February 28, the message from Ottawa has been mixed. First, Prime Minister Mark Carney supported them, then appeared to walk that back, with little clarity since.

As the war progresses, footage continues to show Iranians cheering strikes on regime targets, and in Canada, mass gatherings of Iranians praise the effort, calling it not a war, but a rescue operation.

To help us learn more about what Iranian-Canadians want from the federal government, we are joined by Ardeshir Zarezadeh, a Toronto lawyer and activist, who was previously a political prisoner in Iran. He sits down with Robert Walker, HonestReporting Canada's assistant director.

Just a few days into the war with the Iranian regime, and so much has changed. The Islamic Republic's longtime ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead, as are apparently thousands of regime officials, Israel says.

In response to strikes, the Iranian regime has lashed out, striking countries across the Middle East and beyond, demonstrating in real-time their fanaticism. But where is the war going from here, and is the public being well-informed by our media?

In this episode, we are joined by Jonathan Sacerdoti. He is a British journalist and broadcaster who joins us to offer his insights and thoughts on the war with Iran, and what may come next.

The Middle East is such a busy place that the region's most populous country, Egypt, is often forgotten. Home to some 110 million people, Egypt fought four wars with Israel, but in 1979, the two signed a peace agreement.

However, the story didn't end there. The aggressive language and even actions from Cairo have intensified in recent years, and in this episode of The Honest Report, we are joined by Khaled Hassan, an Egyptian-born, UK-based geopolitical and national security researcher and commentator.

On December 26, Israel and Somaliland, a country in eastern Africa, announced that they had established formal diplomatic relations.

In doing so, Israel became the first country to recognize Somaliland, which declared its independence from neighbouring Somalia in 1991. But in contrast to Somalia, Somaliland is a vibrant, democratic and stable country.

To help us understand the complexities and promise of these new ties, Omer Kahin, a leader within Canada's Somalilander community, joins Robert Walker, HonestReporting Canada's assistant director, as a guest.

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From almost the moment that thousands of Palestinian terrorists streamed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, conspiracy theorists began re-writing history in real time, accusing Israel of killing its own people and spreading vicious lies aimed at whitewashing Palestinian terrorism.

As history has shown countless times before, lies that start on the fringes can often become mainstream, and Israeli author Alon Penzel refuses to accept that lying down. He authored a book, Testimonies Without Boundaries, Israel: October 7th 2023, recounts in chilling details the savagery of that day.

He joins Robert Walker, HonestReporting Canada assistant director, for a thoughtful conversation.

While much of the world's attention is focused on the Iranian regime, desperate to cling to power after a historic massacre of its own people protesting, another power seeks hegemony in the Middle East: Turkey, run by its strongman leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Under Erdogan, Turkey has massacred Kurdish minorities, backs the new Syrian regime, and has expressed vocal support for Hamas. It also seeks to be a peacekeeper in Gaza. What exactly is Erdogan trying to achieve, and why?

To help us unpack Erdogan's ambitions, we are joined by Diliman Abdulkader, president of American Friends of Kurdistan.

Welcome to The Honest Report podcast.

HR Canada Charitable has published a 100-page report, backed by the same team that released the Asserson Report on the BBC, to examine CBC News' coverage of the Hamas-Israel war over a 20-month period.The results are damning as they showcase an overwhelming narrative imbalance of the Hamas-Israel war, which minimizes and abstracts Israeli and Jewish experiences while privileging Palestinian perspectives and views.

To help shed light on the details of the report, we are joined by HR Canada Charitable Organization's Director of Education, Amanda Eskenasi.

Starting in late December, millions of protesters have gathered across Iran, joining against the Islamic Republic of Iran's theocratic rulers.

And in response, according to reports, the Islamic Republic of Iran has murdered tens of thousands of protesters, just in recent days alone, and to help hide their crimes, the regime has shut off the internet, making it difficult for the world to see the unspeakable horrors taking place inside the country.

To help shed light on what's happening, we are joined by Armin Navabi. He is a Vancouver-based Iranian dissident, author and podcaster who has a large following inside Iran.

Despite the barrage of pro-Palestinian propaganda being presented on social media - and in the traditional news media as well - there has never been a substitute for the unvarnished truth, and that means seeing the reality first-hand.

Cory Morgan recently had a chance to do exactly that. The journalist and columnist for The Western Standard recently visited Israel with the Exigent Foundation, where he was able to get a picture that Canadians rarely see, read or hear from their news media.

Cory joined us as a guest this week to discuss what he saw, the impact it had on him, and why so many news outlets fail - or refuse - to provide that same picture to Canadians.

Anyone not living under a rock in the last two years has seen the vicious pro-Hamas demonstrations in Western cities. But while they may look like spontaneous expressions of hostility to Israeli policy, they are carefully-constructed instances of astroturfing, where big money funds projects designed to look grassroots.

In this podcast, we sit down with Warren Kinsella, journalist, lawyer, author and political strategist, to discuss his new book The Hidden Hand: The Information War and the Rise of Antisemitic Propaganda, which unmasks the money and organizers behind pro-Hamas efforts in Canada and beyond.