The Honest Report

Yipeng Ge is an Ottawa physician. He is also a supporter of terrorism, having praised Hamas multiple times on social media, and following the terrorist pogrom in Amsterdam, posted an approving image to his followers.

He may be the most infamous, but he's far from the only person in Canadian medicine to glorify Hamas and to demonize Israel. How deep is this rot, how did it happen, and what will it take for the news media and the relevant medical bodies to take notice?

To help us understand the depth of the problem and what can be done about it, we are joined by Dr. Yoni Freedhoff. He is an associate professor of family medicine at the University of Ottawa, and founder and medical director of the Bariatric Medical Institute, a weight management clinic. He is also an outspoken advocate for Israel and against Jew-hate.

For the casual observer, it can be difficult to keep track of events in the Middle East. After October 7, the war seemingly was between Hamas and Israel, before Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen and other groups joined in.

But all these terrorist groups are not independent, but mere proxies, often called tentacles of the same octopus: the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Hezbollah, by far, is the strongest of these terror proxies, and while it has suffered many setbacks in recent weeks, it remains a serious threat to Israel. So what, if anything, will force Iran to cease its relentless war against Israel?

To help navigate this complex reality behind the headlines, we are joined by Hanin Ghaddar. She is a journalist and the Friedmann Senior Fellow in The Washington Institute's Linda and Tony Rubin Program on Arab Politics, where she focuses on Shia politics throughout the Levant.

Welcome to The Honest Report podcast.

The last year has unmasked for all to see the level of infiltration by anti-Israel and anti-Jewish extremists, in multiple areas: in the news media, in politics, in universities, and even in public schools.

But noticing a problem and doing something about it are two different things. That's where JEFA has come in. JEFA, or Jewish Educators and Families Association, which also counts many non-Jews among its ranks, was founded in the wake of October 7 and has since become a powerful resource gathering students, educators and faculty members in schools across Canada to help combat the insidious and hateful campaign being waged there.

Thank you for tuning into The Honest Report podcast.

After ignoring a year of incessant Hezbollah terrorism on Israel, the news media is now devoting extensive news coverage to it as a result of Israel responding.

Against Hezbollah, what can be the end game for Israel, particularly in light of discussions around a truce being pushed by Washington? And with news coverage portraying Israel, and not the terrorist group, as the aggressor, what is the path for peace?

To help us untangle fact from fiction, we are joined by Michael Rubin. He is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where his expertise focuses on Iran, Turkey and the broader Middle East. A former Pentagon official, he has lived in post-revolution Iran, Yemen, and both pre- and postwar Iraq.

Israeli misdeeds, knowing that they will be rarely challenged by news media outlets.

But that doesn't make their claims any closer to the truth.

Andrew Fox knows that well. Having served three tours in Afghanistan, as well as in Bosnia, northern Ireland and elsewhere in the Middle East, he is a former major in the British military who served as a paratrooper and a senior lecturer at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, he currently is a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society.

As an expert on urban warfare, he is also an outspoken advocate seeking to ensure that media outlets articulate the truth, and not just Hamas propaganda.

Major Andrew Fox joins us as our guest this week.

Welcome to The Honest Report podcast.

A year after Hamas' genocidal massacres on October 7, and the world has long forgotten, at least much of it. It has forgotten not just the brutality and the demonic viciousness, but the deliberate randomness of it, how Hamas terrorists intentionally went after civilians, young or old, it didn't matter.

But the world cannot forget, and Igal Hecht, a Toronto filmmaker and creator of Chutzpa Productions Inc, is releasing a new film, The Killing Roads, telling the stories of the highways and roads where Hamas terrorists massacred unsuspecting motorists during their invasion.

The film will be released for free across social media, as well as at thekillingroads.com, on October 1, and Igal joins us as our guest this week.

Thank you for tuning into The Honest Report podcast.

In South Asia, Bangladesh is a Muslim-majority country with a sizeable Hindu minority, which in recent weeks has suffered an outburst of violence, in just the latest chapter of harassment going back more than 100 years. And, like Israel, the news media has often downplayed the concerns of Hindus in Bangladesh, and that's when the story gets reported at all.

To help us understand this context more deeply, we are joined by Rishabh Sarswat, the president of CoHNA, the Coalition of Hindus of North America.

Thank you for tuning into The Honest Report podcast.

There have been many impacts following the October 7 massacres. And while the negative side is well-established: Israel at war against an increasingly aggressive array of Iranian-backed terrorist groups, anti-Jewish hatred, Israel under attack diplomatically, and much more, there are also many uplifting stories.

Stories like Justin Chow's: On October 6, he was a university student in Canada, from Hong Kong, minding his own business and pursuing his academic career. But the next day, everything changed for him. A light went off, so to speak, and suddenly, a conflict on the other side of the world, one which he had no personal connection with, became immensely personal to him.

Justin, who just graduated from the University of Toronto, is a recent HRC/AVI Campus Media Fellow, and is now an Allyship Advisor with Allied Voices for Israel (AVI), and he joins us on our podcast this week.

Welcome to The Honest Report podcast.

The now-dismantled anti-Israel occupations on some Canadian university campuses may have garnered public attention, but they were just the latest manifestation of anti-Israel propaganda on universities.

For years, anti-Israel activists, whether in the classroom as professors, in student government, or playing roles elsewhere in faculty have used and abused their authority to promote a fanatical anti-Israel agenda, often veering into Jew-hate.

On an institutional level, what steps can be taken to help address these challenges? The University of Ottawa recently appointed Artur Wilczynski, a former Canadian ambassador to Norway and longtime senior national security official in the federal public service, as the university's first special advisor on antisemitism. It is believed to be the first such position at a Canadian university.

Artur Wilczynski joins us to discuss what the role entails, what his goals and deliverables are, and the message it sends to Canadian Jews, and the wider public at large. 

Across the Middle East, Christian populations are falling everywhere, from Egypt to Syria, Lebanon to the Palestinian territories, except for one place: Israel.

Israel's Aramean Christians link their origin to the founding of Christianity, and today, the bulk of their population is in northern Israel, in the direct shadow of Hezbollah.

In this week's podcast, we sit down with Shadi Khalloul from his home in the village of Jish, just four kilometres from the Lebanese border. He is the president of the Israeli Christian Aramaic Association, and he joins us to discuss his community and its deep involvement in Israeli society today, his fears for other Christian communities in the Middle East, and why he refused to leave his home, even despite Hezbollah threats.

Welcome to The Honest Report podcast.