Islamophobic truck stunt shows dangers of legitimizing far-right media networks

Imagine pulling off hate as a fundraising stunt.
Yet it seems that’s what Rebel “News” did this week after a truck it owns drove around the Greater Toronto Area, flashing blatant and disturbing Islamophobic messages and tapping white supremacist fears of a “Muslim takeover.”
“Muslim takeover” is in scare quotes because it’s a conspiracy theory innocent of all evidence.
“News” is in quotes because Rebel calling itself such is questionable; as a journalist I don’t recognize the output of that propaganda machine to be news.
No self-respecting news outlet would stoop to running messages on a billboard truck that incited hate toward a particular community.
No self-respecting editor would then exploit the ensuing outrage, fear and police investigation to claim victimhood and raise funds against “censorship.”
No self-respecting media owner — even of the increasingly distrusted corporate media — would do this at any time but they would especially not exploit a time of social divisions wrought by loss, trauma and grief.
Footage of the cube truck went viral this week after it flashed videos showing Muslims praying accompanied by statements saying:
“Is this Yemen? Is this Syria? Is this Iraq?”
“No. This is Canada. Wake up Canada. You are under siege.”
Rebel says the ad was created by a third party but — and here’s a silver lining — companies that rented trucks would not carry the ad, so his did.
It’s not just that what Rebel is doing is totally inappropriate for a self-described journalism organization, not just that it once again crosses lines of taste or decency and not even that it incites hate toward a group of people — Muslims — who are already maligned and have repeatedly borne the deadly brunt of this alienation in Canada. Even though, all of this is egregious aplenty.
More Muslims have been killed in targeted hate-attacks in Canada than in any other G7 country. These are not random killings of people who happen to be Muslim but murders overtly based in Islamophobia. A senate report last year found more than 3,000 anti-Muslim social media groups or websites active in Canada.
In addition, the Islamophobic truck stunt was linked to Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza when Rebel claimed the message was created by a group that views pro-Palestinian protests as antisemitic.
Trying to insist all those people protesting the slaughter of Palestinians are somehow anti-Jewish is a cheap attempt to discredit an international conscience stricken by the plight of Palestinians, to change the conversation with distasteful whataboutism, and to flatten the geopolitical issue of Israel-Palestine into a Jewish-Muslim issue.
The impact of reducing the two very real forms of hate to a competition is to further exploit and compound the trauma of an unfolding catastrophe for political mileage and worse, for dollars.
But even to examine the aims of this debased messaging is to give too much credence to its creators. Rebel’s dangerous actions are precisely what we’ve come to expect from it.
What makes the situation worse is the role of politicians seemingly on the verge of power who are delivering a one-two punch: one, legitimizing far-right information outlets and two, delegitimizing actual news media.
The danger has shifted from the horizon to centre ground. A long tolerance for Rebel and its pretend journalism has created space for other hate-mongering channels whose business model relies on cashing in on white racial panic and insecurity.
Pierre Poilievre has done his part. In January, he rushed to the defence of a Rebel employee who was arrested while hounding Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland with questions. Every citizen has a right to put questions to our representatives. But Poilievre went further than defending freedom of the press; he actually shared a link to a Rebel fundraiser for the so-called journalist’s legal defence, putting money in the pocket of this purveyor of extremism.
He sure seems less concerned about press freedom when he’s delegitimizing and shutting down traditional media, striking Trumpian notes of discord by discrediting any actual journalists who ask him tough questions. In one instance he called a Global News journalist a “heckler” and in another he baselessly attacked a Canadian Press reporter as an emissary for Justin Trudeau. In doing so, he continues to undermine trust in any journalism that doesn’t serve his agenda.
His predecessor Andrew Scheer paved the way for Poilievre’s attacks on media when he exhorted conservatives to challenge mainstream journalism (good advice), to not take narratives set out by them as fact (also good advice) but to consider far-right information as sources of truth (terrible advice).
There is much to criticize in mainstream media, and many of us do so regularly. But there is a difference between criticizing a journalistic entity for not living up to its promise to question power on the one hand, and Poilievre and his ilk demeaning it for doing exactly that on the other.
Divisive stunts like the hate-filled truck aim to get our attention. Fine, it has. Now let’s use this moment to reflect on — and reject — hate and its proponents, whether at the ballot box or by showing up on the streets.