In a story published on December 12th, Quebec news outlet TVA Nouvelle asserted that leaders of two mosques located in the Montreal neighborhood of Côte-des-Neiges demanded that female workers be removed from nearby construction sites. The authenticity of the article’s claims was called into question almost immediately upon publication. Within hours, as explained in an excellent piece by Canadaland, the story began to unravel:

Over the following day, La Presse, Le Devoir, CBC, the provincial government, and the Quebec Construction Commission launched their own investigations. A representative of Quebec’s electrical services commission told CBC that he spoke with representatives of the contractor, who said the mosques never asked them to keep women off the site, although an agreement was reached to limit construction noise during prayer time.

The allegations that mosque leaders issued demands that women be removed from the work site proved to be false. Within days, TVA pulled the story from their website and issued an apology:

The report was based on the testimonies reported to the camera on Tuesday night by two entrepreneurs. However, the versions we collected from these stakeholders have changed since yesterday. TVA Nouvelles regrets this situation and wishes to apologize to the various speakers and viewers who have been affected by this news. Management continues to conduct its internal investigation to validate the steps of the journalistic process carried out as part of this report.

Despite the swift debunking of the story, it quickly spread through Canada’s far-right online communities—largely thanks to The Rebel. On December 13th, Ezra Levant published a story with the following headline: “Montreal’s first Muslim “no-go” zone: Mosques demand female-free construction site – and get it.” In the article, the self-appointed Rebel Commander goes on to claim that Sharia Law is “the new law of the streets in Montreal.” On December 14th, Levant doubled down on the initial dubious claim in a follow-up piece, suggesting that “this Montreal mosque is slowly forcing ‘infidel’ Quebeckers to adhere to their sharia values” and speculating whether or not “gays and Jewish people” will “be banned from the area next.”

The December 14th article is headlined: “Media ignores Montreal mosque ordering women to ‘clear’ the area.” In fact, while other media outlets were actually performing their due diligence and fact-checking the TVA story, Levant was busy denigrating them while still pushing the original story. In addition to the articles, Levant also published a video about the story on The Rebel’s YouTube channel. The video is comprised of a typically smug and derisive monologue. At one point, a picture of the Village People appears on screen in conjunction with Levant’s slide down the slippery slope into conjecture about “gays and Jewish people” potentially being next to be “banned.” He concludes the monologue by declaring “It’s a radical mosque sweeping the streets clear of ‘dirty infidel women’, just another day in Justin Trudeau’s Canada.”

It has now been a full two weeks since The Rebel first published its report on the TVA story. Not only has the outlet not retracted its claims, but both the initial story and the follow-up piece remain up and readily available on The Rebel’s website without a single correction issued. The YouTube video is still online, racking up nearly 60,000 views as of December 26th. Posts from both The Rebel and Levant’s personal accounts on Twitter and Facebook featuring links to the erroneous reports remain online, without correction.















Levant likes to have it both ways: he publishes bullshit stories while also claiming the mantle of truth in a media landscape plagued by “fake news.” A cursory search of Levant’s twitter account quickly reveals his penchant for smearing journalists and media outlets. In case you haven’t been keeping track, here’s a short list of news orgs that Levant has labeled #FakeNews:

CBC

BBC

The Globe and Mail

Associated Press

The Economist

CBS

The New York Times

Ottawa Citizen

Reuters

CNN

Maclean’s

Huffington Post

The Toronto Star

Global News

Canadaland

CTV News

The Washington Post

Buzzfeed

Sky News

Brookings Institute

Variety

National Post

Levant has even gone so far as to employ the term “Lügenpresse” to describe other media outlets, writing it in over two dozen tweets in 2016. Lügenpresse is a German term for “lying press” and was adopted by the Nazis in an effort to discredit their critics. The word came back in vogue recently among neo-Nazis and white nationalists. Notably, the United States’ most recognizable white supremacist, Richard Spencer, used the term during his infamous November 2016 speech that prompted Nazi salutes from the crowd.





Yes, the same guy who has a hair-trigger when it comes to anti-Semitism also slings a term largely repopularized by anti-Semites. Levant frequently accuses his foes of anti-Semitism on the most tenuous grounds, yet mostly looks the other way when his far-right allies engage in overt anti-Semitism (even when it comes to his own employees). Ironically, The Rebel published a story on December 16th under the headline “Why journalists turn a blind eye to anti-Semitism” in response to the overwhelmingly negative reaction across the globe to the Trump administration’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US Embassy there.

How many times will Levant accuse others of “fake news” or anti-Semitism before he retracts his own false and Islamophobic reporting?

Here’s another question: What happens first?

A. Roy Moore concedes to Doug Jones in the Alabama senate race.

B. Ezra Levant retracts his “no-go zone” story.