Ezra Levant
| Ezra Levant | |
|---|---|
Ezra Levant in 2008
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| Born |
Ezra Isaac Levant February 19, 1972 Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
| Residence | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Education | B. Comm; LLB |
| Alma mater | University of Calgary, University of Alberta |
| Occupation | Broadcaster, commentator, columnist |
| Home town | Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
| Political party |
Reform (1997-2000) Alliance (2000-2001) |
| Movement | Conservatism |
| Website | www |
Ezra Isaac Levant (born February 19, 1972) is a Canadian media personality, conservative political activist, writer and broadcaster. He is the founder and former publisher of the Western Standard, a former columnist for Sun Media and former host of a daily program on the Sun News Network from the channel's inception in 2011 until its demise in 2015. In February 2015, he founded The Rebel Media website and YouTube channel and is its main contributor.
He has become involved in several legal and other controversies on free speech issues. Other issues that he has dealt with include multiculturalism, immigration, and economic deregulation, and he believes that Europe and Canada are threatened by Muslim immigrants. Levant has been successfully sued for libel on two separate occasions, while apologies and retractions were issued by him or on his behalf on three other occasions.
Jonathan Kay characterized Levant as "one of the most influential activists in modern Canadian history."
Born in Calgary, Levant holds a commerce degree from the University of Calgary and a law degree from the University of Alberta. His great-grandfather emigrated to Canada in 1903 from Russia to establish a homestead near Drumheller, Alberta. Levant grew up in a suburb of Calgary. He attended a Jewish day school in his childhood before transferring to a public junior high school.
Levant campaigned for the Reform Party of Canada as a teenager and joined it as a university student. From 1990 to 1993, while at the University of Calgary, his two-person team won the "best debating" category in the Inter-Collegiate Business Competition held at Queen's University. The first two of those years, his debate partner was future Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi. He has subsequently accused Nenshi, who is Ismaili, of "anti-Christian bigotry" as mayor. In 1994, he was featured in a Globe and Mail article on young conservatives after accusing the University of Alberta of racism for instituting an affirmative action program of hiring women and aboriginal professors. His actions outraged aboriginal law students, feminists, and a number of professors, and he was called to a meeting with the assistant dean who advised him of the university's non-academic code of conduct and defamation laws. As head of the university's speakers committee, Levant organized a debate between Doug Christie, a lawyer known for his advocacy in defence of Holocaust deniers and accused Nazi war criminals, and Thomas Kuttner, a Jewish lawyer from the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission.
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Wikipedia