HANNAFORD: There goes YouTube again, censoring Israel supporters

If you thought the Trudeau Liberals were the biggest threat to free speech and freedom of information in Canada, you would be broadly correct. But you can't trust Big Tech either. Last week, YouTube condemned the Aristotle Foundation's innocuous documentary on why Canada should support Israel, saying it 'incites hatred' and refused to allow Aristotle to advertise it on the YouTube channel.The Aristotle Foundation is a relatively recent entrant to the conservative think-space in Canada, taking its place honourably as a purveyor of lofty purposes with such longer-established entities as C2C, Civitas, the MacDonald-Laurier Institute, The Fraser Institute, the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.Aristotle's founder and principal spokesman Mark Milke is in fact so establishment, that he is a veteran of the Churchill Society and recently had the satisfaction of seeing Danielle Smith, premier of Alberta, preside over the unveiling of Calgary's statue honouring the great fighter against fascism... and hate. Point being, the Aristotle Foundation is not about promoting hate. It is anti-hate and honours others who are.And it is prepared to be speak up about anti-semitism and in defence of Israel's right to defend itself. But in that noble endeavour, it found itself up against YouTube.Says Milke, "We just released our video on why Canadians should support Israel. On occasion, we advertise to give an important video a wider reach. But YouTube just told us that they won’t allow us to advertise our video. Why? Because they think our Aristotle Foundation video “incites hatred.”Actually, the video is an 18-minute history of the Israel-Palestinian dispute, narrated in considerable detail by Milke. For example, he relates:" • Why Iran’s regime (not the people) is behind Hamas and its terror attacks over the decades.• How some Palestinian leaders (those in Hamas and the late Yasser Arafat) refused to reach a peace treaty with Israel when given the chance, unlike Egypt, Jordan and others in the region.• How fundamentalist radicalism is a threat to both Israel and Canada — see the “Death to Israel! Death to Canada!” chants in Vancouver recently as just one example. And no, no one should generalize about any one faith and we don’t.• The tragedy of civilian deaths now and in history.• And why we should support not only Israelis but dissident Palestinians, Lebanese, Iranians and others who deserve better from their leaders and deserve peace and prosperity.".Which still leaves the Trudeau Liberals. YouTube's bad, but the Trudeau Liberals are ten times worse. The suite of legislation they have prepared — the last unit of which, Bill C-63, is currently at Second Reading and may yet pass — would essentially deputize the entire Canadian population of grifters and irredeemable malcontents to harass people merely exercising their free speech rights.Mercifully, there is reason to hope that this legislation will never become law, as the Liberal government shows increasing weakness as the weeks go by. But meanwhile, as far as we're concerned, whatever you think about Israel and Hamas, the Aristotle film does not incite hatred. But don't take our word for it. Take a look.As Milke says: "If you think we’re being reasonable, please share and please donate to support our important work to get out facts, informed history, and reason. And we’ll spend some money promoting this video on X and other social media channels instead of YouTube."Good luck.

HANNAFORD: There goes YouTube again, censoring Israel supporters

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