Jesse Brown Doesn't "Feel Any Obligation" to Contribute to Propaganda... Is That True?
Dissecting Jesse Brown's investigative blindspots in "What Is Happening Here?"
This article is Part One of a three-part series critically evaluating the CANADALAND investigative series "What Is Happening Here?"
Parts Two and Three will be released over the next two days.
Confirmation bias is real ... When you go into a story thinking you're going to see something, you're going to look for things that conform to that.
-Jesse Brown (CANADALAND, Episode 1207: “I Was Wrong About the Freedom Convoy”).
Amidst murmurs and admissions that CANADALAND was in financial jeopardy, publisher and founder Jesse Brown revealed a new podcast series: "What is Happening Here?"(WIHH). Skepticism followed. Since October 7, 2023, Brown has become hyper-focused on issues that personally affect him, leaving notable areas of media criticism untouched. Unsurprisingly, the series isn't just reflective of Brown’s worldview, but of right-wing Zionism in Canada. While Brown claims his focus on antisemitism in Canada has nothing to do with Israel, his own rising concerns about antisemitism stem from the October 7th attack and Israel’s subsequent and ongoing genocide.
Indeed, Zionism is the common denominator in the series' approach. Brown sacrifices journalistic integrity to defend the right-wing Zionist position that anti-Zionism is modern antisemitism; seeking to eradicate Jewish people from Canadian society. This belief lacks any evidence and relies on historical nonsense.
Since 2023, over 270 journalists and media workers have been killed by Israel in Gaza. News media's coverage of the Palestinian genocide exacerbated waning public’s trust towards them. The "Palestine exception" and Zionist bias remains the norm. While CANADALAND has critiqued coverage of Palestine, it has been notably minimized and sidestepped. Brown even makes it a point to sidestep Israel and Zionism in relation to the anti-Zionist movement in Canada. Self-evidently, separating the anti-Zionist movement in Canada from Zionism and the State of Israel is impossible.
As a result, WIHH is intentionally ignorant of context and constructed from a poorly sourced, self-indulgent position.
Before the Series
The first overt sign of the series' inevitable direction came when Brown described the anti-Zionist movement in a 2024 interview with Canada's Ambassador to Israel. Here, Brown said anti-Zionist protests have "become, to a wide degree, an eliminationist movement.”
Shortly after, a rebuttal piece from CANADALAND contributors Noor Azrieh and Cherise Seucharan fact-checked the interview. They wrote “there is no evidence to suggest [the elimination of Jews] is the focus of wider [anti-Zionist] movement or representative of participant’s views.”
Brown’s claim about the “eliminationist” nature of the anti-Zionist movement rests on calls for an end to the state of Israel. Brown interprets this call for the downfall of an ethnonationalist apartheid state as a call for the elimination of all Jewish people. In doing so, Brown reveals he views Israel as synonymous with Judaism, a Zionist position.
Before the release of WIHH, Brown sat for an interview with Azrieh to discuss it. When Azrieh asks if she would be allowed to spend 6 months working alone like he did for this series, he says no. When asked if he had co-editors, he says some (unnamed) people had reviewed his work. As per the credits for WIHH, Brown cites his wife Kate Minsky as contributing “Research and Story Editing.” Minsky’s brother is the President of the United Jewish Appeal (UJA) of Toronto, the group which organizes the “Walk With Israel” march (coverage of which Brown had a lot to say about).
Asked if he was married to Kate Minsky or related to Adam Minsky, Brown said in an email "I do not publicly answer questions about my family.”
In the Azrieh interview, Brown says he’s open to genuine criticisms of conclusions he draws in the series. These articles are an attempt at good-faith criticism.
"Fear-based Journalism"
In his initial response, Brown questioned this article's purpose as journalism or activism. “Activists create media stories as a part of their activism, they tend to have pre-determined outcomes, and are designed to aid in achieving their political goals.” Brown wrote. Describing that approach as propaganda, he added “I don’t feel any obligation to contribute to that.”
Yet it's fair to say that Brown had a pre-determined outcome in the series: to show the anti-Zionist movement as “eliminationist.” Unsurprisingly, Brown has since signed on to appear alongside far-right figures like Ben Shapiro, Gad Saad and James Lindsay at a Toronto symposium against anti-Zionism. A political goal of spreading condemnation of anti-Zionism could not be more apparent.
So, according to Brown's own criteria, WIHH could be categorized as propaganda.
But before critiquing this political point, Brown’s journalistic process should be examined. Instructor and journalist Blake Lambert said he teaches his students that journalism should explore new territory. “Journalism should always take you to different and unfamiliar conclusions.”
In this series, nothing new or unknown is explored. Rather, Brown draws similar conclusions as conservative Canadian Zionist groups like the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and B’nai Brith. Additionally, Blake said, that for Jews who feel their self-image is entwined with Israel “Criticism of Israel is seen as an attack on Jewish identity.”
“So when I listen to the Brown series sociologically… it's fear-based journalism.”
An instructive example of Brown's editorial decision-making appears in then-CANADALAND host Justin Ling’s interview with guest Paris Marx in September 2024. Ling claimed Brown intervened on comments Marx made during his podcast appearance; Israel “continues to bomb Gaza and kill so many people” and Israel was engaged “in what many people are claiming is a genocide against the people of Gaza.” Ling said, despite objections, Brown removed these because they were ‘too vague.’ Ling believed this was an explicitly political decision.
Brown took to Twitter, writing that Ling made factually inaccurate comments about what he said. One of Brown's objections was the accusation that he imposes his editorial authority on employees.
Far from an isolated incident, it's little surprise that CANADALAND guests have skewed to the right since then, such as Terry Glavin and Warren Kinsella. Glavin has appeared on CANADALAND before to push the lie of residential school genocide denialism, a decision Brown made despite warnings against it from then-CANADALAND contributor Robert Jago. Meanwhile, Kinsella has spread disinformation about ceasefire agreements between Hamas and Israel and published a book detailing an alleged global propaganda campaign to “delegitimize Israel.”
In addition to terminally-online pundits like Glavin and Kinsella, Brown talks to three Zionist experts. He has no conversations with anti-Zionist experts; only interviews from two anti-Zionist activists (neither movement leaders). This is unsurprising; many anti-Zionist experts and movement leaders are reluctant to speak with Brown.
Scott Martin
Framing Issues
Brown’s personal investment in the series appears almost instantly. “#1 Unsafe or Uncomfortable?” has Brown recounting that, after October 7th, 2023, friends, colleagues and almost his business disappeared. Clips from various Canadian commentators play, all comments on Brown's behaviour. Tellingly, most of these are former CANADALAND guests. In one clip, Shree Paradkhar, an investigative reporter for the Toronto Star, says she hopes people like Brown get some help.
Paradkhar is a curious choice to include. She was the subject of a factually incorrect and poorly substantiated article written by Brown for CANADALAND, where he incorrectly states that Paradkhar was removed from her role as Ombud on Discrimination and Bias at the Toronto Star. In reality, the ‘Ombud’ role was eliminated and reorganized, with Paradkhar keeping the same responsibilities in addition to a few more.
From there, Brown presumes this shuffling was due to Paradkhar’s public calls for a ceasefire following October 7th 2023. Calls for ceasefires or independent investigations (which cannot take place due to Israel’s refusal to co-operate with the United Nations) may seem tame, but they were damning enough for Brown to suggest Paradkhar may have aligned with figures ‘promoting ethnic cleansing.’ CANADALAND's Union denounced the article in a statement posted on X shortly after publishing. It remains live on the site at time of writing.
So when Brown uses Paradkhar's voice to make the case his critics are being unfair to him, her accusation that Zionists are “crybullies” seems somewhat appropriate.
Initial interviews with subjects in the series detail truly disturbing antisemitic experiences. However, the presentation of others reveal Brown’s willingness to sacrifice journalistic rigour to make a political point.
Sources and Poor Verification
In the first episode, Sam Eskenasi says his family, including his children, were targeted with anti-Israel language at the zoo. He tells Brown "We don't have anything to do with that... we have no political connection."
The couple who accosted them almost certainly didn’t know this, but it appears the Eskenasis may have something to ‘do’ with Israel. Amanda Eskanasi Hohmann, who appears to be Sam’s wife, was HonestReporting Canada’s Director of Education, and a Sam Eskanasi was a writer for the far-right outlet True North, where he wrote the United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestine and the Near East (UNRWA) had promoted "terrorism, extremism and violent jihad."
Asked if the Sam and Amanda interviewed were those connected to these organizations, Brown replied “I don’t know.”
“Some people who wish to discredit or dismiss Jews as they try to bring attention to the current wave of antisemitic hate and violence have searched for connections between individual Canadian Jews, and ‘Zioinist’ [sic] groups,” Jesse Brown wrote in an email. “These connections are merely evidence of how small the Jewish community is and how broad the consensus is within the community about support for Israel and opposition to racism.”
These connections, of course, do not mean this incident was not antisemitic. As the act described intended to hold a random Jewish family responsible for Israel’s actions, this harassment does constitute antisemitism. But a proper check of sources’ background would (and should) have noted what appears to be a strong connection to a major right-wing Zionist organization.
Much of the episode is spent on the mother of a young Jewish girl who, as a result of antisemitic bullying at her school, is now being home-schooled. According to a 2025 Federal Report on Ontario public schools, this is only one of 800 incidents of antisemitism reported since 2023. There is no additional analysis needed here. Undoubtedly, this girl was victimized.
Then, Brown reports a Human Rights complaint has been filed in BC against the teachers union. What isn't mentioned is that the complaint was filed by ‘BC Teachers Against Antisemitism,’ which accuses the BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) of fostering antisemitism by marginalizing Jewish and Zionist perspectives. The BCTF complaint was part of a broader controversy surrounding the BC government, which in 2025 rejected an application from the ‘Holocaust and Antisemitism Educators Association’ (HAEA) to develop a school curriculum.
The HAEA’s website includes a booklet entitled ‘Zionism and Israel,’ created by the ‘Israel Forever Foundation,' an American, pro-Israel ‘education’ group. Given the HAEA’s pro-Israel political commitment, suggesting the application was rejected due to structural antisemitism is dubious; Especially considering that, according to the BC Teachers Federation, the existing programs already achieve the goals of HAEA’s curriculum.
These stories do show a problem in addressing discrimination, but they do not show the anti-Zionism movement is eliminationist or structural. Meanwhile, connections to Zionism and/or Israel are deliberately ignored throughout the series.
In discussing the show's approach, it's important to reiterate the seriousness surrounding instances of bigoted harassment. Hate crimes are an important and delicate topic. Through examination, it's important not to victim-blame when discussing experiences of antisemitism. However, these incidents show that, while we can disagree on the level of influence it has, Israel’s actions play some role in the incidents Brown is concerned with.
Next, Brown claims that, according to Statistics Canada, there were more “police-reported hate crimes against Jews than against any other minority” in Canada. He then compares it to FBI data, suggesting a Jew in Canada is 9 times more likely to be a victim of a hate crime than a Jew in the US. In an interview on The North State’s, host Scott Martin (citing correspondence that the author has viewed) said the statistics Brown attributed to StatCAN in the trailer for the series could not be accurately compared with FBI statistics, or the conclusion attributed to the agency. Brown clarifies he is more careful with the attribution of the statistic in the series.
At time of writing, the trailer still makes the claim using attribution to StatCAN.
Investigation or Propaganda?
WIHH shows how Brown’s stilted worldview has taken control of CANADALAND. Editorial mistakes in the first episode (let alone the whole series) show why this should not have been a solo venture.
The first episode shows that antisemitism does exist in Canada. However, as a rule, incidents described do not happen as part of pro-Palestine or anti-Zionist movements. In structural cases Brown presents, like the human rights complaint in BC, the issue has little to do with persecuting Jews and more with questioning the role Zionists should play in educating schoolchildren.
The series attempts a political point: since anti-Zionism is an “eliminationist” movement, anti-Zionist protests in Canada are the major driver of antisemitism. This can only be achieved by sacrificing journalistic, academic, and basic evidentiary rigour, as well as ignoring the role Zionism and Israel’s actions in Gaza.
