So let's review. On Sept 30 @SueAnnLevy wrote a Radisson refugee column. Relied on fake TripAdvisor and Expedia reviews that were clearly malicious, anti-refugee smears. Called the hotel, got no info. Never went, never checked. @TheTorontoSun published it.
Oct. 1: The Rebel, Canada's pre-eminent anti-refugee, far-right website, picks it up. Relied on Levy's column.
More far-right racists pick it up. Infowars gets in on it. It's in the racist far-right ecosystem now. On Oct 2, neo-Nazi mayoral candidate Faith Goldy does a presser there in the afternoon.
It all seemed to start when three far-right Youtube clowns had made a video in the hotel in September, harassing guests and claiming it was a disaster. Levy was the accelerant into the mainstream media, and into the hate mainstream, too. Infowars didn't get in until Oct. 7.
Back to Oct. 2: @SueAnnLevy goes back to the well. Basically writes the same column, again relying on the same fake TripAdvisor reviews, but add the one about goat-slaughtering in bathrooms. Tweets it at 5:09.
That night a woman enters the Radisson and tries to set fire to a gas can in a hallway. Police believe it was attempted arson. cbc.ca/news/canada/to…
We don't know what made a masked woman try to set fire to a gas can in a hotel that the far-right hate ecosystem had targeted. But we know @TheTorontoSun, which has a lot of great journalists, is a part of that ecosystem.
Here is a very good roundup from @iD4RO buzzfeednews.com/article/ishmae…
Here is a great thread based on actual reporting from @stevenzzhou
It's not a game. There are people in Canada trying to make money off fearing and hating refugees, people who are desperate, and aren't white. And @TheTorontoSun and @PostmediaNews should address what @SueAnnLevy wrote and they published, twice.
