Tory leadership hopefuls grant interviews to anti Islam, pro white ‘journalist’
Some federal Conservative leadership contenders have given interviews to a self-proclaimed online journalist who regularly posts accolades to the superiority of white people, along with diatribes against immigration in general and Muslims in particular.
Video of those largely anodyne interviews appear on Kevin J. Johnston’s YouTube channel, FreedomReport.ca, alongside more inflammatory video rants — including one in which Johnston warns Liberal MP Iqra Khalid, author of a motion condemning Islamophobia, that he’ll be there “with a big, fat smile” to film the moment when she’s shot by a “gun nut.”
The interviews — which also appear on the Mississauga Gazette website, billed as an “independent” news site owned by Johnston — illustrate both the potential and the pitfalls faced by politicians in the era of social media and so-called “citizen journalism.”
Johnston, for his part, said he believes most of the leadership hopefuls were well aware of his views when they agreed to speak to him. “I think every MP and every MPP in this country knows who I am now,” he said in an interview.
“I have made it very clear that I want them to know who I am and I have sent off numerous letters of complaint to all of them ... So, yes, they all know who I am and I know that I’m on the RCMP watch list because the RCMP has already questioned two friends of mine about what my problem is.
“Those are the words they used.”
By Johnston’s count, he’s now interviewed seven Tory leadership contenders, although as of Wednesday he’d posted video of just five — Maxime Bernier, Michael Chong, Erin O’Toole, Pierre Lemieux and Brad Trost. With the exception of Bernier, who agreed to an hour-long phone interview, the others were videotaped for a few minutes following events featuring multiple leadership contestants.
Mike Patton, a spokesman for Trost’s campaign, said: “Mr. Trost does not vet the writings of reporters prior to answering questions, and any suggestion that he shares the ideology of a reporter because he has answered their questions is misplaced.”