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EZRA LEVANT | Shopify's Harley Finkelstein targeted in antisemitic confrontation at tech event
00:29:24
Finkelstein's willingness to keep Shopify headquartered in Canada is being tested repeatedly, at a moment when similar pressures have already pushed Jewish communities out of parts of Europe.
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Hey, friends, I got a question for you. What is the largest company in Canada that's not a bank? It's the number three country in Canada, bigger than any railroad, bigger than any oil company or pipeline company. The answer is a tech company called Shopify. It's worth a quarter of a trillion dollars. But how long is it going to stay in Canada given the abuse that its executives are receiving for being Jewish? I'll show you the latest example of that and I'll ask you the question that they're probably asking themselves. But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to what we call Rebel News Plus. It's the video version of this podcast. I want to show you the encounter between an anti Semitic activist and the Jewish president or CEO of this company. It was sort of shocking and the president says he's had that happen to him three times now. And I wonder how many times you can be attacked for being a Jew before you say, you know what, I'm going to move to Florida. I'll show you the video. To see it though, you've got to have rebel news plus go to rebelnewsplus.com all right, here's the full story. Tonight. We when does Canada reach a migrant tipping point like some European countries have done? It's July 10th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show. Shame on you, you censorious thug. There are not a lot of big tech companies in Canada or Europe for that matter. Anyone with an entrepreneurial idea is likely to move to the US to be with other tech entrepreneurs and all that comes with it, like the financing, like the high tech workforce, like the culture of risk taking, the freedom, the property rights, the lower taxes, the courts. I mean, put it this way, Elon Musk used to live here in Canada and along the way that just became a bad idea for him. But there is one company that has stayed here, and I think it's at least partly for sentimental reasons. It's a tech company called Shopify. We've talked about it before. It's a business that lets ordinary people or big companies turn their websites into businesses. We use it at Rebel News for our store. They have millions of companies that use it like we do and they have close to a billion customers who've used their software to buy stuff you probably have, even if you don't know it. The company is a market capitalization that means all of its stock is worth about a quarter of a trillion dollars. That makes it the third biggest company in Canada. It's behind the Royal Bank And TD Bank. It's so huge. It's bigger than any of our railways. It's bigger than any oil company. It's called Shopify. So why is it still in Canada? Do they like paying Canadian taxes? Do they like our recession? I know why the railways are in Canada. That's where their railways are. I know why the banks are here. That's where their brick and mortar buildings are. But why Shopify, which is a company that exists in cyberspace? They could move it anywhere. The answer is they seem to like Canada. Their leaders, Harley Finkelstein and Toby Lutke say they love it here and they've made charitable donations here and they have a real community vibe to them. I think they really like the place. So take a look at this video. Just the other day when Harley Finkelstein was at a conference for other tech startups, so he was helping other entrepreneurs and business people in Canada get going, giving, you know, telling stories from his company, making, you know, rules and advice for people. And some anti Semite named Eve Engler crashed it not to ask about tech, but to ask about Jews. And he filmed the whole thing. Here, take a look. This is Eve Engler's own film.
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Mr. Finkelstein, why have you supported the genocide in Gaza? Why are you supporting the genocide in Gaza? How many children have been killed, Mr. Finkelstein, how do you support the genocide? Israel's lawlessness, Mr. Finkelstein. Mr. Finkelstein, Israel has killed hundred thousand. Israel's caused wars in Lebanon, in Iran. Time to go. You don't have to prosper. Answer the question. Answer the question, Mr. Finkles. Monsieur St Pierre, do you support Palestinian rights? You're standing with a jealousy there. You're doing an event with a jealousy there, Mr. St. Pierre. Stand up for Palestinian rights and the genocide.
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Engler was screaming at Finkelstein, calling him a genocide heir, someone who murders. This wasn't a Jewish event or an Israel event. It wasn't a military event or a diplomatic event. It was a tech event. Finkelstein is not an Israeli. He's not a soldier, he's a Canadian. At an event to help others. What is that but an attempt to drive Jews out of the public square? What is that that we saw there other than an attempt to shame and humiliate Jews and make life unbearable? And the thing is, that's the least of it. I've seen for years the weekly hate festivals that foreign funded, foreign directed extremists do in Jewish neighborhoods in Toronto. Alexei Lavoie has documented it in Montreal it's in Ottawa, too. It's in Vancouver, it's in Edmonton. It's everywhere in Canada now. But it used to be a shock. I think now it's normal. I think to Harley Finkelstein, it was a bit of a shock. Here's what he wrote about it afterwards on Twitter. He said, what happened at Startup Fest yesterday was anti Semitism, pure and simple, disguised under a thin veil of advocacy. And. And everyone in the room saw right through it. I was on stage with George St. Pierre talking about entrepreneurship, not politics. A man burst in screaming horrible accusations of me. Anyway, third time in two years, including at the opening of a Jewish community center. My parents were in the front row. I'll never forget their faces when the target is always the Jew and never the topic. It's not advocacy, it's hate. The room booed him down and cheered as he was walked out. I'm grateful for that. Hate got escorted out. We got right back to building. So it sounds like this has happened to him three times. Hey, can I show you a photo I took last year when I visited Miami for a couple days? It's a photo of a very religious Jewish rabbi, the founder of the Chabad movement. And the poster is a call for Jews to say a quick prayer at a little synagogue that presumably is near the airport. And what caught my attention about this poster when I walked by it, enough to make me stop and snap a picture on my cell phone, was that the poster was in the middle of the very busy terminal at Miami International Airport, and there was no one standing by it, no one guarding it, no one minding it. It was just there. And it was there a couple of days later when I left from the same airport, and I presume it's still up today. And I thought, there's no way that poster would be unmolested in an airport in Toronto or Montreal or Ottawa or likely many others in Canada. It would be vandalized or stolen, quite likely by airport security staff themselves. But there it was in Florida. No big deal. That's the difference between Canada and most of the US it's the difference between Canada in 2026 and Canada in, say, 2001, 25 years ago, or probably even Canada 10 years ago. Antisemitism is the new normal in Canada. All the politicians have accepted it as normal because they love the votes. Don't ask me. Ask Harvey Finkelstein, who's been targeted for harassment three times in two years. I showed you the other day that the Muslim population of the Ottawa Carleton Public school board is now larger than any other religion there and it's increasing by about 1% a year. I was in Ottawa last weekend to visit the ambassador for the 4th of July party, and I was in the hotel and I could see the demographics on the street. It was the soccer tournament, the World cup, and I wasn't paying much attention. I was at the hotel downtown and I heard huge cheering and I saw huge crowds in the street and I assumed that Canada had won. I mean, there's all these people in Ottawa cheering. No, Canada lost to Morocco, a Muslim Arab country in North Africa, and the city went wild. The allegiance of the fans was to Morocco, and even if they weren't Moroccan, it was to fellow North Africans or fellow Muslims, not to Canada. At least their sports allegiance. But what about other allegiances? You've probably heard of Pew Research. It's an enormous think tank famous for its international surveys. It's considered authoritative. If anything, it leans a bit liberal. I think I rely on it. Here's a study by them asking Americans for their views on the Middle east, and they categorize the answers by the characteristics of the answerer. Are you a Jewish American, are you Christian American, are you Muslim American, etc. Well, it turns out that 44% of Muslim Americans support Hamas or have a favorable view of them, the murderers, the murderers of their own people, let alone the murderers of Jews. So if you meet a Muslim on the streets of America, it's really a coin toss as to whether or not they support a murderous terrorist group that's in America. In the UK, it's almost exactly the same. It's 46%, according to one study, let me read from the Daily Telegraph. Only one in four British Muslims believe that Hamas committed murder and rape in Israel. On October 7, a major report is found. 46% of British Muslims say they sympathize with Hamas, according to a poll commissioned by the Henry Jackson Society, a counter extremism think tank. The survey, which is the largest of its kind to be carried out since the Israel Hamas conflict began, asked a range of questions to British Muslims as well as to the general public. Hey, how long do you think Harley Finkelstein is going to stick around and endure what he's enduring? It's been three times now. There will be a fourth and a fifth and a sixth. It would be like a black man who, wherever he goes, had KKK members sneaking in, storming the stage, shouting at him, calling him racist epithets after a certain point. Why would a black person stick around if he had the means to leave. And I've got to imagine that literally every week there's another important person making the case to shopify to move to the states. I mean, what governor wouldn't love to bag a quarter trillion dollar company? Florida, Texas, Tennessee, places in the south. Probably places less anti Semitic than Canada. Probably not New York City. They have an anti semitic mayor these days who's empowering communists and antifa every day. Forget about being Jewish, they would just steal your money. Here's an image though of a church being firebombed in New York a couple days ago. So maybe pass on New York and go further south to Florida. The place where I saw that poster. I mean, Harley Finkelstein could stick around. The demographics are moving quickly. Every year a million more migrants, many of them from endemically anti Semitic pro terrorist places. I saw this tweet. Speaking of soccer, Muslim fans are chanting for the death of Jews. Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas. That's what they're saying.
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Now.
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I care about this because I feel it myself. I'm Jewish. But even if you're not Jewish, when the last Harley Finkelstein leaves, when the last Jews leave London and Amsterdam and Paris, do you really think it's going to get better for the Christian or post Christian people who remain in Canada? I don't know. I mean, Egypt was once a Christian country. Hard to believe it's about 10% Christian now. Lebanon was once a Christian country. Both are Jew free by the way. Hey, how are they doing? Stay with us for more. Hey, welcome back. Sometimes I interview people I would call general pundits. They're smart people who have clear philosophy, they follow the news and they're just fun to talk to and you learn different arguments or facts. But some people, and I think I prefer talking to these kind of people, are genuine subject matter experts that when I'm done the interview, I didn't just have fun and have a few turns of a phrase. I actually learned something about the file. And our guest today is certainly a subject matter expert. His name is Sam Cooper. He works for his own website which is a must Reid website. It's called the Bureau News and he is an expert in foreign meddling in our country. Sometimes that might be from Iran, sometimes it might be from communist China. Let me read you one of the latest pieces that Sam wrote and then we'll join him in a moment. The headline is U.S. indictment alleges Canada border agent is insider sold inspection schedules to Indo Mexican cartel network moving 100kg weekly into British Columbia. Wow. That headline alone is packed with facts. Joining us now is Sam Cooper. Sam, are you saying that they had a man on the inside who was tipping them off on when they could bring these things into Canada?
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C
That's right, Ezra. The US government indictment is absolutely sprawling. It targets three alleged Indo transnational narcotics trafficking groups. It makes a wide range of allegations, as you know, including that these gangs are involved in extortion, political targeting across North America. But what I focused on and broke before anyone else noticed was the US government alleges these Indo transnational narcos set up in Vancouver had a system where one of their actors was allegedly bribing a Canada Border Services agent so that they could get the schedules of when, you know, vehicles are inspected crossing the British Columbia Washington state border. This is one of the major border crossings in North America. And as I already knew from my sources in Canadian agencies that it was a major crossing for cartels that tend to use Indo Canadian trucking networks. These are the same networks tied to the Ryan Wedding alleged Sinaloa cartel case. And this indictment confirms what I was being told, that Canadian corruption has opened the border. And these Indo Canadian groups in Vancouver said openly they are starting a new cartel with Mexicans.
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Wow. Now help me understand here because if it's a Canadian that was bribed, I would imagine the Canadian would know. Canadian inspections. What direction do these cartels ship things? Or is it both ways?
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Well, the major flow of how this transnational narcotics scheme works is Canada, as you know, Ezra, I've reported, has become an absolute hotspot for international narcotics transshipment fentanyl production. And so we have Mexican cartel proxies, as I say, supplied and funded by Chinese Communist party networks working with Iranian state actors using I say, proxies like Ryan Wedding, the former Olympian, Hell's Angels. And these Indian Punjabi based transnational gangs are part of the scheme where they are bringing literally tractor loads of of cocaine and methamphetamine from Mexican cartels, picking them up in Los Angeles and Sacramento and bringing that supply most of up, most of it up into Canada, also into the United States. Ezra, I'll just add what this US indictment doesn't cover yet is the fentanyl production side of these gangs, which would include the Falkland Super Lab, what my American sources called the largest fentanyl lab ever discovered in the world. And, and one by the way, that would be connected to Ryan Weddings associates. Wow.
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Now these are new. I mean everyone's heard of the mafia before. In fact, they made a lot of movies about Them. There was something, I think, maybe romantic or dramatic about them, and everyone's heard of the Hell's Angels, but some of these new gangs, they're rather new in Canada. I keep hearing about this Bishnoi B I S H N O I gang, and to my ear, that sounds like a Russian word, but I think they're Indian, from South Asia. What is the Bishnoi gang? Who are they? And I saw a picture of a license plate. I think it was a BC license plate that said Bishnoi in it. So they're not very shy about announcing themselves. Give our viewers who might not have heard of it, and I've only heard of it, like five minutes ago. Who is the Bishnor gang and what are they doing?
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C
Ezra, this is a very deep file. This new US indictment covers some of it, but I'll give you the Coles notes here. Across Canada and North America, Indian transnational gangs directed from India. In the case of the Bishnoi gang, From the namesake Mr. Bishnoi, who's sitting in an Indian jail cell, he has been directing, according to the US indictment, assassinations of what tend to be, I would call them, Punjabi, Sikh religion, often separatist gangsters in North America. So this is a major story where extortions have been happening across the South Asian diaspora in Canada. But that's just one side of the scheme, Ezra. It's reported and documented that the Indian gangs have leveraged Canada's student visa system, Canada's weak borders, and they send essentially Indian students to, we can say, invade Canada's borders, set up in Canada to commit crime, including extortions and narcotics trafficking. And that, in a nutshell, is the Bishnoi gang. And Ezra, I'll just. I'll end by saying this. The famous political assassination of a Mr. Hardeep Nijar in Surrey in 2020. 2023. The Bishnoi gang is charged in court for that, let's just call it whether it's a gang killing or as our former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged years ago, that it was a hostile state activity. There's different theories on what happened there, but Bishnoi is behind it. The US government says.
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Now, I remember not too long ago, a letter was sent to law enforcement in B.C. bragging about having 1,000 gunmen on the street. Is that related to this gang activity? It's a vague recollection, but that shows an audacity. They're sort of daring the Canadian police to do something about them.
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That's exactly correct, Ezra. And I would agree with Your phrase, audacity, brazenness, absolutely fearless of Canadian law. Because Ezra, as I've reported at the bureau, Canada has gaping loopholes from border controls to lacking what are called anti racketeering laws, lacking foreign interference laws. And the Bishnoi gang indeed is rubbing it in the face of Canada's national police and local police. Ezra, I would add that my reporting for the bureau for from senior U.S. government source says the RCMP was asked six years ago by a senior U.S. government agency to do a co investigation against the exact scheme that's outlined in this indictment. That is Indo Canadian trucking companies have been taken over by mafias which would be connected to this Bishnoi Group. The U.S. government wanted to work with the RCMP. My sources credibly said the RCMP stonewalled them. And that goes into many different investigations.
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Wow.
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You know, I remember when Donald Trump said he wanted to stop the drugs and stop the people smuggling across the border and a lot of people snickered at him and said, come on, that's your Mexican border you're talking about. It sounds like maybe Trump had the intel in front of him.
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If he.
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It sounds like he knew this was happening. But it looks like in some way it was American investigation. Maybe it was a joint effort, American and Canadian police. Would you say this would have happened without the US Side? I don't know if that was the FBI or the dea.
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Ezra, I've reported repeatedly from US government sources that the RCMP lacks the initiative, the RCMP lacks the laws. I reported in 2025 from Canadian sources that corruption in the CPSA was a known issue and a concern to the American government to the point where they were concerned with sharing, sharing information with Canada. So I've detailed case after case, including Ryan wedding, where the RCMP is not the initiator. What we're seeing here, Ezra, is US government is treating Canada as what's called a semi domestic national security threat concern. That is the US government is reaching into Canada and investigating issues that Canada either lacks the capacity or will to. That would include the US Consulate shooting, other things happening to synagogues in Toronto. Canada lacks the capacity and will. I've reported on this very, very forcefully and with a lot of authority.
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Wow. You know, I had the chance to interview the US Ambassador, Pete Hoekstra a few months ago on this subject and he actually praised Canadian law enforcement. Now, I don't know if that was just a perfunctory, you know, that's what ambassadors do. They're very diplomatic. But, but you know, Maybe there's things going on in the background or maybe he didn't want to spook anything. But if the US has to come in and protect us from criminals, that is a scary thing. And you know, I think that the Prime Minister was elected in part on I will defend the sovereignty of Canada. I mean, I'm grateful that foreign police are helping to mop up our gang problem, but it's sort of pitiful in a way that we rely on foreigners for our own law enforcement. I mean, I'm grateful we know that a large number of arrests in Canada come from tips from the rcmp, sorry, the FBI or cooperation with the FBI. Maybe they also do advanced signals like wiretapping, or probably not called wiretapping anymore. They probably have spy systems that are beyond Canada's. I don't know. I'm grateful that they're helping us, but it is sort of embarrassing that we have to outsource our police work to a foreign country.
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C
Ezra, I've reported again on this issue a lot, and I will say with 100% confidence. The US DEA agency especially has military grade intelligence that initiates a lot of the serious investigations in Canada. But as it turns out, the RCMP lacks the laws to often use American intelligence in court. So that's a big problem. And to your point about Ambassador Hoekstra, I do believe he's doing what a diplomat should and being diplomatic to the RCMP and to Mark Carney's government. But I think there's a lot of behind the scenes, let's just call it a little bit of pressure on elbows in Ottawa that Canadians should be thankful for, I believe.
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Yeah, you know, the Sikh diaspora in Canada is so large, it really is disproportionate. I think Canada on a proportionate basis is much more Sikh. Even then India is, if I'm not mistaken on my math there. And there are very prominent Sikh politicians in a variety of parties. Jagmeet Singh just finished being leader of the ndp. There are prominent Sikhs in both the Liberal and the Conservative parties. They're a very politically active group. And I know that Sikh extremism is a very sensitive topic. And it wouldn't surprise me if you have orders right from the top saying turn a blind eye because it's just politically uncomfortable to talk about that. And in a way, that was an issue. And remember Rudy Giuliani, the great prosecutor who then went on to become the mayor of New York? In the end, he was the guy who really mopped up the mafia crime. And maybe it took an Italian prosecutor to take on Italian American Mafia because he wasn't worried about the political look of it, because he wanted to take the word Italian back from him. And he did. He was a hero to everybody. Of course, for that, maybe there's a political incorrectness. Maybe we need a crusading prosecutor justice minister who is Sikh himself, who says, I'm going to stomp out this the same way Rudy Giuliani went after the mafia. I don't know, I'm just daydreaming. I don't see anyone who would fit that bill.
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C
Ezra, I completely agree. We need. Well, what we would need is we would need a high level Mandarin speaking Chinese Canadian prosecutor and an Iranian Canadian or prosecutor Persian community prosecutor, an Indian community prosecutor, a Bangladeshi community prosecutor. I'm not being trite here, Canada Tamil
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to go after the Tamil tide. The prominent Tamil guy we have is Gary Ananda Sangri, who actually was working on the other side.
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Well, that's the irony that I hope that you were about to pick up on. I don't want to say anything unkind, but our current Public Safety Minister has had to recuse himself from some files. So I don't currently see a very great leadership in Canada to tackle a growing concern that diaspora based transnational crime is probably the greatest sovereignty and national security threat to Canada is what my US government credible senior sources tell me, and I believe them.
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Wow. Well, Sam, it's great to catch up with you. We are paid subscribers and I would encourage our viewers to do the same. Sam is an independent journalist and as you can see, that independence is. He uses it to report on things that may be politically incorrect or challenging for the regime media. You can go to Theburo News to sign up, just the way we have. As I said before, I regard Sam as a subject matter expert. I learn from him every time. And I would encourage you to support him by becoming a subscriber. Sam, great to see you and thanks for being here.
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Thanks very much, Ezra.
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All right, stay with us. Your letters to me next Foreign. Well, we're heading into the weekend. A lovely summer across the whole country. Maybe you're out in Alberta and maybe went to the Stampede. Lots going on. But also people taking a little bit of a break from politics. I'm excited though, to tell you that in the fall we're going to have three of those conferences we call Rebel News Live. That's where we spend the day, let's say in Calgary at the Carriage House Hotel. We're doing one in Toronto, we're doing one in Vancouver. And we bring all your Rebel favorites. I'll be there. Sheila Gunn Reed, David Menzies, Rebel reporters, other people who are our favorite guests to talk to. And the funnest part, people say, is hobnobbing, rubbing shoulders with your fellow Rebel viewers. It's a great way to spend a day and get recharged, get pumped up, make new friends, see old friends again. You can find all the details atrebel news live.com. we'll see you there. Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel world headquarters, see you at home. Good night. And keep fighting for freedom.