Mainstream media cries foul over Adamson Barbecue opening

Mainstream media cries foul over Adamson Barbecue opening

By Cosmin Dzsurdzsa – November 25, 2020 Share

A number of Canadian journalists and pundits are not happy about a Toronto small business defying Ontario’s lockdown orders.

On Wednesday, the owner of Adamson Barbecue Adam Skelly opened his doors a second time for indoor dining in defiance of the province’s latest coronavirus restrictions. 

Although Skelly received a lot of support from Canadians, a few journalists expressed their unhappiness with his business re-opening. 

CTV pundit tells business owner to “get bent” calls for restaurant to be chained up

On Tuesday afternoon, CTV News correspondent Scott Reid tweeted in response to Adamson Barbecue’s re-opening by saying that authorities to “chain the joint” and for Skelly to “get bent.” 

According to Reid’s LinkedIn, he has been a correspondent with the national news agency since 2011 and he was once the Director of Communications for Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin from 2003 to 2006. 

CP24 editor gloats about small business getting shut down

While local officials were notifying Skelly that his business had been ordered to close, CP24 Managing Editor Stephanie Smyth commemorated the event by taking a jab at the small business owner on Twitter.

The tweet which has since been deleted shows Smyth telling Skelly “you’re getting shut down.” 

Nora Loreto accuses business owner of “extreme white guy energy” and cries racism

Controversial freelance writer and commentator Nora Loreto took the opportunity to lecture fellow journalists for not making the Adamson Barbecue story about race.

Loreto then went on to say that “it’s just extreme white guy energy to pull of [sic] what he’s trying in Etobicoke…” 

Far-left journalist and editor says business owner is trying to make “more of a profit” 

Journalist and editor of the far-left publication, Passage, Davide Mastracci suggested in a tweet on Wednesday that Skelly was violating lockdown orders to try and make a profit for his business. 

Earlier this month, Mastracci was advocating for TV journalists to be banned from wearing a Remembrance Day poppy while on air. 

Toronto Star journalist complains about Trump hats and children eating inside

Toronto Star reporter Jennifer Pagliaro, who was on scene for Adamson BBQ’s opening on Wednesday live-tweeted a thread in which she complained about restaurant patrons wearing Trump hats and a family with children enjoying their dine-in meal. 

In an opinion article published that day, Pagliaro was also quoted as saying that being at the restaurant “felt the way I imagine it felt like at Trump rallies.” 

We’ve been asked to stay off the property so I can’t see what enforcement is up to but @rlautens tells me one possible patron has a Trump hat on— Jennifer Pagliaro (@jpags) November 24, 2020

A family with small children continues to enjoy their food at a windowside table as a country tune plays— Jennifer Pagliaro (@jpags) November 24, 2020

Columnist accuses business owner of having a “child’s selfishness”

In a column published on Wednesday, Toronto Star columnist Bruce Arthur referred to Skelly’s actions as “a child’s selfishness” and of having “misinformation brain.”  

“This is misinformation brain, in action,” wrote Arthur. 

“We shouldn’t join the people who confuse a child’s selfishness with freedom; instead, we should support our local businesses as best we can without endangering one another, and governments should add to that support, as soon as it can.”

Leftists Stew About Tory Contacts With White Nationalists: The Campaign to Keep People Isolated & Not Talking to One Another

 Leftists Stew About Tory Contacts With White Nationalists: The Campaign to Keep People Isolated & Not Talking to One Another

Ontario PC candidate Donna Skelly gave a special ‘shout out’ to far-right extremists at a Christmas party for campus conservatives

May 28, 2018

An Ontario PC candidate promoted a controversial alt-right website that has a well-documented history amplifying some of Canada’s most toxic and racist personalities during an event for young conservatives in Hamilton last Christmas.

A photo from the event shows Donna Skelly, a former CHCH broadcaster turned city councillor who is currently running for Doug Ford’s Ontario PCs in the Hamilton-area riding of Flamborough-Glanbrook, waving a red hat displaying the words ‘Free Bird Media’ – an imitation of Donald Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ hat.

Except ‘Free Bird Media’ is an alt-right website whose video archives are filled with hours of speeches and interviews featuring prominent figures on Canada’s far-right, including two men recently charged with hate crimes.

According to a Facebook event page for last December’s “Hamilton Conservative Christmas Formal,” organized by members of McMaster University and Mohawk College’s campus conservative clubs, Skelly was booked as a guest speaker alongside characters from Canada’s online alt-right, including FBM founder Alex Van Hamme.

The photo from the event, uploaded to Facebook by Cosmin Dzsurdzsa, the alt-right website’s “creative director,” is accompanied by a message that reads:

 “Thanks to Donna Skelly – Ward 7 Councillor for the shout out!”

Facebook

Skelly’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment from PressProgress.

FBM purports to be a platform that promotes “freedom of speech,” yet the website that received a special “shout out” from the sitting Hamilton city councillor and current Ontario PC candidate is filled with speeches and interviews from some of the most radical and extreme figures on Canada’s far-right.

FBM’s YouTube channel includes videos featuring the following personalities:

Paul Fromm: Described by the National Post as “one of Canada’s most notorious white supremacists,” with extensive links to neo-Nazi groups.

James Sears: Editor of the racist, far-right publication ‘Your Ward News’ who was recently charged with hate crimes – according to CBC News, Sears published material that “portrayed Jews as dogs” and “glorified Hitler.”

Kevin Johnston: Anti-Muslim blogger who was charged with a hate crime after offering $1,000 rewards for videos of Muslim school children.

Faith Goldy: Former Rebel Media host denounced by Conservative MP Michael Chong for promoting “white supremacy” and “anti-Semitism” after she appeared on a neo-Nazi podcast. More recently, Goldy recommended a 1930s fascist book advocating the “the elimination of Jews.”

YouTube

During an interview on CBC News in January, CBC News’ Wendy Mesley questioned controversial professor Jordan Peterson about a photo featuring himself and FBM founder Alex Van Hamme with a flag featuring Pepe the Frog – a cartoon frog used as a coded symbol by the alt-right and other online hate groups.

Van Hamme, a guest speaker alongside Skelly at the Conservative Christmas event, and Peterson were also photographed with a white nationalist who was identified as a member of a group caught plastering racist flyers on the University of Toronto’s campus.

Twitter, Facebook

The Ontario PC candidate also had a front-row seat at the Hamilton Conservative Christmas Formal as Van Hamme delivered a spirited monologue on the “testicles” of “biological male professors” at universities.

Van Hamme informed Skelly and an audience of young conservatives that academia is a “feminine environment” that leaves men “castrated.”

Dzsurdzsa, the FBM director who uploaded the photo of Skelly, also openly touts his experience serving as deputy editor of the US-based Russia Insider website.

According to news outlets ranging from BBC News to Newsweek, Russia Insider is a “Pro-Kremlin propaganda” site with a track record of promoting anti-Semitism.

Russia Insider’s archives show the FBM director published articles calling on Canada to drop sanctions and establish a “healthy trade partnership with Russia”and insinuated Bill C-51 may have been “purposefully” designed to make it a “criminal offence” to express “vocal support for Russia.”