Avi Lewis goes home...

Yes, I am delighted he has gone to Al-Jazeera....

Nothing demonstrates the dangerously misplaced sympathies of Canada's intellectual elite so much as the case of Avi Lewis. A former host with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Jewish Lewis is Canada's answer to Keith Olbermann. But what has everyone in Canada talking is not his past career but his new job: Lewis has joined Al-Jazeera, the Middle East broadcaster that serves as a leading purveyor of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism.

That the ambitious 40-year-old presenter has departed the state-funded CBC for an international network with exponentially bigger budgets and audiences isn't a huge surprise. But Lewis's career move underscores that the Canadian Left is all too willing to forge an unholy alliance with the official tribune of radical Islam.

In many ways, Lewis is a perfect archetype for Canada's intellectual elite. A third generation product of Canadian political royalty, he boasts a star-studded genealogy that has inspired not one, but two TV specials: Lewis is the son of Stephen Lewis, Canada's former ambassador to the United Nations and former head of Ontario's socialist New Democratic Party. His mother, Michelle Landsberg, is a longtime columnist with Canada's largest liberal daily, the Toronto Star. His grandfather, Stephen Lewis, once led the NDP party on the national level. From his education at the elite private school, Upper Canada College (the "Eton" of the 49th parallel), to his marriage to radical author Naomi Klein, Lewis confirms the critics' mockery that he is more of a "human resume" than a real person. And while the idea of a Jewish broadcaster joining the world's biggest Muslim and hate-America/Israel media outlet may seem shocking, it is in fact natural for a post-modern, "progressive" leftist like Lewis.

Lewis had cultivated a brass persona at the CBC. Armed with a smug, self-satisfied smirk that undermined his attempts to discuss serious issues, Lewis used the forum to propagate his far-Left politics. It is a revealing commentary on his political views that Lewis once criticized Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. The reason? Chavez was not socialist enough for his tastes.

"For what it's worth," commented Jonathan Kay at the National Post, "I think the jump to Al-Jazeera is a great career move for Lewis. Once he escapes the CBC, he will be able to bash the Americans without even the minimal ideological safeguards the Ceeb imposes. He will also no longer face the embarrassing sniggers of CBC colleagues who see him (fairly or unfairly) as a c-rater riding the coattails of relatives. If he becomes a star at Al-Jazeera, he will be preaching to an audience that's potentially many times the size of the CBC's — and he'll get some revenge against [his former bosses.]"

You can watch Avi Lewis interview Hirsi Ali on Youtube and you can see him getting quite upset at her views....