The TRUTH about the Canadians arrested in Egypt!

Whole truth? Hardly: Media Party spins quite a tale about its two latest heroes.

by Ezra Levant

Ezra Levant is a columnist for Sun Media newspapers and the anchor of a daily news commentary show on the Sun News Network. Ezra was the publisher of the Western Standard magazine and has written for Sun newspapers going back to his days as a student. A lawyer by profession, Ezra is also the author of several best-selling books including 2009's "Shakedown" about Canada's human rights commissions and 2010's "Ethical Oil: The case for Canada's oilsands".

The Media Party has two new heroes: Tarek Loubani and John Greyson.

A search of the CBC's website shows more than 5,000 stories on the two men. By contrast, lowly Nelson Mandela only has 2,000 mentions.

So, who are these saints? The Media Party says Loubani is a doctor and Greyson is a filmmaker, and they're being held in an Egyptian jail without charges. That's part of the story. Here's the rest:

Loubani is, in fact, a doctor from London, Ont. He calls himself a Palestinian refugee, though he came to Canada from Kuwait, where he was born. But it's politically sexier to say you're Palestinian.

Loubani is an extreme activist. When a Canadian cabinet minister was announcing a grant to help people with disabilities, Loubani stormed into the press conference, disrupting it, shouting about how he's a refugee from Palestine. Even though he's been in Canada since he was a child. And he's a rich doctor, doing just fine.

Loubani just wouldn't leave the press conference, even when security guards asked him to. He kept shouting like a crazy person until police escorted him away.

So, sure, he's a doctor. But he's also a professional protester, an extremist activist. Who went to Egypt in August. Who would go there in the middle of a civil war? A trouble seeker, of course. He says he was trying to go to the Gaza Strip, a little piece of land ruled by Hamas, the terrorist group that is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

That's why he was arrested by Egyptian police. They're at war with the Muslim Brotherhood right now.

Loubani and Greyson have been happy boosters of Hamas before, with Greyson involved in running an Israeli naval blockade of the Hamas forces in Gaza.

It's technically accurate to call Greyson a filmmaker. But it is more informative to mention he's a leader of the extremist group called Queers Against Israeli Apartheid – the anti-Israel group that has marched in the gay pride parade in Toronto. Which is odd, because Israel is the only country in the Middle East where homosexuality isn't a crime and where they actually have a gay pride parade, too.

The punishment for being gay in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip is the death penalty.

Greyson is obsessed with sex. He makes movies about his obsessions, with titles like Urinal and After the Bath. He explores his sexual feelings about Pierre Trudeau. Of course he's a professor at York University.

So, yes, Loubani is a doctor. And yes, Greyson is a filmmaker. Are those really the most relevant facts to report about them? Or is it more relevant to point out they are anti-Israel propagandists and activists who have made common cause with the Muslim Brotherhood's Hamas wing for years — not just in the streets of Toronto and London, Ont., but in Gaza itself?

That these men are not mainstream or moderate. It's lucky they were arrested by the Egyptian military, which only held them — as Canadian police would do, if foreign provocateurs came to town in the middle of a massive riot.

They're lucky they weren't arrested by the more enthusiastic members of Hamas' religious police. They might not be as tolerant of Greyson's sexuality as Canada is. They might not be as tolerant of Loubani's free speech as Canada is.

But there's another story here: You just can't trust the Media Party to give you the straight facts, can you?