Local News
Honest Reporting Canada’s Mike Fegelman delivers Kanee Lecture
By BERNIE BELLAN Mike Fegelman is the executive director and editor-in-chief of Honest Reporting Canada. Honest Reporting was founded in 2000 in the United Kingdom. It describes its mission as “to ensure truth, integrity and fairness, and to combat ideological prejudice in journalism and the media, as it impacts Israel to ensure truth, integrity and fairness, and to combat ideological prejudice in journalism and the media, as it impacts Israel.”
On Sunday, April 7, Fegelman was the keynote speaker at the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada’s annual Sol & Florence Kanee Distinguished Lecture Series.
Fegelman told the audience of about 250 at the Adas Yeshurun-Herzlia Synagogue that, before he was hired as Honest Reporting Canada’s executive director, “I knew nothing about Israel. I was hired because I was objective.”
Honest Reporting Canada “monitors news media 24 hours a day,” Fegelman said. With only a staff of six (including Fegelman), he said that they field on average 600-700 inquiries a day about alleged instances of media bias within Canadian media.
When HRC sees instances of what it perceives to be instances of unfair or biased reporting about Israel, it attempts to contact the journalist responsible for that “misinformation” or, as was the case with a particularly odious cartoon in La Presse of Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu depicted as a vampire, the paper itself was contacted and asked to issue a retraction of that cartoon and apology. (The cartoon has since been removed from La Presse’s website and La Presse did issue an apology.)
While Honest Reporting Canada might make the claim that its mission is to monitor news media in Canada for bias toward Israel and what it would regard as “unfair reporting,” however, after listening to Fegelman’s 45-minute talk – and especially to some of the responses he gave to questions from the audience following his talk, one might question the degree to which he himself is as “objective” as he claimed to be.
One particular subject was mentioned several times: the reporting by the Gaza Health Ministry on how many Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its retaliatory war following the Hamas-led massacre of 240 Israelis on October 7.
At one point Fegelman said that “we have to point out the fact Hamas provides no evidence to corroborate their claims (as to how many Palestinians have been killed). Media should at least acknowledge Israel’s claim that 15,000 of those killed are terrorists.”
Various reports, however, have cited Israeli intelligence officials as confirming that the Israel Defence Forces actually accept the Gaza Health Ministry’s figures for the number of casualties in the ongoing conflict. For instance, there was this report about what was reported on a Hebrew-language website in Israel: “Two Israeli intelligence officials who spoke to the Hebrew-language Local Call news website said the health ministry is mostly ‘reliable’ and their main source of statistics on civilian deaths in Gaza.”
Fegelman said that when it is reported that “33,000 Palestinians have been killed,” as reported by the “Gaza Health Ministry,” that health ministry “doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.” Further, Fegelman asked: “Are some of the children killed actually child soldiers?” The problem is, absent any verifiable information from the IDF on this point, how do we know?
The problem, moreover, which Fegelman didn’t address, is absent any contradictory information coming from Israeli sources themselves about civilian deaths, what are media supposed to report?
So, when a questioner later said to Fegelman, “All people see on TV is dead babies. Can you give us some language to use in response?” Fegelman admitted “there isn’t an easy answer for the things Israel has had to do.”
My bringing this up is not to begin engaging in a series of “fact checks” on what Fegelman said during his talk. Rather, it is to show that “bias” and “unfair reporting” is something that can be continually argued – and perhaps by entering into a dissection of every instance of what Honest Reporting Canada might regard as anti-Israel bias, Fegelman – and the audience members who so strongly applauded his remarks, are all missing the larger picture, which is that Israel has, and is taking a terrible beating in world public opinion – not because of bias or distorted reporting, but because of the huge losses in both lives and property that Palestinians in Gaza have suffered – and the images that are there for the entire world to see.
One might argue that Israel had no choice: It had to deal such a severe blow to Hamas that the amount of destruction that has occurred in Gaza is justified, but to argue that “the war for public opinion is no less important than the war on the ground,” as Fegelman suggested at one point – well Mike, if that’s the case, then Israel has lost that war. The more honest assessment would be that, in an existential battle for survival, which is what some would argue is a fair description of the war in which Israel is currently engaged, then public opinion matters very little to Israeli decision makers.
Before entering into a more detailed description of what Fegelman had to say, I have to enter a particular objection toward what both he and several audience members had to say about the supposed “anti-Israel bias” exhibited by the Winnipeg Free Press. This subject has become one that has been raised quite a bit over the past few months within certain circles within the local Jewish community – especially after a controversial column by Jen Zoratti.
But, to say, as Fegelman did, that “the Free Press has an anti-Israel narrative on its op ed pages” – without providing any specific examples to warrant that accusation, is nothing more than an instance of Fegelman engaging in the kind of bias that Honest Reporting Canada accuses Canadian media outlets of exhibiting when it comes to reporting on Israel.
Still, in the interest of attempting to give readers the flavour of Fegelman’s talk, I will offer some of the remarks he made without entering into any further discussion whether what he had to say had merit.
Fegelman began by claiming that “media commentators are often parroting Hamas and are, in effect, becoming stenographers for this group.” He suggested we “need to challenge misinformation and disinformation.”
While Honest Reporting may have originated in the United Kingdom in 2000, “its genesis (in Canada) was just a few blocks away,” Fegelman explained. “We were founded (in Canada) by the late Izzy Asper,” he noted.
With specific reference to the Toronto Star, Fegelman suggested we have seen instances “of Canada’s largest paper calling for Israel’s annihilation” on its editorial pages by advocating for a one-state solution.
In reporting on the current Gaza war, Fegelman argued, “it’s increasingly difficult to tell who is the arsonist and who is the fire fighter?”
‘The media want to run with the most sensational story,” he said, “but part of our mandate is to educate journalists.”
“The sympathy for Israel following the October 7 massacre lasted all but a few minutes,” he suggested.
“This is a war between barbarism and civilization,” Fegelman said.
He referred to a famous remark made by Golda Meir with reference to the Yom Kippur War in 1973: “The world hates us when a Jew lashes out. The world loves us only when we are to be pitied.”
“The world is horribly indifferent to Jewish blood being spilled,” Fegelman observed.
We are making sure that when there are those who seek to libel the Jewish people, we have to fight back,” Fegelman said, “but knowing how to challenge disinformation is enormously difficult.”
Still, he argued, “We cannot let our opposition have a monopoly on discourse.”
“The war for public opinion is no less important than the war on the ground. If we lose, Israel will go down as the perceived villain.”
When it comes to civilian casualties, however, Fegelman claimed that “Israel deplores each and every innocent life that is taken.”
Saying that, in some ways, “Hamas is worse than ISIS,” Fegelman argued that “when hate becomes normalized, it becomes weaponized….We are in a genocidal propaganda war the likes of which we have never seen….Too many media outlets, whether it’s out of malice or of ignorance, have been spreading misinformation.”
When it comes to fighting back though, Fegelman argued, “We are not just passive victims – but like a muscle, if you do not use it, it becomes atrophied.”
Turning to the subject of social media, Fegelman observed that “Yesterday’s bigots used to be on the margins of mainstream social media; now they’re in the mainstream.”
“We cannot be afraid to tell the world what Hamas’s raison d’etre is – which is to seek an Islamic caliphate.”
But, what then “is the answer to media bias?” Fegelman asked. “We cannot rely on the old playbook,” he said.
Instead, he proposed five pillars of action:
- “We cannot project fear. We have to project resilience and instil Jewish pride.”
- “We must demand that we procure consistency” (from our elected representatives). Fegelman referred specifically to the recent resolution passed in the House of Commons when, among other things, Members of Parliament voted to restore funding to UNWRA.
- “We must demand that people speak up and speak out” against media when the media demonstrate indefensible behaviour. As an example, Fegelman pointed to the photograph of Hamas victim Shani Louk’s badly mutilated body in the back of a Hamas truck, which won a prestigious photography award. (It should be pointed out that Shani’s own father defended the photo as a “symbol” of an era.)
- “We have to make an alternative view impossible to ignore.”
- “We must avoid self-imposed limitations on our advocacy. We must not only project strength, we must possess it, too.”
As a result of “the obsessive magnifying glass being put on Israel,” Fegelman suggested, “terrorism is being accepted as a legitimate means of statecraft.”
Although many Jews may be in a state of despair these days, Fegelman told this story to illustrate how Israel has endured bleak situations before: When President Biden was a senator, he had occasion to visit Israel shortly before the Yom Kippur War, when he met with then-Prime Minister Golda Meir. After being shown maps which showed how precarious Israel’s security situation was, apparently Biden’s face showed how worried he was.
“Don’t look so worried,” Golda told Biden. “We have a secret weapon: We have no place else to go.”
In describing what Honest Reporting Canada has been able to accomplish, Fegelman said, “We have 60,000 subscribers.” (To subscribe to HRC’s reports, simply go to its website at https://honestreporting.ca and click on the “subscribe” button.) “We all have the power of agency,” he added.
“We may not see the elimination of antisemitism in our lifetimes,” he said, “but we have to push it to the margins.”
“If not now, when? The answer is now.”
Local News
Sharon Delbridge’s annual health & wellness retreats in Puerto Vallarta have become popular with many Winnipeggers
By BERNIE BELLAN Over the years we have revisited stories from time to time – to catch up with individuals who have made a mark in this city and to see where their lives have taken them since the last time we wrote about them.
One such individual is Sharon Delbridge, the youngest daughter of Sol and Rachel Fink, and younger sister to Percy, Shayla (Posen), and the late Sheldon Fink (who died all too young at the age 57 in 2021).
Myron Love has written many times about Sol and Rachel Fink, who continue to amaze for their vitality – with Sol now 101 and Rachel having just turned 99.
As Sharon notes in an email sent to me, “My parents work out everyday. Not at Rady anymore. They do exercise at home & in their condo gym (200 Tuxedo) Move their bodies daily. My mom leads her and my dad daily in movement. It’s incredible.
“They have been a huge inspiration to all of us.”
Aside from the fact that the Fink family was a very musical family, their penchant for fitness is clearly something that rubbed off on Sharon, in particular.
My own wife, Meachelle, who was quite the fitness fanatic herself in her day (not that she’s been put out to pasture quite yet), profiled Sharon for The Jewish Post & News in 2015. In that story, Sharon explained how she came to be one of the most popular and best known fitness instructors, not only at the Rady JCC – where her classes in a wide variety of different areas, were – and still are, extremely popular, but at many other venues throughout Winnipeg.
Here’s part of what Sharon told Meachelle about how she came to teach so many different types of fitness classes:
“I’ve been into fitness my whole life. I come from a very musical family but also a family that always works out. When I was in my 20s I was teaching aerobics for several years as a part-time job while in university. When I had my three children (Milan, Jared and Cassie Ackerman) I ran a hand-painted clothing business in my home called Milan Designs, and I sold to ladies’ and children’s stores all over Canada.
“I was always working out and have loved fitness classes. I went back and got more certifications in my 40s. I’m certified to teach many specialties and have been actively teaching at the Rady for over 10 years. I now specialize in women’s boutique fitness: Zumba, Yoga and Barre classes. The three specialties blend beautifully together and I have a big following of people from all over Winnipeg that come to my classes. I have every Zumba certification that’s available: Zumba, Zumba Gold (for seniors), Zumba Toning (with weights), Zumba Aqua (in water), Zumba Step and Zumba Sentao (using steppers and chairs).
“I’ve taken many yoga certifications through the past 10 years and I’ve been teaching Barre classes, which are the latest and hottest classes for women. I’m always taking new training in these three specialties to continue to stay fresh and always have new and exciting things to present to my class. That’s how I stay unique in my field. I’m always learning and always developing my classes to be the best they can be. I spend tons of time finding the best music and choreographing.
“I truly feel that if you work out and look after your body, you will always have a positive outlook on life. Exercise is a huge healer mentally and physically. I have seen so many incredible changes in women that come to my classes. They have transformed their bodies and live happier and healthier lives.”
It was a year after Meachelle’s article about Sharon that Sharon and her husband, Darcy, began going to Puerto Vallarta for the winter. As Sharon noted, “I started teaching at a Yoga studio the first winter we were here in PV. It’s easy to meet people & build community when you’re teaching snowbirds from everywhere
I love sharing my love for fitness & yoga & moving our bodies.”
But, for six years prior to making Puerto Vallarta her and Darcy’s winter home, Sharon had already been conducting annual one-week health and wellness retreats in Puerto Vallarta. She has continued to conduct those retreats every year since. The most recent retreat was held from January 25-February 1 at the Fiesta Americana All Inclusive Resort.
Here’s how Sharon describes the purpose of those retreats:
“For over 15 years, my Health & Wellness Retreat has brought together women of all ages to reconnect, recharge, and celebrate movement, friendship, and balance. Hosted at a beautiful all-inclusive resort, guests can truly make the week their own holiday experience. While primarily a women’s retreat, many now bring their husbands or partners who are welcome to participate as much or as little as they choose.
“Throughout the week, we offer seven daily classes ranging from sunrise meditation and yoga to toning, Zumba, yin yoga, and our signature Aqua Zumba — which transforms into a high-energy, joy-filled pool party. Each evening, we gather for sunset yoga and take time to celebrate the beauty of the day together.
“The retreat blends wellness with enjoyment, allowing guests to indulge in the resort’s wonderful restaurants and social atmosphere while still feeling strong, energized, and revitalized. It’s a balanced, uplifting experience where participants leave feeling nourished in body, mind, and heart, often forming lifelong friendships. This year, we were proud to welcome 40 participants.”
In the picture accompanying this article you might recognize several Winnipeggers. I asked Sharon how many Winnipeggers were participants in this year’s retreat?
The answer, she said, was the majority (31) were from Winnipeg, while six were from Las Vegas, one from Ottawa and two from Edmonton.
The last two years, Sharon also noted, another well known member of the Rady JCC staff, Dona Watts-Hastings, who’s a physiotherapist, also a yoga and Pilates instructor, has joined Sharon in conducting the retreat. Sharon adds that Dona’s physiotherapy clinic is inside the Rady JCC. Dona also brings some of her clients to the retreat.
I wondered though, how active Sharon is in teaching classes when she’s back in Winnipeg? Does she never tire of teaching so many classes? I wondered.
Sharon’s answer was: “Yes, I’m still in Winnipeg half of the year and I will always teach at the Rady… Zumba, sculpt , yoga & barre class – also spinning if they need me to sub. . I teach at Assiniboine park and other gyms, too. Every morning I teach and often sub other classes. Busy all spring & summer.”
Whew! It’s tiring just reading about everything Sharon does. If you would like to find out more about next year’s health & wellness retreat in Puerto Vallarta and how you might be able to join up, contact Sharon at sharon@freshsoulfitness.com.
To watch a video of what a typical day at the retreat consisted of go to freshsoulfitness
Local News
Jess Pudavick: artist and business executive
By MYRON LOVE Jess Pudavick is a rare individual in that she combines careers as an artist and a business executive.
I first became aware of Jess last summer when she was one of the artists/craftspeople with a display table at the Gwen Secter Creative Living Centre’s annual garage and craft sale. What piqued my interest was her focus on incorporating resins in her art pieces.
Last week, while interviewing Ms. Pudavick at Super-Lite Lighting on Waverley – I learned much more about the multi-talented Ms. Pudavick.
While I have a passion for art,” she notes, “I was not interested in becoming a stereotypical starving artist.”
The daughter of Stuart and Beth Pudavick joined the company (which her father acquired in the early 1980s (along with partners Simon Simkin and Allan Hochman) 17 years ago. Her brother, Ray, also joined the company 10 years ago, Jess notes.
At Super-Lite, Jess’s title is Custom Homes Lighting Consultant. She works with builders, designers and contractors to build the lighting for the home, as well as to choose the right lights for the space. She also manages the company’s social media and website.
“I enjoy working with my dad and Ray,” she says.”I also love what I do at Super-Lite. It is similar to my feelings about my art. You don’t know the end result when you start. It is nice to see something being built from nothing and seeing the end result – and knowing how happy the client is in the end.”.
As an artist, the graduate of Brock Corydon’s Hebrew Bilingual Program, Shaftesbury Collegiate and the University of Manitoba, recalls that she started at a young age. “As a kid,” she says, “I was always doodling and drawing cartoons.”
While she has worked with several different artistic media, she observes that what she likes about creating art with resins is the challenge.
“Resin is a temperamental material,” she points out. “When you start a project, you have no idea what the finished product will look like.”
She explains that there are two ways to work with resin. You can put traditional resin in a mold and wait 24 hours for the resin to dry. Or you can speed up the process by using a UV style resin and exposing the resin to UV rays.
“I prefer letting the resin dry naturally,” she says. “I find I have more control over it.”
Her resin-infused art comes in many forms. She produces earrings and necklaces, candle holders and ashtrays, dice and computer keys. She has also created resin-infused mahjong and rummikub tiles and even sets of dominoes with paw prints. A popular item, Jess says, is a custom coloured/theme wedding set of dominoes.
“People love them,” she says of the dominoes tiles.
(The latter reflects her own passion for dogs for which she is often a foster “parent”. She notes that she also creates resin-infused memory keepsake urns for the ashes/hair or fur of beloved pets – a product that is gaining popularity.)
Then there is the resin-infused coffee table that has a place of honour in her own home. “With my love of plants and resin, my partner and I took our existing coffee table, added various clippings of my own plants and created a fun resin-sealed table,” she recounts. “It really looks cool. It is unique. it attracts visitors’ interest. Every time I look at it, I see something different.”
Jess reports that generally sells her works of art through craft sales and her Instagram page (@thejesso09) for between $10 and $30. Her major source of sales though, she adds, is through word of mouth.
But Pudavick avers that she doesn’t do her art with an eye to sales.
“I create for myself, not for the approval of others. I find it relaxing – a good way to reduce stress. It’s also rewarding to see that others want something you have created.”
She strongly believes that enjoying your work is an important element in being happy. Equally important, she notes, – both in business and art – is to have satisfied customers.
Local News
Local entrepreneurs Dr. Norman Silver and Dave Berkowits’ QDoc connecting patients and doctors on line
By MYRON LOVE Three and a half years ago Bernie Bellan wrote a story for The Jewish Post & News about a new service that had just started up earlier in 2022. That story told how two entrepreneurs, Dr. Norman Silver and Dave Berkowits, came up with the idea of providing online care with physicians to patients who weren’t in a position where they could visit a physician in person.
At that time, the story noted, QDoc began with only 144 patients in May 2022, but was growing at a rate of 1,000 new patients a month. Since then QDoc has been a roaring success and has been expanding its reach well outside Manitoba.
You can read the original story about QDoc on this website at QDoc.
Here now is an update to that original story:
Roughly four years ago, long time pediatrician Dr. Norman Silver and his brother-in-law, Dave Berkowits, a leading Canadian healthcare software developer, joined forces to create a virtual medical program that connects physicians and patients online.
“In our first couple of months, QDoc was able to connect 55 patients with our team of physicians, Silver reports. “Last year, we had more than 124,000 patients sign in – or about 11,500 a month who signed in.
“We have working relationships with close to 200 doctors and 35 nurse practitioners who are in partnership with us.
“We also have almost 3,000 positive reviews online.”
Silver notes that while 70% of Qdoc’s patients are from rural and northern Manitoba, the system is also in operation in Nunavut and Northwestern Ontario.
For Berkowitz and Silver, Qdoc is akin to a match made in heaven. The son of Rita and the late Ron Silver has been a pediatrician for 20 years. His resumé includes many years as an ER doc at Children’s Hospital, as well as working out of the Pan Am Clinic for years.
According to a write-up abut Silver on the Doctors Manitoba web page, the innovative pediatrician has many accomplishment during his career aimed at improving healthcare in our province. These include a nurse-initiated X-ray program in the Children’s ER, which decreased the length of stay for children with fractures by 1.5 hours; an oral rehydration program in the waiting room for children with gastroenteritis, which expedited their stay; a pediatric sedation service at the Children’s Hospital; a pediatric locum program to provide uninterrupted service to children in Western Manitoba; and penicillin de-labelling clinics in both Brandon and Winnipeg.
As well, seven years ago, he and Berkowits and five other partners opened the Minor Injury and Injury Clinic – the first non-publicly owned urgent care center in Manitoba .
“We treat up to 50,000 patients a year at the clinic,” he reports.
Silver describes his QDoc founding partner and brother-in-law as “the best medical software developer in Canada.” The son of Sandra and the late Alex Berkowits earned his stripes working for Philips Canada (which, for most readers is probably best known for its electronic consumer products) in its medical products divisions, working with MRIs and CT Scan equipment.
He then went on to work in Alberta for 17 years as part of the leadership team that implemented digital image sharing in Calgary. The team also created software that allowed radiologists based in Calgary to read CT and X-ray studies taken in Whitehorse and Yellowknife. That improved the time it takes for ER departments located up north to have radiology exams read so that patients could be taken care of quickly
It was the Covid lockdowns that led to Berkowits and Silver’s first collaboration – a drive-up, appointment based COVID testing site at Red River College.
Silver notes that certain regulatory changes in Manitoba made it possible for a business such as QDoc to deliver its medical services to the general public. During the lockdown, the then new virtual QDoc program allowed patients and doctors to stay connected and patients who were seen to be covered by Manitoba Health.
Berkowits points out that all you need to sign on to QDoc and connect with a physician is access to a camera, a microphone, an internet connection and a provincial health card.
A patient going onto the system would click ‘see doctor now,’ and be connected to one of several doctors who would receive the text message notifying them that a patient wants to be seen.
“Our goal is to have a doctor respond to the patient within 20 to 30 minutes,” Silver says.
Berkowitz notes that QDoc has separate programs for virtual medicine, medical billing and medical booking.
For Silver, QDoc is Tikkun Olam in action on several fronts. “One advantage of our program is that by connecting a patient who lives maybe 20 km outside of Neepawa with his doctor in Neepawa, you save driving time and reduce potentially harmful emissions.”
He further reports that QDoc partners with the DCSP (downtown community safety partnership) to help deliver care to the homeless.
He adds that last summer, during the large scale evacuation of northern communities due to forest fires, QDoc was approached to help connect evacuees with their regular doctors.
Both Berkowits and Silver demonstrate Tikkun Olam in other ways as well. For the past 27 years, Berkowits has been responsible for security for Shalom Square. (Incidentally, he is the brother of Rob Berkowits, the Rady JCC’s executive director.)
Several years agoSilver (whose brother, Michael, has been president of the JNF for Winnipeg and Saskatchewan) along with his wife, Heather, started a family foundation. “Initially, we distributed about 60% of our giving to non-Jewish charities,” Silver reports. “Over the past two years, we have redirected our funding so that 90% now goes to Jewish causes.
“We have to look after our own,” he observes. “We can’t expect anyone else to.”
As for the future of QDoc, Berkowits and Silver have a vision for expansion – first throughout Western Canada and then, maybe the world.
“We think there may be opportunities in countries such as India and the Philippines,” he notes.
Readers who may be interested in hearing Silver talk about QDoc can attend a presentation he will be giving on Thursday, February 5, at the Kingshead Pub under the auspices of the High Growth Ventures Initiative, a strategic scholarship and community engagement initiative housed within Mount Royal University’s Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. For more information about QDoc go to qdoc.ca