Sue-Ann Levy

Sue-Ann Levy (born 1956) is a Canadian writer and political columnist. Her columns are distributed by Postmedia Network media company in Canada.

Levy is the niece of late lawyer and municipal lobbyist Jeffrey S. Lyons.[1] She was hired by the Toronto Sun in the 1980s when Lyons's friend, Paul Godfrey, was its publisher, and went on to become the newspaper's long-time City Hall columnist. Her writing now focuses primarily on the Legislative Assembly of Ontario (Queen's Park), the seat of the Government of Ontario, as well as municipal and social issues. She is the author of the book Underdog: Confessions of a Right-Wing Gay Jewish Muckraker (2016) and also appeared as a regular guest on The John Oakley Show on Talk 640 until 2018. She was previously a panelist on CBC Radio One's local Toronto afternoon drive show Here and Now, as well as an occasional commentator or panelist over various cable news channels.[2]

Early life and education

Levy grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, the daughter of an accountant. Levy is the niece of the late Jeffrey S. Lyons, a Toronto lawyer and prominent municipal lobbyist who is best known for having been implicated in the MFP scandal at City Hall. She earned a journalism degree from Carleton University in 1978. After graduating from Carleton, Levy worked as an aide to Ontario Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Frank Drea before returning to school to earn an MBA from the University of Toronto in 1985. She then worked in public relations but left in order to enter journalism as a reporter for the Bracebridge Examiner, before being hired by the Toronto Sun in 1989.

At the Sun

Levy became the Sun's City Hall columnist in 1998 and covered the mayoralties of Mel Lastman, David Miller, and Rob Ford before being moving on to Queen's Park. She has since returned to covering city politics under Mayor John Tory. In 2004, the Ryerson Review of Journalism surveyed city councillors and found that Levy was "rated lowest among the 18 city hall reporters for accuracy, fairness and knowledge".[3][4] Levy made a reputation as the press gallery’s "most unapologetically conservative chronicler of local politics."[5] She created enemies among some city councillors, whom she goaded with derogatory nicknames.[5]

Levy was criticized by the National NewsMedia Council for a “serious breach of journalistic standards”[6] for an October 2018 column --part of a series -- which alleged that immigrants and refugee claimants temporarily residing at the Radisson Hotel Toronto East were slaughtering goats in one of the hotel's public bathrooms.[7][8] This assertion was based on on-line reviews of the hotel posted to TripAdvisor and Expedia, and interviews with clients who posted their reviews on Trip Advisor. [9] Levy's columns were widely circulated online by alt-right commenters on 4chan and Reddit, as well as sites such as Infowars.[9] Two days later, an unknown person engaged in an act of arson but police later confirmed the fire had nothing to do with any media coverage.[10]

Politics

In 2009, Levy was the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario's by-election candidate in the Toronto riding of St. Paul's, placing second with 28.33% of the vote behind the Liberal victor, Eric Hoskins.

Ontario provincial by-election, September 17, 2009: St. Paul's
Resignation of Michael Bryant
Party Candidate Votes%±%
LiberalEric Hoskins13,19247.60+0.17
Progressive ConservativeSue-Ann Levy7,85128.33+1.79
New DemocraticJulian Heller4,67716.88+1.14
GreenChris Chopik1,5155.47-2.87
LibertarianJohn Kittredge1610.58+0.05
Special NeedsDanish Ahmed950.34
IndependentMarius Frederick840.30
FreedomPaul McKeever610.22-0.04
IndependentJohn Turmel520.19
IndependentRajendra Rama240.09
Total valid votes 27,711 100.00
Liberal hold Swing -0.81

Personal life

Levy is Jewish and an openly gay conservative. She came out publicly in 2007 and married her wife Denise Alexander in 2009.[4]

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References
  1. "Columnist Sue-Ann Levy's book sure to pack a punch | Toronto Sun". August 2, 2016.
  2. "Sue-Ann Levy". Toronto Sun. Retrieved 2017-03-19.
  3. Joe Friesen. "Cruella to be kind". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2017-03-19.
  4. Shupac, Jodie (2016-08-31). "An interview with Sue-Ann Levy, a right-wing, gay, Jewish muckraker". Canadian Jewish News. Retrieved 2017-03-19.
  5. Shea, Courtney (August 23, 2016). "Q&A: Sue-Ann Levy, the Toronto Sun's most notorious columnist, whose new book comes out today". Toronto Life. Retrieved April 2, 2017.
  6. News, Trish Audette-Longo |; December 13th 2018, Politics | (December 13, 2018). "Press council comes down on Toronto Sun for 'serious breach' after false report about goats". National Observer.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  7. Levy, Sue-Ann (September 29, 2018). "East-end hotel painted as refugee camp". Toronto Sun. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
  8. Levy, Sue-Ann (October 3, 2018). "'Irregular' migrants continue to flock into Toronto". Toronto Sun. Retrieved October 18, 2018. The reputable Tripadvisor [sic] website has been inundated in the past few weeks with scathing reviews of the hotel, calling it a "zoo, filthy, noisy and dangerous" with the lobby full of loitering refugees and halls containing graffiti and garbage.
  9. Daro, Ishmael N. (October 11, 2018). "A Fake Online Review Claimed Refugees 'Slaughtered Goats' In A Hotel. This Newspaper Helped It Go Viral". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved October 18, 2018.
  10. "Tensions high after fire set at Toronto hotel housing refugees". October 13, 2018 – via www.thespec.com.
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