In the months following Hamas’ October 7, 2023 massacres in southern Israel, Shree Paradkar, as the social and racial justice columnist at The Toronto Star, relentlessly lambasted Israel, blurring the line between Israel and fanatical Islamic terrorists, regurgitating anti-Israel propaganda without apparent scrutiny, and claiming Hamas’ attacks should be put in “context.”  Journalist Warren Kinsella condemned one of her columns as a “hate pamphlet.”

But a consistent theme from Paradkar was not just condemning Israel; it was attempting to portray anti-Israel activists as victims, and not individuals who faced consequences for their own actions, such as Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital nephrologist Ben Thomson, who spread the false conspiracy theory that there were no confirmed rapes on October 7 and subsequently faced suspension. She has also sought to characterize opposition to pro-Palestinian activism as racism.

Paradkar, now called an investigative reporter by The Toronto Star, has returned with a characteristic report on August 2 where she portrayed a vocal anti-Israel activist in overwhelmingly sympathetic terms.

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Her 2,300-word “investigation,” “A tight-knit Toronto hospital unit cared for the dying. Then, a war thousands of miles away tore them apart,” introduced readers to Kavita Algu, a former palliative care physician at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital who was a vocal anti-Israel activist on social media and at protests, and who has previously authored what we regard as a misinformation-riddled column for The Toronto Star.

Paradkar notes that “a workplace investigator brought in after Algu made a discrimination complaint found she was disruptive, unprofessional and had a disproportionately negative impact on the workplace culture.”

Yet Algu was not fired, nor is there any evidence to our knowledge that she faced any disciplinary action from her employer. She later left Mount Sinai Hospital to work for Inner City Health Associates.

However, Paradkar – who relied overwhelmingly on Algu’s retelling in her column – portrayed Algu as a victim of censorship, quoted her as saying that “I could no longer bring myself to give my labour to a workplace where people were targeted for speaking out against a genocide, including the bombing of hospitals and the murder and abduction of our Palestinian colleagues.”

Curiously, no mention was made by Paradkar that Algu serves as a board member of Movement Media Hub, alongside a roster of other anti-Israel activists, including regular protester Gur Tsabar, and MacDonald (Mac) Scott, an immigration consultant with Carranza LLP who was arrested in November, 2023 for vandalizing an Indigo bookstore and later pled guilty.

Movement Media Hub boasts that it “provides pro-bono strategic public relations and media execution support to organized progressive communities and social justice movements in Toronto, Canada, and beyond,” and as noted by protest watcher Caryma Sa’d, “on its website, MMH claims to have secured over 450 news segments and pieces.”

Footage from a protest shared by Sa’d showed Algu speaking, apparently in support of activists arrested for their involvement in Palestine Action, a banned terrorist group in the UK. Just before she spoke, Tsabar and another protester were bellowing “long live intifada” on bullhorns. The intifada was a period of Palestinian terrorism from 2000 to 2005 which killed around 1,000 Israelis, mostly civilians. The intifada was perpetuated largely by Palestinians in the “West Bank” (Judea & Samaria), though this has not stopped Algu from claiming there is “no Hamas” there, a brazen falsehood.

Nor did Paradkar investigate Algu’s connections to other anti-Israel activists, including Ottawa-area physician Yipeng Ge, who has posted images to social media appearing to glorify the October 7, 2023 massacres (Algu has told him “I love you” on X).

Algu practices medicine under Duncan Algu Medicine Professional Corporation, alongside Dallas Duncan, an cardiac anesthesiologist at Toronto General Hospital and assistant professor in the Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine department at University of Toronto. Like Algu, Duncan is a prolific social media user, repeatedly demonizing Israel online in our view. No mention was made of this by Paradkar, either.

These omissions on Paradkar’s part are not minor. They are precisely the questions an investigative reporter should have asked, but in this case, didn’t.

The Toronto Star could have fully investigated Kavita Algu’s most controversial activities, her affiliations with other anti-Israel activists, or her involvement in Movement Media Hub. Instead, reporter Shree Paradkar turned her into something of a folk hero, ending with her proclaiming that “I lost my job over Palestine, but I found a deeper commitment to life and justice.”