Manning Centre omits Hamish Marshall’s ties to Rebel Media from conference bio

If a tree falls in the woods and there’s no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?

If you just ignore someone’s deep connections to a racist alt-right conspiracy website, do they cease to exist?

Ahead of the country’s largest annual gathering of the conservative movement next month, the Manning Centre this week announced a new slate of speakers including the Conservative Party’s 2019 National Campaign Manager Hamish Marshall.

New #mnc2018 participants confirmed this week: Lisa Davis, Hamish Marshall, Alex Nuttall. See the #cdnpoli #bestconversations lineup at https://t.co/NHZHBvI3Zq and register now to save $50 at early bird rates! pic.twitter.com/y1Bq5iJeye

— Manning Centre (@manningcentre) January 3, 2018

The conference’s website also features a short bio of Marshall, noting among other things his work on Andrew Scheer’s successful leadership campaign with Stephen Harper:

“Mr. Marshall is a strategist, pollster and demographic expert who tells stories with numbers. He is the National Campaign Manager for the Conservative Party of Canada 2019 campaign. He managed Andrew Scheer’s come-from-behind thirteenth ballot victory for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada. He served as the Manager of Strategic Planning to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, was the pollster for the successful 2008 national Conservative election campaign and has advised political parties from Vancouver Island to Bangladesh. He is the author of the best selling book Everyone… but the people, about winning a referendum campaign against overwhelming odds. Hamish has an MBA from the University of Oxford. He lives in Toronto where is a partner in an agency that provides research, advertising and strategy solutions.”

But one thing is conspicuously absent.

Let’s play: What’s missing from Hamish Marshall’s Manning Conference bio? https://t.co/5pjQKTwSSz pic.twitter.com/5La6YoQw6z

— Jonathan Goldsbie (@goldsbie) January 3, 2018

As Canadaland’s Jonathan Goldsbie observed, the bio pretty glaringly fails to mention one of Marshall’s most significant connections: his role as a founding director of Rebel Media.

And it’s hardly ancient history.

Marshall helped Ezra Levant launch the website – denounced as “anti-semitic” and “white supremacist” by none other than Conservative MP Michael Chong – back in 2015 and even appeared as an analyst during its live coverage of that year’s federal election. 

Hamish Marshall appearing on The Rebel’s 2015 election night broadcast with Ezra Levant and Brian Lilley

He even reportedly managed Scheer’s leadership campaign from an office inside Rebel Media’s Toronto studio.

It should come as no surprise parts of the conservative movement would apparently like people to overlook or forget about Marshall’s ties to The Rebel.  

The controversial far-right website went completely off the rails in 2017 and was widely condemned for, among other things, spreading conspiracy theories and fundraising off a Quebec City terrorist carried out by a white nationalist extremist, publishing anti-semitic videos, and offering sympathetic coverage of a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

When asked about his own campaign manager’s connections to The Rebel last year, Scheer offered only a stuttering response and abruptly fled the scene.

His ties to The Rebel notwithstanding, Marshall is set to be at the very top of the Conservative campaign during the next federal election.

Photo: Rebel Media