Pat Johnson: The Gay, Progressive Outsider Calling Out His Own Side on Antisemitism

Pat Johnson is a Vancouver-based journalist and commentator whose work sits at the intersection of progressive politics and unwavering support for Israel and the Jewish people. A gay, agnostic, non-Jewish writer, he has spent more than three decades chronicling Jewish life and confronting antisemitism, primarily through his long association with Vancouver’s Jewish Independent and, more recently, his widely read Substack, “Beaten With a Shtick.”

Publishing sharp, thousand-word essays every few days, Johnson has become one of Canada’s most prolific online voices, taking fellow non-Jews – especially on the left – to task for antisemitism, anti-Zionism and what he sees as widespread hypocrisy in progressive spaces. His pieces, often caustic in tone, but grounded in a deep familiarity with Jewish history and contemporary Israel, dissect fashionable narratives about “settler colonialism,” “genocide”, and related slogans that dominate anti-Israel discourse.

Beyond opinion writing, Johnson’s ca…