Malcolm Azania
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Malcolm Azania, also known as Minister Faust (for the literary reference, see Faust), is a Canadian teacher, writer, community activist, radio host and political aspirant.
He appeared on CBC Television's Disclosure in 2003 as one of three contestants in the "Political Animal" segment. He appeared alongside Bridget Pastoor, who would later become a MLA for the Alberta Liberal Party in Lethbridge East in 2004. He quit the show in some controversy when he was paired to work with then Canadian Alliance strategist Line Maheux.
A resident of Edmonton, Alberta, Azania ran as a candidate for the New Democratic Party in the electoral district of Edmonton—Strathcona in the 2004 federal election. The riding and Mr. Azania were profiled by CPAC in its Campaign Politics tv show. Azania finished third, behind both Conservative incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) Rahim Jaffer and Liberal challenger and former Alberta Member of the Legislative Assembly Debby Carlson.
On June 7, 2004, National Post columnist Colby Cosh posted an entry to his weblog referencing one of Azania's posts to Usenet in the 1990s. Although signed with his pen name Minister Faust, the post was written under Azania's name and e-mail address. Titled "JEWS: ENEMIES? FRIENDS?," the post argued that while "anyone who asserts that all Jews at all times are either our friends or our enemies in all that they do is obviously wrong... the group that is defined as 'Jews' in the USA is most notable for their relations to... [black people] in that they are white... and overall, the aggregate of white actions and inactions is Whitesupremacist", meaning that they "tend to defend or extend the interests of Whitepower in the arts, the economy(ies), politics, society, academia (etc)".
Critics argued over whether the post was anti-Semitic. While Azania apologized on his website, and B'nai B'rith, a Jewish service organization that opposes anti-Semitism, accepted Azania's apology, media continued the story over the next several days. Edmonton's most widely-read newspaper, the Edmonton Journal, ran an editorial cartoon on Friday June 11, 2004, about the issue.
Also as Minister Faust, Azania wrote a comical and satiric science fiction novel, The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad, released internationally by Random House in August 2004. In 2007, he published his second novel, From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain.
