"Your article fails to outline how and why her comments are particularly racist and harmful from the get-go. You only quote Naomi Klein and Hani Faris at the complete end of the article. It would be helpful for readers to move these paragraphs to place them under the first paragraph to further contextualize how Robinson’s comments are anti-Palestinian."
February 7, 2024
To:
Justine Hunter, Reporter, Globe and Mail
Mike Hager, News Reporter, Globe and Mail
David Walmsley, Editor-in-Chief, Globe and Mail
Dear Justin Hunter, Mike Hager, and David Walmsley,
I am writing to express my concern about the article: “Senior B.C minister Selina Robinson removed from cabinet for saying Israel founded on ‘crappy piece of land’” published on February 5 in Globe and Mail.
First, you write: “Under intense pressure from Muslim and First Nations leaders, B.C. Premier David Eby has removed a senior cabinet minister for saying Israel was founded on a “crappy piece of land.” The “intense pressure” to remove Selina Robinson did not only come from Muslim and First Nations leaders, but it was much more broad-based. Among others, it also extended to the Canadian Association of University Teachers, the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC, the Jewish Faculty Network, the Pakistan Canada Association, Independent Jewish Voices, and my own organization, CJPME. A list of signatories from a petition can be found here. Using “Muslim and First Nations leaders” obfuscates the widespread and diverse support for her resignation and insinuates that offense to her comments is isolated. To convey the mobilization against Robinson’s comments more accurately, your article should mention the petition for Robinson’s resignation that reached over 11,000 signatures.
Next, your article fails to outline how and why her comments are particularly racist and harmful from the get-go. You only quote Naomi Klein and Hani Faris at the complete end of the article. It would be helpful for readers to move these paragraphs to place them under the first paragraph to further contextualize how Robinson’s comments are anti-Palestinian.
Finally, the first person from civil society you quote is Nico Slobinsky, a spokesman for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA). As you know, Slobinsky and CIJA were not the ones to take issue with Robinson’s comments, so giving them the “first word” on the story diverts the attention to the real issue at hand: the outrage of Palestinian-Canadians at Robinson’s pejorative language. The issue is her resignation because of inaccurate and insensitive comments, not her Jewishness. She would have been equally attacked regardless of her religion.
As good journalism is based on accuracy, fairness, and balance, I strongly recommend that the Globe and Mail make these changes.
Sincerely,
Fatima Haidar,
Media Analyst, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East