"Though these cases of indiscriminate police brutality are well-documented and widely accessible, CP24 settles for the word “pushing” to describe police actions. This works to conceal and undermine the police brutality protestors have alleged. Please adjust your wording to ensure a precise description of the video evidence."
April 2, 2024
To:
Codi Wilson, Journalist, CP24
Dan Taylor, Managing Editor, CTV News
Michael Stittle, Managing Editor, CTV News
Dear Codi Wilson,
I am writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East to express concern regarding a recent article titled “Organizers of pro-Palestinian rally in Toronto accuse officers of police brutality, call for independent investigation,” published on April 1 in CP24.
About halfway through your article, you state that PYM shared videos of the demonstration where “officers can be seen pushing protestors.” While their videos show some cases of officers violently pushing protestors, they also show officers pinning protestors down on the ground, kneeling on their necks, and nearly trampling over them with horses. Though these cases of indiscriminate police brutality are well-documented and widely accessible, CP24 settles for the word “pushing” to describe police actions. This works to conceal and undermine the police brutality protestors have alleged. Please adjust your wording to ensure a precise description of the video evidence.
The video embedded at the top of the article includes footage provided by @Irish4Palestine, which shows police violently pushing protestors. In other CP24 news segments, this footage plays repeatedly instead of adding more video evidence of the police brutality to which protestors say they were subjected. Other videos posted on @Irish4Palestine show clear signs of police brutality beyond the violent pushing viewers were shown repeatedly. Why were these excluded from CP24’s reporting? While allegations of police brutality could be disputed in footage showing police officers pushing protestors, the allegations become relatively clear in footage showing police officers kneeling on necks, shoving people to the ground, and protestors highlighting the injuries they’ve incurred. Deliberate or not, these exclusions work to further undermine allegations made by protestors of police brutality at the Land Day March in Toronto. Please feature the other footage provided by @Irish4Palestine to give viewers a more accurate depiction of the violence used against pro-Palestinian demonstrators that day.
Rose Mardikian,
Media Analyst, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East