"Simply put, Thomson has failed to do his job as a professional journalist to present a fair and accurate description of the state of affairs between Israel and Lebanon. As Parliamentary Bureau Chief of the National Post, his reporting in this story is shoddy and offensive."
June 28, 2024
To:
Stuart Thomson, Parliamentary Bureau Chief National Post - Ottawa Bureau
Marilena Lucci, Editor-in-Chief, Montreal Gazette
Dear Mr. Thomson, Ms. Lucci,
I felt that Mr. Thomson’s article in the Montreal Gazette from earlier this week (“Ottawa 'strategically planning' to evacuate citizens in Lebanon in case of Hezbollah-Israel war”) about the possibility of a Canadian evacuation of Lebanon used a lot of selective reporting.
For someone unfamiliar with the situation between Israel and Lebanon, Thomson’s article might have seemed banal, but whether from ignorance or selective reporting, Thomson’s article was extremely one-sided.
First, Thomson writes, that 60,000 Israelis are displaced from northern Israel because Hezbollah “rockets continue to rain in from Lebanon.” Apart from Israel’s tens of thousands of air force sorties over Lebanon over the past years, why does Thomson fail to mention Israel’s airstrikes in Lebanon? And even the Times of Israel is willing to accept that the Lebanese in southern Lebanon have also experienced displacement, stating, “only ‘handfuls’ of Lebanese civilians remain in the area”. Presenting Hezbollah as the provocateur is neither fair nor balanced in describing the situation.
Second, Thomson chooses to use the term “Hamas terrorists” in describing the Oct. 7 attack “on Israeli civilians.” While Hamas militants’ actions against civilians on Oct. 7 were certainly acts of terror, Hamas first targeted multiple Israeli military installations. The “Reporters glossary of loaded language in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” by the International Press Institute recommends against using the term “terrorist” or “terrorism” unless describing a specific incident. Thomson’s reporting is journalistically sloppy for not acknowledging that Hamas targeted both military targets and civilians on Oct. 7, and not only “Israeli civilians” as suggested in the article.
Finally, Thomson’s selective presentation of the “uproar” following the evacuation in 2006 of “convenient Canadians” suggests that Lebanese-Canadians were somehow gaming or abusing the system. If Thomson is going to resurrect this discussion, he should do so fairly, and clarify that Lebanese-Canadians were not found guilty en masse of violating the terms of their citizenship by spending time in Lebanon. The suggestion by Thomson is selective and racist.
Simply put, Thomson has failed to do his job as a professional journalist to present a fair and accurate description of the state of affairs between Israel and Lebanon. As Parliamentary Bureau Chief of the National Post, his reporting in this story is shoddy and offensive.
Should you wish to discuss further, you can reach me at 438-380-5410.
Sincerely,
Thomas Woodley, MPA
President, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East