The Media Accountability Project  

June 04, 2024

To:

Darren Major, Senior Writer, CBC

Nancy Waugh, Sr. Manager, Journalistic Standards, CBC

Dear Darren Major and Nancy Waugh,

I am writing to express my concern about the article: “MP Housefather denounces antisemitic poster telling him to ‘get out of Canada,’” published on July 3 in CBC News.

Though this article is flawed in many ways, including the reductive description of the NDP motion and the failure to mention the rise of Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism, there are two primary issues I’d like to point out.

First, while I am not here to argue how Housefather must have felt seeing this poster, it is inaccurate and unfair to report it as an antisemitic incident.

Your headline reads: “MP Housefather denounces antisemitic poster telling him to ‘get out of Canada.’”

Your opening sentence reads: “Liberal MP Anthony Housefather is speaking out against an antisemitic poster that called him a neo-Nazi and saying he should ‘get out of Canada.’”

To further your framing of this incident as antisemitic, you fail to fully quote his response to the poster and exclude the part where Housefather explicitly writes that he “will keep being a proud Jew and a Zionist.” While the poster clearly condemned Housefather for his Zionist (not Jewish) ideology, Housefather’s response on social media demonstrates his tendency to deflect any legitimate criticism by deeming it as antisemitic.

Drawing parallels between the State of Israel’s policies (Zionism) and Neo-Nazism and terrorism is not the same as drawing parallels between Judaism and Neo-Nazism or terrorism. The poster was in reference to Housefather’s self-identification as Zionist and not his Jewish identity. Housefather’s full social media post demonstrates his conflation of antisemitism and anti-Zionism and, thus, his persistent attempts at mischaracterizing legitimate criticism of himself and the Zionist project he staunchly supports as unbridled antisemitism. Your inaccurate reporting of events dangerously enables his conflation of anti-Zionism and antisemitism.

I, therefore, ask you to remove the words “antisemitic” in your headline and opening statement, as it is inaccurate to describe the incident as such.

The second issue I want to address is that you mention B’nai Brith’s latest annual audit without raising skepticism.  

B’nai Brith releases a report on antisemitic incidents every year. Its annual report is subjected to the same criticism about the flaws in its methodology because B’nai Brith conflates incidents of antisemitism with pro-Palestinian activism and criticism of the state of Israel and its policies (anti-Zionism). B’nai Brith’s data and findings on “antisemitic incidents” can, therefore, falsely include incidents that are not antisemitic.

This is an issue that has been raised in the literature on antisemitism in Canada.

When B’nai Brith released its 2022 report on antisemitic incidents, a study by Robert Brym from the University of Toronto and Rhona Lenton from York University was released. The study states that B’nai Brith’s annual report “lumps together under the rubric of antisemitism actions that are antisemitic with various types of action that are critical of Israel” and argues that this should “temper our alarm” over their findings.[1] Brym also previously stated about B’nai Brith’s methodology: “It remains the case that one may be critical of Israeli government policy without holding negative attitudes towards Jews. By lumping together anti-Jewish and some anti-Israel actions, and labelling both antisemitic, B’nai Brith Canada ignores this possibility.”[2]

For a report for Independent Jewish Voices in 2021, Sheryl Nestle raised similar conclusions regarding B’nai Brith’s methodology. She concluded that “B’nai Brith Canada cannot be understood as a neutral source for reporting on the nature and scope of antisemitism in Canada.”[3]

It is not fair to human rights activists and other voices in support of Palestinian rights to have B’nai Brith’s unfounded allegations against them uncritically repeated in the Canadian media. The fight against antisemitism in Canada must not be at the expense of Palestinian human rights.

Instead of mentioning and referencing B’nai Brith’s report, you can reference Robert Brym’s survey: Jews and Israel 2024: A survey of Canadian attitudes and Jewish perceptions. Two critical findings by Brym are:

1.     Most non-Jewish Canadians do not have negative attitudes toward Jews

2.     The degree to which Canadian Jews feel they are unsafe is strongly associated with their emotional attachment to Israel. Just 20 percent of respondents who say they are “not very” or “not at all” attached to Israel feel less safe than they did a few months earlier. In contrast, among those who say they feel “somewhat attached” or “very attached” to Israel, 80 percent feel less safe.

I’m requesting an update to this article to include a critical perspective, noting that B’nai Brith’s audit conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism.  This should also be incorporated into future reporting on this topic. Otherwise, you are just furthering the conflation between antisemitism and anti-Zionism.

I hope CBC will make these changes and be more critical when reporting on hate incidents in Canada.

Sincerely,

Fatima Haidar,

Media Analyst, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East