"It is even more important that such glaring double standards are prevented when reporting on Palestinian and Israeli deaths. Such slanted boilerplate language violates numerous journalistic standards in Canada. CJPME urges the Canadian Press and Toronto Star to update this article and similar language going forward."
To:
Andrea Baillie, Editor-in-Chief, Canadian Press
Donovan Vincent, Public Editor, Toronto Star
Nicole MacIntyre, Editor-in-Chief, Toronto Star
Dear Andrea Baillie, Donovan Vincent, and Nicole MacIntyre,
I am writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) with serious concerns about the Canadian Press article, published by Toronto Star, on November 14, 2024, titled “Vancouver police say one person taken into custody, later released, in hate case.”
In particular, I am troubled by the following sentence: “The Hamas attack on Israel killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, setting off Israel’s offensive in Gaza that the Health Ministry there says has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians.”
While your reporting carefully notes that the victims of Hamas’ October 7th attacks were "mostly civilians," you do not provide the same level of clarity when addressing the Palestinian death toll. This omission creates an uneven narrative and presents a clear double standard, whether intentional or not.
The United Nations Human Rights Office released a report on November 8, 2024, which shows that 70 per cent of the victims of Israel’s attacks on Gaza were women and children. Given that the UN has now verified what was already widely believed by experts to be true, it is critical that journalists include this context when reporting on the Palestinian death toll. It is even more important that such glaring double standards are prevented when reporting on Palestinian and Israeli deaths. Such slanted boilerplate language violates numerous journalistic standards in Canada. CJPME urges the Canadian Press and Toronto Star to update this article and similar language going forward.
Not to mention that Israel’s genocide in occupied Gaza has left many Palestinians buried under rubble, pushing the death toll far beyond 50,000. With so many bodies still unidentified and others mutilated beyond recognition, the official death toll is impossible to verify and fails to capture the true scale of Israel’s attacks on Gazans.
I respectfully urge you to specify that Israel’s genocide in occupied Gaza has left more than 43,764 Palestinians killed (with the overwhelming majority of the fatalities being women, children, and the elderly). In addition, more than 103, 490 have been injured, with over 10,000 reported missing, according to Al Jazeera’s live tracker.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. I hope to see a revision that upholds the principles of fair, accurate, and balanced journalism.
Warm regards,
Lynn Naji
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East