According to the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) Ethics Guidelines, journalists must ensure reporting is accurate, fair, and complete, and must not present unsubstantiated claims as established fact when credible evidence suggests otherwise. We therefore urge the Toronto Star to revise its headline so that it does not present the claim of faulty intelligence as an established fact.
To the Toronto Star and Associated Press,
I am writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (www.cjpme.org) regarding the AP article published by Toronto Star on March 12, 2026 titled: “Outdated intel likely led US to carry out deadly strike on Iranian elementary school, AP sources say.”
The headline of the article suggests that Associated Press sources have concluded that the U.S. bombing of the elementary school for girls in Iran on February 28, 2026 was the result of outdated targeting data. However, the article later acknowledges mounting evidence pointing to U.S. responsibility for the strike, noting that the school itself may have been avoidable. This aligns with other investigative reporting, including an Al Jazeera investigation, which concluded that the school was not damaged by debris or shrapnel from the adjacent military base but was instead struck separately. In the below picture, two distinct columns of dense black smoke can be seen rising simultaneously, one from within the military base and another from the geographically separate location of the girls’ school.
Nonetheless, the Toronto Star’s headline presents the strike as the definitive result of faulty intelligence, despite credible investigative evidence raising serious doubts about this claim and despite the article itself acknowledging information that contradicts such a conclusion.
According to the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) Ethics Guidelines, journalists must ensure reporting is accurate, fair, and complete, and must not present unsubstantiated claims as established fact when credible evidence suggests otherwise. We therefore urge the Toronto Star to revise its headline so that it does not present the claim of faulty intelligence as an established fact.