The Media Accountability Project  

Dear National Post editorial team:

I’m writing to you on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East regarding Tristan Hopper’s piece on Friday, titled “As Jew hate hits all-time highs, Canada is 'systematically' purging its rolls of Jewish charities.” While the article purports to examine serious allegations of racial bigotry within government, by omitting key facts it deprives the reader of basic information necessary to form an informed view.

The opening sentence sets the tone for the piece: “As acts of Jew hate hit all-time highs in Canada, the Canada Revenue Agency is being accused of systematically stripping charitable status from the country’s Jewish non-profit organizations.” By referring to heinous acts of antisemitic violence in the same breath as Canada’s tax authorities, the wording conveys the idea that they are related facets of a coordinated campaign against Canadian Jews; in one case, attacking them by thuggery and intimidation, in the other by attacking the economic foundations of their institutions. Such a campaign would be outrageous and obscene. Unfortunately, the article provides little to support its explosive insinuation and overlooks compelling evidence to the contrary.

A key claim supporting the notion that Canada’s tax authorities are antisemitic is that “no such campaign of delisting has accrued to Canada’s various Islamic and pro-Palestinian charities, some of which have been active in anti-Israel causes, and even the transfer of funds to terror-linked entities.” This statement is unambiguously false and must be corrected immediately. By way of example:

The piece further asserts that only “vague conditions of non-compliance” have been given for withdrawing the charitable status of the Jewish organizations. This is another outright falsehood that requires immediate correction. In each case, the CRA provided a publicly-available revocation letter with supporting documentation: 59 pages worth for the Ne’eman Foundation; 32 pages for Herut Canada; 358 for JNF Canada; 46 for Masorti Judaism; 143 for The Emunim Fund; 30 for Mazel Charity Fund; 91 for Canada Charity Partners; and 84 for The Canadian Zionist Cultural Association. No definition of “vague” could possibly apply to this level of detail and, while Hopper is free to impugn those materials, he cannot simply pretend that they do not exist.

Hopper selectively omits vital details throughout the piece, thereby further misleading the reader into thinking that the CRA’s actions are baseless. For example, the only background information given about the Jewish National Fund is that it is “a Canadian charity founded in 1901, and first given charitable status in 1967.” Even that single sentence is riddled with errors, conflating as it does the Jewish National Fund (founded in Europe in 1901) with the Jewish National Fund of Canada (which became a registered charity in 1968). Hopper then quotes Independent Jewish Voices describing JNF Canada as “a fundamental pillar of Canadian complicity in Israeli ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and the theft of Palestinian land,” while omitting the example cited: JNF Canada’s then-president raising $15 million in 1972 ($115 million in 2026 dollars) to build a park on the ruins of three ethnically-cleansed Palestinian villages (an Israeli journalist cited in Nur Masalha’s A Land Without a People describes the inhabitants as subsequently “wandering … for four days, without food, without water, some dying on the way”). Inexplicably, in a piece replete with links, none is provided to IJV’s statement. The clear impression is that quote is mere antisemitic nonsense devoid of any factual basis.

Notably, the Canadian Jewish News – not generally known for being milquetoast on Israel – reacted to the CRA’s decision by running a detailed, sobering piece describing decades of problems at JNF Canada, and how “the tax department eventually lost its patience, after nearly 10 years of trying to get the charity to prove it deserves to issue tax receipts to Canadian donors in exchange for their generosity.” CJN’s reporting makes clear that there were major shortcomings at JNF Canada and that its charitable status was revoked on serious grounds. It is unfortunate that, rather than follow CJN’s example, the National Post chose to deprive its readers of essential information.

Finally, the piece contains a significant breach of journalistic ethics when it cites Warren Kinsella’s work, without disclosing that he is registered as an active lobbyist for JNF Canada whose activities are described as “Achieving legal settlement for Jewish National Fund of Canada charitable status” and “Discuss[ing] CRA tax policy specific to charitable status designation.” To include no such disclosure when discussing his client in connection with the very subject matter of his mandate is a grave omission that warrants an immediate clarification.

It is entirely legitimate for the National Post to report on these organizations being stripped of their charitable status, and perfectly valid (indeed, important) to assess whether these decisions might be motivated by anti-Jewish animus. What is neither legitimate nor valid is to publish reporting so badly skewed that it is difficult not to wonder whether its slant was intentional. In future, you must simply report all of the relevant facts, and leave it to the reader to make up their own mind.

Sincerely,

 

Adam Allouba

Media Advocate
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East