Protesters were therefore calling for Canada to investigate IDF soldiers present in the country for committing war crimes and to ban their entry. However, this perspective of the students was omitted, rendering the article one-sided and biased.
To the National Post,
I am writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (www.cjpme.org) to express my deep concern over the National Post’s continued reliance on the far-right Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) for coverage, particularly in the article “New hate-crime charges against rioters who disrupted pro-Israel event in Toronto.”
The article itself is fundamentally one-sided, omitting crucial context in ways that unfairly harm and misrepresent the broader overwhelming peaceful pro-Palestinian movement.
The Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025 event titled “Combat on College” featured two Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers at a hypnosis clinic located at Elm St. and Bay St. An investigation by The Grind reveals that the business, which is unaffiliated with the event, had been rented out by the Students Supporting Israel (SSI) group from TMU.
What the article glaringly fails to mention is why students were protesting such an event in the first place: namely, the ethics of platforming IDF soldiers on Canadian soil, given that the same army has been accused by human rights experts and international judicial bodies, including UN experts and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), to be committing acts that amount to be genocidal, deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction in whole or in part.
Protesters were therefore calling for Canada to investigate IDF soldiers present in the country for committing war crimes and to ban their entry. However, this perspective of the students was omitted, rendering the article one-sided and biased.
Second, the article presents the protesters as the aggressors and instigators, relying heavily on police statements - specifying that “their actions caused those in attendance to fear for their safety” - while omitting crucial context.
According to a representative from Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) cited by The Grind, those opposing the event arrived at the clinic to find the doors unlocked and no security preventing entry. The clinic’s posted business hours also suggested that it was open at the time.
Video evidence and independent reporting, including The Grind’s investigation, indicate that one of the IDF soldiers, Jonathan Karten, locked protesters inside the event space.
At one point in the footage, a tall individual shatters the glass door, though it remains unclear whether the individual was inside or outside the room at the time. However, Toronto journalist Samira Mohyeddin noted that one of Karten’s supporters posted an Instagram story claiming that Karten himself had broken the window - a story Karten later reposted.
Following the breaking of the glass, footage shows Karten lunging toward an individual near the shattered entrance and forcefully pushing them through the doorway while broken glass remained attached to the frame.
Additional footage from the clinic lobby reportedly shows Karten physically grabbing five individuals one by one and throwing them through the clinic doorway into a stairwell.
The omission of these critical details produces a one-sided and misleading account of the incident, one that reproduces police allegations while 1) selectively framing pro-Palestine protesters as violent aggressors and 2) excluding Karten’ use of violence against those protesting the event. This is one-sided journalism.
The National Post’s close relationship with JNS, alongside the outlet’s openly acknowledged ideological one-sidedness, raises serious ethical concerns regarding the integrity and impartiality of your reporting. Indeed, concerns that the National Post is platforming propaganda are firmly grounded in the statements of JNS’s own founders. JNS was explicitly created to provide wire content advancing a pro-Israel perspective. Its founding publisher, Russell Pergament, openly stated that the outlet emerged from a “need to stand up for Israel.”
This effectively amounts to foreign-influenced ideological content being presented as reporting on domestic Canadian incidents, specifically regarding the event involving Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) students protesting an off-campus talk by two Israeli soldiers.
With regard to this specific article, the failure to explain why protesters were opposing the event, combined with the heavy reliance on police statements portraying protesters as causing fear and insecurity to attendees, while omitting proof of violence committed by one of the IDF soldiers, Jonathan Karten, raises serious concerns about balance, fairness, and accuracy in your reporting.
This article is but one example of a broader pattern of ideologically one-sided framing enabled through the continued publication of JNS wire content. The National Post’s decision to continue publishing JNS wire content is therefore highly alarming and, unless addressed, demonstrates a troubling disregard for established journalistic standards in Canada. Canadian newspapers remain fully responsible for the wire content they choose to publish, and overlooking these ethical concerns sets a dangerous precedent.
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East