"We are therefore requesting that a correction be issued regarding the claims we specified above. The methodology of the report should be specified in the correction in order for readers to understand the report’s actual findings. We also believe it is necessary to include the perspective of Independent Jewish Voices given their criticism of the survey and their exclusion from the data as well as CBC’s reporting on this subject."
To:
Basem Boshra, Standards, CBC
Dear Basem Boshra,
I am writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) regarding inaccurate reporting in the article, “Antisemitism on campus is 'systemic' and going unaddressed, says new report.”
The article makes the following claims that I believe violate the JSP:
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“95.7% of Jewish students say they saw or experienced antisemitism in 2025” [Appears under the headline.]
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“The surveys conducted from Nov. 17 to Dec. 19 last year found that 95.7 per cent of Jewish students had experienced or witnessed at least one antisemitism incident in the previous 12 months.”
These particular sentences are inaccurate because they treat the data from the report as though they are precise population estimates. However, this is inaccurate or misleading for several reasons.
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The report itself specifies that the survey recruitment “was facilitated by Jewish student organizations on campus, Jewish community networks, and related dissemination channels.” Independent Jewish Voices raised serious concern that the survey may have excluded “progressive, anti-Zionist, and non-Zionist segments of the Jewish community.” As such, the data is heavily skewed. Given that the report authors define anti-ZIonism as “a movement that calls for the erasure of Israel and denies the Jewish people the right to self-determination in part of their ancestral homeland,” we can reasonably suspect that anti-Zionist Jewish groups were likely not consulted.
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The report also states that the data is not weighted. Thus, despite the strong indicator that the survey suffers from extreme selection bias by the groups it chose to disseminate the survey through, the data cannot be treated as broadly representative of the Jewish community.
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The report itself is explicit that “The Jewish-sample results are therefore reported as valid percentages among respondents who answered each item and are interpreted descriptively rather than as precise population estimates.” As such, CBC’s claims about the data are plainly false and misleading and merit a correction. The data was misrepresented despite explicit warnings from the authors.
We are therefore requesting that a correction be issued regarding the claims we specified above. The methodology of the report should be specified in the correction in order for readers to understand the report’s actual findings. We also believe it is necessary to include the perspective of Independent Jewish Voices given their criticism of the survey and their exclusion from the data as well as CBC’s reporting on this subject.
Sincerely,
Jason Toney
Director of Media Advocacy, CJPME