We ask that future coverage describe the posts as racist and dehumanizing, or at minimum report how they were characterized in 2024 by the National Council of Canadian Muslims, the White Rock Muslim Association, and Premier Eby.
Dear Lauren Collins and Editors of Black Press Media
I'm writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) to express our concerns regarding the article "B.C. Conservative leader talks future plans, but first needs a seat in the legislature," published by Black Press Media on July 31, 2026, and carried in the print edition of the North Island Gazette on August 12, 2026.
The article's sole account of Brent Chapman's record reads: "Old social media posts containing controversial and derogatory comments by Chapman about Palestinians made headlines during the 2024 provincial election campaign."
Readers are never told what was actually said. What Chapman wrote on Facebook in 2015 was that Palestinians "are all little inbred walking, talking, breathing time bombs … figuratively and quite literally."¹ "Derogatory" describes an insult directed at a person. This was a claim that an entire people is congenitally defective and inherently explosive, stated without exception. A reader who does not recall the 2024 campaign finishes the passage knowing only that something rude was said, and is then asked to weigh the NDP's criticism and Findlay's response to it with none of the underlying material.
The CAJ ethics guidelines commit journalists to being disciplined in verifying facts and careful in distinguishing assertion from fact; a characterization this loose does neither.
We ask that any further reference to these posts quote them directly rather than summarize them as "controversial and derogatory."
Black Press has already reported this accurately in its own pages.
Peace Arch News reported the posts on October 11, 2024, quoting the language in full, describing them as anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic, and reporting both the White Rock Muslim Association's call for Chapman's withdrawal and Premier Eby's characterization of the posts as hate speech.² The online version of the current article links to that piece. The print edition carried in the Gazette does not, and print readers cannot follow a link in any case.
We ask that where copy refers to previously reported remarks, the substance be carried in the text of the print edition rather than left to a hyperlink.
"Controversial" implies a dispute that did not exist. The Arab Canadian Lawyers Association's 2022 framework on anti-Palestinian racism identifies, among its manifestations, dehumanizing stereotypes that depict Palestinians as inherently violent, uncivilized or unintelligent.³ Chapman's post does both in a single sentence. This was also named at the time: the National Council of Canadian Muslims framed the test for the B.C. Conservatives as their willingness to challenge both Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism.⁴ Nor was the character of the remarks in dispute; then-leader John Rustad said the statement was wrong, and Chapman himself called his language completely unacceptable and apologized. "Controversial" tells readers there are two views about what these posts were. There were not.
We ask that future coverage describe the posts as racist and dehumanizing, or at minimum report how they were characterized in 2024 by the National Council of Canadian Muslims, the White Rock Muslim Association, and Premier Eby.
We recognize that the remarks were not the subject of this interview, and that a passing reference in a wide-ranging profile cannot carry full background. Our concern is with precision rather than length: a single accurate clause would have served readers better than the one that ran.
Thank you for considering these points.
Sincerely,
Meghan Raza
Media Advocate
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East