The Media Accountability Project  

Poor coverage – Media outlet to be critiqued

A CJPME Media Researcher has launched a media alert for the following article. Please submit a quick response to the media, even if it’s just a sentence or two:

Title of Piece: Joe Warmington: “If a grenade doesn't go off in a crowd, does it mean it wasn't real?”

Media Outlet: Toronto Sun
Click here to access the piece on-line.

Click here to access the piece in pdf format.

Comments of the CJPME Media Researcher:
(Note: Please do not copy and paste the material below as the content to your message to the media - put all comments in your own words):

This is perhaps one of the most absurd articles the MAP has ever encountered. It deserves condemnation and correction. The Toronto Sun is a member of the National NewsMedia Council—if that means anything, than this piece should be considered an intolerable violation of basic journalistic ethics and decency. 

Joe Warmington wrote an inflammatory opinion piece in the Toronto Sun accusing a pro-Palestinian supporter of bringing a grenade to the Walk with Israel —when in fact, the object was obviously nothing more than a keychain. This kind of racist misinformation fuels anti-Palestinian hate and should never have been given a platform in Canadian media.

• The keychain is easily found online, as you can see here. Other photos shared online even more clearly show the zipper of the keychain.
• Meir Weinstein was interviewed in the piece. Weinstein is the former national director of the Jewish Defence League (JDL) in Canada — a far-right, Kahanist, pro-Israel group listed by the FBI as a terrorist organization in its 2000/2001 terrorism report, citing its endorsement of violence, including planned bombings, to “combat antisemitism by any means necessary."
• Warmington writes: “This offers up yet another example of how Hamas supporters are given so much leeway in Toronto.” Without evidence, he implies that pro-Palestinian demonstrators—calling for an end to Israel’s illegal occupation of the OPT and ongoing genocide in occupied Gaza—are security threats. This kind of reckless rhetoric vilifies a peaceful movement, fuels manufactured fear, and calls for the criminalization of Palestinian advocacy under the false guise of countering extremism.
• The op-ed asks: “Why are people permitted to wear disguises, display potential lethal weapons, or partake in terrorist cosplay?” Once again, Warmington suggests that wearing a keffiyeh—a symbol of Palestinian identity, resistance, and liberation—is an act of terrorism. This racist framing demonizes Palestinians and fuels the dangerous narrative that Palestinian visibility is inherently threatening.
• Join us in flooding the Toronto Sun with emails demanding accountability for this unfair smear. This isn’t journalism—it’s incitement.

Please click here to launch an email in which you can draft a response to this media coverage. 

Thank you very much. Every response makes a difference.

The CJPME Media Centre Team
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