On March 19, 2024, CJPME sent a letter to Global News, pushing the media outlet to change a headline on a story about a pro-Palestine demonstration outside the King Edward Hotel for a fundraiser event for the Liberal Party that Justin Trudeau was attending.
The video title and caption were misleading, as it claimed that two pro-Palestine protesters were arrested at a demonstration. One of the arrested was David Menzies, a reporter for Rebel News, a far-right media outlet.
Following our letter, Global News changed the video title to: “Israel-Gaza: 2 arrested at pro-Palestinian protest in Toronto outside Trudeau event.” The previous title was: “Israel-Gaza: Toronto police arrest at least 2 pro-Palestinian protesters outside Trudeau event.”
Global News changed this line in the video abstract: “Toronto police arrested at least two demonstrators at a pro-Palestinian protest outside a fundraiser for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the King Edward Hotel on Friday.” The new line is: “Toronto police arrested at least two people during a pro-Palestinian protest outside a fundraiser for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the King Edward Hotel on Friday.”
CJPME also asked Global News to provide details about the situation in Gaza as it would help viewers make more sense of the intentions behind the pro-Palestine protests and protesters.
Global News added this line to the video abstract: “Israel has denied accusations of genocide in its campaign against Hamas. In January, Israel insisted at the United Nations’ highest court that its conflict in Gaza was a legitimate defence of its people and said instead that Hamas was guilty of genocide.”
Finally, Global News sent a notice to MCN and Yahoo, which broadcasted the same video.
These are considerable changes since Canadian media outlets tend to depict pro-Palestine protests and protesters violently and negatively. These changes contribute to slowly shifting this bias.