Following a formal complaint from CJPME concerning social media posts by CBC journalist Neil Herland, CBC News acknowledged a violation of its Journalistic Standards and Practices (JSP). Herland also had to publish a correction on his personal account on X.
On September 22, CJPME sent out a MAP Alert concerning CBC National Radio News Reader Neil Herland's September 21 social media posts, which had made misleading comments about a pro-Palestine protest outside of an arts centre, which he confusingly referred to as “the Toronto synogogue”. Herland also noted he was going to see a guest speaker that he described only as “an Australian-born university teacher who lives in Israel and once served as Israeli ambassador to the UK.” The speaker was Mark Regev, a former high-ranking Israeli official known for his alarming views.
The alert called on our supporters to contact the Ethics Commissioner over social media posts by Neil Herland, which breached CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices, Code of Conduct, and Social Media Guidance.
CJPME also sent a complaint to the CBC Ombud.
On October 20, CBC News responded to CJPME’s formal complaint and acknowledged that part of Herland’s thread violated the broadcaster’s Journalistic Standards and Practices.
The CBC also noted that Herland has published an additional post including context about the speaker described in his initial X thread:
“I'm adding additional context to this thread. The guest speaker at my synagogue service was Mark Regev, who as mentioned in my original post, once served as
Israel’s ambassador to the UK. He is also a former spokesperson and former senior adviser for the Israeli government.”
Although the additional post clarified Regev’s former government roles, it did not address CJPME’s broader concerns about Herland’s characterization of the protesters. Moreover, the CBC did not specify what aspect of the JSP was violated or whether there would be any other clarifications provided for the inaccuracies in Herland’s original reporting.
While we consider CBC’s acknowledgment of a standards violation a meaningful step toward accountability, CBC response requires further action and makes it unclear if other corrective measures, if any, will be taken.