The Media Accountability Project  

Conflating a pro-Palestinian protest chant with antisemitism is neither fair nor accurate; it rests on an exaggerated interpretation presented as fact. This is not fair or balanced journalism.

On November 21, 2025, the Quebec Press Council released its decision (D2024-12-117) upholding a complaint against The Suburban and journalist Joel Goldenberg for publishing biased, sensationalist, and misleading coverage of campus protests related to Palestine.

On December 4, 2024, the Suburban published an article which falsely claimed that Quebec’s Minister of Higher Education had ordered an investigation into “anti-Israel intimidation” at Dawson and Vanier CEGEPs. CJPME media advocate Debbie Hubbard wrote a letter of concern arguing that the Suburban’s framing of the words ‘anti-Israeli-intimidation’ or ‘anti-Israeli related intimidation’ in the article’s headline and opening statement was blatant misinformation and a factual inaccuracy. The Suburban never issued a revision to the article based on Ms. Hubbard’s concerns. 

As such, on December 16, 2024, CJPME filed a formal complaint with the Quebec Press Council regarding the false claims by the Suburban that Quebec’s Minister of Higher Education had ordered an investigation into “anti-Israel intimidation” at Dawson and Vanier CEGEPs. 

In its decision, the Press Council sided with CJPME, ruling that the article misrepresented the minister’s statements and violated basic journalistic standards.

The Press Council found that Minister Pascale Déry had spoken broadly about a “tense campus climate” and concerns for student safety, without singling out any community or referring to “anti-Israel intimidation.” By attributing this language to the minister, the Press Council concluded that The Suburban misframed the issue, demonstrating pro-Israel bias and falsely sensationalising the scope of the investigation.

Most importantly, the Press Council emphasized that antisemitism and opposition to the State of Israel are not the same, and that conflating the two in a factual news article distorts reality, especially in the context of heightened community tensions. The Council unanimously upheld the complaint for sensationalism, finding that the repeated use of loaded terminology exaggerated the nature of the minister’s announcement.

Lastly, the Council also ruled against The Suburban for failing to issue a correction, despite being notified of the inaccuracies. 

As a result, the Quebec Press Council upheld CJPME’s complaint and censured Joel Goldenberg and The Suburban for bias, sensationalism, and failure to correct the article published and posted online.

The Press Council’s ruling requires the Suburban to publish our upheld complaint and summarize the councils’ decision. 

This ruling is a significant win for media accountability. It reinforces the importance of accurate, careful reporting on Palestine-related issues and affirms that criticism of Israel must not be mischaracterized or conflated with antisemitism. CJPME will continue to use its Media Accountability Project to challenge misleading media narratives and to defend the right to principled, fact-based coverage of Palestine and the solidarity movement in Canada.

It was irresponsible to quote Mr. Rustad’s accusatory statement without providing the additional context for readers.

"In fact, conflating legitimate criticism of Israel—an apartheid state and occupying power currently waging an ongoing genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip—with antisemitism is itself a form of antisemitism, as it erases the distinction between a political ideology and Jewish identity."

"The present article reads like a summary of the CAM report with some quantum leaps in applying the data and conclusions without adequate description of the source of the data and the assumptions made in analyzing it. Surely future opinion pieces will  have better standards than that."

"Take a hypothetical example: if Muslims were to create a “nation of Islam” on Palestinian land, forcibly displacing Palestinians and occupying Palestinian land in the process, I would condemn it just as strongly— even as a Muslim— because it would involve colonizing the land of the indigenous people."

"There is no justification for a “journalist” to write that APR “threatens to destroy all that it touches,” or to blame antisemitism in Canada solely on Muslim immigrants, or to fearmonger about “Islamism,” or misrepresent survey data, or invent fake data, misrepresent police claims, or lie about protest actions, just to name a handful of the violations contained in this article. The Free Press promotes values on its About page, but it appears they were thrown aside in this case. Corrective action is more than necessary to resolve these issues."

"These distortions undermine productive discourse and pander to a narrow, one-sided narrative as Mr. Gordon conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism. He does so by vilifying dissent as dangerous and hateful and defaming pro-Palestine Jewish groups as 'Israel haters' for 'dusting off their Jewish membership card to use as a shield against criticism, or appropriating Jewish names to lend credibility to their causes.'"