The Media Accountability Project  

"Independent Jewish Voices (IJV), which is quoted late in the article, rightly describes the backlash against Orr as a disingenuous smear campaign. Yet this crucial framing is buried under paragraphs of uncritical propagation of CIJA's narrative with statements from Mayor Ken Sim, CIJA, and the Federation being prominently featured. This creates an imbalanced and distorted portrayal of the issue that violates journalistic principles of fairness and diversity of voices."

On March 6, 2024, CJPME sent a letter to City News Montreal, pushing the media outlet to make some changes regarding an article about a protest in Montreal to an event hosting a panel of IOF members. We asked them to make it more accurate and precise.

CJPME wrote that the article had a misleading headline, didn’t use the correct terms to properly assess who the guests of the event were, did not mention who the organizers of the event were, and could have added voices from the protesters themselves and mentioned who the organizers of the protest were.

CJPME asked City News Montreal to add the words “hosting Israel occupation forces members” after the words “Israel speaking tour event” to the headline.

City News Montreal changed the words “Israel speaking tour” to “IDF speaking tour.”

CJPME asked City News Montreal to change the words “three Israeli advocates” to “three members of Israel’s occupation forces.”

City News Montreal changed the words “three Israeli advocates” to “three Israel Defence Forces (IDF) reservists.”

CJPME asked to change the words “Montreal’s Jewish community” to include the exact name of the event organizers: “Montreal’s Jewish community and DiploAct.”

City News Montreal added this sentence: “It was organized by Startup Nation, DiploAct and Hillel Concordia, per the poster.”

These changes were important to set the record straight on how controversial the event was and to not further mislead City News Montreal readers.

"It is misleading to write that the event involved “three Israeli advocates” as they are members of Israel’s occupation forces. Describing these individuals as advocates glosses over the controversial nature of the event and also the reasoning behind the protest at a time when the ICJ has accused Israel of committing a plausible genocide in Gaza."

"More contextual information about the motivations behind the protest should have been provided to understand why that action is so important: details about the situation in Gaza, such as including the number of casualties and Canada’s role in enabling it through arms sales."

"By describing this territory as “the area inhabited by Palestinians,” you are erasing the existence and history of Palestine and, therefore, reinforcing Robinson’s harmful anti-Palestinian comments. Please replace 'the area inhabited by Palestinians' with 'Palestine'."

"I particularly appreciated Dr. Nazak Birjandifar’s claim that it would be hypocritical for great powers, like the US and Canada, to ignore if the ICJ rules as genocide. As purported defenders of democracy and human rights, these Western leaders have a duty to take the ICJ ruling incredibly seriously."

It is inappropriate to leave such a claim unchallenged or without a broader context. As South African international law professor John Dugard, the UN’s former special rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, has pointed out in the past, “This must be viewed in the context of the UN political organs as a whole… the Security Council and Quartet on the Middle East [UN, European Union, United States and Russia] are notoriously pro-Israel and refuse to pay adequate attention to Palestinian issues.” 

"The segment largely portrays Israel’s 75^th anniversary as a celebration but without mentioning that it is also a day marking upheaval and tragedy for the Palestinian people. Indeed, this year also marks the 75^th anniversary of the Nakba (Arabic for catastrophe), when Zionist forces forcibly expelled at least 700,000 Palestinians from their homes during the creation of Israel (1947-49). "

"To refer to the 1948 Nakba (catastrophe in Arabic) as a “Palestinian exodus” overlooks the fact that approximately 750,000 to 1 million Palestinians were expelled from their homes by Zionist militias and made refugees. Many are still refugees today, along with their families. They were forced to make a life for themselves elsewhere in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, and in Mr. Najjar’s case, Jordan."