The Media Accountability Project  

"Why does the Star report that “about 1,200 people” were killed in Israel on October 7 —without distinguishing between civilians and fighters — on October 7, but then make a point of stating that the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza “does not distinguish” between civilians and fighters? This is a blatant and inexcusable double standard that only serves to cast doubt on Palestinian casualty figures."

"While I appreciate the inclusion of an op-ed about the situation in Syria, the column is not based on personal interpretation or analysis of facts and instead it is based on misinformation. There were at least two examples of misinformation I found that need to be corrected."

"The claim that the Ministry of Health "does not distinguish between combatants and civilians" is misleading and gives the impression that most Palestinians killed by Israel are combatants when, in fact, the overwhelming majority are civilians. For over a year, Israel has been systematically targeting civilian infrastructure in occupied Gaza, falsely justifying these attacks by claiming that Hamas leaders are concealing weapons—a narrative the resistance has consistently denied."

"It is even more important that such glaring double standards are prevented when reporting on Palestinian and Israeli deaths. Such slanted boilerplate language violates numerous journalistic standards in Canada. CJPME urges the Canadian Press and Toronto Star to update this article and similar language going forward."

"You attribute responsibility for the deaths of Israeli civilians and soldiers on October 7 to Hamas militants, yet you use passive voice when stating that “the war has killed 43,000 in occupied Gaza,” failing to attribute responsibility to Israel’s ongoing campaign in Gaza that has resulted in over 43,000 Palestinian deaths."

After months of advocacy, CBC News published a recent article acknowledging that while the Gaza Ministry of Health does not explicitly differentiate between combatants and non-combatants, the majority of Palestinians killed during Israel’s ongoing genocidal campaign in Gaza are women and children.

For months, CJPME media analysts have expressed concerns about media outlets stating that the Gaza Ministry of Health "does not distinguish between combatants and civilians." This framing is misleading, as it casts unnecessary doubt on the extent of civilian deaths. The data confirms that the overwhelming majority are civilians (women, children, and elderly). The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) uses the Gaza Ministry of Health (MoH) and makes clear distinctions between men, women, children, and the elderly in its reports. Below is a graph from UNOCHA, last updated on October 7th, that illustrates these distinctions:

Unlike other outlets, CBC News has shown a willingness to engage with our journalistic ethics concerns and adjust its reporting accordingly. This represents a significant step forward in achieving more accurate and responsible journalism.

"This tactic, known as the “Dahiye Doctrine,” originated in the Dahiya neighborhood of Beirut, where the Israeli Offensive Forces conducted devastating assaults during the 2006 war against Lebanon. This resulted in nearly 1,000 civilian casualties, a third of whom were children, alongside widespread destruction of essential civilian infrastructure. General Gadi Eisenkot, then Chief of Israeli Northern Command, justified these actions by stating, 'These are not civilian villages; they are military bases.'" 

The obvious and indisputable reality is that students were attending a Grassy Narrows protest, and as is common at indigenous rallies in Canada, chants were made in solidarity with Palestinians. To state that students were brought to an “anti-Israel” protest is false, sensationalist, and a violation of basic journalistic standards of accuracy according to the Canadian Association of Journalists. You are writing not as a columnist, but as a journalist, and it is necessary to correct this mistake in order to meet the standards to which you are tied.

The chart below is taken from the September 18, 2024 UNOCHA update on the situation in Gaza. As you can clearly see, distinctions are clearly made between 4 categories, where the majority of Palestinians killed in Gaza by Israel are women, children, and the elderly. As such, the assertion that the “ministry of health does not distinguish between combatants and civilians” gives the misleading impression that the death toll is primarily composed of combatants, when in fact the majority are civilians.

"Nowhere does the UNOCHA provide the qualification that your article does. UNOCHA uses the MoH breakdown, which is not explicitly between fighters and civilians, but distinguishes between men, children, women, and the elderly. Based on the article’s claim that the MoH does not distinguish between civilians and fighters, many readers would be surprised to learn that they do make these other related distinctions."