The Media Accountability Project  

Likewise, with respect to your reporting, while your segment provides the view of a representative of the progressive Independent Jewish Voices, your segment makes no mention of an attempt to reach Palestinian spokespeople, whether as organizers of the protests, or as representatives of the Palestinian-Canadian community.

On February 27, 2024, CJPME sent an LTE to the Hill Times in response to Aisha Sherazi’s February 26 opinion piece: “Our shared vision feels like it is crumbling.”

The LTE was published on March 4, 2024, in the Hill Times, and echoes Sherazi’s concern that, in its failure to uphold international human rights in Palestine-Israel, Canada attributes greater value to white lives over BIPOC lives.  You can read the complete unedited version here.

It is always highly encouraging to see CJPME’s LTEs getting published in the Hill Times as it contributes to influence policymakers in Canada about issues surrounding Palestine.

"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."

"The occupying power, Israel, is not legally permitted to transfer its population to the area it occupies, the West Bank. The selling of property in occupied territory, therefore, is illegal. To maintain journalistic standards of accuracy, I recommend that you refer to the West Bank as “occupied” and refer to Israeli settlements as illegal."

I, therefore, urge you to revise the statement to emphasize that these women are being "killed" in Gaza or use a term that better captures the intentional and horrifying nature of the violence, rather than insinuating it as accidental.

"These words not only dehumanize Palestinians' deaths but obscure Israel’s noncompliance with its obligations as an occupying power, which is the reason behind these deaths: failure to discriminate between civilians and combatants and failure to allow humanitarian aid to reach civilians."

By consistently prioritizing comments from one group before comments from another, the Globe and Mail inevitably suggests a hierarchy of perspectives to the reader and presents a one-sided story. Excluding voices that are critical of Israel or sympathetic to Palestinians, whether unintentional or on purpose, further marginalizes Palestinian narratives.

Opening your news segment with such a sentence implies a bias against the action of the protesters. It undermines the intentions behind the protest, which was to push the Canadian government to implement an arms embargo on Israel, because of Israel’s 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."

On February 23 and February 27, 2024, CJPME sent letters to CBC and the Hill Times to ask for a word change that undermined the magnitude and scope of a call from Canada’s Muslim community for stronger action regarding Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

CBC wrote, “Several local congregations are warning members of Parliament they won't be welcome in their mosques …”

Hill Times wrote, "Several prominent mosques calling on MPs to back an immediate ceasefire in the region…”

CJPME pointed out that the word “several” undermines how widespread the call is as it came from 300 Muslim institutions and mosques.

CJPME asked to change the word “several” to the exact number (300) or to a word that better reflects how widespread and momentous the call was.

On February 26, 2024, following our letter, CBC changed the word “several” to “numerous.”

On February 27, 2024, following our letter, the Hill Times changed the word “several” to “300 Muslim institutions and mosques.”

This small change is a step towards pushing media outlets to be more accurate when reporting on the Muslim support for stronger actions from Canada regarding Israel’s genocide in Gaza.