The Media Accountability Project  

On June 5, 2025, CJPME media analyst Lynn Naji was published in the Sherbrooke Record in response to Bryan Laprise’s article, “Moved in yet kept out.”

Lynn praised the piece for spotlighting the hardships Palestinian refugees Jehan and Nasser El-Sayed continue to experience in exile, having been forced to evacuate Israeli bombardment in Gaza only to face new forms of exclusion in Canada.

But she sharply criticized the article’s failure to explicitly name Israel as the perpetrator of Gaza’s destruction. Quoting Palestinian writer Mohammed El-Kurd, who writes:

“correspondents

kill us with passive voice...

they never mention the culprit, let alone

condemn the culprit.”

She condemned the use of passive language that erases the culprit—Israel, the occupying power committing the crime of genocide against Palestinians.

Lynn argued that this is not simply about assigning blame. It is about offering readers essential context and ensuring that Israel is not absolved of accountability. Without this clarity, Palestinian suffering is at risk of being portrayed as self-inflicted or occurring in a vacuum, rather than as the result of decades of Israeli genocide, occupation, blockade, and apartheid.

You can read the full letter here.

That said, I’d like to raise a concern that echoes a point made by Palestinian writer Mohammed El-Kurd, from occupied Jerusalem, in Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal. He writes, “correspondents kill us with passive voice… they never mention the culprit, let alone condemn the culprit.”

On May 16, 2025, The Sherbrooke Record published a letter to the editor by CJPME Media Analyst Anthony Issa in response to its article, “Cégep unions decry budget cuts as harmful to student support.”

The original article concerned the fact that Dawson faculty had called for Minister Pascale Déry’s resignation over the mismanagement of her position as education minister in Quebec.

CJPME’s letter clarified the political nature and seriousness of her interference in course content related to Palestine.

The letter highlighted that Minister Déry admitted to pressuring Dawson College to censor a course on Palestinian perspectives, leading to widespread protests and union condemnation. It also exposed her past affiliation with CIJA Québec, a pro-Israel lobby group that supported her intervention and raising serious concerns about bias and political censorship.

CJPME thanks The Sherbrooke Record for publishing the letter. It is important that media challenge political interference and defending academic freedom on Palestine.

CJPME joins students, educators, and civil rights advocates in demanding Dery's resignation. Censuring education and awareness around Palestinian perspectives has no place in a free and democratic education system.